We woke up for 6 am to race off to Ramon's dock at 7. The view treated us nicely, since we'd woken up so early to come see it.
Today, was all about Mayan ruins. We were set to go and visit the ruins of Lamanai, meaning "submerged crocodile". Getting there, however exciting...was also to be arduous.
First, we piled into a medium-sized boat, us and maybe 10-12 other folks, and were fed a delicious breakfast. I believe they're called pusudas? Or posadas? I can't remember exactly. But imagine a tortilla shell, with beans, eggs, and onions baked into it. It's just like a little pocket of joy. We were handed our breakfast and told of what was to lie ahead.
First, a boat across from the caye to the mainland. Then up the Old Belize river. Then, a transfer to a bus. Across land through Ladyville, Sand Hill, and a few other small towns until reaching another river. Then up that river on a second boat until we reached the ruins of Lamanai. It was to be long, and hot. However...there was much to see along the way.
Daniel, our guide, had been taking people to Lamanai for 23 years. When he started, he told us, there was only his boat on the river. Now, there's almost traffic headed up and down the small channels through the mangrove trees...and everyone slows for the poor local fishermen in their tippable canoes.
The fishermen seem to embrace the traffic. Everyone raised their catch of the day in salute to us, for which they received a brief but cheerful applause. Daniel and our other guides offered each a cold beer, but only two men would oblige him, and they then went on to refuse beer and take Fanta instead.
Partly because of Daniel's experience, and partly because of his passion for the environment, Mayan history, and the natural world, he has unbelievable eyes. Daniel could spot things you could've spent your whole life looking for. The best part was, he had names, details, and an explanation of the history of every single thing we saw. And we saw quite a lot. Sadly... I didn't retain a lot of the proper names for what we saw...however the local colloquial names come quite easy. See below:
The "Jesus Christ" bird (because it walks on water)
Male "Jesus Christ" bird and baby
"Snake Bird" (because of how it moves its head)
Iguana!
"Banana Flower"
Great Blue Heron
Now, this one was the one that blew my mind. Have a look at the image below.
Did you see the bats? The one medium-to-obvious one just above and to the left of the centre of the frame? How about the other five below that one, hanging beneath the log? If you thought that was tricky, how about spotting them from across the river in the back of a boat going 60 kph? Keep in mind now that these bats are about two inches across...and the boat was in full flight.
I could not believe it. He stopped, and reversed the boat to take us back and over to the log, then he starts trying to explain to us what to look for. I had my telephoto lens trained on this log for two full minutes before I actually saw what he was trying to show us. His powers of observation were just amazing. As if to prove his point, all six fluttered off once we'd gotten a chance to take some pictures.
I have to say...I like how Belizians do things food-wise. I love Mexican food, and Belizian food certainly overlaps quite a bit. They share more than just a border. Everything starts with rice and beans, the slaw is cold and tasty, the onions are fried and tossed with diced habanero peppers, It's fantastic. Corn tortillas are a plus as well. The food has been stellar in general...but I digress.
Before we stepped into the ruins proper, just as we were climbing the stairs from the dock, Daniel stepped off the path, pushed aside a few leaves, and showed us this.
Teeth, and a jawbone. Found buried in ritualistic fashion, just at the side of the path. "You see," he explained, "All of this was underground. It took archaeologists ten years to excavate the ruins we'll see today. There are stills walls and passages buried all over here, and the city spreads out even beneath this path. Here's part of a burial to prove it."
Daniel really made this trip. Without him, the ruins would've stood impressively and boggled our collective minds. But with him, every little thing was rich in history, rich in explanation, and had such profound significance. He really helped us get the most out of our surroundings. Even the trees couldn't escape his expertise!
This was called by the Mayans the "Give and Take" tree. It would give you a nasty cut and poison you with its sharp barbs, but if you were careful, you could take the sap from it, which contained the antidote to the poison.
Lamanai is unique among Mayan sites because it's the only one to be visited by two different european cultures, due to it's longevity. The Spanish first, and then later the English. The English had a fantastic name for this tree. Opting for directness rather than poeticism, they called it the "Bastard Tree".
"How'd you get that cut?" "From that bastard tree!" And a legend was born.
There were some other cool ones as well. One that had a parasitic vine growing on it, that would eventually completely wrap up and dissolve the inner tree...
And one that was just huge. I can't remember what it was called. Sorry. I can't do everything around here.
Then, we turned the corner and this came into view:
The mask temple was the first of several temples we'd see on this hike, and definitely one of the coolest. It has these massive...well, masks! Built right into the side. That they could be preserved so cleanly made my head spin, but what blew me away even more was imagining these being underground, and then being dug up by scientists without being hurt or damaged at all!
It was truly something to behold. Once there were four such masks, but only two stood that day.
This temple was called "The High Temple" as it's one of the highest in the Mayan world, and the highest in Lamanai. Also, because there's some dispute about it's actual name, so this name lets various scientists and historians put their squabbles aside. It's something like 120 feet high, and the craziest thing is, they'll let you climb to the top. No harness or anything, just a rope hanging down the steepest middle staircase. How the Mayans did this everyday I do not know.
Now...I'm not good at heights. I'm very bad at them. But I don't like being bad at them. I hate my fear of heights...even though I believe it to be very sensible. I think it's quite straightforward, being afraid of heights. If you're in a high place, you could fall, and you could die! This, is scary. Thus, being afraid of heights, totally makes sense.
