Belize 2012: 3 - Caves Branch

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Breakfast was take out at the deli across the street in San Pedro and eaten on our balcony. The hotel laid on a golf cart to take us to the nearby airport. The flight to Belize City Municipal airport left on time, but was a few minutes late arriving as we stopped at the international airport to drop of passengers.

A nice young lady from Crystal Rent-a-Car was at the airport to meet us. They were very efficient with the arrangements, and presented us with a map and a good sized picnic cooler to go with the near new PT Cruiser convertible we rented. The first stop was a super market to fill the cooler with drinks and ice.

The roads were in great shape. I last drove this route in 1975, when it was little more than a dirt track. We drove into Belmopan, the very disappointing capital of Belize. There is nothing there to recommend the place other than some rather ordinary government buildings, a few service outlets and not much else. We were hungry, but could only find a couple of not great looking Chinese Restaurants, but a bowl of soup in one warded off starvation!

It was a short run from there to Ian Anderson's Jungle Lodge in Caves Branch. The drive as far as Belmopan had been in uninteresting flat countryside, but we were now in jungle covered hills. The lodge is interesting - we stopped at a building that had no sign to indicate what it was, but a friendly staff member said we were in the right place and loaded our gear into a cart. After parking the car we followed him through a maze of gravel paths to a nice cabin nestled in the jungle. The cabins are spaced out of site of each other, but not out of sound. There are screens instead of windows - neighbouring conversations can be heard quite clearly.

The jungle setting was beautiful. We had been upgraded to a suite that had a well appointed master bedroom with a queen bed, and a room at the entrance with chairs and a single bed. The bathroom is large, with a big open shower inside and another one outside. We were told that the reason there were no electrical outlet was that the place is on generator, and people using excessive electricity at night killed the backup batteries. There were neither coat hangers nor closet to hang them in.

We had drinks and dinner in the open air restaurant. They have an all inclusive package that most people were on, where selected drinks, beer and food were included. We were on a pay as you go basis. The meal is buffet style, but done differently. The first course is announced and laid out on the buffet. Tables are picked for the order of service. That course is then cleared and the next one set out, until finally the desert course is provided. Seating is 8 per set of picnic type tables. Our fellow diners were a well travelled, interesting group.

Monday, March 19, 2012

We woke early to the dawn sounds of jungle birds and cicadas. I came up to the lodge a little after 6 AM to use the one computer that is available for guests - the line up is formidable later.in the day. There was a note from Barbara at Caye Caulker Condos to say she had passed our complaint about the snorkelling tour to Turneffe Atoll on to the dive ship manager, and that they had refunded the price in full! That was a surprise, as we had not requested a refund, or even complained - Barbara had done that on our behalf.

After a substantial breakfast we headed for the main park entrance for St. Herman's Cave. One of the guides at the hotel had attempted to sell us their standard tours, but when we said we preferred to go on our own he recommended Belize Inland Tours, owned by Nico and another fellow. Nico was there to greet us, and promptly issued us with strap on miner's lamps and inflated truck inner tubes. We hiked about 10 minutes on a good trail through the jungle before descending into the mouth of a huge cavern. At the entrance he gave us a talk on the history of the Mayan Civilization and how they believed the underworld of the caves were holy places.

We then trekked for about half an hour deep into the cave, eventually coming to a beach on the shore of an underground river. We waded in, flopped into our respective inner tubes, and followed our intrepid guide down the winding stream. There were amazing limestone formations, columns and sparkling crystal formations. The river sometimes ran quite quickly, and then slowed as we crossed wide, deep pools. The silence was total, even though bats we disturbed flew around in panicked circles. There was not another soul in the cave. In one stretch of wide, calm water we turned out our lights to experience total darkness. When we turned them on I'd drifted a very long way from the others and had to paddle back. Nico said that at that point we were about 400 feet (122 meters) underground.

Eventually we came to a spot where the cave disappeared underground, so it was then necessary to retrace our steps, sometimes wading and at other times paddling back upstream until we came across a passage that led back to the entrance. It was a truly amazing experience.

For lunch we drove to a tiny local restaurant recommended by Nico, and then returned to the Blue Hole, located in the same park about 5 miles from where we entered for the caves. The Blue Hole is a deep pool in a river where the ceiling of a cave fell in leaving an open depression between where the river exited a cave on one side, then entered another cave on the other side.

I last swam in the Blue Hold with Bob Headland, an Englishman, and David Alban from the US, in 1975 when we were driving a battered old Jeep station wagon through Central America. We couldn't do much more than 20 mph over the terrible roads, and there was no air conditioning, so we were soaked in sweat from the hot jungle humidity. At that time there was only a mud trail to the Blue Hole. We quickly stripped off our clothing and dove in for one of the most refreshing swims of my life.

It hadn't changed much other than in the park where there are now change rooms and toilets. Cement stairs led to the edge of the vivid blue pool. Marilynn and I plunged in and as with the last time, we were the only ones there. I swam into the cave where the river disappears underground, bringing back fond memories of doing the same thing years ago.

We went back to the lodge, and then returned in a couple of hours for a final swim in the Blue Hole before drinks and dinner.