Belize 5 – Sun – Gumbo Limbo

Another down day as we transferred from our city San Ignacio Hotel, to our jungle Gumbo Limbo hotel.  Kate checked us out at the front desk and warned Marlynn that she’d told Gerald about her, and was trying to set them up.  Marlynn blushed and said it wasn’t the first time.  Before we left town, we decided to stop at another local restaurant for breakfast.  The recommendation this time was Pop’s.  It was easy to find, but quite tiny and all tables were full.  We noticed this impressive parking job on the drive in, so killed some time walking back to admire it, straddling a deep open sewer gutter.  Note the no parking sign.

Soon a table had cleared and we were seated.  Our order was in quickly, and as before, I was unimpressed with local fair.  But again, this was breakfast, so how local can things really be?  We did have their Fry Jacks, which are just deep fried bread, with air pockets.  The locals were loading them up with refried beans.  Jane caught this photo of the town mural at the old town square just before the old bridge.

The trek to Gumbo Limbo was only 5 miles down the Western highway, and 2 miles off the highway.  We had intended to stop at the store and grab bug dope on our way out of town, but by the time we remembered, it was too late.  We were nearly to Gumbo Limbo.  The road off the highway wasn’t bad.  The driveway into Gumbo Limbo, however was something else.  On dry days it was traversable with a normal car, but on wet days 4 wheel drive was near necessity as it got severely slick and had a steep ditch to descend and then ascend.  In fact, later in our stay a driver arrived to take 2 of the guests to the airport.  He got stuck at the bottom of that ravine and walked the rest of the way in.  We had 4 wheel drive and drove back out.  With passengers in the back, and more weight on the rear axle, he was able to take another run at the drive and made the slipper ascent, his wheels spinning the entire time.  We arrived at Gumbo an hour before our 1 pm check in. Kate decided to stay in the car with the kids to avoid bugs.  I jumped out and was immediately greeted by Mike and Jenny, our hosts.  I spoke of Kate’s bug fears and they immediately offered their ‘tin’ of bug spray, ‘tin’ as they were British ex-pats..  But assured us they’d been their ten years and had only heard of one bout of malaria and that was in the deep jungle.  The stiff breeze meant we were completely bug free, and Kate and the kids joined me as we carried our bags to our cabana.  Mike explained that they were off the grid by choice, he didn’t want them cutting through his bush to deliver electrical lines.  So they had solar, wind, and a backup generator to meet electrical needs.  He emphasized to us and our kids how important it was to turn off our lights and fans when not in use, and I appreciated the kids hearing and learning that despite what they might think, electricity is never free.  Even in the States, where we consume it to the point of obesity, there are hidden costs.  They’d spent the last 10 years of their retirement building Gumbo Limbo.  Jenny told us that they’d started the new concrete form walks this last fall, just she and Mike.  One of their hired hands had taken over most of the work and had become an expert. 

After some sunscreen, The kids jumped into the small pool, while Kate read and I took a quick nap.  After I woke, I joined them in the not quite as cold pool, for more Marco Polo.  Maeve spotted this monster caterpillar, nearly as large as her foot, on the pool deck.

We finished the evening with a terrific meal of Seabass at Gumbo LImbo, served to us with a smile by Emmie.  There are folks that have hospitatlity,  I think they are more born that way, than anything.  Just considerate of others, and more concerned with their comfort than their own.  Just a God given quality.  Nearly everyone we met seemed to have this quality, but some were superstars.  We met many of these superstars on our stays here in Belize.

Belize 4 – Sat – Iguana & Cahal Peche

We awoke and made plans for our ‘down day’.  The kids awoke, and as they have every evening and morning, filled time with electronics in their jammies.
 

I asked Marlynn at the front desk when the Iguana project was open.  She said it left on the hour, so we considered rallying the troops for that trip now or first getting breakfast downtown.  The kids voted for Iguana so we went with it.  Turned out to be a good move, as later in the day we noticed larger and more frequent groups being lead that way.

We met Darryl at the front desk, and he lead us the long way through the jungle to avoid some of the construction.  He pointed out some of the plants along the way and even stopped at a termite nest, not in the ground as you might think but in the branch of a tree as they are often seen here in Belize.  He asked if we’d like to taste termites.  Kate was the first to say yes.  Darryl grabbed a stick and poked out a couple.  This is Kate chewing on the surprisingly tiny termites.

We all tried some bar Maeve who declined, and Jane, who did try, but hers fell off the stick.  She didn’t feel compelled enough to ask for another, however.  Darryl explained that there were all kinds of flavors of termites.  We believed we had the cinnamon flavor.  No question if I were with Bear Grylls and he asked me to eat termites… that’d be a tasty treat compared to some of the other protein he’s used.

The Iguana project was just a small 50’ x 50’ structure with screens keeping the Green Iguanas in.  And as Zeke noticed, keeping some Iguanas out.  There was a LARGE male Iguana on top of the structure.  (Not nearly as large as the Iguana the french family had pointed us towards at TEC).  Darryl explained that their mating season was coming up and if they left all the mature males in the cage they would fight, so they released about 5 of the mature males until after mating season.  At which point most, if not all, would return to their good life in the project.  Darryl brought over their oldest male, Gomez.  He was 15 years old and non-aggressive.  He let us pet and even hold Gomez.
 

Kate really enjoyed Gomez.

Zeke wanted to hold him as well, but Gomez was less cooperative, seemingly wanting to get back to Kate further down the hand rail.

He also allowed us to feed the Iguanas, warning us to be careful not to touch the milk coming out of the broken stem as it was an irritant.  They came running as soon as you lowered the leaves near them.

Darryl then lead us to a separate area of the enclosure where the youngsters were separated.  These were all about 6 to 9 months old.  He loaded us up with nearly every youngster in the area.

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Theo and Maeve stepped back through the counter to near the trees, where the Iguanas jumped off their hats and bodies back to their more common settings, the tree limbs.

