On the road to ruin(s). Part 2.

We’re not sure that the ruins at Lamanai would rank as the most spectacular Mayan ruins we have visited (although they are expansive and very well restored). However their location—still safely cocooned in the ancient jungle that once obscured them—was very atmospheric. Also, the background cacophony of what one would normally assume to be huge dinosaur-like creatures—with with an appetite for lost tourists—did make this one place we will never forget.

We had the ruins mostly to ourselves as we spent the morning exploring. This is a good way to start the day.

From there, we wanted to head to San Ignacio, but we made a quick overnight stop at Crooked Tree wildlife sanctuary on the way. We didn’t really see much wildlife while we were there. But then again, we didn’t really look that hard either.

The warm glow of sunrise over the calm lagoon.

These were the birds we saw from our camp spot by the lake. A couple of cormorants.

Not much wildlife right here.

And this guy. However, I’m not sure that Buster counts as wildlife. He was good company though.

Buster.

Next stop. More ruins.

This time it was the ruins of Altun Ha. Again we were there bright and early, to beat the crowds and the heat. But this time we weren’t as impressed. No howler monkeys, no jungle, but some pretty grand pyramids nonetheless.

Also, apparently this particular site is the home of the temple depicted on the Belikin beer bottle.

Belikin beer is the surprisingly tasty national beer of Belize that is served in normal-sized bottles made with a lot of extra glass so that the internal volume is significantly smaller than your standard stubby. We assume this is to comply with some legal requirement for selling alcohol in Belize.

The tiny 284ml serving combined with the extra glass in the bottle always leads you to think you have more beer left than you do. If it isn’t a legal requirement, we think it is a ploy by the Belikin beer company to sell more beer. There is a final, disappointing empty mouthful when you find that there is actually no beer left, just a heavy bottle. This leads you to respond ‘Sure!’ to the question; ‘Shall we have another beer?’ with far more regularity than you normally would. Luckily, they also serve buckets full of Belikin…

I digress—back to the ruins.

I suppose by this point we had really just seen enough Mayan ruins, Altun Ha was interesting, but it just didn’t capture our imagination.

So, with the taste of mild disappointment in our mouths, we made for San Ignacio, where we hoped to replace that taste with the flavour of a few deceptively small Belikin beers… oh, and some more ruins…