Belize - Caves Branch - Day 2

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Wow. Words really can’t describe what we experienced last night. Sometime in the middle of the night Karin and I were awakened by perhaps the most frightening sound I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like a cross between a lion roar and a wounded wild boar (not that I’ve ever personally heard a wounded wild boar or a lion for that matter). It started as a long, throaty, scream followed by three quick grunts. There was a 10 second pause and then it would start again. I sat straight up. My heart was pounding. The animal was somewhere in the 20 yard patch of jungle between our cabana and the river bank and only a screen protected us from this wounded and surely ferocious beast. By this point Karin is freaking out. “What is it?” she keeps asking. We’re both terrified and have no idea what to do. People in a neighboring cabana are also awakened and soon we see flashlight beams shining into the jungle towards the noise, but we see nothing. “What the hell is that?” we hear them asking in tense, frightened whispers. It probably went on for 4-5 minutes but felt like hours. Finally someone from the other cabana threw a rock in the direction of the animal and it mercifully stopped. Somehow the girls did not wake up. I laid back down and tried to go to sleep hoping that we had heard the end of it.

At the crack of dawn the screaming beast begins again. This time the girls awaken too and instantly everyone is in our bed. Karin huddles with the wide-eyed, terrified girls while I look out the window trying to see what it is. Finally I see two people walk into the small section of jungle and point into the trees. Apparently the little monkeys we had watched with such amusement yesterday were actually Black Howlers, and the horrible noise we heard was simply them calling to their friends. Eventually I mustered up the courage to carry the girls out one at a time and see the howler monkey scream. It looked right at Paige and I and screamed in our direction. Even in the daylight, fully aware that it was this friendly looking monkey making the noise, it was still horrible.

After everyone settled down, I walked up to the lodge and got us coffee where I saw one of the guides. I told him our story from the previous night and he laughed with great pleasure as I told him how terrified we were. He tells me that we were very lucky. “Many people come here hoping to see the monkeys and never do” he says. It was one of those life experiences that, while scary at the time, I’ll certainly never forget.

Breakfast is served at 8:00am and our cave tubing trip leaves at 9:00am. Karin and I split a big breakfast burrito and the girls have pancakes, sausage, and fruit. Everything is wonderful. This morning we also discover the orange juice squeezer. There is a huge box of oranges next to it and the girls and I have great fun squeezing out 4 big glasses of juice. I notice bright, blooming orchids hanging all around the perimeter of the dining area. I recognize them from the garden tour and imagine the man we met yesterday carefully selecting them each morning and bringing them up to decorate the lodge for breakfast.

Abel is going to be our guide for the day. He is bringing his nephew Elmer who is also a guide for Caves Branch. Four others will be joining us. We pile into a rickety old bus with canvas curtain windows and begin our bumpy 20-minute journey through massive orange orchards towards the river. The girls laugh in amazement as the bus actually drives through the river at one point. Caves Branch leases this land and grows the oranges. It is their second biggest money-maker next to tourism. As we exit the bus, Abel hands us each an inner tube and a waterproof headlamp.

We hop in the river and Abel gives us a brief history lesson on the caves and the Mayan culture before paddling upstream to the cave entrance. He explains that people didn’t live in the caves; instead they typically used them for ceremonies. The caves were believed to be a very dark and spiritual place, part of the underworld. Abel is extremely knowledgeable and a captivating speaker. Later we learn that he has two boys very close in age to Rylee and Paige. He and Elmer are very attentive to the girls and take special care to make sure they are safe and comfortable.

The scenery inside that cave is spectacular. There are huge caverns, crystal formations, and gigantic stalagmites and stalactites. We see several species of bats, spiders, and fish. We also see many ancient Mayan artifacts which are over 1000 years old. Archeologists recently found some remnants in this cave that dated as far back as 300BC. All told, we’re in the cave for about 4 hours (including a picnic lunch) and the whole experience is amazing and educational.

Our companions for this trip were two couples who were staying in a beach town about an hour south of Caves Branch. The men were both attorneys and one man in particular took a special interest in the girls and told us stories with great joy of traveling with his kids at similar ages. He told us repeatedly how great he thought it was that we were doing this with the whole family and how much he hoped we enjoyed it. They were great company to have on the trip and this type of positive reinforcement only made it better.

We arrived back to the lodge at 3:00pm and decided to head back down to the river to cool off. Today the girls were focused on catching minnows. Along the bank, they stacked rocks in a circle to form a holding tank for their minnows. Next they built a long path which lead to the well. Using their hands, they encouraged the minnows up the path and then blocked it off once they were secure. They managed to catch quite a few minnows with their trap and I was actually quite impressed with their ingenuity as I had seen “Survivor Man” use a similar technique to catch trout once on his TV show.

By the time we finished our jungle showers it was 5:00pm which meant happy-hour and homework at the lodge. Tonight our dinner companions were a couple named Dave and Barb from Wisconsin and a younger guy named Ian who was traveling by himself. Dave and Barb were very interesting and easy to talk to. Barb had a bubbly personality and just seemed to love life. Dave had a very even keel and deep voice. He listened intently and spoke very slowly, as if he thought long and hard about every word before saying it. We learned that they owned an organic CSA farm in Wisconsin. This is the off-season for them. They told us that they were already at capacity with their land and had a waiting list for new members. Their members were allowed to work in the fields for their share rather than paying a flat price. We love our local CSA, and they were obviously very passionate about theirs. I could have talked for hours with them about this subject.

As much as I was intrigued by their story, I was also anxious to hear Ian’s. He had just returned from one of “Ian’s Bad Ass Expeditions” (purely coincidental that his name was also Ian). He and two guides did the overnight jungle survival trek. They built their own shelter, ate wild plants, caught fish, and attempted to trap animals. Ian told us how he swam naked in the river at the guide’s encouragement, and how they laughed wildly when he yelped as the fish nipped at his privates. He also told us how the guides ate live termites and attempted to get him to do the same. “No way” he shook his head “that’s where I drew the line”.

We were enjoying the company, but once again the girls are beat. We’ve been in Belize two days and the girls are doing absolutely fantastic. We even comment on how they seem to be behaving better here than they do at home. If we want this to continue, we know they’ll need their sleep. Our choices for tomorrow are the Belize Zoo or the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins. I figure we can see a zoo at home, so we’re headed for the Mayan ruins. We walk back to the cabana, crawl into bed, and hope the howler monkeys are quiet.

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