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Health & Fitness

Cruising, Second Port of Call (continued)

Highlights of the tour of Altun Ha, Mayan ruins in Belize, are recounted.

We climbed out of the van in a continuing downpour. Some of us used the clean, public restrooms and others waited under a pavilion. We each paid $5.00 to enter the Archaeological Park. AltunHa is the most excavated Mayan site in Belize with two large plazas and numerous "temples" of various sizes and heights.

Bill, 80 years old and a very good tap dancer, and I fell in behind one of the bus tour guides. This particular guide not only explained the significance of the plazas (sports played there), but also the buildings. At this site, a large jade head weighing about 10 lbs was discovered; numerous other jade and obsidian artifacts have been recovered leading archaeologists to believe that this may have been an important ceremonial site as neither jade nor obsidian are native to Belize. The Temple of Many Altars was one of the focal points for the site, as the Mayans performed human sacrifices. One of the other temples had two masks of the Sun God on the lower part. Several of the structures have been shored up with modern concrete and several had wooden staircases to climb to the top and be above the jungle canopy.

One of the highlights for me as a gardener was the tour guide stopping by various shrubs and trees. He explained their medicinal uses. Chewing the berries of one slowed down the venom of poisonous snakes if you were bitten. After that we all kept an eye out for snakes!

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We took a group photo and then headed back to the entrance. There were a number of local vendors selling arts and crafts. Denise, our van driver, pointed out various ones who had good prices or were friends of hers. I bought a hematite necklace for $5.00. I also drank coconut milk directly out of the shell from the oldest vendor.

We returned to the port on the same torturous road conditions, but without the rain. By the time we boarded the ship, the sun was making a peek-a-boo appearance and the humidity reminded me of St Louis summers!

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