The Ruins!

When I was in second grade, my friend (Stacie Palmer) and I decided that we wanted to be archaeologists when we grew up!  While my career path changed, my fascination of artifacts and ancient societies remained.  So getting to not only see but also climb some Mayan ruins in Belize was a total dream come true!  We went to a site called Xunantunich, and it is right along the Belize/Guatemala border.  Apparently there is some conflict between the two countries, and when we arrived to the site, it was guarded by men with machine guns.  I don't believe I've ever been so close to a machine gun before, and let's just say I didn't love it.  

The trip began with a 6 am boat ride to town, a walk to the airport, a flight to the mainland, and a 2 hour van ride to the ruins.  WHEW!

The entrance to the ruins

The official flower of Belize: the black orchid

Our guide (behind Todd) couldn't resist his "Favorite jungle snack" of fresh termites.  And you guessed it, Todd gave it a try.  Says it tastes like mint and bark.  I'll take their word for it!

Only 5 percent of this site has been excavated.  

Temple Altar

This is the main temple of the site.  Over 130 feet high.  We climbed to the top.  Very fun to climb up.  A little scarier going down.  It was so steep!

Here we are standing under a carving of their fertility God.  :)

I love this picture.  It is like looking back in time.  

We liked looking for any Book of Mormon signs.  There were some obvious ones like towns called Lamanai and Lemueli.  Then there were some things like decapitating winners of sporting events so they could avoid the 13 levels of hell that didn't quite jive...

Standing at the top of the temple.  I was a little nervous...

Here Todd is trying an allspice leaf.  We all tried this one.  It actually numbs your mouth, and scientists believe the Mayans used these leaves to do dental work.

Crossing the bridge to leave the ruins, and drinking a coke.  This poor guy was NOT in Dr. Pepper country.  :)