We finished with a full family shot Darryl took for us…

Darryl walked us back to the hotel front desk, where we jumped into our vehicle and drove down to Hanna’s restaurant for breakfast.  We seemed to get lucky most of the time finding parking and this time was no exception, we found a single spot right in front of Hanna’s.  Breakfast was great… but more standard fare than I was hoping.  Nothing truly Belizean, but then again it was just breakfast.  From there we walked down to the large Saturday market.  Along the way, I noticed a young man leaving a store, who looked remarkably familiar.  As I walked by, my mind tried to process exactly how I could recognize someone in a separate country in the 3rd largest city of the country.  From behind me I heard, “Mr Dave”.  Ahaa, it was Gerald from the check-in desk at TEC.  He was with his brother Patrick who also worked at the Zoo, and had guided us to the big cats before the rains.  This was their hometown, where they were born and raised and still lived in their family of 8 or 7 (one of their siblings had died from cancer).  Their father was the head keeper at the zoo, having worked their 21 years at the zoo.  They were kind enough to walk with us and just share our company.  They pointed out a cow that a local villager was selling, a tall young Menonite woman in a vibrant Belizean dress was bartering over the young heifer.  I couldn’t help but thinking how beautiful and exotic she must have appeared to Gerald or Patrick… a young tall white European.  Or maybe they were thinking how strange this was, even for them.  Or maybe it made no mark on them whatsoever, just normal life at the market in Belize.  A market they’d probably been to several hundreds of times in their lives.  We walked down through the market as they told us of life in San Ignacio, they greeted and were greeted by many of their friends as they strolled the market with us.  We stopped at the edge of the market where I got a close up view of the new bridge currently underwater.  Patrick told us he was just 16 yrs old, working an internship at the zoo.  He guessed Zeke was only 12 or 13 based on his young face and immature behavior, nope, he’s 15. 

Gerald gave us directions to the best ice cream in town, a Mennonite establishment, and we said our goodbyes.  We headed toward a shop we’d heard of at the end of the walking district.  After a little questioning, we found it in the rear of a building that included the ‘Magic Touch’, a massage parlor.  And found some of the best selection and prices that we’d found in any souvenir shop.  Having heard that Ambergris Caye was much more expensive, we loaded up on souvenirs, $345 worth.  While we made our last selections, Zeke asked questions of the niece of the shop worker who was 7 years old.  Between her and the shop owner, he collected more Tata Duende stories.  Jane found a painting representative of Belize, as did Kate and I.  At checkout, Ruby told us there was a cash discount, but we didn’t have enough cash on us.  Ruby allowed us to come back later and pay for our goods while she wrapped them and held them behind the counter.  We then walked over to the ice cream shop.  It was quite busy, so we decided to buy a few quarts to go.  Theo and Janie didn’t like the smell in the shop, so walked with me up to Hanna’s to gather our car.  We drove it down and allowed the air conditioning to cool down the car.  Soon afterwards Maeve walked out with her own cone, evidently having warn mom down with her pleas.  We drove back up to the hotel and enjoyed our ice cream by the pool, while Theo, Zeke and Maeve swam.  I did a little blogging, and said I’d be in shortly, but the kids didn’t last that long.  To keep my word, I dove in and swam for a little bit in the FREEZING pool.  I can’t believe how long Theo and Maeve can swim in there without getting cold.  I last about 20 to 30 minutes.  I got back to the room and we rallied to go see our first Mayan ruins, Cahal Peche, inside San Ignacio just 20 minutes walk or 5 minutes drive from the hotel.  But first I needed to run a couple errands in town.  Drop off the 3 small bags of dirty clothing at the laundromat, and swing back by the souvenir shop with our cash.  I went down the hill at about 3:45, which turned out to be rush hour.  The new bridge was evidently still closed and despite adopting the local driving habits, I got stuck behind a tourist who refused to nose into the continuous traffic coming at us from across the one-way bridge.  I had to turn downtown just so I could circle back up toward the laundromat, and ended up choosing the lesser of 2 roads, just because it had less traffic on it, even though it landed me further away from the laundromat and souvenir shop.  I found both fairly quickly, but admit that I had a hard time relocating my vehicle.  Finally, I was on the way back up to the hotel.  Kate and the kids were waiting at reception, and we drove up to the top of the city and Cahal Peche.

It was a small site, easily waked in an hour.  With a nice museum explaining much of the arte\ifacts found there and more of the Mayan history.  This was the major temple on the grounds…

Jane had banged her knee up a bit in the ATM cave, and was complaining of walking.  She did OK.  Zeke seemed most interested, and Theo and Maeve didn’t get much Mayan out of it, but did enjoy climbing around on things…

We explored a few of the restored rooms… Not much to see really.

Like all Mayan temples, Cahal Peche was built at the zenith of the hill, as close to the upper world as can be obtained by man.  Here’s a shot of us looking down on the city proper.  There were definitely some nice houses up here in the hills.  The neighboring house looked completely modernized with a gate, car port, and modern grill on the stone patio.

We were looking to eat at Ceraidos, but they were closed for a private function.  I’d also heard good things of Ervas, which was nearby so we went there instead.  It was on a mud road.  Kate was disappointed to see all the white patrons, hoping for something more authentic, but she recanted when we got our food and everyone loved it.  She also noticed that the locals seemed to drift in later in the evening.  A good finish to our day.

Belize 3 – Fri – ATM cave

After our day to settle into San Ignacio, we were scheduled to visit the Achtun Tunichil Muchnal cave with Pacz tours.  Unfortunately, the rainy season had extended way past normal in Belize, and the cave was closed.  We met several families who missed out on it and I was beginning to get quite nervous for our family.  We were expecting a call from Bob at pacz tours by 7 am to tell us whether it was a go or not.  But by 7:30, still no call.  So I called them… it was a go!!  With the weather being completely clear on Thursday and with evidently lighter rains on Wednesday, the cave opened up for the first time in 3 weeks on Friday morn.  Our driver and guide, Poncho, aka Francisco, picked us up at 8:15 at our hotel.  Francisco ran us through a quick checklist, including closed toes shoes, which I didn’t have, but Bob had previously given me clearance and said I’d be OK if I was careful.  There were 2 others in our group a mid-20’s brother and sister travelling together.  We drove down to a little restaurant in San Ignacio just under the old bridge (built in 1941) where Francisco picked up some water and his lunch burrito.  He told us later that the last MAJOR (class 5) hurricane to come through was in 1961, which took the water level to within one foot of the bridge.  All of San Ignacio’s town center was completely underwater even though there are dams upriver that help to moderate the water level.

