Orange Walk

We managed to drag ourselves away from Caye Caulker and headed north to the superbly named Orange Walk. The next day we went on a tour to another Mayan site called Lamanai. The trip involved a 2 hour boat journey up the river which was a really cool experience, although it did rain very heavily about 5 minutes before we arrived and we got completely soaked. The ruins are located in the jungle which made the experience even more impressive and our local guide had an encyclopedic knowledge of the local history, plant and animal life. Wildlife we saw included tarantulas, lots of different birds, crocodiles, toucans, iguanas, black howler monkeys (a protected species) and loads of other stuff that I can´t remember now. We were also fascinated by a German Mennonite settlement on the river - basically a community of German´s living almost self-sufficiently, with no electricity or telephones. They can be seen fishing on the river or sometimes in town buying or selling food. They speak 18th Century German, travel by horse and cart and dress in traditional clothing (they look like extras from Little House on the Prairie!).

We went out with a couple of English girls last night, had Chinese food in the weirdest little restaurant/bar/hovel and enjoyed the gifted local karaoke enthusiasts (and a few cocktails). As there´s not much to do in Orange Walk other than visit Lamanai, we headed out of Belize today and caught a bus up to Tulum in the Yucatan province of Mexico. There´s a beautiful beach here and yet more Mayan ruins, but we´ll probably only stay a day or two.