Find Tom Find Tom 4

The New River to Lamani 4 Jan 2012

Today we took a boat trip up the New River to the Mayan site of Lamani. There are two rivers near Orange Walk. This was the second one to be discovered so they called it the new one. Lamani is 50 km or 30 miles from Orange Walk.

We saw a lot of wildlife along the way. The first animal we saw was the Morelet’s Crocodile. There are two types of crocodiles here. The American salt-water Crocodile that lives on the coast is much larger and more aggressive than the Morelet’s. This small croc usually does not get more than 2.5 metres in length and is not aggressive unless you get near its nest.

Next we saw a Spider Monkey. My first sighting of a monkey in the wild. One was very tame and jumped into the boat looking for handouts. Some people gave it a banana.

We saw a tree that was covered in small Sac-winged Bats.

We saw several birds including three new ones for me. These were the Collared Blackhawk, the Mottled Owl and the Ringed Kingfisher. Very nice birds.

The Mayan ruins at Lamani were interesting but not impressive after seeing Chichen Itza and Uxmal.

We found a large vine hanging from the treetops which several people tried to climb. Some people could not get up it. I got a round of applause from the crowd when I climbed it and hung on with one hand while beating my chest with the other.