New Years Day 2012: year of the Maya begins

2011 was challenging for Terdal Farm, and frankly we couldn't wait for it to end. We savored each sunset late in our Annus horribilis:

From New Years Day 2012

and looked forward to 2012. Was anyone else looking forward to 2012 as eagerly as us? It turns out that some are, and some are anxious. Typical. This late-2011 blog post by travel writer Joshua Berman did a fine job  of describing what 2012 may hold for Mundo Maya:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-berman/post_2775_b_1176085.html

With this in mind, we completed our chores early on Sunday, January 1, 2012 and set out in the finest automobile available for exploring the world of the Maya:

From New Years Day 2012

We drove up the Placencia peninsula, west to the junction with the Southern Highway, then south to the Toledo district village of Indian Creek. Drove up the short dirt road from the village to the visitors center for Nim Li Punit (http://www.southernbelize.com/nimli.html):

From New Years Day 2012

which is one of the few major Maya sites we have not visited.

We paid our admission and signed in, as the first visitors of 2012:


The NICH staff person on site thought it was funny that we considered it a big deal to be the first visitors of 2012. He said very few people visited Nim Li Punit. We assured him that 2012 was going to be a big year for him. He laughed and started showing us the museum exhibits. The joke was on him when hordes of visitors with the same idea as us began to arrive. He had more visitors by noon than he expects in a month.

We began by examining the stelae in the museum.

First was the eponymous stelae, the 9 meter long stelae featuring the big hat:

From New Years Day 2012

and then some of the other stelae:

From New Years Day 2012

and attempted to read the words for clues as to what 2012 would bring:

From New Years Day 2012

Good news! Jaguars seem to figure prominently:

From New Years Day 2012

but I admit I could not read all of it. No clue what this part says:

From New Years Day 2012

but I don't think it is good.

The museum was getting crowded at this point (seriously!) so we hurriedly went out to see the site itself.

From New Years Day 2012

Rhea pulled out her trusty (waterproof, dropproof) camcorder and went to work. I am embedding several of her raw, unedited videos. Feel free to watch or skip these, depending on your interests. She took many!

From New Years Day 2012

At some point she realized that she had lost Erik. Where was he?!?

There he is, back from the dead:

From New Years Day 2012

More details on the Plaza of Royal Tombs:


Rhea moved on to Royal Tombs 2 & 3:

From New Years Day 2012

and then showed the view to the south:


When she looked down, Rhea found leaf-cutter ants:


Rhea loves Atta!

Erik loves palms:

From New Years Day 2012

but to get close he had to go down some steps made for the benefit of fat gringo tourists:


which hardly slowed the intrepid Dr. Terdal:


on his way to see more palms.

He was most excited by a large Bayleaf palm (Sabal mauritiformis):


and took some snapshots for his fellow palmophiles:

From New Years Day 2012

while not ignoring other interesting plants, such as the strangler fig (Ficus sp.):

From New Years Day 2012

and the tourist tree (Bursera simaruba):

From New Years Day 2012

Erik continued photographing palms:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

while Rhea sat down and videotaped the ruins:

From New Years Day 2012

We walked back to the visitors center, skipping the West Group (see map at http://www.southernbelize.com/grc/map_nimli_lg.gif).

From New Years Day 2012

so that Rhea could shop for baskets:

From New Years Day 2012

while Erik kept taking snapshots of plants:

From New Years Day 2012

including the first rose (Rosa sp.) bloom he saw in 2012:

From New Years Day 2012

We followed this SUV down the road and off towards the next Maya site, Lubaantun!

From New Years Day 2012

Lubaantun (http://www.southernbelize.com/lubaantun.html)

From New Years Day 2012

is special to us as it is the first Maya site we visited together. We were married on Caye Caulker and honeymooned in Toledo district.

Rhea pulled out her trusty camcorder:

From New Years Day 2012

to document the unusual architecture:

From New Years Day 2012

Erik of course kept photographing palms:

Another bayleaf--

From New Years Day 2012

and a cohune (Attelea cohune)--

From New Years Day 2012

and what may be a large Chameadorea sp.--

From New Years Day 2012

Cohune palm with epiphytic ferns on the trunk--

From New Years Day 2012

Base of that palm--

From New Years Day 2012

and a lobster-claw Heliconia rostrata for the flower lovers:

From New Years Day 2012

We spent our 2004 honeymoon driving through the forests of the Toledo district and visiting Maya villages. We decided to do a bit of that on the first day of 2012. Here are some scenes from San Miguel village and surrounding areas:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

Boys playing football:

From New Years Day 2012

And a 1 horsepower string trimmer at work:

From New Years Day 2012

While a man with a gas string trimmer tends the plot of Achiote shrubs (Bixa orellanae):

From New Years Day 2012

You have to indulge us (not like you haven't already, if you have read this far) as we love our recado. We took photos of achiote cultivation:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

And of course as Erik ran through the orchard taking achiote snapshots, Rhea made another video:


It was getting late. We headed back north up the Southern highway. We made excellent time in the Chevrolet Aveo. If you have never driven one, you are missing out. It is truly a great car.

We pulled in to Independence, hoping to find a pharmacy open. No luck. We drove into Big Creek on the same quest. No pharmacy, but we did see the oil storage facility:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

which may seem like a strange site for a tourist to photograph, but as Okies it felt homey.

Truly a great day. We finished with dinner at Mango's in Maya Beach. Rhea had lobster:

From New Years Day 2012

and Erik fish:

From New Years Day 2012

A good first day of 2012.