Great pictures – what a terrific vacation! My stepmom is from Jamaica and Joshua went with my little brother this past summer – they did the Dunn’s River Falls thing and Josh said it is a “must do.”
BELIZEAN RAINFOREST
- By : Cynthia
- Category : Vacations - 2007
Vacations - 2007
1
This excursion is the reason we chose this particular cruise itinerary! Before we took our very first cruise we looked at all of the excursions at all of the ports of call for the Caribbean and came up with THREE *must do sometime in our life* activities. For numerous reasons our first cruise didn’t include Belize, but cave-tubing in the rainforest was definitely at the TOP of our list of things we wanted to experience sometime in the Caribbean. When we started thinking about the possibility of taking a second cruise, I looked for itineraries that would take us to Belize. And, here we are – cave tubing in Belize.
The place where this excursion takes place reminds me of some of the National Parks you would find here in the U.S. I don’t know if it was a National Park, but it reminded me of that kind of place with bathrooms, showers, and a couple little gift shop type stands. There were piles of tubes and life jackets from what looked like several different tour companies. Our guides took us to their supply passing out a life jacket and tube to each person as well as a head lamp. We weren’t required to wear a life jacket, but we did have to have one with us. Don’t my mom and dad look cute with their headlamps on! I do have to say that I didn’t like wearing my headlamp.. it was itchy and smelly.. ugh…. lots of people had worn it before me, I’m sure.
After everyone in our group had their gear we started our trek through the rainforest. It was AMAZING! I loved all of the new sights. sounds, and smells. At one point Josh decided to have a little fun with Melissa and he jumped while letting out a little scream of “SNAKE.” I’m pretty sure she didn’t think that was too funny….. but boys like to do those types of things so you should never let boys know what you’re afraid of. He found it QUITE FUNNY and I’m sure she was startled. At least I saw what he did so I could talk to him about it being ok to be funny about that once, but anymore than that would NOT be funny! Here we are hiking along the trail. I was hoping to see some sort of wild critter, but didn’t see a single thing.
We each carried our own tube. However, if you were getting tired of carrying yours or couldn’t carry it for some reason, the guides were right there to carry it for you. I was doing just fine, but one of them INSISTED that I was on vacation and he proceeded to take the tube from me and carry it the rest of the way.
Nathan was treated to a birds eye view of the path! Troy and Tim took turns carrying him on their shoulders. That was GREAT for me because I could always see him up ahead and didn’t have to worry about whether or not someone was actually *watching* him.
Part way to our “jumping in” spot, we had to cross the river. There was a rope tied from one side to the other that one could hold on to while crossing. After we got to the other side we took a short break and played in the water. Our guide said we should do this so we’d stay cool during the rest of the hike. He was RIGHT! It was definitely hot out and the water was very refreshing.
After we arrived at the “jumping in” spot we had to wait awhile for some other groups to clear out. Evidently, these were the groups from the ship who weren’t receiving much help from their guides. So, our guides went down to help them get all of their people into the water and floating on their way so he could get us in the water. I missed getting a picture of Josh and Tim jumping off the cliffs into the water, but I heard them! Here is a picture of the area where you either walk down to the edge and jump on the tube or jump from WAY UP on those cliffs down to the water where a guide will hand you your tube.
After I got on the tube they handed Nathan to me. He rode with me part of the way and then with Tim part of the way. Here he’s riding with Tim. Notice we didn’t have him wear his life jacket. The water was not fast moving and it was very clear so we thought it would be just fine to have him not wear it. It made it much easier to have him ride on your lap when you didn’t have the big bulky life jacket on top of a wiggly 3 year old (LOL).
There were several groups within our group and the main tour guide said he was taking the “baby” group (LOL)! I was sure glad to know who was going to be watching out for us and our little one. Of course, I didn’t write his name down and my memory is too short to remember such details from a few months ago… Sorry! But, here he is. He was THE BEST tour guide. We kept telling us we were on vacation and that we should sit back and let him do all of the work! He literally pulled us through some of the lower parts of the river where the water wasn’t running enough for us to float at which time he would also holler BUTTS UP! You knew you better lift your bottom up out of the water and lay flat back on the tube so that you didn’t injure your backside on the rocks. The rest of the way down the river Nathan kept saying BUTTS UP and laughing. He thought it was funny. Our guide talked to Nathan making him laugh and putting him at ease. Here is our guide pulling us through the water.
Most of the time our family was pretty much in a row with the person behind you putting their feet under your arms so everyone is linked together in a chain. Josh didn’t like that because he was ahead of me and the edges of my shoes kept scraping on his arm and the heel of my sandal kept digging into his side. So, I had him move over to the side of me to hang onto my tube. It would probably have been fine for him to not hang on, but I was holding Nathan and it would have been hard to help him if he got too far away.
Here’s a shot of some tubers up ahead of us riding alone without a guide. I think we could have gone without a gude, but I’m sure glad we had one since we do have a few younger kids and we didn’t really know what to expect. I don’t think we would have gotten lost, but it was nice to just be able to sit back and look up at the tops of the caves and look at the scenery as we were floating along outside of the caves. If the river were running fast it would be a little more intimidating, I’m sure.
Here is some more of our group coming along…
Mike and Melissa floating off in the distance…
My mom, dad, and brother in a chain of their own with a different guide.
Going in and out of the caves was REALLY COOL! Another time it would be fun to take a day and go exploring a bit further. This picture gives you an idea of how dark it is inside the caves… that’s why we had headlamps! I know there were some bats up in the caves, but none of them bothered us and that reminds me to say we weren’t bothered by any mosquitos either, but I was prepared with enough bug spray for EVERYONE (LOL)! This was a cave with a small opening at the exit.
I didn’t bring our good camera on this excursion since it was all about water! I have a waterproof bag for our camera, but I’ll have to practice with it some more before I actually take it out somewhere. I took a few pictures with it before we left and they all came out with “dots” all over the pictures and I’m not sure why. Having done this excursion now, another time I wouldn’t hesitate to take my good camera because I know I could keep it in the waterproof bag while actually tubing, but I could take it out at other times.. such as during the walk through the rainforest. So, these pictures were all taken with a disposable underwater camera and aren’t the best quality! But, I’m sure glad we have these pics!
Here we are back at the point where we crossed the river on our hike. You can see the rope across the river if you look closely in the distance on the right side of the picture. This is where our floating ended. 
We gathered our tubes and life jackets and walked back to the bus! It was a very nice relaxing day. I’m so glad we finally got to do this excursion! Our first “must do” thing was swimming and snorkeling with the Sting Rays in the Caymen Islands. This was our second. And, the third thing we’d like to do some day is hike the Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica. We’ll see if that ever happens!
We gathered our tubes and life jackets and walked back to the bus! It was a very nice relaxing day. I’m so glad we finally got to do this excursion! Our first “must do” thing was swimming and snorkeling with the Sting Rays in the Caymen Islands. This was our second. And, the third thing we’d like to do some day is hike the Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica. We’ll see if that ever happens!
