Thursday, 6/6 "Boo-hoo! We love Cave's Branch. Yahoo! Back to AC!"

Breakfast at 8 again. YUM, again. Got our bags packed and visited with the staff a while before we had to leave the lodge. All the trips are gone by 9, so it was pretty quiet. Barnaby gave us a ride to the visitor’s center (at the end of the drive) to pick up the bus back to Belize City. Bought a couple trinkets from a little lady there while waiting. The bus ride was cool. All locals. Got to see more scenery. Back in Belize City, grabbed a taxi to go to Municipal. Lester, our driver, was crazy--In a good way. About 5 minutes in the taxi and I panicked. I had left my purse on the bus with our passports and all of our money. Lester said it was as good as gone. The station in Belize City is the main hub. It’s the end/beginning of all the runs. Lester flew back to the station. I’m starting to have a heart attack by this time. We ran back to where our bus had been. Now about 20 others had joined it. Found our driver, much to his dismay (he’s was relieving himself between buses). He ran us back to our bus. It had not started boarding for the next run yet. As I walked off the bus, WITH MY PURSE, everyone was clapping. Everyone said someone was smiling down on us that day because that was unheard of. Needless to say, I didn’t carry my purse with me the rest of the trip. The important stuff stayed in a pouch attached to my body.

We got to Municipal and waited for our flight back to AC. Three girls that were on the cave trip with us the day before showed up. They had decided to spend a couple days on AC. We were back on the island a little before noon.

We decided to take it easy that day. We dumped our stuff back at the hotel and decided to snorkel off the shore for a little bit. Saw a couple rays (in only about 4’ of water), lobsters, blue crabs and a few small fish. Spent the rest of the day scheduling our dive for the next day, eating, talking with people, renting a golf cart and reeking havoc on the streets of San Pedro. I think lunch was at Elvi’s. We really liked that place. Dinner was, of course, with the street vendors. I can taste the burritos and pineapple upside-down cake now! Stopped for a couple drinks at Shark’s Bar (forgot to mention that we had spent some time there earlier in the week). We love Gabriella and Aldo! Went over to Fido’s to see what was going on there…pretty quiet. They had a small classical orchestra thing going on there so we didn’t stay.

We took a leisurely drive on the beach back to del Rio. It was dark by then. We took our dive lights and some of the extra beef from the vendors’ burritos to the dock and went “fishing” for crabs. It was hilarious. The moon was beautiful on the water. There were hardly any clouds so the stars were bright, too.

Breeze, surf, incense, candles and we were in dreamland again. Big diving day Friday. We couldn’t wait.

Sharon, I'm loving your reports! It sounds like you and Sebron had an amazing time! it's great to get an in depth narrative of your mainland activities-- keep going!!!

How much of a relief was that to find your purse right where you left it?! Geez!

AC, I'm not a very religious person, but I actually went into the church on AC that afternoon, stood there, and said a "thank you" to whoever was listening. No joke! Sebron was right behind me.

Speaking of the church, we were in there in Jan on a Sunday, and besides the obvious differences in the service, we enjoyed a dog wandering in off the street and observing, and we did notice the candles in Belikin glasses. Even church in AC can be enjoyable.

Okay, that does it! Next trip, we gotta go inland! All that stuff ya'll did sounds so fun! We had a blast on AC but we need to get out more! Thanks for all your details!

Connie

Sharon:

Thank you so much for sharing these in depth reports. I have been to Belize on AC before and am heading back this fall to Caves Branch. This is the first trip report I have read from Caves Branch and you have me so convinced that we made the right choice. We can't wait now to enjoy all the same things you did.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Sharon:

Thank you so much for sharing these in depth reports. I have been to Belize on AC before and am heading back this fall to Caves Branch. This is the first trip report I have read from Caves Branch and you have me so convinced that we made the right choice. We can't wait now to enjoy all the same things you did.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Sharon:

Thank you so much for sharing these in depth reports. I have been to Belize on AC before and am heading back this fall to Caves Branch. This is the first trip report I have read from Caves Branch and you have me so convinced that we made the right choice. We can't wait now to enjoy all the same things you did.

Thank you so much for sharing!

By the way, would you add to anything at Caves Branch? We are staying for 4 nights and have 3 excursions planned. We have already done the cave tubbing, but plan to repel the Black Hole.



[This message has been edited by aqtpie2 (edited 06-13-2001).]

aqtpie2, What excursions do you already have planned? Did you do the cave tubing at Cave's Branch? I know that they do tubing out of Jaguar's Paw but it's in a different cave system. If you did do it at Cave's & it was just the tubig trip, I would recommend still doing the River Cave Exploration like we did. You see a lot more of the formations. I also heard that the Ceremonial Cave trip was really cool (I think I'd like to do that next time). Also the Night Jungle Trek. There are so many!

Glad I made you feel better about your decision. Hope you love it as much as we did. We'd like to go back and spend a week just at the lodge. Sharon

Sharon:

We did the tubing at Jaguar Paw. I am thinking if it is a different system, we may do it at Caves branch.

The excursions we have planned are: Night Trek; Repelling th eBlack Hole and the 3rd is up in the air, maybe horseback riding in the jungle. On our way back to the airport we are going to get dropped at teh Zoo to see that and then off to the Airport and to AC.

Did you have them pick you up or did you bus it out there?

Thanks for answering my questions!

Bonnie

Bonnie, I'm almost positive that the cave system at Cave's Branch is different than the one used at Jaguar Paw. But you could always email them to find out for sure. Even if it's not, like I mentioned before, the trip we did includes both tubing and cave exploration (rock climbing and stuff) and is much different than just the tubing. In fact, we talked to people at the lodge that did both and they liked the combo trip better.

I also thought of another trip that was suppose to be really cool. That's the Waterfall trip. Not sure of all the specifics. The guides really like this one.

All the trip leave at 9am. Whether you ferry it or fly to the mainland, the bus won't get you to the lodge in time. It makes a lot of stops between Belize City and Belmopan. Even the Express doesn't because it's schedule doesn't jive close enough with the ferry/flights. You'd either have to spend the night before at the lodge (bus it in) or have them pick you up wherever in Belize City like we did (we didn't want to spend a 3rd night off the island). The lodge transfer is considerably more expensive ($110 for as many people can fit in the van). Depends on how many people you have and what kind of accomodations you'd need at the lodge whether this would weigh out for you.

Hope this helps. You can email me at sharon_grajek@exe.com if you'd like more info "off line". Sharon

Sharon:
Thanks for the info, I am going to e-mail you for a few more questions.

Bonnie