Cave Tubing

The tropical storm continued Sunday with lots of rain, and we just laid low at our hotel and swam at the pool.  Monday morning the river level was finally down to a safe level where we could go to Jaguar Paw and go cave tubing. We first had to check out of our hotel and get all of our stuff packed up again for our journey to western Belize which would follow our cave tubing adventure.

David from cavetubingrus.com picked us up at the hotel and loaded all 9 of our suitcases into his big awesome van.  We drove to Jaguar Paw and began our trek through the jungle to get to the put-in of our journey.  In the jungle we saw lots of bats, and most people in our family sampled some termites for a little snack.

 Zachary was intrigued with every leaf on every plant.

 We finally arrived at the beautiful spot between caves where you put on your lifejacket and headlamp, sit back in a tube and soak up the beauty of Xibalba.

I have no idea how long the float is, probably a hour or so, but it is heavenly.  After the cave section was over, we decided to jump in the river and just float in our life jackets for the remainder of the trip.  The river is so warm and so beautiful.  The kids loved floating along with the current.

At the end of the trip there is a great rock to jump off of into the river.  It's about 10 feet off the ground, and we all took turns jumping into the river.  Even Savanna was not afraid to do it over and over and over.

 

Then we had a delicious lunch

and loaded back up into the van.  David drove us to San Ignacio for the next part of our trip.  The kids absolutely adore David and we will never forget him.  If anyone is planning to be in Belize, I highly, highly recommend that you contact David for your adventures based in Belize City.  He is fun, knowledgable and goes out of his way to make your trip the best it can be.  He is a great guy, and his wife is an amazing cook.

After such an adventurous day, the kids fell asleep within about 4 second of laying down that night.

Lamanai

 A little tropical storm can't get us down.  I'm the weather girl, after all.  Plus, where we live rain is cold.  In Belize during a tropical storm the rain is actually warm.  Sure, it's a ton of rain, but it is warm rain, which actually is quite refreshing. This picture was taken at our hotel while the kids were eating their waffles for breakfast under the pool patio roof.  It doesn't do justice to the rain that was coming down, but it shows it was raining hard.

After breakfast we set off with David of cavetubingrus.com for a drive to Orange Walk town where we boarded a boat on the New River for Lamanai.  Nate was our boat driver and Lamanai guide.  He thought we were so funny for not being phased by the rain.  Nate was amazing, and the perfect guide for Lamanai.  He knew so much about the river, the birds, Mayan history and the city of Lamanai, but he shared just the perfect amount of information--enough to be interesting, but not too much to bore the kids.  He was spunky and awesome, and the kids loved him.

When we arrived at Lamanai we were served a delicious Belizean lunch of rice and beans with stewed chicken.  Fried plantains, too if you were feeling crazy.  Savanna decided then and there that rice and beans was her favorite meal, and she ordered it at almost every restaurant we went to for the rest of the trip.


The boat ride to Lamanai is an adventure in itself.  You cruise 30 miles up a beautiful jungle river to the New River Lagoon where you see the top of ancient Mayan temples peeking up over the jungle.  Even when it is pouring tropical rain, the boat ride is still incredible.  Fortunately for us the rain let up just before we got to Lamanai, and it didn't rain another drop for the rest of the day.  We were all soaked, but the rain kept every other person in Belize from going to Lamanai that day, and it was delightful to have the whole city to ourselves.  We climbed the three tall temples of Lamanai.

Nate showed us what a tarantula hole looks like,

 and how to get the spider to come out and play.  We also heard howler monkeys like I never imagined.  Turns out they are called "howler monkeys" for a very good reason.  The troops of howler monkeys were really talking to each other this day.  I would have been sure it was jaguars we heard, but it was really just these insanely loud and talkative monkeys.  We saw them all over in the trees, and near the end of the day we saw the 2 spider monkeys that live in Lamanai as well.

These pictures were all taken on top of the High Temple.

 

Climbing and exploring the temples.

David from cavetubingrus.com was such an awesome guy.

 

 
 We climbed and explored for the day, and then loaded back up in the boat for the trip down river.   The rain had stopped, so we saw a lot of birds.  Big birds.  Birds you don't see in the pacific northwest.  It was really beautiful.  As fun as the rainy trip to Lamanai was, I will say the dry ride back home was more enjoyable.