Speaking of water level, I was inquiring of Bob later the odds of driving to either of the closer Mayan ruins later in the week, Caracol or Xunantunich, my concern being the abnormal amount of rain they’d gotten.  He said Caracol is a doable drive with 4 wheel, which our rental has.  But with the rains, you’ll have to judge for yourself and turn around if needed.  Xunantunich is actually just 10 minutes out of San Ignacio, only problem is there’s a ferry across the river.  Now the funny thing is they recently installed a new modern ferry, but the design of the modern ferry is much less tolerant of the water levels, and the ferry remains closed until water levels fall further.  He said with the old ferry, it would’ve already been open.  Turns out these attractions being closed, especially ATM which is a major destination, can put a big dent in the pockets of the guides.  Pacz had to turn away folks for 3 weeks, much of that during the busy season.  Francisco reports that he regularly works on Christmas day, usually 2 trips a day at that point, cuz it is so popular.  Having heard that I was grateful to get out early Friday before it got super busy.  There were only 4 or 5 vans in the parking lot when we pulled in. 

The drive itself was about 20 minutes on the highway and 40 minutes on the side road… Francisco pointed out the Mayan’s sacred ceiba tree, and explained why the Gibbon became the Royal Gibbon (served to Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Belize in 1986), and spoke of the major and minor hurricanes that have come through, including a very recent (10 years ago?) brush with a class 6 hurricane projected to make landfall in Belize, but drifted north.  He pointed out Teak farms and Mahogany farms, where the trees, despite the hilly terrain, were planted in such symmetry that they’d perfectly line up in several different directions as we drove by.  Being in the hurricane zone, he said the teak and mahogany farms are a gamble.  Cuz it takes 20 to 30 years for teak to be harvested, and 60 years for mahogany!  He also pointed out the minimal amount of topsoil available, so they don’t have a great footing.  Seems like a bad bet to me.  But the payoff can be ridiculous… Currently a mature mahogany tree could sell for 60k or more! 

At one point we drove through a ditch of water that probably covered most of our tires.  And later we drove across a wooden bridge that he said was probably underwater the night before.

Francisco passed out our lunches, which Kate and I packed into the 2 shoulder bags we’d brought. He also passed out helmets to each of us, and brought us together and reminded us of the responsibility we had to respect this sacred place and listen to his directions. He would keep us safe, but only if we listened to him.

Wished I’d have gotten more photos of this day as it was the most fun I’ve had so far.  (the kids loved it too).  But cameras are no longer allowed into ATM cave… will explain later.  So at this point I’ll rely on photos I found on the web.

The hike back to the cave was about 45 minutes.  A relatively well maintained trail, though with all the rain quite muddy.  Francisco directed us to step directly in the mud and not off to the edge where the snakes could be hiding and it was more likely you would slip and fall because of the angle of the path.  The kids needed little encouragement to play in the mud, and with 3 river crossings, there really was little harm, though I myself attempted to keep clean by cautiously placing my foot whenever we hit mud.  He lead us at a brisk pace back, explaining that the weather could change at any moment and we may be asked to leave early should that happen, so time was of the essence, especially given the rains they’d recently had.

Zeke noticed at the first river crossing that a woman in the group ahead of us had a GoPro strapped to the top of her head.  I was hoping Francisco would allow us to bring ours to the mouth of the cave, but he did not.  When we pointed out the girl’s GoPro, he said that shouldn’t be happening.  We found out later that he was the most experienced of the guides and probably followed the rules most strictly.  No biggie.

With the water levels so high, we didn’t experience anything this easy.
All of our crossings were waste deep or more.  The water at the first crossing was so deep that Zeke had to carry the food above his head to keep it dry, while I made sure our most precious cargo, Maeve and even Theo didn’t go downstream.  Though Francisco had me covered should I fail.  The current was strong enough that you really did need to take your time, and find your next step, all the time leaning your body into the current of the river, and in my case, dragging a little Maeve with me and trying to keep behind Theo should his footing fail.

The 2nd crossing was perhaps the most difficult given the heavy rains.  It was shallower, but strong water current and many rocks underfoot made it a struggle.  The target on the far shore was about 20 feet upstream from our entrance.  The group ahead of us just worked diagonally across the river.  Francisco showed us the easier way.  He lead us directly upstream so that we could directly face the current while we battled it.  We walked past the departure point on the opposite shore, and then as we crossed, didn’t need to battle the current as much, allowing ourselves to lose some ground.  I’ve always prided myself on my balance and sure-footedness.  But through these experiences (including the falls in the dominican republic) I’ve found that my sure footedness is severely compromised when I’m wearing big sandles on my feet and the water current is high.  This crossing Maeve had decided she’d rather piggy back.  Sure enough, with Maeve piggy backing and repeatedly chanting “I’m not going to get wet, I’m not going to …”, I lost my balance and we went down.  Nothing major, but we got soaked.  Maeve and I both laughed.  She jinxed us. 

The third river crossing was much more tame, about chest high and without the major rocks.  After crossing, Francisco announced only 30 more minutes,  as we stood confused trying to process exactly how long we’d already been out there… seemed like we’d already been going at least 30, maybe 40 minutes already.  Enjoying our confused faces, he corrected his “mistake”… did I say 30 minutes… Oh, I meant 30 seconds.  And just around the bend stood several man-made shelters including a few picnic tables under the roofs, as well as nails to hang our bags up on off the ground.  And a campfire used for overnights.  I had asked Bob about the overnight, which included a repel down a 100’ cliff face, but with the kids and the season he guided me away from it.  Glad he did, our kids were worn out after the cave adventure.

