Saturday morning, the alarms were set for fairly early, as we needed to meet up with our guide that was going to take us on our Nohoch Che'en Caves Branch river tubing experience. I did not sleep well, and woke often throughout the night for no particular reason, so 6:15 came earlier than I would have liked. Nonetheless, an exciting day was lined up for us, and it didn't take long for the adrenaline to kick in. We had told the guest house owner and manager Oti (short for Otilia, Gaby's wife) that we'd be leaving early the next morning, and that we'd be down for breakfast right at 7:00am.
After waking up, we quickly got our bags in order, so that after breakfast we could jump in the car and leave. I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take to get to the Caves Branch, so I had hoped to eat quickly and leave. However, I forgot something I've learned and has been reinforced on all of my previous trips. The best travel experiences come from the people you meet.
We descended the stairs and went into the main house, where Oti came out and greeted us and escorted us into the dining room. It was a very elegant dining room with a large dining room table that could seat 10. Coming from the US it seemed very strange for some reason to be in such a formal dining room when it was in the 80s and extremely humid. Oti, began bringing us out all sorts of breakfast items, fresh banana, cantaloupe, and papaya. Coffee. Cantaloupe smoothie for Kalyssa. Meanwhile we could hear and smell bacon frying in the kitchen. Finally she came out with plates of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. (Though I really don't like eggs, I usually expand my taste quite a bit when I'm in the midst of a cultural immersion such as this, and I ate almost all of them.) As we ate
the main course we talked quite a bit. She told us about Gaby's issues which had been caused by Rheumatoid arthritis. He's since had both knees and his hips replaced, which has allowed him to live out of a wheel chair, and walk on his own again. We had had no idea when we had met him the day before the extent of his medical issues. Oti then shared a story about how she had once seen a man up in Corozal Belize that was homeless living in a wheelchair because of similar medical issues whose wife had left him and whose family refused to take care of him. How sad to have such tragedy befall one that not only do you lose your physical abilities, but the loved ones that you would depend on to care for you as well, decide that you are too much trouble for them. A modern day Job.
We talked a bit about family. I made a reference to my girlfriend Aimee, and she responded clearly thinking that Allie was Aimee. I clarified and explained that Allie was my daughter, and that my girlfriend was still back home in Nashville. She talked about her family and how she had 3 sons and her husband had 2 daughters, the same situation as Aimee and I.
As we talked further I asked if we were the only family staying today. She said yes, that there was another family that had just left, and that the man's name was also Ryan. She then said that after we checked out her and Gaby were leaving for a 2 week trip to California and Washington DC. I then became the recipient of something that almost caused me to break down on the spot, and certainly did not expect on day one of my trip. She said, "I told you I had three sons. Well I had a fourth son that died. His name, was Ryan. We were not planning on having guests this week, but when I saw your name, I had to. When a Ryan stays at my house, they are always treated very special, and I had two Ryan's this week." Wow. This was certainly not the type of connection that I had anticipated making less than 24 hours of being in the country.
She went on to apologize for how bad that she felt that given this, that she was not able to be here when we arrived, and that she had forgotten sheets on the smaller bed in our room. I assured her it was not a big deal at all, and that I was honored that she shared that story with me. I asked if she would please join us for a picture, and she of course obliged.
At this point, breakfast had taken much longer than I had anticipated, and I ran upstairs to quickly brush my teeth, throw the bags in the car and leave. I turned on the water, rinsed my brush and put toothpaste on it. Immediately Kalyssa sticks her head in the bathroom, and scolds "Did you just rinse your brush in the sink." Uggh...yes I did... When we were in Cambodia, Allie did the same thing and ended up with a bad stomach infection later while we were en route to India. Belize isn't as much of a concern for Americans, but it is still a place where the local bacteria can play havoc on a visiting American's stomach. I tried to rinse my brush thoroughly with bottled water, and finished my teeth, embarrassed to have been the one to make the mistake after reminding the girls over and over to treat the water the same way we did on our last big trip.
