Belize! Day One 10/17/23

 

First of all, let me tell you that this Road Scholar trip, entitled "Hike and Snorkel to Find the Mystery of the Maya in Guatemala and Belize," is no longer appropriate.  We received a phone call from a Road Scholar rep two days before we were to fly out, saying that Guatemala is too volatile for tourists now, with the protests and etc., (and I believe the Guatemalan border had been closed) so we would not be going to Guatemala; we'd stay in Belize.  Well, okay then.  We flew out of Baton Rouge yesterday, Monday, the 16th, to Belize -- we are here!  Our group leader, Israel Canto, informed us that we would do other things (TBA) to replace the now-missing Guatemalan excursion to Tikal.   (Road Scholar gave us a credit for this.) 

In this tropical climate, orchids, bromeliads and epiphytes decorate nearly every tree!  The one on the left is outside our hotel window.  The pretty bloom on the right is a Black Orchid.  And that's where we're staying:  Black Orchid Hotel, an aging, but comfortable place, which seems to be in the middle of nowhere.  Ours is a congenial, small group of 11 (eight women, three men).  

Today we'd be doing a walking exploration of the Mayan ruins called Lamanai ("submerged crocodile").  As usual, first we'd get on the bus and head north for an hour or so, and then hop on a motor boat for 20+miles (one way!) on the New River to the ruins.  Our boat driver was Isidro from EcoTours, and he was terrifically knowledgeable about the ruins.

Jimmy and his friend, Bob!  (At EcoTours boat dock.)  First thing I saw when we were aboard the boat was a stick in the water ... wait, not a stick.  A crocodile!  Isidro said it was a Morelet's Crocodile, a threatened species.  As I aimed my camera, down it went.

Sometimes the river was wide,

but a few times we navigated narrow channels.

Five bats on a tree trunk at left, Anhinga drying its wings top, termite nest right, and a Wood stork taking wing, bottom.  Enlarge to see 'em better.

Snake Cactus on the New River,

what a tangle!

We no more than stepped off the boat when the Black Howler Monkeys started their caterwauling. They are soooo loud!  They don't come down from the trees and are usually jumping branch to branch, hence they're hard to photo, but you can just about see the dude with its prehensile tail, above.

Lamanai:  Our first look at the Jaguar Temple.

Once a major city, Lamanai is renowned for its exceptionally long occupation spanning three millennia, beginning in the Early Preclassic Maya period and continuing through the Spanish and British Colonial periods, into the 20th century. Lamanai was occupied as early as the 16th century BC and, unlike most Classic-period sites, Lamanai was not abandoned at the end of the 10th century AD. Archaeological excavations at the site began in 1974 under David M. Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum, which continued through 1988.  I gleaned most of this from Wiki.

Can you feature the jaguar?  Including whiskers?

We climbed to the top of the temple and enjoyed a panoramic view of the lagoon and surrounding jungle.  Those were mighty steep limestone steps.  Below us another group has just entered the site.

And then we descended.

Not the easiest!

Beautiful Temple.  Really difficult to keep the jungle at bay!

At an assembly court.

Whoa, a Boa constrictor beneath the vegetation!  It didn't move (molting?)  I placed a white X on top of its head, so you could find it.  Big guy!

Further ruins are being excavated, but it's a daunting task in the jungle.

We continued our walk on jungle paths to the High Temple, but this was cordoned off.  No hiking to the top.  It was considerably higher than the Jaguar Temple, too.

Finally, we made it to the Mask Temple.  The masks you see are replicas ... the originals couldn't be saved.  The group climbed to the top of this one, as well, and above you see Jimmy and Anita making their way down.

After a hearty, homemade lunch of rice with black beans, Belizean chicken, coleslaw, fried plaintains and bottled juice, we made our way back to the pier.  Israel, center, continues to talk about the Mayans.  He is of Mayan extraction and can speak five languages.

Great weather, albeit hot and humid, and (sigh ...) skeeters.  Isidro drove the boat back to EcoTours like an Indy driver at the racetrack.  Wheeeeee  Returned to our hotel, many of us jumped in the pool (as we did yesterday), and oh-so-refreshing!  This day was quite an introduction to Belize and the Mayans.  More coming ... 😀

More fun on Monday, 3/13/23

 

We were on the water in the canoes by 6am, early by many people's standards, but a good time to be Out and About on the Amazon -- some of the nightly critters were still up and the daytime guys were rousing.  

Peaceful on the water in the early morning.  See how still it is.  Something is always blooming in the rainforest, where there's only two seasons:  Wet and Dry (or wet and more wet).  Not spring-summer-winter-fall like we have in North America.  Trees don't have rings here, either.  I don't know what the white flowering shrub is, but it doesn't mind sitting in water.  I love reflections.

These tiny White-winged Swallows were pure entertainment.  The canoe would get only so close, and they'd all take to the air, fly around a bit, and then find another branch to land on.  Then they'd do it again.