At this point Francisco passed out the head lights which fit neatly into our helmets, we then headed over to the mouth of the cave, and lined up behind another group at the stairs leading down to the cave.  He’d been judging our abilities as we’d crossed the rivers and lined us up in a certain order so that we’d be most able to help each other.  He placed Maeve directly between he and I, with Jane directly after me followed by Kate, Theo was sandwiched between the brother sister pair, with Zeke bringing up the rear.  He said he would inform the next person in line of any danger or advantage in progressing through the cave, e.g. a good hand or foot hold, and they were responsible for passing it onto the next person as they reached that point.  He also pointed out that we’d be travelling only 1 of the 5 km of the cave. 

We were actually entering the cave at the water’s exit and would be working upstream as we entered.  I thought for certain, Maeve, our weakest swimmer, would be able to make it, but I forgot how little she uses her arms and with sandles on her feet, her powerful legs were much less effective.  Francisco allowed her the opportunity to make the swim herself, but was well prepared with a rope that he threw out to pull her in when she wasn’t progressing.  Then it was my turn to experience the current, being the 2nd weakest swimmer in our family, and the heavy rains, I can tell you that I had to catch my breath when I reached the rock landing within the mouth of the cave.

I was Maeve’s help through the early portion of our trip, soon learning from Francisco that the major danger in the cave were the hidden large rocks in the water which were too easy to bang your knees on.  This was the most common message relayed down the line, that and don’t touch the formation right or left, or stay right or left for the shallowest walk.  Several times we were in a full swim.  There were only a few spots where the passage was this narrow.

We hit a small batch of bats just inside the cave, but no other bats.  It was fun just getting to our destination, stopping in major caverns as they came up and enjoying the stalactite and stalagmite formations, which once connected are called columns.  This was called a curtain stalactite.

By mid-trip, Maeve had glommed onto Francisco and had fully taken him up on his offering to ride on his backpack.  I say Maeve glommed onto Francisco, but I suspect Francisco was also enjoying Maeve as he has a boy of his own the exact same age.  They would sometimes get further ahead as I assisted Jane through some of the more dangerous rock areas.  And I could hear Maeve’s near constant chitter-chatter up ahead.  This has always been Maeve, but Zeke and I noticed it acutely this past summer when he and I went out golfing together.  A special occasion as he is just beginning to golf and I haven’t been out for more than a year.  Maeve was our ‘caddy’, just walking along.  Zeke pointed out she maybe wouldn’t be a great caddy for real given her constant chitter-chatter.  Mid backswing… “hey tiger, why do you have a stuffed animal on your golf club?… hey tiger…”  Now, whenever Maeve is jib-jabbering all we need say to each other is “hey tiger” and we both fall back to that fun day on the golf course.

As we were nearing our 1km limit, our journey changed.   We needed to begin our ascent out of the underground river.  At this point we climbed up a large rock that allowed us access to a ledge.  The ledge had a steep but navigable slope that lead us further up to an area where we removed our shoes.  Even further up the cave opened into a large area and we saw our first Mayan artifacts.  Francisco began asking us a series of questions, what do you notice about these pots.  They’re all broken.  All that he explained he prefaced with we believe, we don’t know.  For example, through studying many Mayan ruins, we believe that these pots were brought in (the same journey we made… but instead of flashlights, they carried pine torches) full of the season’s harvest or spices, and were broken during their ceremonial offering to their Gods.  He lead us to the belief that the Mayans grew ever more desperate for water… possibly the reason their civilization severely declined from the once million that inhabited the area to the handful of villagers still surviving from the Mayan bloodline.  To wrap our heads around those numbers, currently San Ignacio / Santa Elena total 17k.  Mayans had 100k in that same area.  BTW, currently Belize is one of the least populated countries in the world.  Anyway, back to the cave.  They think water was involved, because many of the pots were broken in low lying pools of water.  Even though this area of the cave was out of the stream, it had a near constant slow flow of water, which we definitely saw with our current high water levels.  Francisco went onto explain that only those of the highest caste were allowed to enter the cave, this included the religious figures of their society, including male and female.  They believe that sacrifices included blood letting.  Females, through their tongues and ears, and cheeks.  Males sometimes through their genitalia.  The ceremonies often/always were aided with some sort of hallucinogenic drug, either mushrooms or frog poison or alcohol.  Francisco asked us to describe the cave.  One of our kids immediately responded Scary… that was the word he was hoping for… He added imagine how much scarier this would’ve been had you been if you weren’t  in complete control of your senses.  He pointed out 3 cornerstones surrounding a broken pot and explained these were likely holding a tripod to support a container above the fire.  A little further up we came upon our first human remain, at this point Francisco explained that the Mayans used body altering practices, but only for the highest castes.  They would tied a flat board to a young child to flatten his forehead, as well as inlay into their teeth and file their incisors.  In addition, and this is the hardest to understand, they would attempt to make their children cross-eyed by wearing a dangling jewel from their forehead in front of their eyes.  He explained it sounds odd to us, but no more odd than what people often do to themselves today to make themselves more beautiful, including cosmetic surgery.

Francisco said there were so far 14 human remains discovered in the cave.  The number of pots must’ve been surpassing a thousand.  And that’s just what could currently be seen… Remember this is under 1400 years of calcification if not more.  As I mentioned before many of the pots were broken in low-lying water touched areas.  These would’ve been an offering to Chac, their water god.  Others were left up on higher ledges where the water flow would’v never touched them.  These were an offering to their underworld, aka Xibalba, queen, Ixchel.  One of the common formations for these dry offerings was 3 broken pots.  One upright, one upside down and one sideways.  Possibly in an attempt to cover all their bases… Upperworld (heaven), Middleworld (earth), and underworld (hell).

A little further up the same cavern was this pot:

Only 7 other pots have been found with this marking in all of the Mayan ruins in any country.  We were asked to guess what it was.  Maybe a face with crazy hair, a person doing a handstand, Tattaduende (the 4 toed/fingered servant of the Mayans)?  He said archeologists believe it is a monkey and therefore this is called the monkey pot.  But any one of us could be right… we just don’t know.  I like to think of it as Tattaduende. 

