Barton Creek Cave and Rio on Pools

The next part of our adventure happened in and around San Ignacio, Belize.  It is a beautiful town about 9 miles from the Guatemala border, right in the heart of the Mayan Mountains.  We stayed at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel.  If you are ever heading for San Ignacio, this is the only place I would recommend staying.  Sometimes you look at a hotel online and think it is going to be amazing, only to discover that the website has used photographs that in no way represent the actual hotel.  But in this case, the hotel was even more beautiful and clean than the pictures made it look.  As a bonus, they have a beautiful huge pool.  The other "hotels" in San Ignacio are more like guesthouses.  They are much cheaper, but not air-conditioned, and judging from the outside, I am sure they could not be anywhere near as clean, spacious and comfy as our hotel was. We stayed here 8 nights and loved every  minute there.

The first day in San Ignacio we walked around the town and sweated like we had never sweated before.  It is hot in the jungle, and it was very humid that day.  But it was incredible.  We had freshly picked tree-ripened bananas and Fanta made from local cane sugar for a snack.  The town is small and everyone there is very friendly.  Not in the way that people pretend to be friendly because they want you to buy something or give them money, but just friendly in the way that they were so happy you came to stay in the beautiful town they lived in.  Granted, we are a freak show when we go anywhere with 7 kids, and that is a natural conversation starter, but we all noticed how nice and outgoing the people of San Ignacio were.

The next day we headed into the Mountain Pine Ridge forest for a trip to Barton Creek Cave and Rio On Pools.  I highly recommend both of these places if you are planning a trip to Belize.  At Barton Creek Cave you strap on a lifejacket and get in a canoe where you paddle about 1 hour into the darkness of a beautiful cave.  Mayan artifacts were found in abundance when this cave was discovered, and some are left on display on high ledges inside the cave.

This adventure was interesting.  I was horrified by the moldy, scummy lifejacket they gave me to wear.  But not so much as I was at the car battery hooked up by jumper cables to the spotlight in each canoe.  One tippy canoe could have electrocuted all of us.  Apparently that has never happened, and the water is completely calm.  Let's just say there are a lot of things you can get away with in Belize that you can't in America.  Not that there's anything wrong with that--it's just a fact.  Like putting a car battery in a tippy canoe, or riding in the back of a pickup truck.  Here in the states riding in the bed of a truck is illegal pretty much everywhere.  But in Belize, every truck you see (mostly little Ford Ranger-sized trucks) has at least 4 people in the back of it.  Usually a few kids sitting up on the side, too.

Back to the adventure.

I braided Aubrey's hair while we waited for the canoes to be ready.

After a short walk in the jungle we came to the entrance to the cave.  It is a very beautiful place, and there were some locust-type bugs in the trees that sounded like a weed-whacker or chainsaw.  Crazy jungle sounds.

Such a lovely restroom.

Waiting for the canoes.

Random furniture in the middle of the jungle.

A walk to the cave entrance.

Down to the creek.

 We got into our canoes and paddled into the darkness of the cave.  The spotlight was great to be able to see cave formations, bats, and other interesting things.  I have no idea how far the cave goes, but after about an hour the stalactites are so big and low that you can't pass in a canoe any longer, so you turn around and head back out. 

My claustrophobia was definitely tested this day.  I did pretty well, probably because I was paddling a canoe, which is one of my favorite things to do in the world, so I didn't have much time to thing about the cave collapsing on me, or the slimy cave walls I couldn't see in the dark, or what creatures might be living in that water.

In this picture I was telling myself to not worry about any fungus or other disease I might get from this mildew-filled and very stinky life jacket.  Also trying to convince myself that putting a car battery into a canoe isn't really that bad of an idea.

Give me a paddle and I am happy girl.

After the cave, we had lunch and headed for Rio On Pools.  Sadly, I don't have many pictures of this beautiful place.  It is probably one of the top 5 beautiful places I have ever seen in my life--rivaling the Valley of the Ten Peaks in Alberta, Canada that made my cry when I saw it.  That morning one of our boys said he would replace the battery in our water camera with the charged battery.  Somehow he got distracted and forgot about it.  We didn't notice until we got to Rio On Pools and the camera was flashing a low battery light.  But Mark quickly snapped this picture before the camera died.

Just take my word for it--this place is outstanding.  The river falls over dozens of huge granite boulders, and this forms many little falls and swimming pools.  Lots of places to swim, splash and lay on the rocks.  We stayed there for probably 2 hours until the thunderstorm was closing in on us and we had to get back to town.