Sights Seen

Feb 4
Lamanai(n) today.

‘Twas a glorious visit. Lamanai is the site of an ancient Mayan city, about an hour’s boat ride from OW. Galen, Gloria, and I caught the pontoon-style boat (I think? My boat terminology is a little fuzzy-- well, it was a covered speedboat) about 9am. I had a request to log the wildlife I observed, so you can find that list below. The guides’ ability to spot animals while we zipped along at 35mph was pretty impressive indeed. Loose quotes of his are also included in the list. It was a gorgeous, relaxing, edifying day.

Animal, Vegetable, & Man-made:
(the spelling might be a bit creative at times)
•1 Green Kingfisher
•1 Great Kisskidy
•1 Purple Gallinew
•1 Lilly Trotter/Jesus Bird/ “Bird of the 90’s”-- “This bird is very liberal. When they mate, the female lays the eggs, then goes off with other males while the father stays on the nest. The female is bigger and bulkier than the male, so if he gets out of line, she just kicks his butt and that’s the end of that.”
•5 Crocodiles (small freshwater species). Includes 1 baby crocodile, aw! “The biggest ones are named after our prime ministers.”
•Many vultures
•1 Great Ringed Kingfisher
•“There are 573 different kinds of birds in Belize, 150 are migratory.”
•[Inner monologue: This is beautiful! Are we killing the river life w/ our boat exhaust?]
•5+ Iguanas. Some of the green species, some of the spiny species. The green species males have bright orange crests and black stripes and are fearfully beautiful
-----“The green species of iguana are also known as Bamboo Chicken. So we have two kinds of chicken here in Belize.” In other words, the green iguanas are tasty, like chicken. They’re protected in the parks, but for some communities, they are a delicacy.
•8 Probiscus bats
-----“See the dark spots on the bark of that tree? That’s not bark, those are the smallest species of bats in the world.” Then the boat got too close and the bark turned into fuzzy little lumps and flew away. They were each only about 3 inches long.
•Provision Tree. Bright pink and white flowers that can be boiled and mixed w/ sugar for making a medicinal drink for high cholesterol or anemia.
-----“Mixed right, it tastes just like Olvateen. No, really.”
-----“I don’t want to get too close to the tree though, because we have jumping vipers. No-- really.”
• Rum distilleries. Owned by the Cuello brothers from Corozal,
•Right next to the Luna Resort, owned by a Texan man. The resort doubles as an addiction recovery center. Did I mention it's right next to the distilleries?
-----Hm...
• 5 captive howler and spider monkeys, in a small enclosure at the edge of the rehab center. Sad.
•Bullet Trees. “Belize’s hardest wood. You can’t use nails in it because they just bend.”
-----81% of Belize’s area is natural vegetation, and 41% of that is in protected lands (parks) or land that cannot be logged or developed w/o a permit. The government is working at sustainable logging.
•1 Common Night Jar
----- This is a nocturnal bird about 5 inches long that was sleeping, completely still, on a branch about 20 feet up from the river. How in the world the guide saw it, I have no idea
•Great Egret
•Tri-color Heron
•Bear-throated Heron
•Black- collared Hawk
•Jabaroo Stork (the biggest stork in the world I think. 5 feet tall)

This is when we arrived at Lamanai(n). I put the N in parentheses b/c everyone knows it as "Lamanai", but this is due to a historical misunderstanding. The Spanish heard "Lamanai" when they encountered the Maya people, but that means "insect". Lamanain means crocodile, and the city has many monuments or artifacts that reference crocodiles, not mere bugs.
Anyway, we ate a good lunch, then walked through the jungle a bit and saw...

•Howler monkeys (in the wild where they belong). A whole family of them, but they were not howling today
•Rubber trees. Not used for commercial purposes

Then we arrived at the first excavated temple. Most temples in Belize are grown over by now, but they are pretty much everywhere in the jungle. Our guide said that at the Maya civilization’s high point, there were an est. 1.5 million people living in what is now Belize (currently there are about 300,000). Lamanai was a settlement of about 50-60,000 people.
We saw the Jaguar Temple (someday I’ll figure out how to publish pictures), and the High Temple, which we climbed. As one member of our tour group said, “80 steps-- one for each of my 80 years”! We climbed to the top and there was a gorgeous 360º view of the countryside.
We also got some Mayan history lessons. There are 22,000 Maya people still living in Belize, so the myth of their extinction should not be believed. Of course the culture has adapted & changed, but the people and many traditions remain.
Theories of what caused the Mayan decline, according to our guide, include:
--Ecological changes
--Natural disasters
--Warfare
--Sickness brought by the Spanish
-- And, our guide’s own personal theory-- Ingenious use of the rubber trees and phallic statues(e.g. molds) for effective family planning

It was about time to go, so back in the boat we went, for a faster ride, but nonetheless we saw...

•4 Great Blue Heron
•Sugar factory and sugar barges
•Black-necked Stilts (They stand on one leg like flamingos, but they’re white and small)
•Greenback Heron
•Mennonites!
------“This is Shipyard, a Mennonite settlement. They arrived in Belize in the 1850s. About 1,200 live here, and we have 10,000 countrywide. They are responsible for nearly all of the eggs sold in Belize today. We have these Mennonites here who only use horse and cart, then another group who use a few machines with engines, like tractors, but they try to keep to their traditional ways. There are also progressive Mennonites that live in town, dress like you and me, marry locally, etc. Some are so liberal, in fact, that years ago they were even caught making dope! But the problem here in Shipyard is inbreeding; they marry too close. So, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all! They all look the same.” Ha! The Lehmans and I were pretty amused at having Mennos on the list of attractions alongside the birds and crocodiles.
•Anhinga/Snake Bird
------It’s a bird w/ an S-shaped neck that doesn’t have the oils most birds do to help them dry out, so after it dives it has to stand w/ its wings open to dry off. We saw it spread out on a branch. Beautiful
•Grackel

Back to the house, to have dinner with Pastor Chon, of the Belizian Evangelical Mennonite Conference (our Spanish-speaking church), and to interpret a meeting between him, Galen, Gloria & Nancy.

Fun day, now I must go to bed! Subbing tomorrow. Wish me luck!