Later, he brought us to a similar tripod formation and asked us to shut off our lights.  We stood in the pitch black as he turned on his more powerful flashlight from behind his back.  He’d aligned himself directly between the fire and the formation so that we could see how the fire would have lit it.  From that angle one could clearly see the outline of Ixchel, the queen of the underworld.  The he said imagine  how this must’ve appeared under the dancing light of the fire and the drugs.

We ascended still further and found more human remains.  They were heavily coated with calcium deposits.  Francisco explained that these had likely been moved by the water flow and were called a secondary burial site.  Further ascent lead us to a flat area of water pools called the cathedral chamber.  In our socks we were careful to never step into the pools of water, rather stay on the top edges of the formations, as this was much less likely to damage the formations.  At the end of the chamber, was a 15’ long aluminum ladder (would’ve liked to have seen how they carried that in!) that assisted our final ascent.  We all climbed up and waited at the side out of earshot and eyeshot of the group finishing in front of us;  Then Francisco lead us back past a final rock formation to a corner where 2 human remains were found in their primary (undisturbed) burial site.  One was believed to have been a bound prisoner, the skull was partially smashed by some tourist dropping their camera on it, which directly lead to the banning of cameras in the cave.  It makes sense really, not only for the direct damage a camera can cause if dropped, but also for the foot damage that can be caused as you step back to frame your shot inattentive to what might be lying behind you, and crack, you’ve stepped onto or kicked an artifact.

The final primary burial remain was the reason the cave got its name.  In this photo it is dry, but when we saw it, it was mostly covered in water, if not completely covered.  Again, we visited the cave after an extended rainy season.  The first time the cave was officially open to tours in 3 weeks.  So we were definitely seeing the cave at its wettest.
      

At one point I said to Zeke, I’d like to relax here, turn off the lights and maybe take a nap.  He thought that quite odd, given the dead people everywhere.  hmmm… maybe I am odd.  I remember hand digging a grave for my dog on a very hot summer day, and just stopped to get out of the heat, noticing the bottom of the hole I’d dug, about 4 or 5 feet deep, was cool and comforting.  I lied down at the bottom feeling the coolness of the earth, with the edge of the earth giving focus to the clouds that passed above.  So relaxing… guessing he’d think this was odd too.  hmmm…

Our trip out was much faster.  We needed to take our time on the climb descent, but once we hit the water, the current really aided our exit.  Several times we were free-floating down the current.  Near the exit was our first glimpse of daylight in nearly 2 or 3 hours.  A small opening in the roof of the cave, that looked climbable.  The light was so dim, it could’ve been missed.

Closer to the exit of the cave, Francisco deviated from our entrance path to give us a safer exit without having to descend down some of the rocks we’d climbed.  The only catch, we needed to carefully put our throats at the point of this rock and then turn our heads sideways to fit the helmet through.  Normally Francisco could do this maneuver with his safety buoyancy vest on, but water levels so high he needed to first remove his vest.  I noticed as he submerged his mouth into the current.  Kate, who wasn’t much later in the line, reported she hadn’t needed to put her face in the water, but had to really push her chest through, which indicated to me that perhaps our message system had failed.  I had no problems, but I was able to watch Francisco firsthand.

Note how much higher our water levels were than here.  The water was up to our mouths.

Not much later we were able to once again see the daylight of the cave entrance.  Such a relaxing place, would’ve loved to have stayed and just sat for 30 minutes enjoying the solitude of the cave mouth and the beauty of the forest just beyond.  (after I sent ‘hey tiger’ out of the cave with Francisco, of course ;-)

At the campfire, as we ate our lunch, Francisco had told us a few stories about Tataduende.  He said he was known as a servant to the Mayans, so it makes sense that there’d been a few sightings, aka bigfoot, around this cave.

He also told us he’d been guiding the ATM cave for 11 years, and was only 1 of 2 licensed for overnight stays.  He rattled off a list of television shows he’d hosted, including Bear Grylls, Some ghostfinders show and a handful of others.  Found this cool shot off the web.  That’s Francisco, aka Pancho on the left.  The other 2 guides were certainly Francisco’s “brothers”.  Every guide we met up with he’d introduce as his brother.  I was surprised at the first 2, but by the 4th, 5th, 6th, I’d realied these weren’t blood brothers.  More like brothers in the trade.  We joked that later we’d bump into the rest of his family guiding through the cave, including his mother and maybe grandmother leading a group.

This is a panorama of the parking lot area before/after the 40 minute trail.  Like I said, the drive itself was an adventure and the area was just gorgeous.

Zeke got this shot of us on our drive home.

Maeve took this ‘secret’ shot of some friends pulling their horses up to the local watering hole.

Belize 2 – Thur – Go West

Maeve said she’d focused on good thoughts on the drive back from the zoo so that she’d have good dreams that night.
In the morning, she reported it had worked.  In her dream she beat up a crocodile, cooked it up, took it to the zoo and fed it to another crocodile, or something like that.

Kate’s dreams weren’t as nice.  Kate dreamt that water was rising up through the floor of our pond house, which literally stood over the edge of a large pond at TEC.  We’d gotten such hard rainfall at night, amplified by the tin roof on the pondhouse, that her dream really was a natural outcome of the circumstances.  As you can see from the photo, the inside stayed dry and comfortable despite the heavy rains.  And was quite comfortable this time of year, without air conditioning.

The plan for Thursday was to head west to San Ignacio at some point during the day.  Rumored to be only an hour drive west.  However, we planned to take our time at TEC and enjoy the grounds a bit after breakfast, and probably revisit the zoo in the light.  I got up early and got almost 2 hours of quiet time on the deck of our pond house, 30 minutes in the dark and 1.5 in the light.  As things lightened I began to make out wildlife.  There was a flock of white birds painting the tree on my right, 2 larger birds one grey and one brownish across the bay, and a merelot crocodile roused off the opposite bay and swam slowly to within 20’ of our porch where it just hung out apparently resting on some vegetation.  The kids woke eventually and joined me in our own personal wildlife sanctuary.  

