Butts Up in Belize

Belize was all about cave tubing with Cave-Tubing.Com. Again, I booked this excursion with a private company not affiliated with the cruise ship. They met us right outside the dock and whisked us away for a wonderful Belizian adventure!  On the one hour drive to the National Park where the caves were, our guides gave us a tour of Belize City and answered several of our questions about Belize and its culture.

We arrived at the National Park and walked for about 45 minutes through the rain forest to reach the start of the caves.  Again our guide told us all about the wildlife, plants, and Mayan beliefs related to the caves.  The cave systems we tubed through were considered to be the underworld by the Mayans.  They would make sacrifices to their Deities in the caves.

 We had to wear headlights on our heads because it was pitch dark in the caves.

 We were all linked together to go down the river with a guide at the front and back.  The guides pulled us down the river and even pulled us along when the water got very shallow.  The key phrase of the day was "Butts Up!"  When this was hollered, you better get your butt out of that water or experience

rock-u-puncture as they called it.

 Someone was worn out on her way back to the ship!

When we returned to the port, we had about an hour before we had to catch the last tender back to the ship, so we wandered around a local market.  We paid $2 to get our picture taken with this local.

For those of you who know me well, you will appreciate my shopping story.  I was looking at little Belizian dolls for Hannah and Lydia.  A little local girl came up next to me and starting talking to me.  I asked her if she had any dolls like this to play with.  She answered, "No."  So I bought her a set of dolls as well.  When I handed them to her she looked at me like I was nuts and proceeded to lead me to "Her little shop."  Where I was guilted into buying a bracelet for Hannah.  She then tried to talk me into making a donation to her mother for her seven siblings.  At this point I knew I must look like a totally naive tourist and told the little girl I had no more money with me.  I am sure she ended up selling the little dolls at her shop, but at least I helped support her family.

 After dinner that evening, we enjoyed some time on the deck.  It was fun to just watch the waves roll by.

If you ever visit Belize, you absolutely must do cave tubing with http://www.cave-tubing.com/ !  They were incredible and our excursion with them was one of our most memorable of the trip!

See you in Cozumel in my next post.