Wow, it is so cool to ride a jungle boat for 45 minutes up some unknown river looking for crocodiles until you reach this very wide spot in the river, so much that it looks like a lake. On the far side is a small wooden dock.... Lamanai... a fairly recently discovered and unearthed Mayan city with temples and all. We walked up the gentle slope of grass from the edge of the river to the first of 3 overgrown rock walls ( think 10+ feet thick at the top ) each about 15 feet set back from the other. Remember about how the B of M talks about how they built walls for protection. Well, THIS was a wall and a LOT of folks must have worked long and hard.
Past the 3rd wall, up the hill between the trees, around the corner is the Jaguar Temple. Large, granite, and with a large flat courtyard in front of it. Dr John Lund climbed to the top and read to us from Mosiah 2:1. Amazing... we could hear easily all around the courtyard.
We turned and behind us across the courtyard was the remains of the High Priests and King's residence and then on a path down through the jungle is other parts of the village and city. After we walked perhaps 3 blocks, we came to a seond temple, bigger than the first and this one, we could climb up! That is a dream I have had since I was young and studied the Aztec and Incas and Mayans. I was one of the first to scramble up to the to the top and was rewarded with a view of the top of the tree canopy to see the winding river we had travelled and I KNEW that this was what it had looked like so long ago.
That is all the time I have tonight, but will keep adding as I have time.
1 comment:
Nice pics mom. Cruises are the best, i'm glad you got to go.
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