Finale at the Lamanai Temple

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Joachim

The tour started in San Jose with Rice & Beans for breakfast. What other can you wish than having a Rice & Bean Dinner at a Maya Temple at Doomsday? Well it was more: Rice, Beans & Chicken plus a bottle of local Rum and the Howler Monkeys in the trees at sunset!

The temple was really deserted. Besides us, only 3 guys from Dallas were around to experience their doomsday at this Mayan place. Nothing like a huge Maya or commercial festival. It was an ordinary day. At least at this site.

Nevertheless, we setup our dinner table at the foot of the Jaguar Temple. The final supper was enriched with two bottles of complementary rum. Before any of the thirsty riders could enjoy the ‘enriched’ water, the first sip of the rum had to be given to the Maya gods in a ceremonial gesture. Henry and Cristiano performed the duty and the first drops of the bottles were spilt over a sacred rock, making sure there remained enough of the tasty fluid for us in the bottles. After weeks of ‘purified’ water, what a welcome change!

Only the Howler Monkeys were curious about what was going on in their territory and couldn’t take their looks from the strange ‘aliens’ in their fancy outfits with some odd rituals.

It was already dark, when we returned home to Belize City, in ‘The Blue Bird’ an old and rattling school bus.

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Doomsday is this the End?

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Joachim

The high priest of the temple was already waiting for us on top of the pyramid. His prayers could be heart for miles as we approached the holy arena. Howler monkeys added their sounds to the fearful atmosphere.

In his ultimate ecstasy, the shaman asked for a sacrifice to please the gods and prevent the world to end. Mike, the bravest of us volunteered to step up willing to give his life to safe ours – nobody knew at this time, that he had a secret ‘joker’ that would ultimately safe him too. The shaman immediately continued his ceremony and asked Mike to step forward and come closer. Nobody knew what would happen next, when the priest eventually caught Mike at his throat.

In the claws of the shaman, doomed to pass out soon, Mike all of a sudden produced an item that the shaman could not resist to inspect. What was this?

It were Joey’s cherished and heavily ‘duct taped’ set of cycling shorts, that were like a second skin to her. How hard must it have been for her, to sacrifice this unique piece of cycling history! The shaman recognized the value of this gift to the gods and released Mike. Together they send a final praise to the gods and the world continued to exist beyond the doomsday …

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Stage 28 – Belize City to Lamanai Temple

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Joachim

130km – 294m up – 304m down – 5401 kcal – 8h

The last stage of the tour was either a long fight against a nasty head wind, followed by 40km of unpaved roads for those who decided to cycle to the temple. For the others it was a 90 minute drive to the New River, followed by a 40km boat ride on the river to the Lamanai temple, at the banks of the New River Lagoon. It was said, the this river is the only in Belize that flows south to north and is totally fresh water. It was used by the Mayas for trading with their neighbors, as it runs into Mexico. It was a fast ride on the calm waters. Everyone in the boat enjoyed the breeze of the cooling wind as we moved on through narrow and wider ‘channels’ in the lush vegetation only interrupted when wildlife or notable plants were to be seen. What a difference is a boat ride, compared to cycling

Once we reached the wide lagoon we could make out some humans on top of the roof of the forest, actually on top of a temple. Can you locate them in the photo below?

We arrived at the Lamanai temple site, where we soon reunited with the cyclists. Lamanai is the Mayan name an translates to ‘Submerged Crocodile’, if pronounced correctly: La-ma-na-i, with a focus on the ending i. If pronounced La-ma-nai, it translate the ‘Submerged Mosquito’.