They saw the gator and the birds and even spotted a turtle floating nearby.  We headed over to the TEC to round up our breakfast.  On the way a french family with binoculars, pointed out an iguana at the top of a distant tree.  We offered them access to our pondhouse as a perfect dry viewing area as it had begun to rain, and continued onto breakfast, which was fry jacks (breaded deep-friend triangles), shredded cheese, ham, and hard-poached eggs.  Delicious.  We then did a little trail walk to enjoy the nature at TEC, but with the heavy rains, we were unable to venture too far and keep our shoes from getting horribly muddy, so we turned back and headed back to our pond house. 

The bridge back to our pond house.  Notice the rails on both sides.  Just around the corner, the left hand rail disappeared.  Who knows why.  It wasn’t in disrepair, just never built.

Theo trying to stay dry under the vegetation.

We hung there for awhile longer  and watched a couple more crocodiles from close range

Difficult to get any sort of decent shot through the mosquito screen.  The kids named this one white-out for his tail. He (or she… who knows) was only 20’ from our porch.

We then checked out, and jumped over to the zoo and saw everything in the daylight.

Got to see things better during the day (but experience them less).  One of the zookeepers, Patrick, gave us the headsup that rain was likely and it might be a good idea to see the cats now as the cats go into hiding as soon as they hear rain.  That turned out to be good advice, as we, like the cats spent 20 minutes waiting out the heaviest of the rainfall near the end of our visit.  During the day we got to see a few additional animals, including the spider-monkeys, which we finished our day with. 

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It was at about that point when I realized that I’d forgotten to leave the keys to our pondhouse at TEC.  Fortunately, at the zoo, we bumped into the Canadians we’d shared the night tour with, who said they were heading back to TEC.  Kate and I decided there are no dishonest Canadians, and handed our keys over to them to return for us. 

The zoo was just EXCELLENT.  Something to be proud of for anyone working there or associated with it.  The education of the local Belizean is at its core and evidenced everywhere, including the numerous poems painted in white on black signs throughout the zoo.  I’ll leave the zoo with this sign…

After a quick 2 plates of nachos to tide us over, we drove to San Ignacio, which was remarkably easy.  There’s only 1 ‘highway’ that runs west in Belize.  It’s just a 2 laned paved road, passing through many small villages where you experience sleeping policemen that double as cross walks. We hit Santa Elena, the sister city of San Ignacio, separated only by the Macal river.  Totalling about 17k population between the 2 similarly sized cities.  The scare came as we attempted to cross into San Ignacio.  The wooden bridge crossing over the river was completely closed due to high water.

(A shot from the Saturday market later in the week)
Our hotel was on the other side.  Fortunately, we found out that the wooden bridge was the ‘new’ bridge, created to allow single lane one way traffic into town, with an older taller single lane metal bridge heading out of town.  With the new bridge out of order, they just reverted to intermittent two way traffic on the old tall metal bridge.  No problems.  Once we crossed, Kate was able to navigate our crude map and get us to our hotel up the hill.  It was under construction, including a pressure-washing of the pool steps as we walked on our tour.  But that didn’t concern us.  The kids were most impressed by the pool, and were quickly in it.  We let them swim out some of their energy and ate at the hotel restaurant.  Zeke and I were so happy with the 2 meals we’d found and agreed to share, only to find out that they were out of both.  In fact they were out of most of the things we’d ordered.  Kate said her garlic shrimp was the worst she’d had.  Small serving and very dry.  We won’t be dining there again.  As we chatted waiting for our food, Theo disappeared on us.  He arrived back and Kate asked where he’d been.  “I went to the bathroom”, hmmm benign enough.  But that’s often how these Theo stories start.  Kate followed up with where, and that’s where it got interesting.  “In our room.  The door was wide open”… YIKES.  really, did I leave the door unlocked with all our electronics laying out!  I didn’t think so, but it was worth the short trip to our room past the pool to check.  hmmm… I got back to the restaurant table to report it’s locked tight now and I could definitely remember just pulling the door shut and testing it to ensure it was locked.  Jane decided to walk Theo back down to the room to solve the mystery.  Sure enough, Theo had walked into the room AFTER our room, and used their bathroom.  We laughed at his misstep and joked that he probably walked right past someone napping in their bed.  Theo’s collected a few funny bathroom missteps in his life.  One of the best being when he was much younger, 4 or 5?  And still needed a parent escort in the bathroom.  We were at a highway restroom, and Kate was his escort, so he was using the women’s bathroom.  Kate “stood guard” outside the stall as Theo worked on things.  Kate was startled by a woman’s loud shriek in the next stall over.  Theo had popped his head under the stall and said, “hello” to the lady next door.  Completely unaware of the response he would get.  He was so shocked Kate reported he repeatedly said “sorry, sorry, sorry” and ducked back into his stall.  Kate apologized profusely to the lady who was still catching her breath from the shock when she came out many minutes later.  That’s our Theo.  He keeps life interesting.

Belize 1 – Wed - Zoo

Alrighty then, no more major missteps today bar one that could’ve sent three of us to the hospital (but I’ll save that for later).  And Kate realizing that she did such an excellent job packing the rest of us but she forgot to include her asthma inhaler.  So not bad really.  Think we’re hitting our groove.  We woke at 5 am and roused the kids soon after. I ran our winter clothes out to the car, which we’re leaving at the hotel for 14 days, while Kate finished off getting the kids ready.  The shuttle bus was right on schedule, 6 am.  And soon we were at our terminal (unfortunately the wrong end of our terminal, but who’s complaining).  Having forgotten to use my electric razor at home, I’d quickly shaved off ‘my bush’ as the kids sometimes called it, and gotten a few nicks to which I’d applied the age-old trick of tissue paper.  While waiting in line, the kids reminded me I still had that paper on my face.  I replied that’s OK, I can be ugly for 5 minutes, I’ve got the rest of my life to be handsome.  To which, my 7 year old daughter, says… well that’s not very long, ribbing me for being so ancient.  OUCH.  Kate remembered that we couldn’t take yogurt through security, and the kids didn’t want it, so I ended up downing 2 yogurts without a spoon.  I jumped out of line and found a corner where few people would have to witness my savagery as I used the yogurt seal as a spoon.

