Waterworld

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone reading this was able to safely ring in the New Year in style, with loved ones of course. As Roya so tastefully described, this was a New Year like none other for us. Dancing on picnic tables half submerged in a turquoise blue sand bar, all beneath a smiling crescent moon that mimicked the Cheshire cat. It was awesome. Simply Awesome.  Then came the rain.

Five days ago I would have told you that I was most excited to script the blog posts from our journey in Caye Caulker. I’m now begrudgingly forced to smash 4 days into 1 post as the torrential downpour that followed our New Year’s bash kept us cooped up. However, in the very same fashion that Roya and I attacked our past three days, I’m  going to write this post with a fatty grin as if the glass is half full… of rum!

Truthfully, we were blessed to be spending these days with a counterpart that can put a positive spin on anything. When we arose on the 1^st (Roya passed out at 2am and I kept going until 6…so I was snoozed a lil longer) we looked out our front porch, and where a beautiful beach once stood, there was nothing but a thicket of rain drops so dense you could hardly make out the sand. So what did we do? What any competitive couple does, we challenged each other to every game we could think of. Scrabble, Jenga, Gin Rummy, Sports Trivia, Mastermind, you name it. And when the sound of the rain bullets escalated, we played even faster and laughed even harder. This continued until we simply couldn’t take it anymore and we decided that instead of challenging each other we would take mother earth head on.

After tossing our dry clothes in ziplock baggies and stripping down to our suits, we braved the storm and rode through the rain towards the center of town….and it was incredible. After the first splash of mud it was game on. Every puddle was a new adventure and we plowed through them all as fast as we could…and if I timed it just right I could get the splash of my tires to spray all over Roya. As if beating her in every game we played wasn’t enough (I’m definitely getting a knuckle sandwich once she reads this).

We continued the frolickin’ until we arrived at the town sports bar, Barrier Reef Sports Bar, where we proceeded to down nachos, beer, pineapple rum, and greasy burritos all while watching our favorite college football teams battle it out on the grid iron.

Roya sending a friendly message to dad during the VTech game

Okay, that was one day, but replay that two more times and you’ve got a perfect synopsis of our time in on the island. Though the days were filled with friendly matches of every sort, when it came to our days in Caye Caulker there was no contest. We both won big time.

Seeing as Roya’s program starts tomorrow, I’m going to double down and give you a bird’s eye view of our Jan 4^th adventures too! Accordingly, I’m writing this post in a toy-like prop plane on our way to the volunteer site in Dangrigia.

We started the morning off right, with a pit stop at Amor  y Café for some homemade yogurt and granola on our way to the water taxi. Unfortunately the high winds forced a delay, but David the super guide came to the rescue. Instead of stranding us in Belize City, he told the bus to go ahead and he waited with his Jeep Cherokee. I don’t know how it’s happening, but every guide we’ve had since setting foot in Central America has been off the hook. Right from the get go, David was lining up the jokes, educating us on the local vegetation, people, and culture and doing so with a passion that you just can’t fake. Ah, I forgot to tell you why we were in this stranger’s car in the first place. Cave tubing.

The Mayan river we navigated, “Xi’balba,” translates to “Place of Fear” and was known as the “Mayan hell.” Today, Roya and I went to hell and back and now I’m going to tell you…I like what they’ve done with the place!

We don't have the cord for our water cam, so this ins't us...but you can see that "hell" has a nice interior decorator!

I’d let the pictures do most of the talkin’ but the camera can’t capture the tropical explosion of awesome we explored today so I’ll try to fill in the gaps, or should I say gasp…haha, eh, it’s lame but I’m leavin it cause I can! Anyway, where was I?  Ah yes, back to describing the modern day version of LittleFoot’s Great Valley. I’ll start with the river itself.

Imagine the most pristine water you’ve ever seen, then imagine it’s running through King Kong’s back yard and that’s what we’re dealing with. I’ve never seen a river possess the strikingly different shades of blue that come and go with the depths, much like the Caribbean. We dropped tubes about 1.5 miles upstream after jumping off a 15ft cliff and slowly meandered through the most… “jungly” jungle I’ve ever been to in my life (searched for a real adjective there but nothing trumped jungly so again, I’m stickin’ with it). David’s cohort is a 25yr army survival veteran and pointed out dozens of plants/trees, along with their unique traits, from medicinal (pain or burn relief, numbing, fever reduction) to cultural (war paint, “henna” tattoo) to flat out torturous (the mayan’s used to tie prisoners to the poison wood tree then cut slits above their captives until the poison sap ate away at their exposed flesh).

Once inside the caves, the camera was a bit useless, but we managed to snap a few shots with ambient light. The caves are composed of limestone and are among the only in the world that you can explore by water.  The stalactites that speckle the ceiling are covered in a crystalized layer that’s built up from the slow trickling of water through cracks in the limestone ecosystem. The Mayan’s believed this water to be “holy water” and those that were sacrificed in the caves thought it would carry them through the afterlife. Too bad for them, but it sure did feel nice after a day in the sun!

We finished off the drift with a little swim down river then high tailed it over to the Belizean Airport to team up with Roya’s classmates. The flight to Dangriga was so short I think a sling shot would have sufficed but we made it none the less and here I am about to land after a 20 minute flight.

So, how did everyone ring in the New Year?! We’re eager to hear from you all so please feel free to share your stories below.

And that’s all I’ve got, but before I go, here’s to giving the Mayan’s ALMOST what they predicted…a year filled with so much success that the whole planet rocks with joy all year long.

-P

(Way more pictures are to come…)