As we were pulling our bags together, I mentioned that we'd be heading to Orange Walk, and that there is a Mennonite colony there, and we might see a bunch of Danish folks in horse and buggies along the road. We talked more about it, and Allie was a little confused about the schedule, and asked when we were going to see the "Mennemonites." This made me laugh, and I had to burst into a rendtion on the Sesame Street song "Mennemonites. Dah dah, da-da-dum. Mennemonites. Dah dah, da-da-dum." We all cracked up and dubbed that the song of the day.
We left our guest house, and to get to Western Highway, we took Chetumal Road south, over the creek. This took us along the very edge of the southern part of Belize City, and I pointed out to the girls, that only half a mile East of us, were some of the parts of Belize that the government had declared "Crime-ridden areas" where certain blocks were under essentially martial law. Even from the edge we were in, you could see the dramatic difference in the style of housing, it was clearly slum housing in this section. (though I think the housing stock actually improves a bit in the crime-ridden areas.)
We were only along side this area however for the equivalent of a block or two, and then we were out of Belize City completely. Our instructions were to drive to mile marker 37, look for someone holding our name on a sign along the highway, and be aware that other tubing companies would have people trying to recruit me to use their companies instead.
We eventually found our name, and stopped. The young man in his mid 20s introduced himself as "Walter" and said he would be our tour guide and to follow him on his motorcycle to the office. We followed him for a short drive, to the headquarters of Vitalino's Cave Tubing where he gave us some
water, we took care of payment, and then he asked if he could get in our car for the 7 mile drive to the national park entrance. On the drive he shared that we were driving through the village that he grew up, and still lives. Similar to most villages in Belize it was all very meager looking dwellings by American standards, but similar to what you'd find in rural areas of countries like Mexico. He said as a kid he would go down to the caves, and now it is his living. After parking, we had a 30 minute hike through the jungle, starting at the end of the tubing route, we crossed the river several times, and went through dense jungle paths. Walter stopped to point out all the foliage such as mahogany trees, cashew trees, and cohune trees. At the cohune tree, he stopped to show us the fruit which looked like wooden kiwis. He picked one up and smashed it several times with a rock, and inside was an almond sized and shaped section of fruit that looked just like coconut. He said it is very similar to coconut but the oil is used for cooking and massage oils. He gave us each a piece of the inside to try. It definitely tasted like coconut, but was much more oily. Allie made the good observation that it made for good lip balm...It definitely did, as suddenly my lips felt very moisturized.
We continued hiking and finally reached the mouth of one cave with a river coming out of it, and going into another cave. Inside the source cave was a rock high over the water. He asked if any of us wanted to go jump off the rock into the water. Kalyssa of course immediately exclaimed "Oohh!!! I want to!!!" So her and Walter climbed the wall of the cave and over to the rock about 6 feet over the water, and she jumped in. Walter followed shortly behind her.
We all got onto our intertubes, and Walter got on a much smaller one so he could navigate and guide
us in the water. We then floated into the mouth of the cave. We had been given helmets with lights on them, and very soon we needed to turn them on to see. The water was crystal clear beneath us (he had said it came from a spring further up the mountain) and the cave was huge 20-30 feet wide and even wider in some parts, and 15-20 feet high above the water. The tubing lasted 90 minutes or so, most of it slowly floating along inside the caves looking at various formations, and a couple places where the ceiling opened up and had a little bit of light. For the first 20 minutes we heard the sound of a water fall getting closer and closer and louder and louder. I was begining to get nervous about what we were going to have to navigate over, however when we got up to it, it was only a small stream that ended in the cave at a water fall.... there were not any falls for us to go over.
Eventually we finally made it out the mouth of the cave, and continued tubing for another 20 or 30 minutes through the open air in the jungle, giving us new sites to see as we floated over the crystalline
water that was anywhere from 6 inches to 12 feet deep or so depending on the moment. Finally we arrived at the place our hike started, and we walked over to change and get in our car. The company we used had lunch waiting for us back at their lodge which was some sort of a spiced chicken on bone with rice and beans and cole slaw (very similar to the meal we had the night before) along with Cokes in the glass bottles I remember from when I was a kid. We finished our food, checked out the gift shop, and then jumped in the car to head up to our next stop, the Mayan ruins of Altun Ha.
