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Published: August 8th 2007
The Sleeping Giant
His head is on the right hand side of the photo. Look at it the right way and you can see him!Oh the puns that are made in Belize! I saw this one today and thought “yup, that’s the title of today’s blog!”.
Today was Bronwyn and Jackie (spa girls)’s day off. Last week they were telling me how they really wanted to do something in Belize besides eat at the port and I was telling them about how there are so many incredible tours in Belize. Due to various logistics/rules, we wouldn’t be able to do a Carnival excursion, so I said I’d try to organize one through the taxi/guide association. So today, the three of us girls, along with Marvin and Ryan (musicians in the showband) went on a private tour.
Our guide, Phil, was fantastic. He pointed out all of the usual sites along the way that I’m now accustomed to seeing having been on so many Belize tours. But none of the others had seen anything of the country yet so they loved it. One thing that was very cool though, was this mountain range that I’ve probably passed about a half dozen times before. Phil said it’s called the Sleeping Giant because that’s what it looks like. I looked at it for a moment, not
really understanding. Then suddenly I could see it. The shape of the mountains were just like the profile of a person lying down: nose, chin, neck, stomach . . . it was so cool!
The first half of our tour was . . . ZIP LINING! Yes, the big dreaded zip lining that terrified me two months ago, I was now thrilled to be going to do. If I can sky dive, what’s some zip lining? The Aerial Trek is located in the same park as cave tubing (which I hadn’t known) and it’s sort of just outside of the caves where we tube. There were 6 lines, not as high or as intimidating as the ones in Costa Rica. These were all below the canopy, amongst the trees. But that was really cool. It’s such an incredibly way to see the rainforest.
After the final line, they repel you to the ground. They were dropping people so quickly, I was really nervous. I repelled probably close to 1000 students last fall at YLCC, I’ve done it before myself, but because they were doing it so fast, I was terrified, shaking, nearly crying. I just didn’t want to
Ready To Go!
Marvin, Me, Jackie, Bronwyn & Ryan feel like I was falling. I pleaded with the guy to let to down slowly and thankfully (for the most part) they did. That moment aside, it was brilliant and so great to just enjoy zip lining this time.
After that we went River Tubing on the Segouin River, which meets up with the river we cave tube on. While it was overcast today, so not sparkling gorgeous out, the scenery was still beautiful. By this time, we were beginning to be pressed for time, so we had to paddle ourselves (with our hands), rather than just lying back and relaxing. We’re exhausted and our arms ache from the workout! But the river was gorgeous, the water warm, the surrounding trees spectacular and the photos incredible.
Then there was drama. Due to little things all day we kept losing 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there. We nearly missed the ship! We were all stressing out. Phil was driving like a champ. I kept thinking of positive things to tell the others like “At least we don’t have to fly to another island, we can take a bus up to Costa Maya and be there by sunset”. Thankfully though,
we made the last tender and are all now back on the ship. If any of us get fired, it won’t be today for being late.
I am still in love with Belize. Yes, the nation is still very much developing and there is a certain roughness to it. The country is not all luxury (though luxury can be found). But the sites are spectacular. Nature is so well preserved and protected. There is so much to do and see. I love this country. Love it.
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anonymous
non-member comment
I don´t think I´m going to have enough money left to do Belize. It makes me sad but it´s true. I´ll have to just do Guatemala and be happy with that. Makes me sad seeing your fun pics of fun activities but such is life. I know I will return to Belize at some point in my life, as I really want to dive the ¨blue hole¨ site there. Maybe my honeymoon... lol. Maybe while working on a cruise ship.