Adventure is out there!

Thatched roofs: Outside

Thatched roofs: Inside

Saturday and Sunday are our “days off” to sight-see, explore, and rest, and today I did a little bit of all of the above. As you’ll see in the pictures below, I suited up in my classic orange adventure pants (which I always wear before embarking on orange adventures) and saw some fantastic things! I have LOTS of pictures today and probably fewer words, but since each picture is in fact worth 1000 words, this just may be my wordiest post yet! :) Besides pictures of my experiences today, I also have a few additional pictures of events from the last few days that I got from some cameras other than my own (I am thus actually SEEN in some of the pictures today, rather than merely the photographer!). So… here goes!

This first group of pictures is from Xunantunich—one of the largest Mayan ruin sites in Belize. This is the number one tourist attraction I hoped to see here, so I was pretty stoked!

10 of our group (the 8 pictured here plus Kyle and Lindsey) decided to come on the trip, accompanied by our trusty tour guide Edgar. (far left)

Edgar explains the significance of some of the artistic motifs to us.

Here we are sitting at the base of the largest temple in Xunantunich, the temple of the High Priest, probably constructed around 200 AD.

In its original splendor, there were originally 3 additional higher stories made of wood, but they were damaged during the Spanish conquest and eventually decayed away. Some of the wood support scaffolding could still be seen in the entrance ways around the back where the wood had been more protected from the elements.

Here we are at the place where the High Priest would make his announcements to the people. The acoustics are amazing--you can hear at the bottom all the from the top and vice versa because of the way the arrangement of buildings in the complex reinforce each other.

Megan and I know what color proper adventure pants should be. :)

Can you find the iguana?
(I KNOW that it isn't a Wish Willy this time because our tour guide pointed this one out and specifically labeled him as a specific kind of iguana. Don't remember what that kind was, but to you it is probably just the really sneaky kind, like most iguanas featured in this continuing series) Good Luck! :)

View from the top of the main temple. Do you see that white line in the distance? That's the border between Belize and Guatemala.

Some areas of the temple have Olmec motifs. Some theories are that the Mayas borrowed these earlier stones and incorporated them into their architecture. Others believe very late Olmecs enslaved very early Mayas and forced them to integrate their symbols. He still looks funny whichever story is true.

One of the interior chambers.

At the gift shops near the temple we met these two adorable children named Danny David and Diane Josephine (they both offered their first and middle names when asked). Some of our dialogue with them:
Ashley: How old are you, Diane?
Diane: Seven
Me: How old are you, Danny?
Danny: Six
Diane: No, he's three. He just says he's six because three plus three equals six.
Ashley: Wow, you're so smart! Where'd you learn that?
Diane: I guess I'm just one of those smart girls.

:)

Okay, so these next couple pictures feature some of the exciting fresh produce I'm experiencing:

Eating coconut straight from the coconut! Absolute pain to scrape out of that blasted shell! But very rewarding and tasty in the end.

This is called a starfruit and I've sliced a piece off the end to show you why. Absolutely delicious! I intend to have many more of these while I'm here! You also see a banana in the picture; I've eaten many of these since I've been here--they are 10 cents pretty much everywhere and always locally grown. I've also been told that around the corner from where we live there is a man who sells frozen chocolate dipped bananas, like the ones you can buy at Disneyland for $5. The difference: apparently this man (who I have yet to meet but eagerly await the opportunity) sells them for only a shilling (that's about 12 cents in American money)!!! [At a future date I'll give a more full description and commentary on the money system here. It's rather interesting and I'm getting quite used to speaking in "shillings," etc.]

Finally, these last pictures are actually NOT from today (except the very last one) but show a few pictures of things I talked about the last few days.

The Team! Most of these people have been here for 6 weeks to 3 months already and sadly, half of them are going home next week! :( They are all fantastic and I love every one of them. This is one of the most caring, compassionate, and intelligent groups of people you'll ever meet and they all came here to help eliminate poverty in Belize!

A few more chicken coop pictures.

This picture is from the business consultation I did the other evening. Lindsey (far right) and I pitch the marketing strategy we developed to Jorge and Shamira. They loved it! (See my Thursday night post, "Jumping In" for more details on this one, as well as future posts as we subsequently meet with them)

This 6-inch wingspan moth came swooping through our hallway this evening. At first it looked like a bat, but it is actually just a bat-sized moth! The girls thought it was gross; I named it Frank.