Altun Ha required heading back towards Belize City, but turning Northward before getting there onto the "Old Northern Highway." This road started out paved, then was half paved and half dirt, then was all dirt, then was gravel with many potholes, and occasional sections of old pavement peaking out under the gravel. When there was pavement, it was only one car width, so if other cars were coming in the oncoming direction on the "highway, we would need to pull onto the shoulders to go around each other. After 45 minutes of this, we were approaching the turn into the ruins when I realized I had just missed the turn. As I went to pull off the road in a smooth patch and turn, a group of 6 or so girls around the ages of 14-18 were about to walk directly where I was going to turn around. I knew I'd probably be looking a little odd, pulling right in front of them by only a few feet blocking there path, so I tried to self consiously make a sign to them that I was turning around. Allie gave them a wave, and the whole group smiled very friendily and waved at us. As we were turning around, I noticed one, maybe two of them were looking at their smartphones while walking.
I had to laugh, as the village of Lucky Strike that we were in, is typical of any Belize village in that the houses were very tiny and looked more like a kids clubhouse in the US. But yet, even out here in the remote jungles of Belize, kids have their smartphones. This is the world we live in, and this culture seems to traverse all borders.
We pulled into the parking lot for Altun Ha. Although the complex was not tremendously huge, the Angkor Wat. We climbed the Temple of the Sun God, and made it to the top, which did allow you to walk up to the edge of the building which had a dizzying drop off of about 30-40 feet down the front of the structure. As I'm afraid of heights, the girls were willing to get much closer to the edge than I could (which only made my discomfort worse) I was happy to suggest we go back down and walk around the rest of the complex. After the complex, we walked through the gift shop and ended up walking away with some pretty cool handmade items including a chess set, mask, and backpack, which were easy to carry since now my wallet wasn't weighing me down anymore.
buildings themselves were still impressive. It was built around 500 AD, making it 500-700 years older than the structures we looked at 3 years ago at Angkor Wat.
When we had gotten back to the car, we had two choices. Continue on Old Northern Highway up to about 45 miles to Orange Walk Belize, or backtrack 25 miles or so, and take the new Northern Highway to Orange Walk. I had asked Oti about this this morning, as our guidebook (written 4 years ago) suggested the Old Northern Highway was not a good choice due to the terrible road condition and limited resources for help along that route. Oti agreed, and said it is just not safe to go that route, so we heeded her word, and took the longer, but quicker and safer route. The new Northern Highway was paved and wide enough for 2 cars the entire way (though "paved" in the same way as the other parts of the major highway which appears to be large gravel packed down and sprayed with tar, and still makes for a noisy though fairly smooth drive.
We ended up coming upon Orange Walk much quicker than I had expected. It was also a bit more dense of a town than I expected, but definitely nicer looking than Belize City. With the assistance of my iPhone, I turned down a tiny side street off the main road towards the bank of the river a half a mile to the east. Not far from the river was another tiny street where I turned. Then I kept my eyes open for "Lamanai Alley". My iPhone was telling me it was just ahead of me. However I just saw two buildings fairly close together and what looked like a gravel driveway between them about 10 feet wide. Yep, that was it. This gravel driveway led us behind the buildings and towards the river where it led to a gated resort. The first thing visible was a big outdoor bar, and several thatched roof tables along the river, and a few very small cabins. As soon as we got out of the car, we were met by a woman who welcomed us to Lamanai Riverside Retreat and asked, "Are you Ryan?" She then showed us our room, and said dinner would be available by the bar.
We brought our stuff into the room, and returned for dinner. I had hoped to try conch as they had
several dishes on the menu, but unfortunately our waitress told us they were out of conch. :-( However, that did convince me to order the lobster dinner, since it was only BZ$30...which is US$15. Sweet. It was nummy.
