The Winter Solstice at a Maya Site

You may have heard about the “end of the world” as reportedly predicted by the Maya Calendar to occur on Dec 21, which also happens to be the winter solstice.  We are in the heart of Maya territory, with major Maya sites surrounding us.  One of our neighbors, Craig Pearlman who has Bare Bones Beach Bar 1 mile up the beach from us, arranged a small tour led by Christian Beck of Kiskadee Tours to go to a nearby ruin to watch the sun rise on the morning of the winter solstice. 

We left Englishtown at 3:00am and met Christian at the Monkey River Village dock parking lot.  We were a quiet bunch of 4 children and 8 adults as we drove in the darkness to Nim Li Punit, a major Maya site that has been partially excavated.  It is known for the large number of astronomical and commemorative stellae located throughout the site.  We got there and were positioned on the main pyramid overlooking the central plaza to the east waiting for the sun to rise.  Our group of 12 was the only group there.  Two rangers who live on site joined us later.  Although the night had not been cloudy, there was a low lying bank of clouds on the eastern horizon that together with the tall trees blocked our view of the sun until it had been up for about an hour.  Never-the-less, I did get some nice pictures of the sun and the site. 

Christian has a wealth of knowledge about the Maya and the natural history of Belize.  I am looking forward to returning to Nim Li Punit to learn more and also to see the sunrise at the equinoxes and the summer solstice.  

The sun rising over a stella at.

Same view, a little later.

Another plaza.

You can see how easily the jungle takes over.

View from one of the pyramids.  You can see the lowlands and more hills in the distance.  Out of view is the ocean to the left.  In the lower right corner is a some cultivated maize.

Leaf-cutter ant carrying a HUGE piece of leaf.  They use the leaves to grow fungi on which the ants feed.

Another leaf being carried to the nest.  These ants farm the fungi and each nest has its own fungus that it passes on to new nests when a new queen leaves to start a new colony.

A path leads from the ruins to the visitor center.

One of several ceremonial stellae which have been relocated in the visitor center.  The carvings are quite intricate

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View of landscaped grounds in front of the visitor center. 

To no one’s surprise, the world did not end or even get shaky.  ;-)

Another Week Closer to Belize

On Friday, we celebrated Dennis’ last birthday in Minnesota; his next birthday will be in Belize. The countdown widget on the righthand side of the blog, shows that Dennis’ retirement is only 18 days away from today.  I am more excited than he is. 

I was sorting through my old photos and pulled these from our third trip to Belize.  The first is some land we were looking at before we found  what we wound up with.  This was 10 acres plus another 40 if interested on the west coast of the Northern Lagoon.  It was beautiful, even in the rainy season, nestled into the Peccary Hills.

 George, a local guide, took us by boat from Gales' Point in the Southern Lagoon, to the property.  We saw big, fresh jaguar prints in the muddy track.

George slogs valiantly along the flooded road with me close behind.  Less than 2 weeks before this trip, Dennis had arthroscopic knee surgery, so he elected to stay on dry ground rather than risk injury or infection of his still healing knee.  Good call on Dennis' part; the water got mid-thigh deep on me in one place. 

Also on this trip we went to the Maya ruins called "Xunantunich".  To get there we had to cross the Macal River on a hand-cranked car ferry.  Below is a view of the river from the ferry.

And above is a shot of the ferry after we got off.  It can hold 2 or 3 cars at a time.

The ruins are quite impressive.  The shot above is of the largest structure there, but there were many more. Dennis was able to hike up to the top (and, more importantly, down again) in spite of his recent knee surgery.

The carvings are intricate and detailed.  I hope we can go back soon and get more photos now that I have a better camera and more lenses.

Back to the present - Craig sent photos of the completed concrete work.  We are very pleased with it and can hardly wait to see it for ourselves.

It will be so much easier to keep things clean and dry.  This area is about 600 sq.ft. of space.  Later on, once we get the water vats moved to the foundation for the bedroom expansion, we will do the remaining 300 sq.ft. 

In front of the back wall, you can see a small, white appliance that in Belize passes for a clothes washing machine.  It is quite simple, but does do the heavy work of washing.  It doesn't really spin dry, though.

This is about it for today's post.  The day started out cool and rainy and will end cold and perhaps snowy.  A good day to work on packing for the big move next month.  

Hope you stay warm and dry.