At 6:45am sharp we headed to the Princess Theater at the front of the ship to meet our tour group so we could all be tendered into the Belize City port together.
We were going on the Cave tubing and scenic drive half day tour. First we boarded a large bus that drove us through Belize City and out into the countryside.
Driving through the country, Belize appeared to be fairly flat with lots of relatively small trees decorating the countryside. It almost appeared to be quite dry, even though it is surrounded by water. A few minutes out of town is when I fell asleep so I missed a lot of the information shared by our two tour guides; Mr. T and Big Bruce. I am sure they told us about the history and current statistics of the country, but you will have to ask Nicole or Janet about that. Later in the day I made the mistake of calling Belize an Island to which Big Bruce was quick to correct me on. It is not an Island but part of Central America.
Upon arriving a Jaguar Jungle we were divided into groups of eight, and then fitted with life jackets, helmets, and headlights. Luckily for us, Big Bruce would be our guide. We picked up our neon green tubes and started out on a nice leisurely walk down to the clear waters of the Caves Branch River. Along the way Big Bruce pointed out different types of vegetation and tried to get us to eat termites. As much as I wanted to test my boundaries and try one it was when he said "you need to make sure you chew them so you don't feel them trying to climb back up your throat", that I decided to pass. Funny thing is no one else in our group was brave enough to try one either. I think in order to chew something it needs to be bigger than a pinhead. I am a tiny bit regretful I didn't give it a try.
Then we came across a very tall tree with leaves that looked like a skill saw blades. Big Bruce indicated this was similar to the Mary Jane. Nicole and I both stood there thinking we didn't know the Mary Jane tree. Obviously we had a blank look on our faces as we indicated we didn't know the Mary Jane tree. Weed, grass, marihuana, he yelled at us. Ok not really yelling but it was clear he thought we were a bit dense or naive...lol
About 15 minutes later we reached the entrance to the caves. The water was clear and quite refreshing. It took a minute or two to climatize to the temperature. Luckily we had to drop into our tubes from the stairs above so there was no tilly tallying getting in. Just hold onto to a rope and let yourself drop backwards into the tube. Our tubes were all tied together and then Big Bruce guided our group into the caves. As we turned on our headlights the caves opened up revealing magnificent formations and a vast fresh water river system flowing under ground. There are nine caves in all but we only had time to explore two. The current was quite slow and in order to move through the caves Big Bruce hooked his foot under my tube and sitting on his tube backwards pulled us throught the caves paddling with his arms, all the while entertaining us with stories, a few jokes, and telling us about the formation and history of the caves. It was a very enjoyable, leisurely hour and a half float.
Reaching the end of the second cave, we had time for a very quick lunch before jumping back onto the bus for the trip back to Belize City. Unfortunately I was back asleep shortly after the bus pulled away from the parking lot.
At the end of the tour we decided to head back to the ship for lunch and more relaxation on the ships sun deck. A great way to finish the day!
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