Belize Mayan Ruins

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

More on our Belize vacation

Thanks to Bryan at our  Sleeping Giant Belize on our second day in Belize hubby and I took a tour to the Mayan Ruins.. The tour was with  Caves Branch  to the Mayan Ruins called Xunantunich and Cahal Pech. 

Above are some shots of the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins. At 130 feet high these ruins are the second tallest in Belize and located above the Mopan River . The name Xunantunich means stone woman. This site served as a civic ceremonial center. At the time 200,000 people lived in Belize.

Another view of the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins

A closeup of  the top of  the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins.

A Spider Monkey was seen hanging in one of the trees at the ruins.

The Cahal Pech Mayan Ruins sits above the banks of the Macal River and is located near the town of San Ignacio.  The meaning of the name  Cahal Pech is the Place of the Ticks. It was a hilltop home of an elite Mayan family.  Also included with the ruins photos are the Iguana,  Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher lifer and a Golden-fronted Woodpecker lifer.

To reach the Mayan ruins our tour took us on this ferry ride across the river.

The ferry ride gave me ample time to snap off a few pic's of this Green Kingfisher..

Some critters from around the ruins..the Spider Monkey, a Brown Jay lifer, Green Kingfisher, Swallows, ferry ride. Our tour guide also made a stop at a local restaurant in town for lunch..I had a yummy burrito.

In the far left are some local crafts tents set up for shopping located near the ferry to cross the river. It was a nice tour and we had a great guide and driver.. I would highly recommend Caves Branch Adventure Co for a tour in Belize. 


Thanks for stopping by and for the comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week ahead!

Florida Variety

I am linking up Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's in blogland..

For my post this week I have a  variety of birds and a few lizards we saw while in the Florida Keys.

 

Piping Plovers, Ruddy Turnstone, Willet and Sanderlings

Anole and Iguana

Magnificent Frigatebird, Orb Spider, flock of White Ibis

The Palm Warblers were being seen all over Florida and the bottom right shot is a female Prairie Warbler.

I hope you enjoyed my critter post. I hope everyone has a happy weekend. Thanks for stopping by and I always appreciate your comments. To see more beautiful photos and cute critters

 please visit:  Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious hosts Misty Dawn of Camera Critters and to Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin.

Back in time

Linking up with Camera Critters  and I'd-rather-b-birdin

I hope all my blogging friends up in the north are warm and  safe from the storm Nemo.

I am going back in time with these photos. Between working all week and the weather I have not been anywhere to take new photos. The blizzard has missed Maryland, only seeing some heavy wind gusts here.
So, off we go to Costa Rica to see my favorite birds and an iguana tree.
 Sorry, if you have seen these photos, I hope you do not mind seeing them again. I do not think I have shown the Iguana tree though so that might be new. They are some of the highlights we saw in Costa Rica, the wildlife sightings were just amazing.

We passed this iguana tree while touring with our group. This tree was filled with iguanas of all sizes. 

 There were so many iguanas on the tree, I could not fit them all in on one photo. It was amazing sight to see. How many iguanas can you find in the shot above. You could times that by 20 and that would be how many we saw on this tree.

Rhinceros beetle was a cool sighting in Costa Rica. It was one of the biggest beetles I have ever seen.

The Collared Aracari was seen quite a bit at our  Tortuguero resort.

The Keel Billed Toucan is one of my favorite toucan. The Toucan species are just awesome looking birds.

The Blue-gold Macaws were seen on the parking lot of the Swinging bridges. They were most likely escapees but still very cool to see the pair of them.


The wildlife of Costa Rica is awesome, if you ever have a chance of visiting Costa Rica I would say go for it. I hope you enjoyed my critters and birds.
To see more cute and wonderful critters please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters  and more beautiful birds seen at Anni's blog I'd-rather-b-birdin
Thanks to both Misty Dawn and to Anni for hosting these fun memes. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Panama highlights

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday

I wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

In these mosiacs are some of the highlights from the first two days of our Panama vacation.

Seeing 7 new hummingbirds was also a treat for me the first day, the Violet-Bellied Hummingbird had the prettiest colors.

In the two previous posts I showed some more of my first day birding the Rainforest Discovery Center and the Pipeline Rd.

The second day included Panama Viejo (Old Panama) ruins and visitors center.

On our city tour I was still looking for birds, you never know when you might see a new bird.

And I did see a new bird as we were leaving the ruins. It is called the Saffron Finch. A pretty yellow bird and another lifer for me.

The Tropical Kingbirds were all over the place.

We also visited the San Jose Church with the gold alter and had  lunch at the Panama Canal's Miraflores Locks. The lunch banquet room at the locks included our own viewing area to watch the ships pass thru the locks. My blog Travel with Eileen has a little more info and photos on the Panama Viejo visitor's center and the ruins.

San Jose Church, we were told a story that in the old days the alter was painted black to hide the gold.

Right now they let ships go thru the locks in one direction for 12 hours and then they switch the directions for the other 12 hours. Ships have to wait in line for their turn either at the entrance of the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. Additional locks are being built to handle even larger size ships than the ones we saw, so there is construction work constantly happening at the Panama Canal.

The brown pelicans seem to like fishing at the Canal locks. Other birds seen near the locks were the Magnificent Frigatebirds, Swallows, Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures and Laughing Gulls .


Please check out all the mosaic and photos at Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday.  Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and to all the hosts of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Sylvia, Gattina, Lafy Fi and Sandy. Thanks also for stopping by to see my post, I hope everyone has a safe and happy week ahead.