Now in Placencia

We have now arrived in Placencia, staying at the Tradewinds for four nights before heading up to Singing Sands.

Caves Branch was just awesome and we totally enjoyed the jungle and all the tours.

So our tours ended up being:
* Tikal
* Cave Tubing / Zip Line
* Xunantunich
* ATM
* early morning birding

Tikal was a long car ride into Guatemala, with a stop for an authentic Guatemalan breakfast. Tikal is a huge Mayan ruin site, and if we didn't have such a good guide, I don't think we would have been able to see nearly as much as we did. Amazing.

Cave Tubing was fun, except for when Harold fell and bruised his bum on the rock. I was worried about him - and you should see the size of his bruise! Almost half his bum is purple. We had to paddle a lot because the water level was pretty low, and paddle fast too so we could make it out intime to do the zip line afterwards. The other group that didn't do the zipline got to go through leisurely, and as much as I enjoyed the Zipline, I think I would have preferred a more leisurely tube ride. We had lunch at some restaurant that was part of a resort that had tons of Kenny Rogers stuff, and playing Kenny Rogers music (Jaguar Paw) maybe it's owned by him?

Harold did good on the zipline, despite being scared of heights - he thinks it helped him. When we repelled down from the last platform, the rope ate his shirt a bit though :O

Xunantunich was a much smaller Mayan ruins site than Tikal, but also really amazing. It has the second tallest temple in Belize (by only 1 foot), and the view from the top was absolutely stunning! Plus it has these really neat friezes on the side. I think our next tattoo will be a Mayan one.

ATM was definately our favourite. You hike for 45 mintues to get to the cave entrance and have to cross the river 3 times (like wade through the river). Then to get into the cave you have to swim, and are then wading through ankle deep to chest deep water the whole time in the cave until you go up, where you have to take off your shoes and just wear socks, so that you are protecting the cave crystals from the oil on your skin.

The cave is so beautiful, with tons of stalagtites and stalagmites and lots with calcite crystals. The formations in the caves were just amazing, and we got some good pics with the underwater camera.

After you go upwards into the cave you see where the Mayans had done their rituals and there is lots of pottery, some calcified and some not, and some skeletons of human sacrifices.

Our last day at Caves Branch started with an early morning Birding tour with Abel, and two others - they were just great. We got some good pics of some interesting birds. Then in the afternoon we hiked out to the end of the driveway to the (inland) Blue Hole, and I had a swim. We went back to the lodge for lunch and hiked back out to go to St.Herman's Cave (also part of the Blue Hole Park) since it is so close and something we can do on our own, but we got caught in a huge downpour and decided to turn back. Good thing too, because it rained until the evening, so we just relaxed in our room and packed to leave.

Our drive from Caves Branch to Placencia was pretty neat going through all the mountains, and then a boat taxi from Mango Creek right to where our first hotel is. Well really it's a little cabana just feet away from the ocean.

Our first night was really windy though - felt like we would blow away. And it's still pretty dark out and rained a bit today too. Hopefully the weather will improve soon as we are hoping to do a snorkel or go to Red Bank to see the Scarlet Macaws in the next couple days.