Did I mention mountains? Upwards of 3,600 feet worth of mountains. Compared to the coastal area we've become used to, the Maya Mountains seem almost huge.
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| Mountains Galore |
We're going cave tubing!!!
I know Dianna was apprehensive about this as she has claustrophobia - But, What a trooper! She came through in fine fashion. We all had a great time.
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| The Crew Ready to Go |
Showing off her headlamp, Dianna is ready for our trek to the put-in area - about half an hour's hike up the mountain. Just slightly awkward carrying an innertube and life jacket, and water, cameras, and whatnot...
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| Stylin |
We're on our way. Our guide, Fernando, one of seven licensed guides for the park, was a wealth of knowledge about the geology and other wildlife in the area. There was even a termite nest down low enough we could look at it in detail (still couldn't see that much).
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| Underway on our Trek |
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| Termite Nest |
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| Here we are ready to get wet |
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| Dianna Ready to Do It! |
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| Me Ready to Do It! |
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| Working Up the Nerve to Actually Get in the Water |
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| Working Up the Nerve to Actually Get in the Water |
We actually had a bit more hiking to do, some of it underground, where we got our first good look at stalactites and stalagmites.
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| Craig and Mae Observing Nature's Slow and Inexorable Artistry |
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| Craig and Mae Observing Nature's Slow and Inexorable Artistry |
Hike, hike, hike. Ahh, it was a blast. It was really a pretty easy hike.
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| Heading Into Darkness |
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| Craig Asking Fernando a Question |
Now, we're actually ready to get going. We get in the water of the Caves Branch River and into our tubes. We linked our feet under the armpit of the person in front of us to form a train, so Fernando could pull us through the shallows. And probably cause we were a bunch of old farts, but he was too polite to say so.
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| Away We Go! |
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| Away We Go! |
Stalactites or stalagmites, hangy-down thingies anyway.
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| Lots of 'Em To See |
Here's a shot of Fernando pulling us through one of several shallows. The water was really low as it hadn't rained in a couple of months.
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| Dianna's Is Shining Brightly |
We saw bats by the hundreds. This shot is up a crevace where they're nested and just packed in together waiting for nightfall. They were all fruit bats.
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| Bats, Bats, And More Bats |
We passed and were passed by a couple of other groups of tubers. They cheated, using their flip-flops as paddles.
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| Passed and Passing |
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| Heading Into the Darkness |
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| Poor Fernando, towing Us Through Shallows Again |
One of the commands heard as we approached the shallows, was "Butts Up"! That meant for you to stretch out on your tube as horizontal as possible, not because of low ceilings, but high floor... So you didn't whack your tail bone on a rock in the shallows.
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| Weird Formations in the Light |
I thought these formations looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. I wouldn't have been surprised to hear someone whispering "My Precious" as we passed by.
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| Gollum's Lair |
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| A Rather Suggestive Formation |
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| Galleries Are Quite Large |
It's hard to say just how large the cave rooms or galleries are, but suffice to say, they are big. If there was somewhere to stand, you could do so with no fear of banging your head on any of the hangy-down bits. And, I guess the galleries in some cases are 10-15 feet across, some even larger. None of them made you feel closed in at all.
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Lots of Hangy-Down Thingies
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Lots of Hangy-Down Thingies
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We even came across an underground waterfall. It was hard to get a decent picture of it. This compact camera just doesn't have the greatest zoom. But I did manage to get a couple decent shots of the waterfall.
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| Underground Waterfall |
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| Underground Waterfall |
We came across a couple other tubing groups while we were underground. One, we passed, the other passed us. Kinda fun meeting total strangers in dark caves!
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| One of the Groups We Met |
As we came to the end of the journey, This was the scene that greeted us first. More surreal light and a person on shore. No idea who it was. He never said anything.
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| Journey's End |
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| Journey's End |
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| We're Definitely Back to the Surface |
Civilization on the approach. This is where we put out and had a short walk back to the parking area and turned in our tubes and lights.
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| Someone Doesn't Want to Quit |
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| It was a total fun trip |
After turning in our gear, we decided to take a look at the Jaguar Paw Resort (
http://www.jaguarpaw.com/). It's located inside the Caves Branch Archaeological Reserve, it's an upscale place to stay. We went to the bar, had a beer and some snacks, then headed back to town for dinner.
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| Craig Enjoying One |
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| Waiting for Service |
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