Some local guys out hunting fence posts.  This was a canoe made from a hollowed-out tree and they were using planks of wood to paddle.  It was surreal to see this ancient mode of transportation as we blew past in a motor boat.

I love Lamanai.  I've been there twice, and if we ever go back to Belize, I will go back again.  It is such an awesome place to see and explore.  The view of the world from on top of the High Temple is something you can just never get out of your mind.

The adventure begins

We are back home, and Aubrey got all our pictures uploaded last night.  I took a quick look through them and grabbed a few to get this blogging started.  In short, our trip was incredible.  Even with 7 kids I would do it all again.  I love Belize, and I especially love how much our kids fell in love with the country as well.

We left home on August 18th for the exciting red-eye flight to Atlanta.  As Mark and I had been to Belize before, we knew a bit about what we needed to pack, and what not to pack.  What we knew we needed was food.  Snack food.  When 9 people go out to eat, that can add up even in a 3rd world country.  We figured that if we could at least have breakfast and snacks at our hotel every day, that would save a lot of money.  So each person had a large suitcase, and each suitcase weighed precisely 50 pounds.  Our clothes took up about 1/4 of each suitcase.  The rest of the space and weight was crackers, rice krispie treats, granola bars, waffle mix, a waffle iron, an electric tea kettle, instant oatmeal, cookies, nuts, beef jerky, maple syrup, oil, mixing bowls and measuring spoons, Gatorade powder, Crystal Light powder, powdered milk, paper plates, bowls, cups, spoons, forks, paper towels, baby wipes, sunscreen, bug spray.  I weighed and packed until each suitcase was at it's maximum.


After an hour delay getting off the ground, our flight took of for the 4.5 hour trip to Atlanta.  7 kids and no sleep on the plane.  But they sat still and were happy to be going to Belize, so there wasn't any trouble.  We got to Atlanta and had some breakfast at the airport, and then started the 3 hour flight to Belize.  You know that I love clouds, and I can tell you I have never seen such beautiful clouds as we saw in the sky that day.  Tropical storm Harvey was stunning.  Big fluffy clouds miles and miles high.  Actually, it was like a cloud poster (you know I had one on my wall as a kid, right?) where you can see every possible type of cloud all at once.

The Belize City airport is small, and when your plane lands it just parks on the tarmac and they wheel some stairs up to the plane.  It's awesome.  When you step off the plane in Belize, the air takes your breath away.  Literally.  The wave of heat and humidity just overcomes you.  We then took 2 taxis to our hotel.  Normally when you load up the trunk of a car, you close the trunk, or at least secure it if what is in the trunk doesn't quite fit.  9 large suitcases did not exactly fit in the trunks of 2 Crown Victorias, but what did that matter?  We were in Belize.  They just piled the bags in and took off with the trunks open.

Also in Belize, there are no lanes or traffic lights.  It's insanity.  Our two taxis were trying to pass each other the whole way to the hotel.  If there is a vehicle in front of you, the car you are in must try to pass it. I believe that is the unwritten law.  Blind corners, hills, curves.  Doesn't matter.  Just pass the car in front of you at all costs.

We stayed at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza.  It had a nice pool, and a decent restaurant.  Belize City is not the place you want to be out exploring, to put in mildly.  But it is a good base for a few mainland adventures.  We stayed at the hotel, swam and ate dinner there.  We were all very tired and headed to bed around 8:00.  We thought we were going cave tubing at Jaguar Paw in the morning.

But Tropical Storm Harvey changed our plans.  It rained probably 3 inches that morning, which was enough to close the park due to dangerous river levels.  We had hooked up with David of cavetubingrus.com for both cave tubing and Lamanai.  He told us that we could not go tubing, but I told him that we were from Oregon and rain didn't bother us and surely there was something else we could do.  So he worked some magic and switched our Lamanai trip to Saturday.  We went DURING the tropical storm.  Rain like I have never seen--and I have seen a lot of rain!  I'll get to posting about Lamanai here shortly.

Homeward Bound

This morning I watched the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea for the last time. We have been in Belize for 18 days and are heading home this morning. I can't tell you how much I love the people and places of this country. It has been an incredible trip, even with 7 kids in tow.

I will get to posting about the trip later this week when I am back home. Lots and lots of pictures from many photographers.