Batty cave, batty cave

Trip Start Apr 10, 2006
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Trip End Apr 22, 2006


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Flag of Belize  ,
Saturday, April 15, 2006

Yesterday's trip for our Zipline and cave tour, was an experience in changing transportation as we started with a 30 minute boat ride from Ambergris to the mainland then up the belize river, bus ride for another hour and finally we arrive at the Jaguar Paw Reserve. We suit up, walk a mile and head for the trees, wehre we are shown how to maneuver along the ziplines . My gloves are about 10 sizes too big and with the helmet and canvas and metal body ropes, comfort is no longer in my vocabulary. We zip from platform to platform, but the promised monkeys are nowhere in sight, and honestly if I was a monkey , knowing the tourists were out in droves, I would be taking my midday nap as well. After rapelling down the last deck we head towards the Jaguar Paw Resort where a simple Belizean lunch awaits us, fantastic tasting chicken, beans, rice, some bread, I am sated. After a 1/2 milen winding path we arrive at the next leg of this multi faceted journey for our cave tubing adventure. Starting with a slow float down the river, the river lazily meanders through the trees, and after our lunch this is the perfect way to wind down, but just as my eyes are ready to blink closed, we encounter a couple of category 1and 2 rapids, and let's be honest, with our behind stuck through the innertube into the water, it takes all our energies not to bounce off any of the rock formations along the way. Then it becomes peaceful again as you enter into the caves, with their enchanting drawings, stalacmites and stalactites (which is up, down), with miners lamps on our heads the pictures are more for Adventure magazine than Vogue. About 2/3 of the way through the cave a bird, dive bombs my head, although it is dark as night, and when I tell this Jose Luis he laughingly explains that those are bats and sure enough as we start approaching the end of the cave I make out an undulating ceiling and thousands of twitters, as my hand comes back into the water to move myself forward just a heartbeat faster, amd get out of the cave and into the light, I swear I touch a snake. If there was an entry for innertubing in the Olympics , at this point I would have gotten the Gold as my hands entered the water so fast, in tandem with my legs and displacing enormous amounts of water, I shoot forward at a minimum of  30 MPH, okay maybe 1 MPH, but we had to get out of there quick.. 
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