Foto-story Friday #25 -- Belize

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

After Key West, we had a day at sea.  Our next stop was Belize City, Belize.  This port is not deep enough for big ships to come in and dock {plus they have a protected coral reef}.  So they drop anchor out in the ocean and tenders come to the ships to ferry the passengers in to shore.

Tenders

Disembarking the ms Veendam and loading the tender.

The tenders hold around a hundred people.  They run every 1/2 hour to and from the ship for those passengers who just want to do some local sight seeing, snorkeling and shopping.

We sat in the front of the tender and as I looked towards the ship, I snapped this zoomed shot of her.

Belize City

We had an hour ride on the bus and then and hour ride by fast boat to our first ruins.

Taken from the bus window we have some houses in Belize City.

Many homes are on stilts.  They had recently experienced flooding and were still in the process of repairing roads.

We saw several of these huts, as well as the concrete homes.

This lizard and his mates were all sunning on this cinderblock wall.

This is a new house under construction and the water in the foreground is a result of the flooding.

When the buses turned into this area I was sure we would not make it.  The road is very skinny and it had recently been built up with gravel because of the flood.  I think most of my fellow passengers were holding their collective breath at this point!

The queue for the fast boats.  There were three fast boats that took us on our 1 hour river ride.

Looking up the New River.

And just how fast were we traveling?  Full throttle!  Check out the wake! 

As you can see, the jungle and water just merge into one another.  The river is home to many fish, Crocs and Manatees.  We unfortunately, saw none of them.  :(  I did drag my fingers in the water as we sped up the river.  The water was quite warm, almost like bath water. One could very easily get lost navigating this river.  There are twists and turns and side alleys everywhere.  Our captain flew along it expertly.  It was a fun fast hour ride.

Here I will leave you hanging, waiting for the ruins.