July 27th Into the Lost City of Lubaantun.

After a night of resting in Punta Gorda, (we went upscale and rented a room for $25 per night, still no hot water or A/C but they had cable TV which was quite a treat for us), we woke up early to catch the bus back up the Southern Hwy. We planned on getting off the bus at the junction of Lubaantun, which is a Mayan ruin. We were told it was about a two mile hike from the Hwy to the ruin site. It ended up being more like 6 miles! However, we were lucky, and this guy in a pickup truck stopped and gave us a very bumpy ride up the dirt road.. Once he dropped us off it was about another mile hike into the jungle to the site. It turned out to be well worth the hike, the site was FANTASTIC!!! The site has not been as well re-constructed as other more popular ones so many of the temples and/or structures were still piles of rubble with huge trees growing out of them. However this is what made the site so intriguing, because you almost felt like you had stumbled across this lost city, still hidden in the jungle. Granted they did keep it up for tourists so they kept the area mowed and tried to stop the surrounding jungle from taking over the city again. Also there are some structures that archaeologists had semi reconstructed so you did get an idea of how the buildings looked once upon a time. The other amazing thing was that we were the ONLY people there, other than the man at the little office that sold us our tickets for $5 each. Keith and I had the ENTIRE site to ourselves. We wandered throughout, although the site was actually not too large, but if we looked out over the hills we could see distant piles of rubble that were impossible to get too due to the dense jungle. Later the man at the office confirmed that the site we were visiting was only a small part of the original city. At one point as we walked around the site, we heard water and we ended up following this little path through the lush tropical foliage and we wound up at this cool crystal clear steam that we sat in and cooled off enjoying our total isolation and the most amazing scenery.

Interestingly, for any Indiana Jones fans, the site of Lubaantun is the supposed site where they found the crystal skull. (The latest movie revolves around the myth of the Crystal Skull) No kidding! A British adventurer Mike Mitchell-Hedges and his daughter Anna apparently found the skull in 1927 in a temple vault at Lubaantun. He later claimed that this skull was proof of the link between the Mayan people and the lost people of Atlantis. Quite a bit later his finding of the skull was challenged and some claimed that he had bought the skull at an auction house in 1943 at Sothebys. However, his daughter Anna, apparently always maintained the fact that they had found the skull at Lubaantun and traveled the world displaying the skull.

When Keith and I were leaving the site we stopped and talked to the man at the office. He ended up being really nice and very informative and gave us a lot of information. Apparently many of the people from his village as well as him had worked with archaeologists to re-construct the site. He care-takes the site now and he showed us pieces of pottery and small flutes that he still finds as he is trimming the grounds. He had collected quite a few and we assume they go into the display cases around his small office after they have been logged. So I told him that I was embarrassed to say that I was not really familiar with the crystal skull until I saw the last Indy movie. He said 'oh yes we had the film crew for that movie here quite a few months ago filming'. Keith and I were like "No way!That is really neat!" He told us that one of the women on the film crew had asked him to take her to any area where there are leaf cutting ants (aka siafu) so she could film them. We told him that in the movie they did have lots of the ants and that they ate people, he was very amused by this! He also told us that the man who actually owned the Crystal Skull was there as well. We said we thought that the daughter Anna had the skull, and he told us that the she did, but this man married her when she was 95yrs old (he was much younger) and when she died he got the skull! He said he thinks that was the plan all along!!....So the curse of the skull continues!

We were once again lucky enough to hitch another ride back to the Southern Hwy just in time to catch the last bus going back to the town of Independence. We arrived just in time to catch the Hokey Pokey water taxi back to Placencia. It was nice to be back on the boat, snuggled in our comfy bed with our mosquito screening securely in place. However, the our jungle trip was one of the best trips we have ever experienced and are now eagerly planning our next excursion. Guatemala perhaps?