While shaving, I’d realized that with the swelling on the left side of my face (root canal on Monday morn), made my face lop-sided like a stroke victim.  That became the running joke of the morn.  Jane even guided me through the mannerisms for the rest of my body… drag my left leg behind, let my left arm fall to my side and curl under like the way a gorilla naturally drags their knucles.  I touched this up a little by dabbing some of my yogurt around the left side of my face, then limped back to my family waiting in line.  Got a really good laugh out of Kate… that was worth it.

Later I realized that like the Owen Meaney book, perhaps this was a hint that I should be practicing for that inevitable event, so that when it occurred I was prepared.  I already have weak vision on my right, and a severe hip injury on my right.  groin tear on my right, and shoulder soreness (stemming from high school baseball days) on my right…  The entire right side of my body is falling apart.  If I get a stroke on the right side, maybe with some practice, it wouldn’t be all that detrimental ;-)

That distraction and others killed some time and soon we reached the counter, having skipped self-check so that we could sign up for frequent flyer miles, only to find out they won’t do frequent flyer signup at check-in anymore.  To make matters worse, Kate felt compelled to ask about our largest carry-on that was borderline.  The lady told us to throw it in the bag sizer, a little steel contraption.  So I stuffed it in (it wasn’t a simple fit).  Yup, half an inch too tall.  We’d organized the trip around all carry-on, so beged to have her allow the bag.  She called her manager over and we pleaded and they finally said ok.  But in the end, that didn’t even matter.  but I’ll get to that fun later.  We did get one pearl of advice from the lady who took pity on us and as we were walking away flagged us down and said be sure to ask for the ‘family aisle’ at security.  Sure enough, the lady managing the queue for security knew all about this secret passcode, and let us into the ‘family aisle’.  Our wait went from 125 to 2.  Evidently this was a well-kept secret at AA, American Airlines.  A family whose baby my wife had been adoring was in the long queue.  She paid it forward by sneaking out of line and telling them as well, and their wait fell to 3.  Huhhh, who knew.  Security was no issue, the kids even got to leave their shoes on.  We’d breached the inner sanctum of the airport and were soon at our gate.  I fired up the computer and tried to deal with our AA frequent flyer issue, but my browser wasn’t showing the captcha on their page, so I couldn’t validate that I wasn’t a malicious computer trying to take over their site (BTW, a company just recently programmatically defeated many captcha’s including google’s, which is considered one of the most difficult.  Looks like we’re creeping closer and closer to the singularity, hello Terminator). 

They announced that the flight was full and they had limited overhead capacity, so would likely be checking bags starting with group 4… well, we were group 4.  Way at the back of the plane.  And sure enough, they made us check 3 of our bags.  Unfortunately in the bedlem of getting on the plane, the one bag Kate didn’t want checked (all the stuff we needed on our first day) was taken.  She tried to get the stewardess to reclaim the bag in Dallas, and maybe the stewardess tried, or maybe she didn’t.  But I had to appreciate her telling us she’d try but even more wisely (probably having dealt with a few irrational customers before) she didn’t tell us the verdict until we were walking off the plane, minimizing the amount of headache we could be for her. 

The flight, other than the stress of Kate worrying whether our bag would get to Belize, was uneventful.  The boys played video games, I asked Maeve to make a drawing of the zoo… Jane was sitting with us trying to enjoy her “window seat” (completely blocked by the jet engine).  We said it wasn’t the WORST flight we’d ever been on and and we three retold the story of the worst flight ever when we’d hit turbulence returning from Dominican Republic flying into New York.  The plane made its decent, severe turbulence.  Then, was called off, had to circle, and had to go through the exact same turbulence again.  I was fine, and got to see the statue of liberty twice when I wasn’t helping clean up spew from 3 of my 5 kids (we’d adopted our neighbor boy Bryce for that flight).  Walking off the plane, no exaggeration, there were puke bags in every other row, if not more!!

At Dallas, we had 2 hours before our flight left, 1.5 before boarding.  I found our gate on the board, D29, and we headed towards it planning to stop somewhere in the foodcourt for a nice lunch.  We chose Fudruckers, which was a bit of a trek.  The airport version didn’t hold up to a real Fudruckers, which is an awesome burger joint.  But the kids devoured it.  We still had plenty of time to sit and wait for boarding.  maybe too much time… dun, dun, dun!  Maeve and Theo found this sculpture to climb around and play hide and seek in, while I attempted a repair on Jane’s purse and Kate watched a quick episode on her smart phone, before it turned into a brick as we found out it was not international capable and couldn’t function in Belize despite Belize having good Verizon coverage.  At some point, that “thing’s are going TOO well” feeling kicked in.  Where’s the people out of their chairs clamoring to get on the plane?  Yup, wrong gate!  We’d been boarding for 15 minutes already just several gates down.  None of us thought to read the sign at gate D29, which clearly read CanCun.  YIKES.  No harm… When we got to D22 they hadn’t yet called group 4 (yup… still the last group on).  I’d like to think we’d have overheard them calling ‘Sebastian famly’ over the speakers, had we not realized our mistake.  But I gotta wonder.

Another uneventful flight, landing in Belize around 3:40.  (the rivers are swollen due to the extended rainy season Belize is experiencing).
 
They let us depart off the rear of the plane as well.  Awesome.  We’d jumped from group last to group first.  Unfortunately we’d placed one of our overhead bags much further forward in the plane, so Kate stayed behind waiting for the aisles to clear while I escorted the kids to custom.  Customs line was slow but uneventful.  Even our much needed blue bag showed up on the carousel, so all was once again good.  I was prepared for bag handlers to want to touch our bags and charge us a small fortune for doing virtually nothing, but they asked us whether we had a car rental and directed us exactly how to get to it.  Never ever making an attempt at our bags, which clearly we could handle with our army of 6.  I was shocked and appreciative, for which in hindsight I should’ve and would’ve gladly given a tip.  Maybe on the way back through.  The car rental was just as he’d said… a short walk across the parking lot to a row of vehicle rental places.  Ours was Budget.  A lady was waiting there for us, as well as one of those handlers I was dreading downstairs at the airport.  I tried in vain to show him that we had it handled, as he walked me to our car (my hands empty as well as all the kids hands empty) he reminded me it was nearly Christmas and that I was sure to give him a good tip.  Wait, was that a reminder or a threat.  I said he’d have to wait as I didn’t have singles… oh no, he had change.  I gave him a 10 US and asked for 4 US back (quite generous given the load of nothing he’d provided me) and he weasled another $1.50 American out of me returning only $5 Belize ($2.50 american).  WHATEVER… not worth it.  Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.  The car held a bonus for me.  A stick shift.  It’s a Ford Diesel with 4 wheel drive.  I like it.

