After our New Year’s Eve celebrations the night before, our 6 a.m. wakeup call for our all-day shore excursion in Belize came way too early. Even so, I was excited to go on a river cruise and visit the Lamanai Mayan Ruins.
The tender to Belize City from our ship was long (about 25 minutes), but our excursion was through the boat, so we were on one of the first tenders of the day. (I have heard others complaining about not being able to get on an early tender if your excursion is not through the ship, so we kept that in mind).
We jumped off our tender boat and got straight on a bus headed to the river. On the bus, our guide shared facts about Belize, such as its education system, places to visit, and biggest exports. I was surprised to hear that Belize has a large Mennonite community that is a huge factor in the country’s economy.
After over an hour on the bus, we were eager to get on the boat. When I first read the description for the river cruise, I thought it would be a leisurely boat ride to the ruins. It turned out to be a 25-mile speedboat ride with many narrow passages, with our boat tilting to the left or right just to squeeze through the passage.
Our boat driver was entertaining but also prided himself on being the wildest of the group. He loved taking fast corners and passing as many boats as possible. The other drivers knew this about him, so they let him pass as quickly as possible. I was seated in the middle seat with nothing to hold on to, so I kept flying up in the air when he turned a corner. On the way back, he got there so much faster than the other drivers, so he decided it would be fun to do donuts…and I literally thought I was going to fall out of the boat. I think I would have had more fun if I had expected a speedboat ride because I usually enjoy speedboats, but I thought it was going to be a calm ride. No wonder they had me sign a waiver!
Although most of the time we were going way too fast to take photos, the scenery on the river cruise was beautiful. The area was extremely lush with gorgeous trees and flowers. Our boat driver did stop a few times to point out birds and plants, but it would have been more interesting if we had time to admire the landscape. The devil's gut cactus on one of the trees really stood out to me.
We took the river cruise because it was the fastest way to get to the Lamanai Mayan Ruins, which deserve their own post because they ended up being one of the highlights of the cruise.
Catch up on our New Year's Caribbean Cruise:
