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Having overcome my claustrophobia yesterday, today we spent even more time in caves. We headed to Nohoch Che'en (Caves Branch) Archaeological reserve to spend the day cave tubing: floating along the river through various caves in an industrial sized rubber ring/inner tube. We booked with Vitalino Reyes, a local guide, whose company the books recommend as the most knowledgable about the cave branch. We met our guide, Vitalino Jr, son of the owner, and got into the minivan ready for the 90 minute drive out of San Ignacio. This time we had company on the tour, a group of four 20-somethings from Washington State, USA. We actually had sat behind the same group on the bus ride from Belize City to San Ignacio.
Arriving at the caves, we had to put on life jackets and helmets complete with head torches, along with our swimming gear, and then set out into the jungle. Me and Matt had to hire water shoes from a guy on a stall, as we only had flip flops with us, which would be too slippery for the trek to the cave entrance. (They were pretty cool, I might get a pair for rainy days at home!)
We had to trek 45 minutes into the jungle, sweating trying to carry the large inner tube that was bigger than me, but Vitalino showed us lots of cool things along the way. We saw plants that are sold to Wrigley's to make chewing gum, trees that bear fruit that locals use as insect repellant, and orange trees that are owned by Tropicana. In the jungle, Vitalino even poked a stick into a hole in the forest floor so that we could see a tarantula emerging from its nest - rather him than me! We also saw a dye tree, which has orange, iodine-like sap which you can use to give you a temporary; waterproof tattoo. I'm proud to say that I resisted the strong temptation to draw a willy on Matt's arm/forehead!
After climbing into our tubes on the river, Vitalino tied our rubber rings in a line, so that the six of us floated down the river together. There was a gentle current to the water, so you didn't have to paddle. I was at the front of the chain, so I entered the cave mouth first: it was pitch black in there, so we switched our head torches on straight away.
We floated the through the first cave, which was filled with stalactites, stalagmites and loads of insect eating bats. After a while, we emerged into the open air again, drifted for a while, and then plunged back into darkness in the second cave. About halfway through, we came to a small waterfall gushing from between the rocks - it was beautiful, and the water was crystal clear. It pooled into a cenote - a natural pool of water in the rocks, where they filmed part of the US reality TV series, Temptation Island!
Emerging from the second cave, we floated down the river for about 15 minutes taking in the view of the surrounding jungle. There were several pockets of natural rapids, where Vitalino shouted 'Butts Up!' as we sped along - we didn't want a free bum massage from the rocks! Vitalino tried to point out a group of bats to me that were hanging from a cliff face, but I couldn't see them as they were too well camouflaged - so he threw a rock into the water below and a cloud of about 50 bats seemed to appear from nowhere, flying from the rock surface!
Clambering out of the river after the two hour tour, we were back at the mini bus - luckily the river brought us back to the entrance so we didn't have to undertake another 45 minute jungle trek! We headed straight to lunch, which was actually served in Vitalino's home and cooked by his family. We all sat round the table to eat stewed chicken, coleslaw, rice and beans, and an endless supply of rum punch - much to our delight! We chatted to the people from the USA, who were roommates from Washington State University. They were amazed that we didn't know what candy corns are (I'm still not sure), but apparently they are big in America at Halloween! They also thought me and Matt were really refined because of our accents - they obviously haven't been to England!!!
(P.s. Happy Birthday, Mum!)
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