With us having forgotten the map (and Belize books) at home, which BTW Ruby had chewed up, and me unable to get the Belize map loaded onto my GPS, we were helpless but to rely on the directions of the Budget rental lady.  As it turned out, not so great.  She’d cited mile 32 marker as our destination… only 3 miles off of the mile 29 marker where the zoo turned out to be actually located.  The other half of our problems I’ll take credit for.  The car’s speed was only in km/h.  I was enjoying the stick shift driving so much, I didn’t take into account that the odometer would then naturally be in km as well.  So anytime I reset the odometer to try to repeat her approx mileage, I was way off.  2.2 times off in fact (thank goodness Kate reassured me of this conversion).  The other factor was the dark that had set in, and unlike the US, where lit roadside billboards are the norm.  the signs could only be faintly made out with high beams… but with oncoming traffic we had to kill to lowbeams at points.  We finally ran into Amigos, a middle of nowhere bar/eatery that I’d remembered reading was near the zoo.  And pulled in for directions, but the bartender had little idea of exactly where the zoo was.  Luckily one of the patrons, possibly an ex-pat from the US, knew exactly where it was.  And gave us great directions.  Her buddy, possibly an ex-pat from Britain, given his accent, added that TEC (Tropical Education Center) was about 200 feet past the zoo on the opposite side… roughly 2 miles back on a very poor dirt road.  Had he not mentioned that, I would’ve sworn we were driving into the middle of the jungle.  Found out later that we’d actually exited the highway a little early, and there was a second driveway further down.  But they met up with each other anyway.  2nd driveway was nicer and less concerning.  Juan, the night guardsman, said the first drive was some sort of dump site.

We found the parking lot at TEC and Gerald was there to sign us in and greet us.  He told us a meal was included and waiting for us in the dining hall.  It was AWESOME.  Everyone was reminded of the great food we had in Dominican from Nelly our house cook. They were waiting on one more group to arrive, so Juan escorted us back to our cabin to get settled.  We were super-impressed by the ‘pond house’ as they called it.  But a little concerned with the apparently intentionally one-side railed bridge that lead to our pond house.  No worries, there’s only crocodiles in that pond should we fall in.  Theo even found one while shining with Juan’s high-powered flashlight he’d left us.  I enjoyed the kids squirming a bit thinking a crocodile would nip them at any turn.

We headed back to the dining area, then followed Juan’s minivan carrying the rest of our tour group over to the zoo.  Joshua was our tour guide, and started by introducing us to their boa constrictor.  We each got to hold him (her?)

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Night zoo tour was perfect… absolutely no bugs.  No rain, and fun adventure.  Tamirs, the national animal, ocelots, black panthers, cougars, all came up to the keeper, Joshua, for nighttime feeding.  The kids absolutely loved the tour.  They were able to feed some of the animals, even feel the pad of the foot of the black panther, which Joshua explained really did have spots.  He was just a leopard with much more black than yellow… very tiny spots that were barely noticeable.

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Feeding the Royal Gibbons… a bit of a wild-game delicacy in Belize.  so named cuz they were served to queen Elizabeth when she visited back in the 70’s.

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Favorites from the night zoo tour
Maeve: Black panther, lucky boy.  The hugeness of the Harpy Eagle. (up to 6’6” wing span… endangered here cuz locals think they can carry away a child)
Theo: the ‘face jammer’ parakeets that Theo was exchanging whistles with
Jane: Ocelot especially his coat pattern.
Zeke: Gibnut, some animal that scared Theo as he was feeding it a banana.
Mom: Boa constrictor on Maeve (and watching Maeve overcome her fears and actually enjoy the snake and return to wearing him more than once)
Dad: How sleek the boa constrictor was.  Can definitely now understand why people have snakes as pets and not just the keep it in a cage kind of pet.

We ended our day with what should’ve been the get to bed routine at our new digs, the pond house.  Jams and brush your teeth.  Only don’t use the tap water, use the bottled water.  One wrinkle, Theo comes out of the bathroom saying, “Dad, I found your water bottle in the bathroom”, handing me a gatorade bottle that looked identical to the bottle I’d been drinking from at the airport.  We’ll call that mistake 1.  I didn’t think too much about it (mistake 2) and placed it in the fridge for later.  When the kids got to the brushing part, the gatorade bottle seemed the right size, so I handed it to them (mistake 3).  Maeve used it first, and complained to Jane how bad the toothpaste was.  Jane told Maeve to just use it. (mistake 4).  Jane used it next and complained to Mom and I how the toothpaste tasted like bleach… our answer, just use it and stop complaining. (mistake 5).  I used it next and couldn’t believe how bad this toothpaste tasted.  Can toothpaste go bad, I thought?  Finally convincing myself that maybe it was that new fangled baking soda kind.  (mistake 6).  Luckily, none of us swallowed any.  At that point, Maeve was talking to Theo who reported that the toothpaste tasted minty.  Minty??  That stuff was horrible.  She was the one to ask Theo whether he’d used the gatorade ‘water’.  The answer was no.  And she was the one to deduce it was not the toothpaste but the gatorade ‘water’.  Which we deduced was actually bleach!  We’d brushed our teeth with bleach.  We rebrushed to try to get the taste out of our mouths.  Our best guess is that the gatorade bottle was tucked behind the toilet with the other cleaning supplies and Theo, the curious monkey, discovered it and carried it out to me. (BTW. NEVER store chemicals in a drinking container.  And if you dare violate that common rule, be sure to mark it in big irremovable letters as such)

So ends day 1.  Trips to hospital or emergency care: 0!!  We’ll call that success.