Belize cave tubing

My wife and I with another couple took a 10 day cruise on the Coral Princess. A lovely ship, good food and great entertainment with 11 bars for those so inclined. Our cabin was on the 10th deck with a balcony mid ship. We departed from Fort Lauderdale on November 10, 04 and I had to decide what to do at each port. Without question I had to do river rafting in Limon, Costa Rica, tour the Panama Canal and swim with the dolphins in Cozumel. Grand Cayman was open but the ocean was too rough and I had to cancel swimming with the stingrays, did that in Tahitii- it is great. Anyways, what to do in Belize? I had read the message from Todd W that he posted on 9/12/04 about Cave Tubing and it sounded so different. Why not try something different? I therefore e-mailed to Nacho " Nacho Belize Adventure Tours" at nachoq_860@hotmail.com to set up a trip on November 18, 04. He asked if I could get about a total of 4-6 people for our escapade. I had myself and my friend, a total of 2, but I just kept on asking other passengers with no luck. On the day that we were to arrive in Belize we had to wait in the lounge as one of the tenders of another ship was taking on water and they sent our tenders to help. I started a conversation with other people and lo and behold a newly wed couple said that the were going to go onshore and try to do cave tubing. My other 2 co-tubers were to be found.

Upon arriving on land I wondered if Nacho would still be there as it was much later than expected. I went to Terminal 1 and upon exiting there was Nacho with a large sign with my name on it. Success, we all got into his Chrysler mini van and proceeded to drive to Jaguar Paw Resort, www.jaguarpaw.com where we could change into our bathing suits and wet water shoes in the rest rooms of the resort. We had as our guides both Cynthia who is Nacho's wife and another person to guide our party of four. Whereas, the tours from the ship consisted of about 40-45 people and only one guide. Also, we went through 2 caves as we walked further up river. We all jumped into the river and got into the inner tubes and put on our vests and miners head lamps. It is very quiet and dark in the caves. We at times held onto one another hand or foot to make a column, watch out if you have sensitve feet as you might end up laughing a great deal. After tubing we had a sit down lunch for all in the Jaguar Paw Resort whereas the ship tours people had to eat at benches outside, lots of bugs so bring bug spray, also they did not have the clean restrooms to change into dry clothes like we did.

After lunch we had a tour by Cynthis and Nacho of the Resort. It is definitly out of the way in the jungle. A couple of lazy dogs and a funny baboon hanging upside down teasing the dogs. A great time was had by all.

On the way back to the ship Nacho gave us a city tour and a little history lesson which I always find interesting. The more that we who live in North America learn about other people and cultures expands our understanding of others.

In conclusion, I have to say thank you Nacho and of couse Cynthia for an adventure that I can only recomend to others. These two people are open and warm and so easy to get to know and of course to like.

They do other types of tours other than cave tubing and can accomodate large groups, all one has to do is ask.

The biggest question is would I do this again with these two wonderful prople and the answe is YES.

If anyone has any questions, so not hesitate to e-mail me.

You mentioned the river rafting in Limon Costa Rica. How rough was the river rafting??

[Jim Bragg]

booboo, the water has a couple of class 3 rapids. It is pretty rough in those areas and while I would not recommend it for people over 65 or anyone that is not is somewhat decent shape it is a fantastic tour and everyone I talked with afterwards agreed it is the best tour they have ever done anywhere. The bus ride takes you through a very interesting ride and you then get off the bus and walk about a mile down a fairly steep and rocky, gravely road so tennis shoes or water shoes are necessary and flipflops and especially bare feet are not an option. You are expected to paddle and you will get tossed around and some do get tossed out of the boat. While you do have vests and a helmet you should be a swimmer at least. If you can do it I highly recommend this tour about all others.
Jim

The river at the time we did it was between a 3.5 to 4.0. They just had a week of rain so that would have bearing as to how rapid the water flow would be. If one has never done rafting before they would still manage it. There were many people in there mid 60's or so and also much younger.

I found it a blast as I have also rafted in Alaska and in Northern California. Make sure if you go that you have a very good pair of water shoes as there are lot of rocks.they stop midway for some fruit, etc. I have a pair of Solomon water shoes that have a very good sole for walking any distance.

If you have any more questions do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Thanks for the info ..I'm well under the the 60's age bracket (41 to be exact!) and am going on a singles cruise in April so I think I'll give it a shot. I'm a strong swimmer so it should be ok.