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Caving with Carlos Saturday was our "play day" in Belize, our reward for a long week of hard work. In the morning, Gregg, Kate and I went to Barton Creek cave, about an hour's drive from Log Cab-Inn. We had a great leader, an independent tour guide named John Chuc. John picked us up in his van at 9 a.m. and we headed down the bumpy road bound for Barton Creek.
It had been raining most of the week so the rivers were pretty high, making our drive to Barton Creek a challenge. We approached a riverbank hoping to ford the river in the van and John stopped to scope it out. The river looked awfully high to me and I would've turned back, but John wanted to drive through it, so I didn't object since I figured it was his van (and his transmission). As we slowly drove through the river, water started pouring into the van and I lifted my feet so they'd stay dry, but we made the crossing intact without drifting down the river and out to the Caribbean.
Barton Creek cave was spectacular, as always, and we canoed through it with our spotlights for a half hour, checking out the cave formations and the Mayan pottery that had been left here a thousand years ago. As I've said before, Barton Creek cave is sort of like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland, except you get to paddle your own canoe.
As we paddled through the cave, I saw a spotlight up ahead indicating an approaching canoe and then I faintly heard a familiar voice. As the canoe got closer, I could make out the guide in the back and recognized his voice. "Carlos!", I shouted. "How's it going?" It was my friend Carlos Cisneros, a teacher in the village of San Antonio, who I see every time I come to Belize. I'd sent Carlos an e-mail a few weeks earlier from Portland saying that I was coming down to Belize but didn't hear back from him, and now here he was in a jungle cave 20 miles from the nearest village.
Yep, it's a small world. After our cave expeditions, he and I talked and it was great to see him again. He told me that he hadn't been able to check his e-mail for a while. Gregg and Kate laughed hard because all week, no matter where we were, I kept bumping into people I knew from my previous trips here – and now I had bumped into my good friend Carlos in the middle of a cave. But that's Belize.
John, our terrific tour guide, drove us back to Log Cab-Inn that afternoon and dropped us off. Gregg, Kate and I ate lunch there and then headed off for Xunantunich (pronounced "shoe-NAN-too- nitch"), a group of spectacular Mayan ruins located about 10 miles from San Ignacio near the Guatemalan border. Despite the drippy weather, Gregg and Kate had a good time exploring the ruins and learning about the Mayan culture. The three of us made a good team and we had a lot of fun together all week, in fact.
The next day, Sunday, Gregg, Kate and I took the bus into Belize City and they flew back to the U.S. while I went on to Caye Caulker. It was windy and rainy the next day, though, and all the dive boats had cancelled their dives, so I spent most of the day just walking around the Caye and taking pictures. I flew back to Belize City the next day, hopped on a Continental jet bound for Houston, where I changed planes and then returned to Portland that night.
It had been a good trip, I bumped into a lot of old friends and made some new ones, we got a lot of work done, and Jaime and Nancy were very appreciative for the work we had done in getting their orphanage off the "ground" (and into our clothes and shoes and everywhere else!) Once again, though, I received so much more than I gave. And I know everyone in our group felt the same way.
For me, it had all started with two hitchhikers in a grocery store parking lot in Portland two and a half years earlier. The hitchhikers thought I was helping them but actually, as I realize now, they were helping me. My simple act of kindness had opened up this whole, new world of volunteer service work to me, and has paid me back more times than I can ever count.
Above left: Crossing a flooding river on the way to Barton Creek cave. The water came up to the floorboards. Um... John, is this a good idea? Above right: We drove through it but the next river was too deep to ford, so we shimmied across the bridge. That's our guide, John, helping Kate over the river one step at a time.
Above left: Later that day approaching the El Castillo temple at the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. At 140 feet high, it's the second highest structure in Belize. Above center: A cool dude at the top. Above right: Gregg and Kate enjoyed the bus ride back to San Ignacio.
Above left: After five days in San Ignacio, I said goodbye to Gregg and Kate at the airport and headed down to Caye Caulker. There are three streets on the caye. This is Front Street. Middle Street and Back Street are to the left. Above right: Enjoying a delicious dinner of conch fritters at an open-air restaurant over the water.
Above left: It was too windy for snorkeling and no outfitters were going to the reef, so I walked around Caye Caulker and enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere. Above right: The air terminal at Caye Caulker, on my way back to Belize City.
Above left: Belize City International Airport, filled with Americans like me heading back to the States. Above right: Hasta la vista, Belize. Hope to see you again!
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