What a great day out, wildlife spotting all the way up the river to the ancient Mayan sites. Sadly there is now a newly built 25 mile long canal literally just for cruise ship passengers to access Lamanai. These tourists yell and climb all over the sacred temple. We had just been told we could not climb the Jaguar temple to be greeted by a cacophony of noise and loads of cruise ship people clambering over the temple, showing an absolute lack of respect to this ancient equivalent of a church. Aside from this the day was most enjoyable.

The reason for taking a boat is to avoid 36 miles of unpaved road. This site was interesting as it covered all the phases of ancient Mayan civilisation. Lamanai means submerged crocodile and we certainly saw crocs on the way. We also saw an owl sleeping on a branch, iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards, falcons, osprey, bats and so on. Mayans still lived here when the Spanish arrived, but were soon decimated by smallpox.

Fibre glass covers the original preserved heads