Tower Hill

Started our first adventure with an hour boat ride down the New River. We boarded a relatively small boat that seated about 12 people but it had some serious horsepower. The river had narrow, winding channels with jungle on both shores, and our boat flew through it, angling left and right, gliding around all the tight corners. It felt like a video game. Every now and then, our driver would notice a croc (martha, as per alexa) or exotic birds (ospreys and egrets) and stop for us to get a pic.

Shortly after the river widening, we docked to start exploring the ancient mayan ruins of Lamanai. They are in the middle of a jungle and as far as i know, are inaccessible by car. Following the well cleared paths lead to several different temples built around 100 BC! Alexa and i climbed to the top of all of them while mom enjoyed the views from very low altitude :)

A number of times we could hear or see monkeys moving through the trees above us. Our guide Carlos did his best howler monkey sound and amazingly got the monkeys in the trees to start their freaky monster noises. Its really impossible to describe them. Just think horror movie monster noises, or as carlos said "welcome to Jurassic park".

Our guides provided us with a home cooked meal of chicken, rice and plantains, and shortly after we zipped back through the narrow river channels back to Orange Walk. Spent the rest of our day lounging at our hotel's serene riverside restaurant and enjoying more food and board games.Read more