Tour Description:  Zip-lining and Cave-Tubing

Two of the most popular traveler attractions in Belize are combined in this one breathtaking day!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

·         A swimming costume on under your top layer

·         A change of dry clothes (+ underwear, and perhaps footwear)

·         Bug spray, containing at least 25% deet.

·         Drinking water – always a good idea when walking through a hot jungle!.

·         Camera (for some awesome shots).  Your guide will carry it for you, in a waterproof bag.

·         Shoes that will stay on your feet when you wade through a stream, and help you keep your balance on wet rocks and pebbles.  Crocs (the shoes!) are fine, as long as you’re OK walking for 40 minutes in them.  Sneakers are great, as long as you don’t mind getting them wet.

Your tour vehicle will take you from your hotel to some ten minutes down a winding turning off the Western Highway at 37 Miles.  It is on a Caves Branch system through the Cayo foothills, where thick rainforest clings to the porous, mineral-rich limestone. 

These foothills were created some 150 million years ago, when tectonic plate movement pushed the Maya Mountains up to around their present height, dislodging huge slabs of the two kilometer thick limestone shelf in the shallow seas at their base, causing them to crash over and break into hill-size fragments.  Over subsequent millennia the chemical reactions caused by H₂0 coming into contact with CaCO₃ produced quantities of HCl and CO_2,  eroding the limestone and creating the amazing underground passageways, caverns, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, pillars and other crystalline formations to be found in the magical underworld of the Ancient Maya – Xibalba.

But first, you have the zip lines to enjoy! These are steel cables (tested to 2,000lbs) strung between platforms high in the rainforest canopy.  There are 5 of them, varying in length from around 100 – 150 meters, looping through the canopy with enough fall on them to enable you to work up quite a speed during your short but very exhilarating rides.

All too soon, your five exhilarating rides along the lines will be over, and you will find yourself on the final platform, ready to be rappelled the 80 feet straight down to the forest floor.  This is a final leap of faith: when the guide tells you to stand on the edge of the platform facing inwards and sit down backwards over the void.  He will give you the choice of a rapid or a more sedate descent, but it is under his control all the way as you drop safely to the ground, to be finally unhooked at the end of your first adventure of the day.

Next comes a good lunch in the resort’s impressive restaurant, featuring some impressive local carvings and paintings. Then, refreshed, and with batteries recharged, you are ready for cave-tubing!

You’ll be handed your tube – a big inner tube which you carry over your shoulder, keeping it away from the vegetation either side of the path, where sharp thorns can lurk on many a plant.  You begin by fording the stream close to the exit of the cave, where you will float out about ninety minutes later, and take a 40 minute guided stroll through the forest, being informed about the medicinal properties of the trees and plants as you pass them.  There’s even a chance your guide will stop where he knows a tarantula has her nest and tempt her out, picking her up to let you get the sort of photo your friends will love you for!

You will float through two caves, over a period of about forty minutes.  Your guide will give you the option of linking up right at the beginning and floating through in a line, or free-wheeling it in loose association under his watchful eye.  Choose whichever option you think you would prefer.  Either way, you cannot fail to lose yourself trying to grasp the enormity of the time frame needed for water to carve out such amazing spaces, disassembling and reassembling the rock to fantastic, sparkling formations, gleaming and twinkling in the light of your headlamp.

All in all, it’s an interesting day, perhaps all the more so because of the contrasting activities and the sense of symmetry: flying high and floating low, feeling the rush of air and the flow of water, the heat of the rainforest and the cool of the caves.  The memories of this day will stay with you, perhaps in years to come to “flash upon the inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude” in a quiet moment, on a different part of the planet.

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Cave Branch Tubing   Choose Your Reason To Stay With Us Affordability:  Pay less and still get great value  Accessibility: Minimize your transportation time, we're 20 minutes from the airport Comfort: Relax in our clean and spacious rooms Security: Enjoy the advantages of staying in a tranquil private village Sustainable Program: We offer a wide variety of sustainable program Setting: Experience the lush beauty of the tropics right outside your door Cuisine: Meticulously prepared and exquisitely presented meals that are delicious Service: Our well trained staff are friendly and helpful

Belize Eco-Adventure Relaxation with Eco--Learning