Hey Buddy

I think I have discovered my new favorite phrase. We left the dock today at 6:45am and were greeted by our tour guide Devin from Seaduced by Belize adventure tours with a cheery “Hey buddy” in a thick creole accent. I must have heard “Hey buddy”, “Yo buddy”, or just plain “buddy” about a hundred times today between all of the people we met while cave tubing and zip lining today but it never ceased to bring a smile to my face.

We traveled with a group of 9 tourists (including us) who were all really friendly. We got some ideas of stuff to do with our remaining time (preview: snorkeling at Mexico Rocks, howler/spider monkey sightings at the Lamanai Ruins). On our way from Ambergris Caye to the mainland, we spotted a small pod of bottlenose dolphins! I did get a video, but I’m afraid the shot quality isn’t spectacular. I might be able to pull out some stills later though.

We navigated up the Belize river to Manatee Lookout, and from there took a van ride to a park at Jaguar Paw where we zip lined and cave tubed. The views from the platforms between zip line runs were pretty awesome because we were in the rainforest. Honestly though, in my opinion zip lining is just zip lining and I have been on more exciting runs before, so it was kind of meh other than the views. I really liked how the platforms were all really big and comfortable though.

After ziplining and eating lunch, we took a hike up to the cave system. On the way up we spotted a ton of tarantulas, some iguanas, and I was christened with my first mosquito bite of the trip (I’m surprised it has taken so long, but it has been really windy on Ambergris Caye). Going in, I had no clue what to expect from cave tubing, but it was literally just going through the caves on an inner tube, lazy river style. It was pretty cool though and really dark, so bringing my own brighter headlamp really paid off. We didn’t even have to paddle or steer because our awesome tour guide lashed all of us together and did it all for us, which left our arms free so I was able to get footage of basically the entire tubing trip. I’ll definitely pull out some stills and post some videos from that.

Also, we finally ate a meal here that was really good and felt authentic as a bonus! The place was called Akbol, and was a short walk from our resort. I got a sampler platter of three types of local dishes, but I have totally forgotten what they were called. But essentially, they had a corn-based (I think) shell or fritter which incorporated meat either stuffed within it or on top of it, and then was topped with lettuce, tomatoes, etc. It kind of reminded me of tacos or empanadas, but they were different. I think we will definitely eat there at least once more :D.

Unfortunately I’ve only got one decent photo to share from today–everything else was done through video. I swear though, there will be some pretty cool stills and clips from cave tubing… I just need to find time/processing power to edit.

DCIM100GOPRO

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