We're in Belize!

The other night we crossed the border onto Belize and got totally screwed at the border crossing on the Mexican side. Note to all tourists: you DO NOT need to pay an "immigration" fee (after all, you are LEAVING Mexico), even if everyone else seems to be paying it. Stand your ground to get your exit stamp for free. Or do what we did, and don't save any pesos, so that when they ask you for 280 pesos and you don't have them, they can extort $25USD out of you instead. Actually, don't do that. Have a good Google about it and take the former advice.

Anyway, WE'RE IN BELIZE!!! We had been a bit worried about arriving in Orange Walk when it was dark but luckily the sun had risen and there were enough people to point us in the right direction of the town centre, as the bus station has been moved to the outskirts temporarily. The first thing we noticed actually, was how friendly the people are. Very friendly! There was also some confusion about what language we should be speaking. We'd read that Belize is an ex-colony of the UK and that everyone speaks English, but also that there is a strong Spanish and Mayan influence, so we really didn't know what to expect. So far everyone seems to speak both, though both the English and Spanish spoken here seem to have a bit of a Caribbean twang to them.

We'd arrived in Orange Walk at about 6:30am and headed straight for Hotel de la Fuente, which had the best reviews. They sorted us out with a room, and given that we were there so early, we thought we may as well go straight on their trip to Lamanai for the day. That still wasn't going to depart for another 2 hours but the guys on the hotel reception were really nice, offering us breakfast and then, on seeing how tired we were, allowing us to check in early. That nap and shower were much needed and appreciated!

Lamanai is a site of Mayan ruins, but what is a little more special about it is the 2 hour or 30km boat journey that you have to take to get there. Our trip was run by Laminai Eco tours and there were about 20 of us altogether. Our guide Wilfred was brimming with knowledge - there are masses of wildlife along the river and as well as telling us all about why the Mayans moved to Lamanai and the importance of the river, he was also stopping the boat every minute to point out birds, bats, the odd crocodile, oh and John McAfee's old house, the one he lived in before he shot his nneighbour and fled Belize. A lot of people were getting quite excited about all the birds and I did wonder what they were going to do with all their pictures of herons, kingfishers and pigeons when they got home. On the way back we even stopped off to feed a spider monkey.

Despite how interesting it was I couldn't help but nod off after a while, I was so tired from our overnight bus journey. But when we arrived lunch of chicken, rice and peas sorted me right out and then we were off on the tour.

As with all the ruins we've seen, there are mounds dotted all over the place that indicate where ruins have not yet been excavated, and probably never will be. For a site like Lamanai, it would cost approx USD$300billion to fully excavate the site and for a country like Belize where there is next to no economy, that's just never going to happen. Still, they have already uncovered some really impressive temples and pyramids at Lamanai, and here you can still climb them - we climbed the steepest pyramid yet, I actually had to hold onto the rope whilst climbing down. The site is also home to howler monkeys and man, they are noisy! And very cool.

Just as we came back to Orange Walk... Our boat ran out of gas. A little bit awkward for our tour guide as I think he could see his tips slipping away but a pretty funny way for the trip to end. A few of the guys on the boat grabbed hold of cool box lids to paddle us back to shore, where luckily one of the ladies from the hotel was waiting to drive us back, as by luck she'd seen it break down!
And after it was time to sleep. I'm sure we're still not over that jet lag!