Reflections really caught my eye this morning.

These orchids, Cattleya violacea, are common in the Amazon.  Blooming high in a tree, they could be better seen thru binocs, and zoomed in for a camera pic.

I guess Al was looking for something ....  I usually got the leapin' willies when the canoe closed in on vegetation, only because of spiders.  I'd die of a heart attack if one landed on me.  I remained on alert (and usually eased onto Jimmy's side of the canoe) when the canoe nosed into the bushes looking for critters.  

I know Wolf told us the proper name for this plant, but all I remember is him calling it the Pacifier Plant.  It's obvious why!  Enlarge the pic.

Later, we were out again.  Given the option of a hike to the top of a hill or another canoe expedition, we chose the latter.  Although we'd been keenly feeling the lack of exercise, we knew how hot it would get hiking in the jungle.  A few elected to give the hike a go and they came back hot, tired, and sweaty, just as you'd imagine.

For the canoeists, we'd take a trip up the Carabinani River to the rapids.  We'd seen blobs of foam on the river earlier and wondered why (didn't figure them to be soap suds!).  Wolf said the bubbles were from the rapids ... and now we'd get to see them!

We were so far into the "wilds" that we no longer saw many structures, but here's one.  Besides, I believe you have to be grandfathered in to remain in a national park.  Look at the bubbly streaks in the water ... and you can see the current.

These guides and boat drivers are fantastic.  The above bat is smaller than the palm of your hand, yet one of them spotted the wee bat in the distance on a tree trunk at water's edge, and pulled in close.  Strange-looking thing.

I picked this photo for the blog, over the one Jimmy picked, because I wanted to show you lots of blue and yellow Macaws.  How many can you count?  Enlarge the picture.  Hint -- there's at least one in the leaves.

Fisherman's rock, now partially submerged by the rising river.  Getting closer now.  We didn't go much further because of rocks and rapids ... not something to tackle in an ungainly canoe going upstream!  But we had a look and then turned back ... and into a narrow inlet, very narrow with a rock wall on each side.  The canoe eased in as far as she could.  Wolf was speaking ... and I was taking pictures ...

... when suddenly something plopped in the water beside me.  SNAKE!  Coral snake, fell out of a tree!  The woman in front of me climbed into the lap of her seatmate.  I aimed my camera.  Jameson ran from the back of the boat with a paddle to make sure it didn't crawl into the boat.  Everyone was gaga, moving, looking.  The snake was chased further into the inlet, and Jameson returned to the motor, fired it up, and backed the canoe into open water.  I know the above pics are blurry, but that snake was swimming fast.  At least I got a few pics for show 'n tell 😉

Harmless or venomous, whichever,

you see how close it came to landing in the boat!

Ahhh, back at the ranch, so to speak, and everything is all right.  The guys washed the muddy shoes of those who trekked, and put them on the canoe seats to dry.  They're being collected now.  The other canoe has wet clothes drying.  Canoes are so handy.

Late afternoon was delightful.  While the Pilgrim chugged downstream, we gathered on the sun deck for a lecture on Amazon bird life.  A spectacular rainbow decorated the horizon.  The wind blew mightily.  L-R:  Karen, Dennise, Marge, and me.

A double full-spectrum rainbow spanned the sky!  So big, no camera could capture the entire creation.  None of us had ever seen a rainbow last as long as this one did, maybe a half hour.  Quite a beauty.

We gave up on holding the lecture in the open -- too windy.  Instead, we retired to the living room.  Al passed around a sheet to each of us with the names of 100 Amazonian birds.  We collaborated on any we'd seen this trip.  An example:  We spotted seven different herons, some I've never seen before, such as Cocoi Heron, Tiger Heron, Striated Heron, Boat-billed Heron, plus those we know from home.  In all, I circled 52, many or even most, new birds for me.  Others (in a different canoe, for instance) marked down more.  I only counted those I saw (not heard or the guide saw).

The Amazon Basin alone is home to more than 1,500 species of birds, with many species passing through as they migrate for the winter.

We also did a sheet for trees and one for fruits.  More on that later.  Wow, bountiful rainforest.

And when we were finished, this lovely treat made from the Amazon's natural fruits awaited us.  Hard to believe one great day can follow another as it has; we really enjoyed today.  Three cheers for a wonderful day in the rainforest.

PS:  The answer is 7.

Ghost City! Sunday, 3/12/23

 

We awoke to rain.  Sunday would be another busy day for the passengers aboard the Pilgrim, starting out with learning how to make Brazil's national cocktail:  caipirinha -- made with cachaça (sugarcane hard liquor), sugar, and lime.  It's been very popular on board the riverboat at "happy hour!"  Photos below show Jimmy, with Ibby overlooking his shoulder, cutting lime (just so), adding sugar, shake-shake-shake, and voilà, two neat caipirinha drinks, minus the hard liquor.  Ours was made with mineral water, and they were delicious.  What's not to like with sugar, water and lime?

