Despite having a fan, mosquito net and bug spray I still managed to get bitten last night! We had breakfast at the lodge which was interesting - fried egg and mushy beans with a basket of waffle cake things with maple syrup! They were yummy but a strange mix for breakfast! At 9ish the guy from the lodge, Sean, drove us about 45 minutes down the road to get the boat to Lamanai. We joined on with another group who were already on the boat so there were about 12 of us. A short ride up the river we saw a South American spider monkey up high in a tree, our guide made some monkey noises and he came down! He gave me a banana to feed to the monkey which he peeled and gobbled in 2 seconds whilst hanging from two legs! We then went to pick up more people from another stop, however they wanted to try and fit 12 more on the boat! Being the polite English that we are we didn't say anything but just thought to ourselves that it would be a little crowded, however the Americans piped up with "this is crazy! We get two boats or we ain't going!". So they got us another boat.

We went for about 1 hour down the winding river which was a fun and speedy ride. For most of the journey we were going too fast to take any pictures but we managed to see a few different birds such as a ring king fisher, a green king fisher, lots of boomerangs at the river edge and a jabiru, the largest and rarest bird in South America. We also passed a green striped iguana, star shaped bats, a small crocodile and lots of tropical mistletoe.

Once at Lamanai we had lunch -chicken, rice, coleslaw, spicy onions, fried plantain and salad. We then began our walk through the jungle which was fairly flat and consisted of stopping at 6 different Mayan temples, some of them originals and some excavated. Most of us climbed the highest one which was almost vertical steps for about 30 meters. You had to be careful coming down but there was a rope to hold on to. The view from the top was worth it! Just before the last temple we saw a howler monkey and a toucan which was cool! The guide made his monkey noises again which were quite impressive but didn't tempt the monkey down.

The boat ride back down the river was quick and we were met by Sean to take us back to Crooked Tree. There was a kids birthday party just outside the lodge, they were playing piñata and had a guest parrot on the fence. We walked another of the trails around the reserve before going back to the first restaurant again for dinner, burger and chips today! It was a good atmosphere with music and the locals enjoying their Saturday night, unfortunately we were getting eaten by mosquitoes as the restaurant is all outside so we didn't stay long.