Belize

Tuesday, March 3 – Belize

My goal for the first week of our cruise was to let J & K experience some of fun stuff we have done on past cruises to the western Caribbean. For Belize that meant cave tubing.

With the ship docking far off shore, tenders were required…and to make the process go a little more efficiently, Carnival required that everyone get a tender ticket. To make sure we got off the ship quickly, we lined up 15 minutes before the 7:30 am time scheduled to get tickets. With the early start to our day, I was able to get some sunrise photos!

On shore we had to walk to the far end of the cruise terminal to meet up with our tour guides from Vitalino Reyes’ Cavetubing.bz.  We had to do a little bit of waiting around while they figured out groups for each of the vans.

   

Our driver for the day was Edeoni and the guide was Rene…both did an excellent job. The drive to the caves is quite long, but it gave us a chance to see some of the Belize countryside, including a cemetery that the highway runs through. We made one stop on the way at Vitalino’s home where we paid for the tour.

As we got closer to our destination we saw the mountains. This one is known as the sleeping man mountain.

The last part of the drive is over a long, bumpy road. Repairs were being attempted, but it was still BAD. Once we arrived, we were issued helmets and life vests…but we did not need to carry the tubes as we had on the previous visits.

The trail through the jungle begins by crossing the river at the point where the tubing will end later. 

As we walked through the jungle, Rene pointed out different plants and insects…including termites which Bob sampled. Rene claims that termites come in two flavors…mint and carrot.

We were able to walk through a dry cave and see some of the bats sleeping in the daylight. (Creepy!!)

At the entrance to the caves, the tubes were all clipped together to make a large raft. This made the tubing more comfortable than our last visit when hooking together meant each person had to stick their feet in the armpits of the person in front of them.

With the headlamps, it was possible to see rock formations inside the caves, but the darkness made it hard to get a decent photo.

A waterfall inside the cave….

After exiting the caves, we could jump out of the tubes and swim if we wanted. The water is very clear. 

Towards the end of our tubing, we started hearing howler monkeys in the jungle. We never actually saw the monkeys, but the noise was extremely loud...and to me sounded more like a "roar" than a howl. It was just a bit creepy actually!

Decent restrooms were available and we were given a few minutes to change into dry clothes before getting back in the vans. Lunch was provided as part of the tour and was served in a covered patio at Vitalino’s home where we had stopped to pay for the tour earlier. The meal consisted of stewed chicken, rice, beans, coleslaw, pop and unlimited rum punch.

When we got back in the van, Edeoni grabbed a gallon of the rum punch and some extra plastic cups so folks could continue drinking on the way back to the ship. The return trip was definitely livelier than earlier that morning!

At dinner Bob and I both chose the “Port of Call” menu item and it was a good choice…chili relleños. Every night the dessert menu had pie ala mode with a different kind of pie each night. Bob thought he was in heaven and at the end of two weeks had sampled every kind!

Ram, the magician, made another stop at our table at dinner and continued to amaze everyone (and frustrate me) because his tricks were completely mind boggling! He invited us to attend his show in the Ebony lounge that evening which we did.

After the magic show we stumbled upon Dr. E doing 70’s and 80’s music trivia at the casino stage and couldn’t help but stop. What a hoot! Dr. E has a great singing voice and had the crowd all singing along with him. He had wigs and costumes and would impersonate all of the singers as he went through 21 different songs! And to top it off, there was some guy in the audience who would start dancing the minute the first note of any song was played. Actually shaking and jiggling might be a better description! So funny!