Yesterday was our second snorkel day. It was a much larger group than our first trip - no private tour for us. We were in the water twice with a break in between for cookies and fruit. On our first trip into the water, one of the other women got stung by a jellyfish so that wasn't much fun for her but we saw an enormous barracuda along with a few stingrays and tonnes of beautiful fish. Our second trip into the water took us right into the barrier reef which was awesome. Again, lots of fish to see.
After we got back to the resort, it was time for some reading and then we took a walk up the beach to check out some of the other places. Obviously, ours is the best. By the time we got back, a local drumming group was setting up to perform. I wanted to listen but EDP was ready to relax in the hammock for a bit and on our trip back to the treehouse, Orchid (one of the resort's cats) stalked us the whole way back, culminating with leaping into the hammock after EDP settled himself in it. She cozied down awfully quickly and when he came to join me in the main building, he said she was still curled up on the hammock. The drumming group was very enjoyable to listen to. They had a couple of dancers, two drums and a set of maracas. They sang mostly about everyday things in the language of the village, Garifuna.
Today was a long day. We had a 7am start with a 2.5 hour drive inland to visit two Mayan sites. The first was small but had been fairly extensively excavated so we were able to see lots of detail of how things were set up. The second site was much larger but hasn't been fully excavated. We climbed the multipurpose building, which was 9 stories high. It took over 300 years to build with each priest adding a new level. We climbed to the very top of the building which gave us amazing views of Belize and Guatemala. It was such an impressive structure and baffling that it was still standing after being abandoned around 1000AD. Our guide, Harfield taught us a lot about Mayan culture throughout the day, which was so helpful in understanding what we were looking at.
Tomorrow is our last full day. We're ziplining the longest zipline in Central America - one line is almost a mile long!