Belize – Lamanai

Today, we dropped anchor some distance from the Port of Belize. We didn’t have to use our own tenders from the ship, however, since fast, local boats were available to get everyone ashore in double-quick time.

As Tracey and I were on escorting duty (billed as ‘Lamanai Archaelogical Site and River Safari’), we were ready and waiting by the gangway just after 8am. By 8:30am, we were ashore, and waiting to count passengers onto the coaches. By 8:45am, we were on our way to catch a boat to Lamanai.

After roughly an hour’s journey, through Belize City, a lot of Belizian countryside and a handful of interesting facts imparted to us about Belize life by the guide, we arrived at our first destination; a restaurant by the river. Here, we were given 15 minutes to use the restrooms and have a complementary drink of water or fruit juice, before transferring to a boat for the second leg of our journey.

I think it would be fair to say that the boat trip took most passengers by surprise. For about an hour, we travelled up to speeds of 35-40mph, along narrow river channels with many tight bends, stopping only occasionally to look at snake cacti clinging to tree branches and bats clinging to tree trunks. The trip was exhiharating to say the least; I absolutely loved it – it was like being in a boat chase in a James Bond film. The young boat driver clearly loved his job (he threw the boat around like a manic rally driver) and knew the waterways like the back of his hand

Roughly 25 miles, and an hour, later, we arrived at Lamanai Archaeological site, where everybody stepped off the boat looking like they were all having a particularly bad hair day.

We walked and admired the remains of what used to be the largest Mayan city in the area, with four temples of varying sizes and shapes and howler monkeys in the trees. For me, this was always going to be one of the prime attractions of the whole cruise (along with the Panama Canal). Little is known about the Mayan civilization, or where they came from, which makes visiting their temples a particularly interesting experience. For an hour and a half, we were guided through the site, and allowed to climb to the top of the largest of the temples, from where the views were quite extensive, before making our way back to the boat for the return journey to the restaurant (which I absolutely loved!!)

Back at the restaurant, a buffet lunch consisting of rice and beans with chicken and tortillas had been laid out for us. It was delicious, but slightly rushed, as we were only given half an hour to eat it before being whisked back to the port in the buses.

Most people seemed to enjoy the tour; if there was any criticism at all, however, it was that it all seemed slightly rushed. Despite the fact that I loved the speedboat dash and wanted to go around again, it would have been nice to have spent a little more time on the ‘River Safari’ portion of the trip, looking for wildlife and exotic fauna. 30 minutes for lunch was a ridiculously short time, and definitely felt like we were being hurried along. All of this was compounded by the fact that we arrived back at port at 3:30pm, when the tour wasn’t supposed to arrive back until 5pm.

I’m happy that I’ve seen some Mayan temples, and feel satisfied with having done so… that’s another big thumbs up, and a tick in a box…

Back on board the Voyager, we rounded the day off nicely with this lovely Belize sunset….