Allie once again wanted to enjoy a vacation drink and asked for a recommendation. The waitress suggested something saying its got a bit of everything in it, and you pour a beer of your choice into it. I figured this would probably not be received well whatever it was but sure why not. When they brought the drink over, it was in a small mason jar with about 3 or 4 ounces of brown liquid in it, that had all sorts of black and brown specks floating in it. It came along with a beer to be poured into it. I decided to give the base a taste before the beer was added. It reminded me of a bloody mary, but less tomatoey. Lots of pepper, and other spices. Some liquor base, but I couldn't quite tell what. Allie took it, added the beer and took a sip, and her immediate response was pretty dead on: "It tastes like drinking chicken." Yep, nailed it. It tasted like chicken with all sorts of seasoning all over it. Needless to say I inherited the drink and she switched to soda pretty quick. It was tasty, but I still could only drink half of it.
Once again we all finished up the evening pretty early. The girls headed to the room, and I sat at the bar and worked on the blog for the day, taking a brief break to talk with some of the other people staying here tonight: a family from France whom we had seen this afternoon at the ruins of Altun Ha, but were embarking on their own two and a half week adventure here, after flying in this morning. Around 11:00pm I wandered back in the dark to my room. When I got to the door, I found the girls had latched the screen door. I was locked out. The very loud AC unit, which was right over there head was running full force. I tried knocking discreetly and calling their names. Nothing. The building is 3 units all wooden with a wooden deck, so every noise was reverberating through the other guests rooms, I was certain. I knocked a little louder. Nothing. After 10 minutes I was sure I'd end up sleeping on the porch. I started walking in the dark through the weeds to the back of the cabin to try and call through the window by their head. On this side I was as far as I could be from the other guests, so I knocked quite a bit louder. Finally, I heard Allie stirring, and she came and opened the door for me, and I was able to get in and finally get some sleep.
After waking up, we quickly got our bags in order, so that after breakfast we could jump in the car and leave. I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take to get to the Caves Branch, so I had hoped to eat quickly and leave. However, I forgot something I've learned and has been reinforced on all of my previous trips. The best travel experiences come from the people you meet.
We descended the stairs and went into the main house, where Oti came out and greeted us and escorted us into the dining room. It was a very elegant dining room with a large dining room table that could seat 10. Coming from the US it seemed very strange for some reason to be in such a formal dining room when it was in the 80s and extremely humid. Oti, began bringing us out all sorts of breakfast items, fresh banana, cantaloupe, and papaya. Coffee. Cantaloupe smoothie for Kalyssa. Meanwhile we could hear and smell bacon frying in the kitchen. Finally she came out with plates of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. (Though I really don't like eggs, I usually expand my taste quite a bit when I'm in the midst of a cultural immersion such as this, and I ate almost all of them.) As we ate
We talked a bit about family. I made a reference to my girlfriend Aimee, and she responded clearly thinking that Allie was Aimee. I clarified and explained that Allie was my daughter, and that my girlfriend was still back home in Nashville. She talked about her family and how she had 3 sons and her husband had 2 daughters, the same situation as Aimee and I.
As we talked further I asked if we were the only family staying today. She said yes, that there was another family that had just left, and that the man's name was also Ryan. She then said that after we checked out her and Gaby were leaving for a 2 week trip to California and Washington DC. I then became the recipient of something that almost caused me to break down on the spot, and certainly did not expect on day one of my trip. She said, "I told you I had three sons. Well I had a fourth son that died. His name, was Ryan. We were not planning on having guests this week, but when I saw your name, I had to. When a Ryan stays at my house, they are always treated very special, and I had two Ryan's this week." Wow. This was certainly not the type of connection that I had anticipated making less than 24 hours of being in the country.
She went on to apologize for how bad that she felt that given this, that she was not able to be here when we arrived, and that she had forgotten sheets on the smaller bed in our room. I assured her it was not a big deal at all, and that I was honored that she shared that story with me. I asked if she would please join us for a picture, and she of course obliged.
At this point, breakfast had taken much longer than I had anticipated, and I ran upstairs to quickly brush my teeth, throw the bags in the car and leave. I turned on the water, rinsed my brush and put toothpaste on it. Immediately Kalyssa sticks her head in the bathroom, and scolds "Did you just rinse your brush in the sink." Uggh...yes I did... When we were in Cambodia, Allie did the same thing and ended up with a bad stomach infection later while we were en route to India. Belize isn't as much of a concern for Americans, but it is still a place where the local bacteria can play havoc on a visiting American's stomach. I tried to rinse my brush thoroughly with bottled water, and finished my teeth, embarrassed to have been the one to make the mistake after reminding the girls over and over to treat the water the same way we did on our last big trip.
