Orange Walk, Belize

We came to the town of Orange Walk for one reason, it is the starting point for the Jungle River Tours trip to Lamanai (a Mayan site).
We turned up at 8.30am to see if we could go sometime in the next day or so, but we were on a boat and off by 9/30am.
The trip is a winding 32 miles up a jungle river, passing lots of birdlife, turtles, fruit bats and several iguana (cool). At the end of that there is lunch and a 3 hour guided tour of Lamanai, not the most impressive Mayan site but we had a guide who was so passionate and prodigiously well informed it was fascinating.
We got to climb one of the steep temples for the first time, with the view back over the river as you see. Although it is not obvious from the photo there is a 10 storey sheer drop behind us, and consequently Susie's fingernails are making dents in Romany's shoulder. Ciaran's highlight was coming down the temple stairs to find the trees full of howler monkeys just over our heads. He had been warned not to stand under them as they inclined to pee on you!
The guide told us not to run if we came face to face with a jaguar, but our nerve was not put to the test.
Currently staying (oddly enough) in a Japanese run hotel with aircon (yay!) and great Japanese food. It makes a change from beans and rice.

Corozal, Belize

We crossed the Mexican border into Belize (now how many people do you know who have been to Belize?). After the air-conditioned buses of Mexico (which show movies in English with Spanish subtitles), the local transport has taken a step down.
This is possibly the most laid back country we have ever visited - check out time is "whenever you like" - it has the classic Caribbean/ Reggae feel with everyone smiling at us and greeting us. Every passerby stops to help and/or have a chat. One gets the feeling that they really want to get ahead as a country, and improve their infrastructure, but this doesn't seem to take priority over moving slowly and being relaxed, so I wouldn't expect any great changes soon.
It seems to be getting hotter as we are going south, and as a result our calorie intake has to be supplemented by regular beer.
There is very little in Corozal, but we spent 2 days there just hanging out. Most people go onto the beaches on the Cayes, but diving there is frighteningly expensive, so we will leave that for Honduras. It is lovely to see a youthful Queen on the riotously coloured banknotes, and have everyone speak English to us, having been a British Colony (founded by pirates, which has to be good!)

Chichen Itza (Mexico)

Doing the Mayan temple thing now in Mexico and were lucky enough to arrive just before the equinox the most sacred time when the setting sun makes the shadow of the snake down the temple stairs (some people plan such things). Very hot here so once again landed a hotel with a pool to keep the children (of course) happy. Ciaran most interested in the giant lizards but has a good grasp of local history from his "horrible histories" series. The lizard pictured is about 80cm long (and well camoflagued)