Meanwhile, the riverboat was navigating further up the Rio Negro, into the Jaú River to Jaú National Park, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Inside, our leader furthered our education with a lecture on Brazil's national parks.  These "lectures" are so informational.

After lunch, we set off in the canoes to explore a small tributary of the Jaú -- the Igarapé Preto -- and deeper into the park.  It was "cool/ish" and cloudy.  We were aiming for the abandoned town and ruins of Airão Velho.  If you can find Novo Airão on the map below, pretty much in the center, the "ghost" town is located a bit further up the river.  Hard to find a good map, so this one will have to do.  Ignore the dotted line.

Into the jungle.

Airão Velho was fascinating! Indigenous peoples inhabited this land for thousands of years. We're told petroglyphs are nearby. Portuguese missionaries sailed up the Amazon and put down stakes in the 17th Century.  And then came the rubber boom in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. Airão Velho grew to a sizeable town, people building and living in such graceful places as you see above -- used to be -- though I believe this pic is actually of a store near the water.  The jungle encroaches.  Strangler figs chase away the sunlight.

The see-through ponchos kept us dry, but we overheated in plastic -- we had to shed them!  It's wasn't raining anyway, but dripping from the trees.  Better to be cooler.

The tiles remain, albeit they could use a good cleaning!

A rubber tree with slash marks.

It was very cool to hold natural latex (rubber) like this.

When the British government planted rubber trees in its colonies in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and tropical Africa (planted from seeds that Henry Wickham had smuggled out of Brazil in 1876), the rubber boom in the Amazon waned and then pretty much died ... as did Airão Velho. Those other plantations were able to produce latex with greater efficiency and productivity, so sayeth Wiki.

Both ants and termites build nests high up in trees.  I learned to differentiate them -- termites have no exposed trails, they cover their pathways.  Assuming they build high because six months out of the year the water level is high. 

The "path" was mostly a wet, muddy track, a slog.  We all came back with soaking wet shoes and socks and some kind of "begger dog," clinging to anything they touched.  After a while, I simply waded thru the water -- my Keens are made for it.  Our boat driver guys are the best -- they took our shoes and cleaned them for us after each outing.  They really earned their keep on this one!  Picking those durned things off socks and pant legs was a chore!

The back of a building, but not sure what.

"Hot lips!"

Wolf demonstrates Palicourea elata,

aka The Kissing Flower, to the amusement of all.

From the town ruins, we ventured into the cemetery, not far away.  I saw one cement grave that had been broken open ... then I looked around.  No ghosts, whew!   People have attempted to care for the cemetery (kinda), but, of course, the jungle prevails.  Look how thick the vegetation is all around.

Lastly we saw what's left of the church.  The pic above shows the back of the church.  I'm amazed anything is left, what with jungle foliage consuming everything.

Jimmy, in the weeds, trying to push the church wall over.

This was a sight to see!  Roberto, with only that loop in his left hand to put around his ankles, climbed the palm tree with the ease of a monkey to cut down the Açaí berries in his hand.  Wow!  I never knew how to pronounce that word, but now I do!  Ah-sigh-eee.  It's supposedly a very healthy berry to consume.

Sandstone rocks laid down eons ago.

Here's the petroglyphs!  I swear, every time I see images like these, my mind goes to aliens.  Truly.  I'm posting only two photos, above and below, and I can't find any dating for these petroglyphs. 

The carvings are at water's edge, and are no doubt submerged many months of the year.  We are also not seeing those carvings below today's water level.  Somehow, I never imagined we'd see petroglyphs on the Rio Negro.

The riverboat stopped here so passengers could disembark and show the park official their passports.  Names and numbers were noted so park officials can identify how many tourists were in at any given time.  We were the only ones in the area!

After this, which didn't take long at all, the Pilgrim motored to a tying-off place (like a tree!) and dinner was served.  And then, we had our last nighttime canoe exploration, of the Jaú.  I bet we'd never tire of scooting out after dark to see the nocturnal critters.

Win-win!  The snake was small, so don't worry.  Pretty markings.  I don't know what kind of froggie we saw and I certainly don't know how it could be spotted from far away!  The Ladder-tailed Nightjar didn't move or even blink, but the Boat-billed Heron (look at that beak!) didn't much care to be in the spotlight.  After peering down on us, it hopped up to the next branch and sort of disappeared in the leaves.  Great find!  (You can always click on any picture to enlarge)

I'm not sure if it was this night or last night (it really doesn't matter) that we all gathered in the "living room" on the Pilgrim to watch a movie called "Creature from the Black Lagoon," a campy B-movie from 1954. Turned into more of a melodrama, with cat calls, hoots and yeehaws, and lots of laughter.  Jimmy and I had seen it before, since part of it was filmed at Wakulla Springs near Tallahassee (where we've kayaked), but the movie treats on the Amazon.  A fun finale to a really awesome day in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.