The Past Month...Belize

So I guess we left you last in Belize...

We picked up Jason after our last post and then proceeded to tour the country for the next couple weeks. Unfortunately, we were welcomed into the country with the same cold front that had been affecting the U.S. with unusually cold weather. It rained for most of our time in Belize, but we still tried to make the most of if.

We started up in Corozal and then headed out to the cayes (islands) for some sun, snorkeling, and diving. Well, two out of three isn´t bad...in our weeks on the islands we caught, maybe, a day worth of good weather. On the bright side, Jason was able to get his basic diving certificate and Brandon and I were able to join him on a couple dives (sidenote: the water outside the reef was insanely choppy...everytime we stopped the boat I had about 3 minutes to get under the water before I´d loose my lunch). Due to the amount of wind and rain, the visibility was absolutely horrible (I´m talkin' should've-gotten-a-refund-horrible) so we decided to scratch the expensive dive trip out to the blue hole...bummer!

Well, we got sick of sitting in Chinese restaurants all day waiting for the rain to let up so we decided to head back to the mainland for something that wasn´t totally weather dependent. We took a boat out to some Mayan ruins called Lamanai. The ruins were nice, but the boat trip was awesome! There were parts where it looked like we were going to hit a dead end going 35 mph and our driver would swerve left and, suddenly, there would be more river ahead of us. We'll try to post a short video clip of the ride.

That night we camped by the river...the crocodile filled river. Our captain, Edgar, and his buddies that work on the river told us tons of stories about close encounters with crocodiles. These guys were nuts! Get this...they go free diving in the river to find Mayan artifacts (mostly arrowheads). Try to imagine, the water in this river is muddy and murky, the bottom is silty, and the chances of running into a 6-15 foot crocodile are high. They don't even sell what they find. They believe what they find is priceless because of the guts it takes to actually find these artifacts...really interesting guys!!

Well, the rain continued so we headed out to a national park called Jaguar Paw to do some cave tubing. It had been raining hard for a week or so before we arrived to ride this river. We showed up in the morning and our guide hurried us up to the top of the trail so that we could get through the cave before the river was too high and we couldn't clear the ceiling of the cave. I´m not gunna lie, I was a bit sketched out (I´m pretty sure our guide was too). When I asked him what the chances were that we would make it through the cave he said, "I think about 50/50." He followed with, "If the water is too high we can get off our tubes and go under water." Brandon and Jason seemed to be fine with this news, but my anxiety level rose a bit...by the way, our guide couldn't swim. To top it all off, the other groups cancelled because of the potential danger of the river.

Belize it or not, we made it out...with about 1 foot above our heads to spare. After the fact, our guide admitted to us that he had never been in the cave when the river was that high...I'm glad he waited 'til after to break this news. The cave was great...besides the rising level of the river, there were underground waterfalls, bats, and good platforms to jump off of. We also have a short video of the river that we'll try to post.

When we came out of the caves, the clouds had parted and the sun sneaked out so we headed for the beaches near Placentia...we couldn't send Jason home without a tan :) We lucked out and found a great place to camp...the place was appropriately named On Da Beach Campin'. A great couple from Oregon, Bill and Lisa, ran the business. The sun managed to stay out for the next five days and we celebrated Jason's 23rd birthday with everyone who was staying at the campground.

As the sun lost the battle and the rain started to pour we headed back to Belize Airport to drop off Jason via one night in the jungle. We found a cool spot called Caves Branches where they had the coolest outdoor showers I've ever seen and kerosene lanterns for light at night. We decided to go for a quick hike in the morning before we had to head to the airport. Bottom line, it was slippery and we sent Jason home with an arm full of thorns...oops, sorry Jason.

After saying goodbye to Jason, Brandon and I were ready to get out of Belize. Major problems...#1 it's a really expensive country, #2 we were lucky to have consistent run-in's with crackhead garifuna men (decendents from a slave ship that sank off the coast of Belize). They were always either trying to sell us drugs or looking for a free handout.

We spent the night in a town near the border and then headed to Guatemala the next day...