Mayan Ruins

Saturday we decided to do the tourist thing and visit a couple of the lesser known ruins in Southern Belize. I know so many of you are interrested in the ruins so I thought I'd share some of my pictures today. These two ruins were Nim Li Put and Labaantun (I think the spelling is correct etc. but I'm not sure). They were inhabited for about 200 tears starting around 700AD. The first, NLP (for short), was a centre of religious worship and ceremonial activities. The second, L (for short), was an economic and business centre. They are both in the southern mountains of Belize at the top of separate 'mountains' (another time we'll get into the definition of 'mountain' in Belize) We had no guide and the signage was pretty sparse so I don't have a lot of details but I'll share what I know. Now, keep in mind, that these two ruins haven't been set up for tourists really and aren't as well restored as some of the others in Belize.

This picture doesn't really do it justice but this is the view from the first ruins (NPL).

This is a plaza at NPL.

These are tombs. In one of them they discovered 5 members of the royal family were buried along with urns of treasure, of course.

Here is the plaza of the stellae. The stellae are large pieces of stone carved with stories or events or important people of the time. Some of the largest and best preserved are found here.

More of the stellae.

Here is Alfred preparing to use Kori's head for a ball on the ball court. Heads were a preferred form of ball for the ancient Maya.

These are the second ruins we went to. There was more to see in the form of rocks but not as well preserved.

Well, Kori is begging for the computer and the internet is really slow so each picture is taking me forever. I hope your appetite has been whetted and that you will want to see more. Maybe come for a visit.

Be Belizing

Hi all! Well, we've been here two weeks now and I've had time to make a few observations. Number one is that, believe it or not, Belize is different from Canada! So here are some things that I have learned that might be of interest:
1) Driving in Belize is unlike almost all Canadian driving. The roads are worse than the reputation Saskatchewan roads have and even worse than hwy #1 in Ontario! So the number one driving rule is - do whatever you have to do to get where you are going without hitting any dogs, kids, bikes, other cars and potholes. If this means driving on the wrong side of the road, in the ditch, or in reverse, then so be it! Also those pesky speed limit signs (if you happen to be so lucky as to see one. They are very shy and seem to be endangered) are really just suggestions as are the solid and broken yellow lines in the middle of the highway. Mostly those are just there so you know when you are driving in the middle or on the wrong side of the road. Not that's it's a problem - just so you know!
2) Hitchhiking is the primary source of transportation for all Belizeans. If that fails they do resort to taking the bus but only in a pinch. So, if you see someone standing in the middle of the road waving, you have two choices - you can stop and give the person and his/her family and friends a ride to wherever; or you can pretend you think they are just being friendly and wave back. This tends to confuse them and the look on their faces is pretty comical if you need a chuckle.
3) All bizarre ideas you may have about the seating capacity of any given vehicle is wrong. No, don't try to argue, it is wrong! The seating capacity, for example, of your standard half-ton truck is about 10x that of the standard minivan. If you have running boards on the side of your vehicle, your seating capacity goes up by two or four depending on the length of the running boards. Any tractor can take at least five. Bicycles can take two or three usually and the age of rider can be anywhere from newborn to 100. And, if you knock the front of the box off of a basic uhaul type cube truck, the seating capacity is about the same as the population of the village.
4) Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly acceptable and safe to buy lobster out of a 5 gallon pail in the back of some stranger's truck. That is how we got our freezer full of lobster and the results were very tasty! Also the best pasteries you have ever tried can be bought from small boys wandering around carrying pails full of stuff their mom just made.
I'm sure there are more differences and I'll try and keep you up to date. Have a good one, everybody and thanks for reading!

