(Photo © John Geary)
Caves
and trails and scorpion tales
It
was time to head out of the blue and "into the green," as Kevin, one
of our guides so aptly phrased it; time to trade in our paddles and snorkels for
hiking boots and headlamps. We piled into a dilapidated van and headed down the
Hummingbird Highway into the Maya Mountains.
The
deeper we drove into the jungle-clad mountains, the more claustrophobic I felt
after spending a week on the open ocean. Once
we arrived at the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, though, that feeling quickly
vanished. We hiked through the jungle for an hour to reach our destination: a
small but beautiful and much-appreciated waterfall. Our jungle garb exacerbated
the jungle's humidity and energy-sapping heat. However, long pants and long
sleeves were a necessity - unless you wanted to have to dig out Botfly larvae
from an arm or leg. Botfly bites could be particularly nasty, as the insects
burrow underneath your skin to lay their eggs. You really don't want the eggs to
hatch into larvae there, as that can really
get under your skin! Kevin didn't take his own advice, and that night Justine
had to dig into his skin with a needle to get the eggs out.
Unfortunately
we did not see any jaguars, nor did we even see any spoor. But our admission
fees for the hike went towards maintaining the preserve, so in that sense, we
did have a connection with the great cats.
Our
afternoon drive continued and we eventually reached what would become our home
for the next two nights: Caves Branch, located just outside Blue Hole National
Park.
It
was here we experienced, for the first time, the other mainstays of Belizean
food. While coastal dwellers live off the sea, inland Belizeans subsist largely
on chicken, rice and beans. There is not much cattle ranching there, so beef is
not very abundant.
That
night's dinner was supplied by Paulin, our spelunking guide. He was quite a
character. He had lost one of his hands handling dynamite. He joked that
afterward, all the locals referred to him as the region's "explosives
expert." He had a large family to match his large heart, and named every
one of his 10 children after characters in Louis L'Amour novels.
That
night the sounds of the ocean lapping up on shore and crabs scurrying by in the
dark gave way to those of howler monkeys and wild parrots serenading us to
sleep.
The
next morning, a short hike took us to the mouth of St. Herman's Cave. We
strapped on our headlamps and proceeded to do our best Professor Hardwigg
impersonations, traversing down into the bowels of the earth. While we weren't
headed for the earth's centre as Jules Verne's explorer was, the experience
still overwhelmed us, at times. Everywhere we turned, we encountered stalagmites
and stalactites. We spent some time in a chamber off the main branch of the
cave. It was filled with numerous sizes of stalactites that allowed us to
redefine "rap music." Each one produced a different tone when rapped
on, so we could actually tap out a tune of sorts.
The
highlight of our trip through the cave was seeing shards of 2,000-year-old Mayan
pottery that littered the cave in various spots. The Mayans considered these
caves to be special, sacred places and were often used for ceremonies, hence the
pottery that could be found there.
After
lunch, one group went to a second cave named Mountain Cow Cave, while the other
went hiking up a mountain and through the jungle to the Blue Hole.
I
was with the latter group, but there were moments when I regretted my choice.
The walk up the mountainside was aided by steps - 600 of them. Then after
reaching the top, it turned out we had another 45-minute hike through the jungle
to the Blue Hole. Once we arrived though, we realized the trip was worth every
drop of sweat, every mosquito swatted, every steamy step.
The
Blue Hole is a deep, deep, DEEP sinkhole of blue, ice-cold water in the middle
of the jungle. The only bad part about jumping in and cooling off was having to
get out again and hike back to our camp.
The
next day, we had no difficulty staying cool. We
began our day by hiking for an hour along an dried-up river bed, each of
us toting a daypack and an inner tube. The tubes represented our transportation
of choice for the day. We spent the day travelling through three different
caves, via an underground river. We floated through the sombre darkness of
caves and out into the lush greenery of the rainforest, passing from cave
to jungle to cave to jungle to cave and finally out into the jungle and to a
pick-up point where the river was accessible by vehicle.
The
next day, it was off to the Mayan ruins. We visited two sites, one established
site called Xuanantanich and a second one called Cahal Pech. Xuanantanich
offered a well-established outdoor museum that travellers could study, along
with plaques explaining each building's significance. The ruins at Pech were
still undergoing excavation so there was not as much to see in terms of
structures; however, it was very interesting to see a
"dig-in-progress."
We
spent our final two nights at Mountain Equestrian Trails. Ironically, it was
while staying there in little cabins called cabanas that I had to pull a couple
of ticks out of my skin and found a scorpion in my shirt. During the entire10
days I slept in a tent on remote islands and in the jungle, I never ran into any
"creepy critters". But here in a more "civilized" setting,
my luck caught up with me.
We
spent our only day at MET riding through the jungle on horseback to another
beautiful waterfall. We swam, we dove, we revelled in the wild waters. It was as
if we were trying to ward off our return to the city in one final romp with
nature.
During our return drive to Belize City, we stopped at J.B.'s Watering Hole - located "in the middle of nowhere" as the sign outside this jungle bar informed us - and we chomped into our first beef burgers of the trip! They were greasy, thin wafers of meat, but after two weeks of seafood, chicken, rice and beans and vegetarian delights, they tasted like the finest gourmet burger ever offered at Earl's or Moxie's! As I chomped my way through it, I swore I could hear the strains of Jimmy Buffet's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" off in the distance.
We also stopped at Belize Agricultural Fair, for a second round of greasy burgers. Our final stop was at the Belize Zoo to get a glimpse of all the wildlife we never did see in the jungle: jaguars, toucans, vultures, ocelots, and a tapir highlighted our visit.
Finally, we arrived back in the urban jungle of Belize City. As we drove to the airport to fly home, another Buffet tune sprang to mind. The thought of saying "good-bye" to this beautiful country brought on an unwanted melancholy mood.
So rather, it was "Manana" that filled my thoughts as I boarded the plane that would take me back home.
Part I: Cay Hopping Along the Coast