A Honeymoon To Remember - Exploring Belize and the Mayan Pyramids in 2012

May 26th 2012 was the day we officially started our family! We were married outdoors beside a waterfall in front of our friends and family. A great blue heron even blessed our marriage with his presence. He flew down to the river, stayed for the whole ceremony and left shortly after “I Do”. In Native American lore the Heron is said to symbolize, among other things, wisdom, patience and truth. 3 crucial things in a lasting marriage!

The next day we were off to one of our most favorite travel places to date, Belize! Belize is a country just to the east of Guatemala and just south east of Mexico. A wonderfully fascinating place filled with a very rich history and some of the world’s most beautiful wonders. Among these wonders include rivers, caves, rain forests, wildlife galore, the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world, the great blue hole and plenty of thousands of years old Mayan Pyramids. In our lifetime we have never been treated so well by not only tour guides but the local folks as well, because they all know Belize’s economy is 97% based on tourism. To sum it up it was Heaven!

The centerpiece of fun we had on this trip was by far exploring and visiting the Mayan Pyramids. The Mayan Calendar that got all the attention of Doomsday sayers back in 2012 did so because most scholars agreed the Calendar itself came to an end on 12/21/2012. Marking the end of a 5,126 year old calendar. Now obviously that day came and went and the world kept on spinning but it caused quite a stir. So to be among those sacred temples in the very year a 5,126 year old calendar ended was yet another sign our union was meant to last! This year marks the 12th year we have been married by the way.

The day of exploration and adventure came and we got up ready to be wowed. Some of the most well kept temples in Mexico can give off the impression these places aren’t too hard to get to. Wrong! These people lived, thrived and loved the jungles. After the Mayan civilization fell apart most of the temples were swallowed back up by the jungles. This leaves only 2 ways to get there. An exceptionally uncomfortable several hours long car ride or The Sansbury Way. We took a helicopter.

Once we were airborne we flew over miles and miles of jungle, palm trees 70/80 feet high! Then out of a small break in the jungle you could make out the top of the largest temple. These pyramids aren’t like the open plain pyramids of Egypt, these pyramids are actively being eaten by the jungles around them. So you have to be on the ground to truly appreciate them. Thankfully that came shortly.

We met our guide and we were off! This guy was chock full of information about everything Mayan and Belizean. We no more than were 100 feet down the trail than he stopped, bent down and picked up a small piece of obsidian! You know…dragon glass. Left there by a volcanic eruption years and years ago, uncovered by rain. We noticed something else immediately, it was the Noise! The Noise, Noise, Noise! There was this terrible racket coming from somewhere close by we thought. Our guide told us those were howler monkeys! The loudest mammal on the planet, they earn their name. Thankfully they were only howling for a short while. We continued.

Our guide casually stepped over a very large column of leaf cutter ants, that stream by seemingly by the zillions. If you ever want a master class in pain just step on one of those columns. We pressed on and came upon our first temple. It wasn’t the big one, yet, but it appeared out of the trees like something out of the Jungle Book. If you were standing ten feet in another direction you would never have seen it. But it was the size of a real large house that time and erosion had clearly worked over. Still fascinating all the same.

Next on the trail was a little stream filled with all sorts of broken shards of Mayan pottery! We weren’t allowed to take any pieces. But the temptation was incredible. Almost all the streams back home are filled with rocks waiting to be thrown and skipped. Here this stream was filled with hardened clay that was shaped into pottery hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, and was a part of one of the more famous ancient cultures in North America. It was quite fascinating.

Then next around the bin was the BIG ONE. This temple was massively tall! We were told at the time of its completion 1800-1500 BC it was the tallest structure in North America. And they did it all with NOTHING but hand tools and elbow grease! To say we were awe struck does not do it justice. What came next was a no brainer, we had to climb this thing. What struck us immediately were just how big the stairs were. I mean they were tall! Easily twice as tall as normal stairs if not more so. Plus they were quite narrow for how big they were. So it wound up being a very steep climb. Somebody had placed a rope for easier climbing up the middle of the stairs which was extremely helpful. After a major effort we made it to the top which was the only part of the whole place that was above the tree line. So from up there you could see far and wide over the whole jungle! It was really something else.

