My Cruise Adventures

Belize

Belize is a very interesting country. Its population has a large percentage of expat Americans. Their official language is English, and their dollar is tied to the US dollar at a one-to-one ratio. Belize is the only Central American country that has drinkable tap water (meaning, it meets US quality standards).

Ryan, Melissa, and I had a combination excursion, with both zip-lining and cave tubing. We took a bus for about an hour to where we finally reached some mountainous terrain. Then we walked a bit to reach the staging area for the zip line. There, we donned a harness, helmet, and thick-palmed leather gloves. Once outfitted, we joined a line of people snaking up the jungle hill.

After shuffling up hill for half an hour, we finally reached the launch point for the zip line. I was amazed at the zip line system. Each segment consists of two steel cables (between one half and one inch thick), and you have a double-pulley attached to each cable. Each tree has a platform with two attendants. When you arrive, one attendant unhooks you from the cable and hooks you to a rope going around the tree. You step around to the other side, where another attendant hooks you to the cable and sends you on your way. There's no time to admire the view - they try to send people through about every 30 seconds or so.

I went first with my camera around my neck. My job was to attempt to take pictures of Ryan and Melissa as they approached the platform I was on. This proved to be difficult, as I had to power the camera on, set it for the landscape setting (so it would all be in focus), aim, and shoot, in about a 10-second window. I did manage to get in a few shots worth keeping.

The last platform was the largest, and was located right above the area where we got into our harnesses. Once we got here, an attendant would strap us to a rope or rappel device and either they would lower us or we would lower ourselves the last 30 feet to the ground.

I have no idea how many people took this tour, but they could move maybe 120-150 people through the zip line every hour, and it ran continuously while we were there. After we returned all the equipment, we had an excellent lunch of chicken and rice, with a soda. Then we grabbed a flashlight, life vest, and inner tube and walked a mile or so through the jungle to start our cave tubing.

We joined the river where it came out of a cliff, and found there were other longer tours as there were a lot of people coming downstream from above where we joined the river. Right after we joined the river, it disappeared back into the cliff.

The river was 'lazy' - no real rapids, but it moved along fast enough that the scenery constantly changed. Even with the headlamps, we couldn't see more than about ten feet in front of us. The tour guide had a much more powerful flashlight and used it to show us formations in the ceiling and walls. Due to the large number of people on the river, it reminded me somewhat of river tubing in Texas near San Marcos.

Theresa and Victoria visited a rainforest zoo, although it was more of a refuge for injured and recovering animals. They took plenty of pictures but I have no idea what most of the animals are.