A Tale of Two Ruins

Wednesday and Thursday were our do something days for this week.

Wednesday was fishing and the Cerros ruins. We arranged to go out with Our Island Tours and in true fishing fashion we had to get up early in our to get the fish.
So, we wake at 5:00 am and head down to the dock to meet our captain Carlo and head out. Chetumal Bay actually feeds a couple of rivers, one of them being the New River which is across the bay from where we are. Less than twenty minutes later we are across the bay and we begin trolling in hopes of catching a big tarpon - actually with our record of fishing on vacation we would like to catch anything that swims, well maybe not a crocodile but you know what I mean....
The ride along the river is very nice, there's a cool breeze going, there are a few birds flying around and so far no crocs. About 15 minutes in we encounter the hand bridge. It is a bridge that connects Corozal with a couple of points east including the farthest town of Sartenajo. We have to stop because they are in the middle of transporting a large truck and even though they are moving this bridge by hand, it is not too far and they are quick about it. We have to reel in the lines in order to pass over the cable which is also a bit of a trick because we have to make sure the motor doesn't catch the cable but Carlo has done this before so no problem.
Just after we pass the bridge we let the lines out again and not too long after is when we get the first bite and Dave reels in his jack. Once we have the fish in the boat, Carlo circles back because of course jacks travel in schools and he thinks we have a good chance to catch another. It take a second pass but that is when we got the second bite and my much bigger jack.
We then head into a narrow section of the river and we start to fish for large mouth bass.....that's right, large mouth bass in Belize. Now, it doesn't sound like they get very big but Dave's excited, but like most of our fishing trips, we can't seem to get anything to bite. Granted it is already extremely hot and I can't imagine the bass are moving around too much at this point but Dave does get one thing to come up to his lure and he does get one bite but nothing makes it to the boat.

So we troll our way out and head over to Cerros ruins which is just another 10 minutes over on the same side of the bay but we are heading towards the opening if the bay and the waves are coming in so it is a spine jarring ride over.
The Cerros site is smaller compared to others in the area and I had heard that it is mosquito heaven so we start to put on bug spray but I get bit about 6 times before I even finish getting bug spray on.....I got some sweet blood that those mossies just love!!
Unfortunately the trails are not well marked and the mosquitos are relentless so we see a few of the ruins but then head out a little quickly. We do get to see quite a few Humming Birds on our way out.

Thursday I arranged to go to Lamanai ruins. To get to these ruins we drive about 45 minutes down to Orange Walk Town (yes, I did make us take the long dirt road instead of paved highway part of the way...LOL). From here we meet up with Antonio and we traveled just south of town to an area where we boarded our boat. There were only 5 of us plus our guide. One of the guys happened to be a local doctor of sorts, "the snake doctor" he can cure snake bites among many other health issues and is a very interesting guy.
This trip is well worth it - on the ride along the river our guide Alberto points out many interesting things - a spider monkey, hawks, and some Jacana birds which are known as the Jesus Christ bird as they seem to walk on water. Last year in Costa Rica we saw the Jesus Christ Lizard and now the bird version.