Day 5 - Cave and Jungle Hike

Today was a treking day once again! Today's trek was to St. Herman's Cave for some splunking with our trusted tour guide Pedro and another couple - Carey and George from NY/NJ. Up till this point, the only caving I had done has been walking along a path that occasionally gets slippery - this was way different! We had to climb straight vertical for several sections - making us both wish that we had frequented the Rock Gym more often! The crazy thing was that all the rocks were covered in mud and therefore very slippery. We had to really think about every step we took to ensure that we wouldn't slip - some times the drop from slipping was 50-100 down! Pedro noted that if we fell, he'd come get us tomorrow. :) We saw Mayan pottery and ashes in the caves - apparently the Mayans didn't live in the caves, but they came in the caves to perform rituals and make sacrifices. We didn't see any human or animal remains, but apparently other caves show up to 18 human skeletons of people that were sacrificed! As we exited the cave, Pedro showed us the "water vine" which can save your life if your lost in the Jungle - you can cut it for fresh, filtered water. The vine is about 3 inches thick and very strong. We sat on one that looped down and swung!! It was a ton of fun! After the cave, we had a delicious lunch (the food here is amazing!) and then went swimming in the Blue Hole swimming area - a sink hole that was filled with water after a large storm some time ago.

One thing I'm amazed at is the personal care that people take for their parks - all the signs are hand painted and everything is very well kept for such a underpopulated Country. Basically - Belize is the size of Massachusetts with a population of San Antonio - 1/3 of whom live in Belize City. The towns outside of that city are very low tech and laid back. Also - there are TONS of restaurants here! In an area that maybe has 20 people, there will be 2-3 restaurants - most people eat out at night rather than cook themselves...which is just so odd to me...

Here are some pics from today...