One day Chris and I spent all day out on a SCUBA trip with Hopkins Underwater Adventures. We went out to Turneffe's Atoll on the SCUBA boat, which took about 2 hours. All along the sides of the boat flying fish would burst out of the water in packs and glide above the surface. I had never seen so many of them before.
We went on 3 different dives. The last on was the best because a 5 foot long nurse shark that went gliding beneath us for about 10 minutes. We also saw lots of coral, bright colored fish, shrimps, triggerfish, sea turtles and (of course) the nurse shark.
I didn't get any pictures because my underwater camera can't go underwater as deep as I can dive. We came back and were utterly exhausted.
The next day everybody went on the cave tubing excursion. We hopped on a shuttle for a few hours and then boarded some old painted school busses jam packed full of rubber innner tubes in the back. We parked in the middle of a field and then walked, with our inner tubes, down into a stream. We then had to paddle ourselves upstream into the cave entrance. From there we turned on out head lamps and paddled deeper in the pitch black cave. The tour guide helped us spot bunches of bats on the ceiling. and eel and little fishes in the water and a horrifyingly terrifying cave spider creature that he actually held in his hands.
Our guide also took us climbing up some rocks in the cave to where they had found ancient Mayan pottery. Mayan shamans used to come into the cave to perform blood sacrifices by cutting parts of the body (genatalia or tongue, etc) and dripping the blood into bowls for ceremonies. They considered caves entrances to the underworld.
When we climbed up there were a few cliffs and Mom was terrified. He she is peeking over the edge while clinging to our guide.
Heres our creepy group photo. Taken with our head lamps on.
We went further into the cave and hopped off our inner tubes to walk over to a face carved in the wall. It is believed that this cave was the site for fertility ceremonies. According to our guide, couple who wanted children but couldn't concieve would come into the cave and pray to the gods and then have sex under the carved face in the wall. After doing this the gods would casue the woman to become pregnant. After having the baby the couple would have to come back and abandon the baby in a cave above as a sacrifice and payment for giving the woman a baby. All children after the first, the couple could keep.
There is also a stalagmite formation that stuck up from the floor and when you put a light behind it, it makes a dirty shadow of a couple engaged in some fertility ceremony.
We sat down for a photo op and got our butts all dirty.
The guide had brought us all lunch into the cave and laed it out as we wandered around. It was giant tortillas with some kind of sliced meat and piles of veggies. Super delicious. We ate by the light of our headlamps.
On our way out of the cave, we were asked to make an inner tube chain and turn off our headlamps to ride the river back out of the cave. Mom managed to smack into a rock and pop her inner tube which popped pretty spectacularly. The guide laughed and said that had never happened before.
We then did some jumping off of the riverbed into the river and Courtney scrambled up a tree trunk to jump into the river.
The next day we went on a morning horseback trail ride. We went all through some orchards and a forest and down to a river. We actually saw some jaguar footprints! Down at the river we skipped some stones while the horses rested. Later, after heading back to the lodge, we went back to relaxing and drinking and eating delicious food. At one of these dinners a tribal drumming group was invited to perform. It reminded me sooo much of Tanzania. Brenna even got up and danced with them for a bit.
The next day we putzed around before hopping into the shuttle and heading back to the airport. We got on the little plane which flew us to Belize City airport. I hugged everyone goodbye and we went our separate ways. My family back to the US and me to catch my (very bumpy) flight back to Guatemala via San Salvador.
We went on 3 different dives. The last on was the best because a 5 foot long nurse shark that went gliding beneath us for about 10 minutes. We also saw lots of coral, bright colored fish, shrimps, triggerfish, sea turtles and (of course) the nurse shark.
I didn't get any pictures because my underwater camera can't go underwater as deep as I can dive. We came back and were utterly exhausted.
The next day everybody went on the cave tubing excursion. We hopped on a shuttle for a few hours and then boarded some old painted school busses jam packed full of rubber innner tubes in the back. We parked in the middle of a field and then walked, with our inner tubes, down into a stream. We then had to paddle ourselves upstream into the cave entrance. From there we turned on out head lamps and paddled deeper in the pitch black cave. The tour guide helped us spot bunches of bats on the ceiling. and eel and little fishes in the water and a horrifyingly terrifying cave spider creature that he actually held in his hands.
Our guide also took us climbing up some rocks in the cave to where they had found ancient Mayan pottery. Mayan shamans used to come into the cave to perform blood sacrifices by cutting parts of the body (genatalia or tongue, etc) and dripping the blood into bowls for ceremonies. They considered caves entrances to the underworld.
When we climbed up there were a few cliffs and Mom was terrified. He she is peeking over the edge while clinging to our guide.
Heres our creepy group photo. Taken with our head lamps on.
We went further into the cave and hopped off our inner tubes to walk over to a face carved in the wall. It is believed that this cave was the site for fertility ceremonies. According to our guide, couple who wanted children but couldn't concieve would come into the cave and pray to the gods and then have sex under the carved face in the wall. After doing this the gods would casue the woman to become pregnant. After having the baby the couple would have to come back and abandon the baby in a cave above as a sacrifice and payment for giving the woman a baby. All children after the first, the couple could keep.
There is also a stalagmite formation that stuck up from the floor and when you put a light behind it, it makes a dirty shadow of a couple engaged in some fertility ceremony.
We sat down for a photo op and got our butts all dirty.
On our way out of the cave, we were asked to make an inner tube chain and turn off our headlamps to ride the river back out of the cave. Mom managed to smack into a rock and pop her inner tube which popped pretty spectacularly. The guide laughed and said that had never happened before.
We then did some jumping off of the riverbed into the river and Courtney scrambled up a tree trunk to jump into the river.
The next day we went on a morning horseback trail ride. We went all through some orchards and a forest and down to a river. We actually saw some jaguar footprints! Down at the river we skipped some stones while the horses rested. Later, after heading back to the lodge, we went back to relaxing and drinking and eating delicious food. At one of these dinners a tribal drumming group was invited to perform. It reminded me sooo much of Tanzania. Brenna even got up and danced with them for a bit.
