Here we were on
our last full day of the trip. The day
before, we had crossed over the border into Belize. This is a small and very sparsely populated country
of about 415,000 people. It is a former
British colony, so English is spoken here in addition to some dialects. I will
not go into it history, but it is fascinating if you would like to look it
up.
I liked the energy
there as soon as we arrived. Very back to
nature. There are forest reserves,
wildlife sanctuaries, and lots of Mayan ruins, in addition to the many beach
resorts along the coast. At least 3/4 of
the new birds on my life list were seen in Belize, either at our hotel, on the
New River, or at the Lamanai Archaeological Reserve. Our hotel was the Black Orchid Resort, which
was situated right on the New River. The
jungle was right there all around. Both
of the days that we were there, the resident howler monkeys were active. Their howl sounds like a combination of a
hoot, a bark and a growl. And very
loud!
On the morning
of March 20th, the Vernal Equinox, we set out by driving about an hour
to a boat dock further down the New River to catch our boat to Lamanai. That boat ride took about an hour, partly
because the local guide who was with us stopped frequently to point out
various birds along the way. I have to
say that between being on the river with the water splashing, and the wind blowing
on us as we went along, a great cleansing and clearing effect was
happening.
Lamanai, which
means “Submerged Crocodile”,
was one of the longest continually inhabited
settlements anywhere in the Maya world, dating back at least to 1500 BC.
Maybe that is why it felt so special to
me.
What a great place to be on the equinox!
Normally, when I am home, I do a bowl burning
at my house and also go out to the Parowan Gap to photograph the sunset.
The bowl burning involves writing a list of
what I am releasing and what is my positive outcome, and then tossing that list into
the fire.
Since that would not be
feasible on this day, I had to think of something different.
The night before, I wrote my list and took it
with me, assuming that the right opportunity and method would show itself.
It certainly did!
The first temple
we came to was the Jaguar Temple. (Of course!) Note the
2 large jaguar faces on either side of the main stairway. In a previous post, I showed my “Traveler”
skull being energized in the nostril of one of the jaguar faces. I was guided to bury my list right under
that. Voila! Mission completed. That left me free to enjoy the rest of the
site.
After walking
through a very lovely jungle, we came upon the Stela Temple. This is where I got a big hit of energy! It was coming from where the stela was placed. Another woman in the group felt it, too. There was a catch. The stela was a reproduction and the original
was in the local museum. That did not matter,
as the stela, original or not, was placed in that spot to mark a special energetic
that we both felt.
In addition,
the original base of the stela was still on site, so we got to connect with it.Next, we came
upon the High Temple and its associated ball court.
This temple was dedicated to the rain god
Choc, and is the second largest pre-classic Mayan structure anywhere. You can see Choc’s mask on either side of the
stairway. Very impressive.
Lastly, we came
to the Temple of the Masks. The masks on
either side of the stairway probably represent one of the early rulers of
Lamanai. They have been covered with a fiberglass
mold to protect the fragile limestone carvings underneath.
This site is much
smaller than Tikal or Copan, but I felt that the energy was far superior, maybe
because when we were there first thing in the morning, there were few people
around.
That is a much better way to
feel into the energy of the place. Or
perhaps it was the ancient energy that I was feeling!
So after a final
stroll through the jungle, a much faster boat ride and drive back to our hotel,
and a very nice farewell dinner, the trip came to an end.
At that time I did not know that it would
take me 2 days to get back home, but maybe because of the extra night in a Miami
airport hotel, I was in pretty good shape upon arriving back in Cedar
City.
It seems like it was so long ago,
but it has only been 2 weeks!
Time truly
is warping.