Catch up on the past few days.

Right now I am writing from my hammock and I will update you on the last few days. After leaving Cockscomb Park we went north to visit the ruins at Laminai. The best way to see it, as we read in the guidebooks, was to take and hour and half boat ride to get there, so we went to the town of Orange Walk to do this. The town of Orange Walk seemed a bit sketchy, and nothing after 9:00 is open except fast food Chinese walk-up windows....So we made reservations through our hotel and the tour started at 9:30. We got in the boat, and were to cruise down the New River to get there. Along the way the guide pointed out various birds. There was also a lady in the boat who really knew her birds, so between her and the guide it was a birding paradise. The boat ride was very nice, and we took our time getting there. We got a good look at the Jabiru bird-the largest bird in the Western Hemishere! It nested along the river, so that was cool. We also passed by a large Mennonite settlement from the river banks (they have a big population here in Belize, and supply Belize with 60% of the country's rice and meat!). After cruising we neared the dock, and from the water you could see a big temple peeking over the tops of the jungle trees. It looked pretty cool! So we had lunch and then entered the area with the temples, our first time with a guide-so I was intrigued to find out what more info we would pick up from him. Good news- you can climb the temples here! So far every ruin we have seen has been roped off. This site was pretty cool. Amazingly, the site of Lamanai has about 700 structures there, but only 5 are excavated! You could see mounds off to the side with jungle growing on them that would be small temples but were not excavated...That is petty crazy. The Mayan city of Lamanai was also the longest functioning city, lasting substantially longer then any of the other bigger Mayan cities. The best part was that we got to climb the biggest temple on the grounds. 112 feet to the top, on some steep stairs! We were so excited to climb it we practically ran up the steps. What an insane view from the top-you were above the jungle, looking out over the river we just came down and the rest of the jungle. It was beautiful...There was one husband and wife that climbed the temple, and they stuck in my mind for two reasons...First, the husband looked so much like Horns (Jess's dad!) that it cracked me up, and second, the wife was very scared of heights but still climbed all the way to the top, slow and steady. We took pics for them at the top to prove she did it... overall it was a great tour, so worth it to see Lamanai.

From there we headed back to Belize City to do a couple other things. We went to the Belize Zoo which was little but pretty good. They had a few jaguars, which was nice to see, since we didn't run into any in the wild. They even had a baby jaguar! He really looked just like a kitten, he was so little. We walked by a pen with a few deer in it, and it was dinner time so they were all eating. Suddenly, one of the deer started choking! You could see piece of fruit lodged in its' mouth-it started gagging and it even fell over! I really thought it was going to choke to death-I was going to run to get zoo help! After a couple of minutes he was able to get it out, but it was a close call. Very glad I didn't witness an animal choking death! Saw some cool monkeys, and of course some strange other animals...Like the tapir.

That night we stayed in Belize City. After dinner, we were sitting on the porch talking to a few people staying there, and the guy that works at the hotel. Then the power went out. We weren't too alarmed, but then a minute later someone told us there was a fire in the city. We ran up to the second floor, and could see a huge blaze, about 3 blocks away! It was crazy, the flames were shooting up higher then the buildings! We watched it for awhile, and I was nervous t would spread-but it didn't! And luckily, no one was hurt.

The next day we left to go to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, a very cool tiny little village about one hour from Belize City. First of all, let me point out that there weren't really baboons there, but rather the Creole word for monkey is baboon. This was a great place, about 10 years ago, a scientist studying the population of Black Howler Monkeys noticed their numbers were declining. The land that the monkeys lived in was all private property, belonging to local farmers and village people. They would cut down forests in order to farm and destroy the howler monkey habitats. This scientist, Robert Horwich, approached the villagers with the idea of teaching them more sustainable farming techniques that would allow them to keep the monkey habitat intact, and that by doing so, they could also use their land to show visitors the howler monkeys, creating a little tourist spot for this tiny village. It was so successful, most of the villagers participated, and the program spread to other villages nearby. The Black Howler population thrived, and is now at 4,000, and the villagers get to take people on tours of their land. So we got there and took a tour in the afternoon. During the evening the monkeys cross from their daytime hangout back to where they sleep, swinging and jumping from tree to tree to get there. The guy whose land it was had one particular monkey family of 7, including a little baby, that would cross the tree tops right in his yard, and we got there at the exact time they started this little journey. We watched them from just about 10-15 feet at times! I forgot to mention what makes these monkeys special is that they really HOWL, I mean, very loudly! You can hear there noises from a mile away, and that is no exaggeration! As they crossed, the male did his crazy howl-and it is so funny! I have never heard such an animal noise....And then you could hear monkeys in the distance responding with their calls! They were really close to us, and we were the only people around, so we go to hang out, and follow them for awhile. We took some videos of the monkeys, and you should be able to hear the crazy howls, so be on the lookout (if I can figure it out maybe I will post it here). It was so enjoyable to see them in the wild, but pretty close.

Sidebar: did you know that there is such a thing as a cashew fruit? We didn't! The nut grows off the fruit, but you can eat the fruit as well-and the season for cashew ripening is just starting. We tasted one, well, a couple-they are delicious! This village had cashew trees everywhere, so I'm sure they enjoy that....After the tour we just chilled in our cabana with no running water (it happened to break that day), and later, the electricity went out! A quick bucket shower rinse and reading by candlelight. From that village of Bermudian Landing where the Howler monkeys were we came to our last wildlife park of Belize, a place called Monkey Bay Sanctuary.....But-they have no monkeys here!