caves branch tubing

i ate a live termite today.  on purpose.

john and i went tubing on the caves branch river, linda was going to go but she sprained her ankle a couple days ago.  edwin picked us up at the hotel and we drove a bit over an hour, almost half way to belize city.  on the way we spotted a toucan!!  i've been trying to find a toucan for several days with no luck, you'd figure they'd be everywhere since its the national bird.  it was easier finding a crocodile.

we got to the river and hiked for about 40 minutes, stopping several times along the way to learn about the poisonous plants, poisonous insects, everything along the trail.  the poisonous plants, trees mostly, each had a built in antidote if you knew how to harvest it.  and one of the trees had a compound in the bark that would slow down reactions to ant and snake bites and allow you to get to a hospital.  neat stuff.

we ate some plants along the way as well, begonias, very tart, palm kernels, like hard coconut, and craboo, like... i'm not sure what.  incidentally, i tried a craboo colada at the bar last nite and it was super good.

john asked about a giant lump on a tree and it turned out to be a termite nest.  edwin stuck his finger in it and said they are mostly protein and tasted like mint with a carrot aftertaste.  his hand was crawling with them.  he asked if we wanted to try.  first reaction, cringe and back away.  but then i thought, i'm standing in a jungle in belize and someone wants me to eat a termite.  when will this moment happen again?

so i ate a termite.  when he crunched in my teeth he really did taste minty.  and after a few minutes he tasted carroty.

we finished our walk and ended up near a cave on the river.  we're the first group to get to the water, and its just john and me.  we jump in our inner tubes, strap on headlamps, here we go.  i probably won't be able to describe this very well so here's a little article.  we floated into the first cave and it was full of stalactites, stalagmites, the usual.  john used to belong to a spelunking club so of course he's got his super brite lite so we can look in every hole and corner.  lots of bats flying overhead, super dark, cold water, fun stuff.

after about 20 minutes or so we get to the end of the first cave and into the open, edwin stops for a swim.  this is also about the half way point of the trip and there are people getting into the water here.  some guides want to take people half way up the trail, hurry them along, then grab another group of people and double their money for the day.  so as we come down the river a guy's looking at us asking where we were coming from, he thought he was at the top.  we take about 20 minutes here wandering around checking out the outside of the cave, watching other small groups speed by.

time to go, back on the tubes, we enter the next cave.  this one opens up into a huge cavern with a waterfall and a cave in towards the back so there's a bit of sunlight shining through.  it was a beautiful sight, everything is dark and suddenly there a bright spot full of old trees and a winding staircase going up and out of the cave.  we stop our tubes under the waterfall and start to climb, its only a few feet tall but it was dark and full of pointy slippery rocks so somewhat sketchy.  i love that i can do things here that i'd never be allowed to do at home, these tours would have been shut down long long ago as unsafe.

behind the waterfall there was a 25 foot deep pool that we got to jump into from about 7 feet up.  doesn't sound like much but its almost black inside the cave but the water is so clear that you can see the giant boulders at the bottom.  he says its ok, he says its ok, its ok, jump.  it was ok.  then we walked up the stairway and ogled the scenery while other tour groups were sailing by, no one else got to stop and see the waterfall and jump off rocks.  john and i apparently got the deluxe tour.

more caves, then back outside, through some rapids, then we're done.  another enjoyable day.

since we had another hour or so to get home we're asking edwin every question we can think of.  the following is a small sample of interesting things i learned.

bikers.  i see them on the road here and it scares me.  the roads are skinnier than on kauai and people drive like crazy here, i was terrified for them.  but bikers here, the ones training for races and on actual road bikes, buy a permit to use the road.  if a car hits a biker with a permit they're in super deep shit so people go out of their way to be careful of them.

the belizean government sold a bunch of passports to taiwan to encourage immigration here.  there is a huge asian population, from stores and restaurants to crop science centers.  the taiwanese flag is everywhere.  at first no one here could understand them but since a younger generation has been born the kids learn to speak both taiwanese and creole and all is good.

there is also a huge population of both amish and menonites.  horses and buggies on the roads, long beards, formal looking clothes, they look more out of place here than they do in ohio.  but they have carved out their little place and everyone gets along.  there's also another similar group that they call 'mechanites', almost the same as menonites but they use heavy duty equipment on their farms.

the wage paid to a lower level worker, say the women that cook me breakfast and clean my room, is around $30 belize per day.  which is $15 us per day.  for an 8 or 10 hour day.  good thing the locals don't have to pay the prices they charge tourists.

and there was alot more that i'm having trouble recalling at this point.

i just got back from dinner with john and linda, i'm leaving here on thursday and i will miss them, john has been a wonderful adventure buddy.  we drove down a dirt road to find the spot where the 2 rivers meet (the founders of this area thought they were on an island, which is why its called 'cayo' even though its not an island.  some recollection going on now), we saw an owl and 2 strange animals fighting in the road in the headlites.  they were either small possums or large rats, not sure.  after finding the river we see a foot bridge going across.  i happen to have a headlamp in my bag so of course john and i have to try it out.  missing boards, loose boards, possibly it was so dark out that we missed the bridge closed sign.

which brings up my instructions should i fall through the broken wooden slats of a bridge over crocodile and leach infested waters somewhere in a third world.  you probably won't find any pieces of me to cremate but if its a really cool death like that i want it described in detail in my obituary.  or as my final facebook post.  whichever.

lazy day on the river