April 4th we landed in Belize! Another beautiful country!
Got some Pina Colada popsicles, they were delicious!
While we waited for our tour guide we played on this adorable playground that was just a couple blocks from the port.
We got loaded up in our tour van, and was glad that we weren't paying for the gas....haha! She said gas is always atleast $4.50-$5/gallon! And minimum wage is $1.35/hour...
We had to drive about an hour to where the tour started. But it was fun to see the country, and their houses, and how they live. She told us that the Belize government gives every citizen a plot of land when they turn 18. They have 2 years to prove their "interest" in the land or it goes to another person on the list. So basically they just have to build SOMETHING on the land. So a lot just have little shacks on them to basically hold the land until they can afford to build an actual house.
This is where the tour started. We got on the boat here. The lilypads and water lilies were gorgeous. There were tons!
This river was also full of crocodiles....so I tried to keep a little bit of distance until we were actually in the boat!
Then were were off! Our boat driver went about 60 miles an hour (probably not but it felt like it!) Down this river, I would post video's but none of the videos worked in my last post and I assume they still won't work. Which is sad because we have some awesome ones. Pictures just can't do all of our experiences justice!
This family was out catching fish, and the baby just chilling in the stroller on the boat cracked us up! The weirdest part of the whole thing is on the way back they were still there, in the same spot, all sitting in the same spots on the boat but the baby and the stroller weren't there....
After about a 45 minute boat ride we made it to Lamanai. When we were deciding on excursions we were deciding on taking this tour the LDS version or the non-LDS one. We ended up going for non-LDS since the other was about $80 more per person...It was still an amazing tour. Seriously mind blowing things. But it would have been very interesting to hear it from the stand point of the Book of Mormon. There were so many things that our tour guide was saying that we wanted to raise our hands and hey yeah we know who lived here! We know why they did that! It was seriously a once in a lifetime experience being there.
I can't remember what these trees are called but they are the craziest things! Every time a bat or some other animal...I can't remember! Poops on this tree a new tree starts to grow, from the top down. Seriously craziest thing I may have ever seen.
Then we made it to the first ruin. A Canadian doctor years ago came down and through this jungle that is otherwise completely flat. Saw all of these mounds (I wish I had taken pictures of them, there are hundreds more every where!) Anyway the Canadian government ended up paying to excavate some of them. They only did about 1% of what is there. But underneath these mounds that had massive trees and things grown on them are these incredible ruins. You can look around see these mounds that just jut straight in the air and see all the ruins that haven't been excavated.
This is the one that we climbed! It was gigantic. And SOOO steep. But really cool.
Belize is the only country that still lets you climb the ruins. And they could take it away at any time. Like I said, once in a lifetime. So cool.
It's so high! Our guide was literally like and that is Mexico over there, and that was Guatemala over there. It was so high!
Climbed all the way to the top!
The third ruin that has been excavated.
And before we left to had to grab some Belizean soda. (Since it was like a million degrees and 100% humidity...!)
The boat ride back gave us some nice natural A/C. We went back and had a delicious Belizean lunch that the people cooked for us. I was skeptical, but it was actual very delicious!
We drove back to near the port and did some shopping. The girls wanted some braids. We actually just took them out on Friday.
On the boat to tender back to our ship. So long Belize....and as all the Belizean people said to us, "We had an unBELIZEable time!"
We got back on the ship and got ready for dinner. Where we ate about 2-3 appetizers each...1-2 (sometimes 3...) main dishes each...and on average about 3 desserts....haha! Cruises are the best vacations.
After dinner the girls as always were begging to go to the kids club so we headed there. A really fun comedian was doing a show that night so we went to that and had a lot of fun!
And now I'm just dying to go back!!