But so many cool places are so high up! They offer you such beautiful vistas, and this amazing sense of...I don't know...being a conquerer! It's like when you're a kid and you climb to the top of the playground and yell "I'm the king of the castle, and you're a dirty rascal!". There's something very satisfying about being up that high, conquering the summit of something. So I want that. I get it. I'm trying really hard to leave my fear of heights behind. So I climbed The High Temple, in spite of myself.
Michelle did too, but she has none of the inhibitions I have. We celebrated at the top with a photo.
The view was pretty excellent.
We could see all the way over the high canopy to the river we'd come in on! It was really something. I tried my best to keep a handle on my stomach and my racing brain, and soak it all in. I was sweating profusely. I told myself it was the heat. Getting up the temple was fine...but getting down was another thing altogether.
The top steps are the size steps ought to be. They're about one step high each. Sensible. No problem. The second set, with the rope, are both shallow and high...not to mention worn with two thousand years walking wear & tear. So I grabbed the rope, turned and faced the steps, and tried really hard not to look down.
I sweated the whole way through it, but after hundreds of endless hours (read: a few minutes) I made it to the bottom. It suddenly seemed much more enjoyable, now that the whole potential fall to my death part was out of the way. What a cool thing! A big Mayan temple. Lovely.
Once we got down, there were monkeys!
They were back up at the height we'd come from, making noises ranging from frog sounds, to jaguar sounds, to bird sounds. Oddly, the monkeys made no sounds that sounded like...well...monkeys.
We meandered down the path after Daniel, where he showed us this:
A Mayan sunstone, perhaps once holding a calendar (you know, the famous Mayan one?) beneath which scientists had found in two jars, a precious metal (which is the precursor to mercury) and liquid mercury. To get mercury to liquid form, it needs to be heated at over 750 degrees celsius...showing not only that Mayans had some knowledge of alchemy, but that they had the facilities to perform it as well. Why it was kept under there, no one knows. "Unsolved mystery number fifty-five." said Daniel. Apparently, liquid mercury has been found on other Mayan sites as well...but no one knows why...
He then walked us through the carving on the surface of a Mayan obelisk...known as a stele. This had to be my favourite part of the whole excursion. How often have you been watching something on the history channel, or reading something in a book, and you're shown some beautiful, complex egyptian hieroglyph...and then told "This shows the snake emperor, presiding over his kingdom of serpent-folk as they garnish their clams with gold filigree." Maybe not that exact scenario...but you know, it's some rich complex explanation for what looks like a series of artfully carved squiggly lines.
Daniel worked through the Mayan hieroglyphs with us piece by piece, showing the snake headdress on the ruler, there was its eye, there its upper fang, there its lower fang meaning the mouth must be oriented thusly. The way he walked us through it bit by bit...you could really, finally see what he meant. He was patient, and slow, and for once the ancient language started to make a bit of sense. I understood what I was being shown...it was really satisfying.
We came over the hill in the late afternoon to the vista of the ball court, and the jaguar temple. I'm sure you've heard in some history class at some point in your life of the deadly Mayan ball game. If not... well... there's a lot to be said. I'll let Wikipedia do the talking on this one. Finally, we came to the jaguar temple.
Behold - the face of the jaguar! The light makes it a bit tricky to see, but the centre holes are the nostrils, the upper holes the eyes, and the outer ones on the right and left the corners of the mouth. They used to put incense burners in those to make the jaguar breathe smoke. What a terrifying sight that must have been. No wonder the Mayans worshipped so many gods...they built such terror-inspiring effigies...how could you leave one behind?
The jaguar temple concluded our little waltz around Lamanai. It was amazing, calm, inspired, and with Daniel's gentle and informative touch, quite educational. I wouldn't trade it for anything...and it really made the long trip in seem a small price to pay.
On the way back, beers were cracked on the boat, and rum punch handed out in sippy cups. We toasted each other and Daniel and gave ourselves in to the motion of the boat, tearing around corners in the tight tropical riverbed. As we approached the dock to change boats, we finally got to see something we'd all been hoping for.
A crocodile! Apparently sometimes they're all over, but because the rain from the rainy season is still draining out, the river is still quite high. Most crocs don't have somewhere to sunbathe yet, but luckily, we saw this little guy. I say little...he was still probably almost six feet, but when you imagine a crocodile, you always imagine a gigantic one, like the one from Peter Pan! He's small by those standards, I guess. As we inched closer in the boat, he didn't move a muscle, and all the tourists on the boat started moaning "Aww, it's plastic! Just plastic. Daniel, you probably set this up for us, didn't you? Aw just a plastic one. He's not even moving." When suddenly, he leaped up, spun around, and dove into the water with a furious splash. Everyone was a little jolted, and settled back to their seats, and their rum punch.
It was a long but lovely day. The boat cruised back into port on Ambergris Caye just a hair after nightfall, as the sun slipped away beyond the horizon. We were all exhausted after the trip, but also a little bit lit up from the beers and punch, and so Michelle and I cruised into town for a quick bite before bed. What a fantastic experience! I'd never seen any Mesoamerican ruins, Mayan, Incan, or otherwise and I was just overwhelmed with what seemed like this beautiful and vibrant culture, well ahead of it's time. Daniel, who it turned out was part Mayan, couldn't agree more.
Tomorrow, underwater adventures await! The famous blue hole, and other goodies. For now, goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment