After another free breakfast we checked out of Weary Traveler Hostel and hopped on the express bus to Chetumal and then another to the Mexican/Belize border where four sad Americans were left behind because one forgot his exit forms received on arrival. Jessica and I reminisced about when we learned that lesson the hard way after Jess glued her Singapore exit form in her journal; the Mexicans however, were not as forgiving as the Singaporeans, poor guy. After some beautifully done stamps in our passport (it sounds silly, but so many customs officials are such sloppy stampers) we arrived in the oddly named city Orange Walk.
From our guide book we were excited for a few unexpected aspects of this new country: 1. English is the main language. 2. They are still under the queen, meaning yet another country with her majesty’s pasty white face on the currency (why not one of those cute corgies on currency?). 3. Fifty years ago a very large group similar to the Amish of German/Dutch descent called the Mennonites migrated down to Mexico where they were kicked out into Belize (now they are all marrying cousins and sisters, farming like crazy, reading a whole lotta bible, and speaking a butchered German dialect). Things got weirder when we discovered the English here is a Jamaican sounding creole dialect, and the only restaurants in this new tiny city were Chinese restaurants opened by recent floods of Taiwanese immigrants.
A guy with massive veins on his nose gave us a free ride from the bus station to our hostel. “Lamani River Resort” is more like a chill Rasta bar and restaurant with some rooms the family rents out in the back. For 30 bucks a night ($60 Belize; exchange rate is always 2x more than US dollar) our room is pretty great; well, it has running water, a fan, and a clean toilet at least, but the ambiance is awesome.
We got to exploring the town, the most memorable moment was getting my hair cut by an awesome Creole guy for $5 while watching a group of local Caucasian Mennonites. Always dressed like they stepped out of a time machine from the 1800′s here they sat outside their pickup truck eating local Chinese food (cheaters); Belize is weird.
We finished up the night with grilled lobster tail and shrimp fajitas with pineapple juice and rum at our hostel.
06.23.10
Woke up at the butt crack of eight o’clock to have an excellent quesadilla breakfast and hop on a boat down the gorgeous jungle river. The journey down the river was great as we picked up other tourists for the trip, but the first truly awesome part was when our guide pulled the boat to the shore and two cheeky wild spider monkeys joined us for some mango slices.
The hour plus ride was full of lizards, crocodiles, butterflies, parrots, Mennonite farms, rum and sugar plantations, endless green jungle, and crystal clear reflection of the baby blue sky off the river.
We unloaded at the Lamanai ruins where we were treated with the rest of the group to a truly delicious lunch of chicken, rice, potato salad, and ice cold soda. The ruin tour was awesome, though with only four significant ruins nestled along an easy hike through the sweet smelling jungle. The most stunning being the tallest temple complete in its natural decaying form; the view from the top was also exquisite.
As we approached the final temple I was a bit dismayed by some very loud, and very scratchy sounding recorded sound effects. The temple was called the leopard temple, so I assumed the sounds were supposed to be Leopard roars. As we got closer, the noises were in fact coming from two opposing families of howler monkeys in the trees above. Nothing short of the word “demonic” can describe the vicious sounds that came from these animals. I snapped a video to record the sounds, but managed to delete it later like an idiot! So here is a picture of the Leopard temple.
From there the ride back was awesome again. When we got back to the city we walked around and got some local rum to try, then hung out with some creole tug boat runners who tow 500 tonnes of sugar up and down the river to the Belize city port each trip. Their tug boat and barges took us back like 60 years and looked awesome along the jungle.
Now as I was sitting here typing this blog, the son of our hostel owner came in with a baby howler monkey! The last hour we spent playing with this adorable pup as it howled and whined until we let it on top of our heads where it felt like its mother’s back. Couldn’t be any cuter; a great end to Orange Walk.
More photos of Orange Walk:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157624397092396/
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