Brynn and Kori's Big Adventure

So it finally happened. On Thursday I heard those words that every parent dreads "Mom, we're bored!" Under normal circumstances, I have (as, I'm sure does every parent) my standard answer to this dilemma. It goes something like this, with variations added as needed - well, your room needs cleaning. Those are the magic boredom vanishing words. Sadly we are not, at present, living under normal circumstances and my pat answer wasn't going to cut it. Ok, time to ad lib. (Just in case you don't know me and can't see where this may be headed, ad libbing may not be the best choice under any circumstances.)'I know,' say I, 'tomorrow will be an adventure day. We will just get into the Tahoe and go see whatever takes our fancy.' So, Friday morning, armed with water and sunscreen and bug juice and first aid kit we head out. (You may notice the lack of one very important item, the cell phone. This will become important as the story goes on.) As we are driving down the Hummingbird Highway we see a sign that takes our fancy. It says "Davis Falls". Cool, lets go to the falls. So we start down the road. As roads in Belize go, this one is pretty good. Dirt but pretty wide-ish and pleasant. After we have driven for about 2-3 miles, we come to a river. I mean we come to a river. The road just disappears into a river. We can see a little blue truck some distance ahead of us that must have come the same way (duh, there is only one road) and we have 4 wheel drive so why not! We're on an adventure. We drive across the river and continue on down this beautiful (OK maybe at this point 'road' would be a bit of an overstatement) car path. We drive through a lovely orange orchard and there are literally thousands of butterflies in yellow and orange and green (believe it or not). This is amazing, we think. Then we come to the second river. None of us can see a road on the other side but it must be there, right. Right! In we go. Sure enough, a little right hand jog in the river and you can access the road on the other side. OK again road may be an overstatement as, likely, would be car path ... maybe fairly clear tire tracks would be more appropriate. You might notice a trend, each time we cross a river, the road becomes a little less like a road. By the time we figure this out, somewhere after the third river, there is no humanly possible way to turn around. This would be where I remember the forgotten, very important item discussed earlier. This would also be where I remember that, since we were on an adventure, we hadn't told anyone where we were going. Ok, not to panic the girls but looking to brainstorm a possible solution, I mention these things. Kori panics - just a little. Her voice just seems to jump an octave. Brynn, ever practical, has the solution. 'Mom, we have water and it's hot out so I say we just keep going and if we get stuck we can walk out.' Ignoring the fact that we have just DRIVEN for about 40 minutes, I agree that this seems like the best solution at present. We continue on. After the fifth river crossing we are now on what can optimistically be described as a washed out, mud ridden cow trail. There is still no hope of turning around and the butterflies are still incredible!! We keep stopping to take pictures of them. Brynn continues to dub this 'the best adventure ever!' and Kori is complaining that her hands are starting to hurt from holding onto the door so tightly. It has been almost an hour and the fact that the wiper fluid is low, which didn't seem like an issue when we left, has actually become a problem. The water we splash up in the multiple river crossings doesn't even begin to attack the mud we splash up on the cow trail. Finally we come to a sign. 'Davis Falls' with an arrow pointing ... where? All I see is a bush that looks like it is cleverly masking a cliff. We take a vote and decide I am a good enough driver ... to be able to turn around in this sorta open spot we are in. It has been an hour and we won't be seeing the falls this time out. On the plus side, we know we can get out because we made it in! And we have lots of pretty butterfly pictures. The look on Alfred's face when we pull into the parking lot of his office driving an actual mud puddle still has his coworkers laughing. And Alfred is still chuckling because he has been to Davis Falls and we turned around in the parking lot! Yes, a mere 40 minute hike through that bush would have taken us to the falls. 40 MINUTES!! No way! Brynn, Kori and I all agree that that is much too long a hike to see some stupid falls.

Our Church in Dangriga

Ok, even those of you that don't belong to our church should get a kick out of our first Sunday in the Dangriga branch of The Church of Latter-day Saints. We arrived on time and assembled in a room that measures about 12 ft sq. We all (all 19 of us including 5 visitors, two missionaries and our family) sit in chairs facing the white board. We begin with song and prayer and then Alfred teaches the relief society/priesthood lesson to everyone (children and youth included). After that meeting concludes we all stand up and visit for a few minutes and then sit back down for sunday school. After sunday school we all stand up and turn our chairs 90 degrees so that we are now facing the pulpit. At this point the branch president pulls out a microphone. There are three rows of people and we have just had two meetings without a mike in the same room but, apparently, you can't have sacrament meeting without one. We also now have music to sing our hymns to. True it's a CD but music none the less. The hymns were another interesting point of the morning. Each person came in and grabbed a hymn book, either spanish or english, and that was the language you sang in. Luckily I grabbed an english one by total fluke or life really would have been fun! Everyone sings out very nicely but a full half of the people are singing in Spanish while the other half are singing in English. Talk about confusing! If you lose your place you can't just rely on the person next to you. It was fun and the people are so nice! Everyone laughed together and worshipped together and it was a truely uplifting experience. We are now going to the church on Tuesday nights to take spanish lessons from the missionaries and improve communication withing the branch. Maybe we'll find out those spanish members weren't really laughing WITH us! Till next time ... Keep smilin'

The Beginning

So, I naively think, all we have to do is pack and we're out of here. Well, three trips back to the suitcase store and a few 'phone calls from Alfred (don't forget ...) we are finally ready to go. I look around, six large suitcases and three carry-on and three purses? Didn't we already send all our stuff? Wasn't it just clothes left? Apparently not. New lesson learned: girls can always find more to pack!

Up at 4:30 am and off to the airport. It was so hard to say goodbye to Rafe and Adrianne but I didn't end up crying all the way to the airport as I had feared. I was just too tired!

Lunch and layover in Minneapolis were very uneventful. See:

On to Houston. We are staying over night. That means we have to claim ALL of our luggage and lug it to the hotel and back. Thank goodness for hotel bellmen that jump to our rescue. One even picks up our luggage in the morning and drives us to the airport. Kinda humourous as we are staying in the hotel in the airport. He drives us from the hotel between terminals C and D to terminal E. Then it's on to Belize.

We are all settled into our house now and mostly unpacked. Want a tour? OK.

Come on in my front door. Yes, that's the view out the door but you are supposed to be looking in, remember? We are touring the house not the sea.

That's better. So this is the living room. Cosy. The couch faces the TV. No, we don't have TV but we can watch movies. If anyone wants to send us a present you could burn some episodes of House or Bones or Criminal Minds. Alright then, on with the tour. We continue in past the living room and we are in the kitchen. There are Brynn and Kori making a snack. The working space is a little small but there is a large kitchen table and an island as well.

Next the bedrooms. Ours is to the right of the living room as you come in the front and Kori's is to the left. At the back to the left of the kitchen are the stairs to Brynn's room. Here's 0urs: Bed and bathroom to the left.

Kori has a blue room. Sometimes I think she'd be happy if we just left her there all day!

Now to the stairs and up to Brynn's room. Brynn has two balconies off her room. One to the front and one to the back. The picture is of the front balcony.

Well, that's all folks. For now anyway. Don't forget to stop by the pool and say goodbye to Brynn and Kori. Have a good one!!