Xunantunich Mayan Ruins

After the tortilla factory in Santa Elena we headed to the Mayan Ruins out near the village of Succotz...

First off, we saw these lazy Howler Monkeys in the trees.. can you spot them?

Days before our visit, they had just completed an informative museum up there at the ruins. It was very interesting to learn more about the Maya culture. Sadly, there are still many evil traditions and superstitions that the people here in Belize still hold to, stemming from these, their ancestors.

 

 

Time to start the climb! I, as usual, elected to stay down below and watch the brave and energetic climbers.. and of course I made friends down there. :-) This time with a very knowledgeable educator who runs an alternative school in Phoenix. She was a wealth of information in regard to hands on learning, unschooling and natural learning. We also spoke about how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom and how we should be looking to him for instruction on how to teach our children. I was very blessed by that precious lady.

 

Mrs. R helps her little one up the steep rock staircase

The view is so breathtaking from up here!

Daddy and our girls head down..

As does Mr. R

Group pic!

 

Riding the ferry back over to Succotz Village on the handcrank ferry. They had upgraded ferries since our last visit. The 4 vehicle transport seems like a luxury liner compared to the 1 car ferry of old.

Rye gives it a try

So does T. What a great day at the ruins!

 

 

First Trip Out!

After we had been able to secure a van and everyone was feeling all better (1 week!) we headed out for our first trip together. The first stop was this great little tortilla factory in Santa Elena.

 

 

 

 

 

Quarantine Week

We all got sick, one by one. It was pretty terrible. We felt so badly for our friends whose children had pretty much never had the flu before. They were so anxious to get out and about to see Belize but just when we would make plans, the flu would strike someone else! And if that weren't enough..the van started having problems. In fact as it sits in our driveway it STILL has problems! Sigh. We have now owned three vans here in Belize and they all have had issues. Just another one of those things to trust the Lord for. Thankfully we were able to secure a 15 passenger van for a week which is a blessing.

 

Grant and Miss L teach the little girls Uno

Workin' on the van

 

Still workin' on the van

 

 

 

 

Happy B-day Miss L.!

Making plans.. minutes before their children started getting sick! :-(

Laura gets a haircut!

 

 

 

 

Sick!

We felt so sorry for the little girls.. they came down with the flu. The really terrible thing was that they came down with it on the day that we went to pick up our friends from the airport. We felt so sorry that the first thing we had to tell them once welcoming them to Belize was that they most likely their family would come down with the flu.. we were hoping that it would just hit the girls but day 2 into it, Daddy, Ryan and Grant came down with it. I was next. It was a TERRIBLE flubug! Ash escaped somehow.. thankfully, since she was able to take care of all of us.. while our poor friends hung out inside the travel trailer in our back yard in the banana trees, waiting for us to get better! (and praying that they wouldn't get sick too.. which unfortunately they DID :-(  )