As we were pulling our bags together, I mentioned that we'd be heading to Orange Walk, and that there is a Mennonite colony there, and we might see a bunch of Danish folks in horse and buggies along the road. We talked more about it, and Allie was a little confused about the schedule, and asked when we were going to see the "Mennemonites." This made me laugh, and I had to burst into a rendtion on the Sesame Street song "Mennemonites. Dah dah, da-da-dum. Mennemonites. Dah dah, da-da-dum." We all cracked up and dubbed that the song of the day.
We left our guest house, and to get to Western Highway, we took Chetumal Road south, over the creek. This took us along the very edge of the southern part of Belize City, and I pointed out to the girls, that only half a mile East of us, were some of the parts of Belize that the government had declared "Crime-ridden areas" where certain blocks were under essentially martial law. Even from the edge we were in, you could see the dramatic difference in the style of housing, it was clearly slum housing in this section. (though I think the housing stock actually improves a bit in the crime-ridden areas.)
We were only along side this area however for the equivalent of a block or two, and then we were out of Belize City completely. Our instructions were to drive to mile marker 37, look for someone holding our name on a sign along the highway, and be aware that other tubing companies would have people trying to recruit me to use their companies instead.
We eventually found our name, and stopped. The young man in his mid 20s introduced himself as "Walter" and said he would be our tour guide and to follow him on his motorcycle to the office. We followed him for a short drive, to the headquarters of Vitalino's Cave Tubing where he gave us some
water, we took care of payment, and then he asked if he could get in our car for the 7 mile drive to the national park entrance. On the drive he shared that we were driving through the village that he grew up, and still lives. Similar to most villages in Belize it was all very meager looking dwellings by American standards, but similar to what you'd find in rural areas of countries like Mexico. He said as a kid he would go down to the caves, and now it is his living. After parking, we had a 30 minute hike through the jungle, starting at the end of the tubing route, we crossed the river several times, and went through dense jungle paths. Walter stopped to point out all the foliage such as mahogany trees, cashew trees, and cohune trees. At the cohune tree, he stopped to show us the fruit which looked like wooden kiwis. He picked one up and smashed it several times with a rock, and inside was an almond sized and shaped section of fruit that looked just like coconut. He said it is very similar to coconut but the oil is used for cooking and massage oils. He gave us each a piece of the inside to try. It definitely tasted like coconut, but was much more oily. Allie made the good observation that it made for good lip balm...It definitely did, as suddenly my lips felt very moisturized.
 |
| Walter, our Guide |
We continued hiking and finally reached the mouth of one cave with a river coming out of it, and going into another cave. Inside the source cave was a rock high over the water. He asked if any of us wanted to go jump off the rock into the water. Kalyssa of course immediately exclaimed "Oohh!!! I want to!!!" So her and Walter climbed the wall of the cave and over to the rock about 6 feet over the water, and she jumped in. Walter followed shortly behind her.
We all got onto our intertubes, and Walter got on a much smaller one so he could navigate and guide
Eventually we finally made it out the mouth of the cave, and continued tubing for another 20 or 30 minutes through the open air in the jungle, giving us new sites to see as we floated over the crystalline
 |
| Lunch Provided by Vitalino's Cave Tubing |
I had to laugh, as the village of Lucky Strike that we were in, is typical of any Belize village in that the houses were very tiny and looked more like a kids clubhouse in the US. But yet, even out here in the remote jungles of Belize, kids have their smartphones. This is the world we live in, and this culture seems to traverse all borders.