Our guide was taking 5 down at the bottom, I’m sure he climbed it many times before. Since we brought the camera up with us to take pictures from the top we were at risk of missing out on a great picture! How could we get a picture of us together on top? Simple really, but not easy. So I climbed all the way back down while Lenora stayed up top. I gave our guide the camera and told him to take our picture when I got back up. Then I had to climb that bad boy AGAIN! Worth it though! Our picture together up top is one of our all-time favorites!

After we got back down we were again humbled at the thoughts that people would ascend and descend those stairs all day long thousands of years ago. Their legs must have been made out of iron!

Not to far from this temple we were led into an amphitheater obviously constructed around the same time. Complete with big stone seats and incredible acoustics. These people using nothing but knowledge they acquired themselves and past down through their generations figured out how to construct a central gathering place that amplified sound. They had built these high stone walls right behind the seats and if you stood at just the right distance away the sound of your voice would bounce off these walls and amplify greatly. We sat in some of the seats (when I say seats I really mean long stone bench like things) while our guide demonstrated and it truly was astonishing! When he stood exactly in the middle of the amphitheater his voice was booming but when he moved a few feet you could barely hear him. It’s just crazy to even conceive that ancient peoples not only figured all this out but you had to know and trust it would work. It stands to reason they probably had a lot of trial and error in their civilization. This particular set up however was most impressive! It was honestly one of those experiences of an ancient culture that was so impressive given what they had to work with it makes you wonder why on earth more people haven’t heard about it.

After the theater we made our way to the last part of this ancient Mayan temple complex, The Jaguar Temple. On our way we encountered some more interesting wildlife. As we were walking over we had discovered that source of all the noise from earlier! Up in the trees were those howler monkeys. Just to give a better idea of exactly how loud they are this was the very same group that we heard from earlier, our guide told us it was the only group in the area, and we had been walking for almost 2 miles at that point from when we first heard them. We were very grateful they weren’t going off with us right under them! Then just at that moment I looked up and caught a glimpse of a small black bird jumping around from branch to branch. Long Bright green beak! We had just had a chance encounter with the national bird of Belize, a toucan! This particular type of toucan’s beak is mostly green with some color close to the end. We thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by such rich wildlife.

As we made our way there the rain started. At that time in Belize (May/June) it was the rainy season. This means an almost constant downpour for most cultures when they have rainy seasons but not Belize. Belize would have these 20-30 minute downpours 4 times a day and the sun would come out 10 minutes later. In this environment the mosquito population, always high in the tropics anyways, absolutely exploded! Thankfully we had lots of repellent but we never saw mosquitos like that before or ever since! If you left the house without soaking yourself with repellent you would look down 2 minutes later and have 30 on your legs, no exaggeration. Then, you would think you were covered with repellant and those blood suckers would get your ears! They were merciless and everywhere! Thankfully we came prepared that day.

The Jaguar was a symbol of power and wisdom among the Mayans for that animal’s cunning and strength. This creature was highly respected by the Mayans and they built another wonderful marvel in it’s honor. We laid our eyes on the last temple of the day and it was beautiful. This temple was not the biggest one but it definitely had the most character. Carved on it’s front on both sides of the stairs were these huge angry faces with big gnarled teeth and bulging eyes. We could only imagine what these looked like 3,000 years ago in their prime! Lenora was pretty tired by this point and the rain had made the stairs pretty slippery so she left the climbing to me on this one but I wasn’t about to miss out on another chance to climb a Mayan Pyramid! It turned out to be a very amazing ascent. As I was climbing up it started raining a bit harder and our friends the howler monkeys started up again and seemed to get louder the higher I went. In the deep Belizean jungle, a long way from home, climbing a Mayan Jaguar Temple in the rain, and with the sounds of howler monkeys in the background. It was one of the most majestic experiences of my life.

When I reached the top I raised my hands up and smiled down at Lenora. I didn’t stay too long up top, somehow it seemed weird being alone. When I got back down we took our final looks, gave each other a big hug and headed out of the complex back out of the jungle. We have gone on many adventures since we left Belize and there is always something inherently special about your Honeymoon but for us in summation the experience we shared with each other that day among the Mayan Pyramids in the year 2012 was something we will cherish forever!