Hi, my name is Rene Nefi Gomez, but everyone close to me calls me “Nefi” (Nephi in English) since my dad’s name is also Rene. I am a descendant of the Yucatec Mayas from the group called the Icaiche Mayan. The Icaiche Mayas once inhabited the lands around the border between Belize and Mexico. I was born and raised in these lands that my ancestors once inhabited, now known as Orange Walk, Belize. Ever since I was a child I was fascinated to know that my ancestors once built great cities in this area like Lamanai, which has one of the longest inhabitation histories than many other Mayan sites in Mesoamerica.
My fondest memories as a child, was when my brothers and I would visit this site with my parents. My parents were one of the first to be converted to the gospel here in Orange Walk, Belize. I was the first born baby in the branch, and served a full time mission in Ecuador Guayaquil North Mission. When I returned, I got married and sealed to Melina Rosado, whom I had a long time crush ever since I met her in our Sunday School youth class. Melina also served a full time mission in the El Salvador West Mission. We have three children Nephi, Hailey and Sariah.
When we got into the tourism industry, we saw a great need to create a genuine Latter-Day Saints tour of Lamanai. I have had the great privilege of conducting a tour for Elder Quentin L. Cook when he visited Belize in early 2016. It was a great accomplishment for our tour company, since we had to meet the Church’s highest of standards in order to be able to conduct that tour for an apostle of the Church. It was truly a wonderful experience to do a tour for an apostle of the Lord, and it would be our pleasure to share our wonderful heritage of our ancestors with you.
Come and enjoy the adventures of visiting Lamanai. We promise you an unBELIZEable experience of what our beautiful country has to offer.
What our customers are saying
trakatmartin2024-02-12Lamanai tour This was the BEST excursion of our entire cruise. A friend had given us this contact & I am so grateful! Nefi was amazing. This exceeded my expectations! Thank you so much!
Tim2024-02-11Tour to Lamanai! This tour was amazing. Exceeded our expectations. Nephi was an awesome host and guide. He was knowledgeable, professional, friendly, and a delight to spend the day with. The boat driver, Nathaniel was also great. Very memorable and enjoyable tour.
S H2023-09-16Mayan ruins are a-myna-zing… (sorry, not sorry) If you can, do the tour. Junior was our boat captain and that guy is a river whisperer. He stopped the boat to show us some birds, stopped 10 seconds later and showed us the bats, and not 10 seconds latter he spun the boat around to show us an iguana. You can tell he has lived on those waters. Overall the river ride was smooth and safe, The ruins are like a Nat. Geographic episode. It is unreal that you can march right to the top and immerse yourself into the temple and over look the site. Nephi is knowledgeable and points out ruin history with a touch of local fauna. As an aside, if your LDS, he is the guy to book. Lunch was local and delicious. We had a great adventure, would do it again.
jordi f2023-09-13Roberto!! My wife and I were the only ones on the tour and we had Roberto. He was amazing! He knew so much about belize and the sites we visited. We started off at Altun-Ha and he knew all the good photo op places and took plenty of pictures of us without us needing to ask, which we were grateful for. He then drove us to the ziplining and we had a great time there while he got the cave tubing portion of the tour prepared. The cave tubing was absolutely beautiful and it was so fun to have Roberto show us all the secret places in it most people miss out on. We felt very safe with Roberto and loved having him as a guide
The Hathaways2023-07-17Do this tour, you will not regret it! We did this as a private excursion rather than going through our cruise line. It was by far our most favorite excursion that we did on this cruise. He was already at the port when we got off the ship and instantly took us to his van and loaded us up. He provided us with some breakfast sandwiches which were delicious. When we arrived at the boat dock we loaded up with Marco who was the boat captain. We spent the next hour learning about some of the plant life and animals on the way to the ruins. Once we were at the ruins we had the opportunity to see all of the structures that were there. The thing that I enjoyed was that we were not rushed from one structure to the next like the other groups were. This gave us the opportunity to see the sights without a bunch of people around and were able to get some great pictures. When we were done seeing the sights we headed back to the boat for a fabulous ride back to where we started with a cold soda for the journey. While I loved the ruins and they were my husband's favorite part, the boat ride was awesome. Speeding down the river was so much fun and Marco was fabulous. Once back to the docks, we were treated to some delicious shrimp ceviche that Nefi's wife makes and to an authentic Belizean lunch that was delicious as well. We then loaded up and headed back to the ship with 45 minutes to wonder the shops. This is an experience I would highly recommend to anyone, even if you are not LDS. If we ever come again, I will definitely be hitting Nefi up again for another tour.
Heidi W2023-06-03Love it! This was a great way to see a very cool archaeological site as well as learn about the culture of Belize. Our lunch was amazing and we all loved our tour. Definitely highly recommend.
James P2023-05-06Cave Tubing, Zip Lining, and Lamanai Ruins! Could not have asked for a better team. True professionals who care! Nefi was amazing. We did 2 tours with his team. He also helped us with some great tips and advice to make our tour extra memorable. He usually does larger tours, so he helped us where it made sense so we were not out of pocket too much for his typical group tour. Nefi arranged for us to meet Anthony at the turn off to the Zip Line and Cave Tubing area. His team is truly professional, knowledgeable, and caring. Nefi has special insights about the Lamanai ruins for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he can share upon request in addition to the mainstream content. We truly enjoyed our time and highly recommend him and his team for all tours in Belize!
Lauri P2023-04-19Lamanai Ruins and River Tour Was Amazing! Our family of six went with Junior to the Lamanai Ruins and River tour. Junior was high energy and a lot of fun. We saw tons of wildlife along the river and were in awe of the ruins. Junior had incredible knowledge and pride of the Mayan people. We were fed wonderful local food. We would do this tour again for sure if/when we go back to Belize!
akarmenia12023-04-07A memory we will cherish forever I can't overstate how wonderful our family's tour with Nephi was. We did a once-in-a-lifetime cave tubing tour and he made an already amazing natural phenomenon even more fun and educational. We had 6 of us, including kids from 7 to 14, and Nephi paced the tour perfectly for our group. He also showed us special areas in the cave, including underground cliff diving (yes, you read that right) and some really cool, secret back-channel caves. He also taught us about the history and natural environment of the area, which made the experience all the more rich. And if that wasn't enough, he picked us up from the cruise terminal with an authentic Belizean breakfast in-hand and provided the most delicious, authentic Belizean lunch as well. This was a memory our family will cherish forever!
Traci j62023-03-14Lamania Ruins and River Tour We were a group of 12 that went with Nefi on the Laminia Mayan Ruins tour. Nefi was a fabulous tour guide. He was knowledgeable about the area and very kind. We took a ride on a speedboat up the river to the ruins. We saw howler monkeys, many exotic birds, turtles, and a crocodile. He shared with us and LDS view of the ruins. He feed us a Belizian breakfast and lunch. Our ship was late but he was able to adjust our tour to our time frame. We will definitely use him as a tour guide next time we come to Belize.