We pulled into the parking lot for Altun Ha. Although the complex was not tremendously huge, the Angkor Wat. We climbed the Temple of the Sun God, and made it to the top, which did allow you to walk up to the edge of the building which had a dizzying drop off of about 30-40 feet down the front of the structure. As I'm afraid of heights, the girls were willing to get much closer to the edge than I could (which only made my discomfort worse) I was happy to suggest we go back down and walk around the rest of the complex. After the complex, we walked through the gift shop and ended up walking away with some pretty cool handmade items including a chess set, mask, and backpack, which were easy to carry since now my wallet wasn't weighing me down anymore. buildings themselves were still impressive. It was built around 500 AD, making it 500-700 years older than the structures we looked at 3 years ago at Angkor Wat.
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| Temple of the Sun God |
When we had gotten back to the car, we had two choices. Continue on Old Northern Highway up to about 45 miles to Orange Walk Belize, or backtrack 25 miles or so, and take the new Northern Highway to Orange Walk. I had asked Oti about this this morning, as our guidebook (written 4 years ago) suggested the Old Northern Highway was not a good choice due to the terrible road condition and limited resources for help along that route. Oti agreed, and said it is just not safe to go that route, so we heeded her word, and took the longer, but quicker and safer route. The new Northern Highway was paved and wide enough for 2 cars the entire way (though "paved" in the same way as the other parts of the major highway which appears to be large gravel packed down and sprayed with tar, and still makes for a noisy though fairly smooth drive.
We ended up coming upon Orange Walk much quicker than I had expected. It was also a bit more dense of a town than I expected, but definitely nicer looking than Belize City. With the assistance of my iPhone, I turned down a tiny side street off the main road towards the bank of the river a half a mile to the east. Not far from the river was another tiny street where I turned. Then I kept my eyes open for "Lamanai Alley". My iPhone was telling me it was just ahead of me. However I just saw two buildings fairly close together and what looked like a gravel driveway between them about 10 feet wide. Yep, that was it. This gravel driveway led us behind the buildings and towards the river where it led to a gated resort. The first thing visible was a big outdoor bar, and several thatched roof tables along the river, and a few very small cabins. As soon as we got out of the car, we were met by a woman who welcomed us to Lamanai Riverside Retreat and asked, "Are you Ryan?" She then showed us our room, and said dinner would be available by the bar.
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| Lamanai River Side Retreat |
We brought our stuff into the room, and returned for dinner. I had hoped to try conch as they had
Allie once again wanted to enjoy a vacation drink and asked for a recommendation. The waitress suggested something saying its got a bit of everything in it, and you pour a beer of your choice into it. I figured this would probably not be received well whatever it was but sure why not. When they brought the drink over, it was in a small mason jar with about 3 or 4 ounces of brown liquid in it, that had all sorts of black and brown specks floating in it. It came along with a beer to be poured into it. I decided to give the base a taste before the beer was added. It reminded me of a bloody mary, but less tomatoey. Lots of pepper, and other spices. Some liquor base, but I couldn't quite tell what. Allie took it, added the beer and took a sip, and her immediate response was pretty dead on: "It tastes like drinking chicken." Yep, nailed it. It tasted like chicken with all sorts of seasoning all over it. Needless to say I inherited the drink and she switched to soda pretty quick. It was tasty, but I still could only drink half of it.
Once again we all finished up the evening pretty early. The girls headed to the room, and I sat at the bar and worked on the blog for the day, taking a brief break to talk with some of the other people staying here tonight: a family from France whom we had seen this afternoon at the ruins of Altun Ha, but were embarking on their own two and a half week adventure here, after flying in this morning. Around 11:00pm I wandered back in the dark to my room. When I got to the door, I found the girls had latched the screen door. I was locked out. The very loud AC unit, which was right over there head was running full force. I tried knocking discreetly and calling their names. Nothing. The building is 3 units all wooden with a wooden deck, so every noise was reverberating through the other guests rooms, I was certain. I knocked a little louder. Nothing. After 10 minutes I was sure I'd end up sleeping on the porch. I started walking in the dark through the weeds to the back of the cabin to try and call through the window by their head. On this side I was as far as I could be from the other guests, so I knocked quite a bit louder. Finally, I heard Allie stirring, and she came and opened the door for me, and I was able to get in and finally get some sleep.
2 comments:
The tube caving looked fabulous!
You need to apply to be on Globe Trekker!
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