So, we booked a tour at our hotel to go caving in a canoe and swimming in some waterfalls. We were on the road at 9:30 in a blue Suburban which made Jason feel right at home. Our guide for the day was Edward, a young fellow with no kids.... and perhaps after a day with us he never will... just kidding... the kids were great .... well greatish.
We had to drive through orange groves and through bumpy dirt roads to get to our destination. Part way up one of the hills the Suburban stopped and wasn’t going anywhere. I thought we were stuck on a rock, but no, we were leaking transmission fluid. Jason had a look and as he has had this problem in the past (surprise, surprise) he helped Edward out. There was a little half full bottle of transmission fluid in the back of the truck, so the boys emptied the bottle into the truck and we were off again .... for a while.
Along the way to the caves, there was an Amish community. A bit strange to see in the jungle of Belize, but there you have it. The next time the truck died, we were right in front of a shed belonging to the Amish. There was a Belizean fellow working with them, so we asked if he could call our hotel to send another truck as ours was barely moving. We waited a while and then we decided to try our luck. If we went really fast up the hills, we seemed to be OK, so that is what we did.
We arrived at the caves and the owners had a little surprise ... a baby spider monkey! His name was Mango and the girls just loved him. He was only a year old and just like a baby -- that is a baby that you can tie to a chain.
After our visit with Mango, we were off to the caves. Jason, Reed and I in one canoe – Edward and the girls in another. We entered the cave, hooked up a couple of flashlights to the small car batteries in our canoes and off we went. It was pretty amazing with the stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. We were the only ones in the cave for 99% of the tour. There were parts of the cave where we had to lay flat in our canoes to pass through. Yeah, try doing that with a baby crying in your arms, paddling and holding a flashlight connected to a giant battery ..... oh, all while listening to your daughter crying in the other canoe. Yep, it was heaven.
It was actually pretty cool and after the baby had a big poop, he stopped crying. Lena .... not so much.
We had some lunch and were off to our next destination which was to see and swim in some waterfalls. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it that far because just as we got to the entrance of the park, the blue suburban had had enough. So, we coasted "home". 7 ½ hours after we left, we were back at our hotel. Thank goodness for those fantastic swimming pools!!
