Karilyn and I were up bright and early Sunday morning for a day filled with adventure: cave tubing, zip lining, and ATV!
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| Here we go!! |
We started our day out cave tubing. The guides were a little worried the river would flood due to all the rain the night before. Thankfully we managed to get there in time and finish the tour right before they shut the caves for the day. It a good thing we didn't start any later, there were quite a few places we had to duck down to avoid hitting out heads.
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| Getting our tubes and hiking 45 minutes to the caves |
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Crossing the river to reach the caves
To my surprise, this water was much warmer than the ocean during the summer! |
When we first got our tubes, we had a 45 minute hike through the jungle to the caves. We learned part of the reservation was an old plantation that grew mangos, pineapples, and various other fruits. In the early 90's the land was bought for preservation and tourism. Along the path we found a number of native fruits (and bugs) that we were encouraged to try!
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| The Cojones fruit grows in bunches from the tree |
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| Cajones tasted just like raw flaked coconut |
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Karilyn was adventurous and tried a termite. The guide said they tasted "minty" but she couldn't find the same flavor
(spot my face as I watch her eating the termite) |
We reached the end of our hike and entered the caves. The caves were hundreds of years old filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and Mayan rock carvings. The rock walls were rich in natural minerals--iron, magnesium, calcium--which gave the rock it's white, red, and black color. Unfortunately, the caves were really dark and all of our videos and photos didn't turn out great. You will just have to trust us and believe that the caves were magnificent and a site everyone should see at some point in their life.
We drifted down the river for approximately 30 mixtures going in and out of the caves trying to find Mayan carvings in the stone. It was so relaxing to drift and be carried by the current down the river.
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| Heading down the steps to enter the caves |
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| Karilyn staying calm after finding a huge spider on her tube |
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| Floating down the river |
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| The mountains, trees, and nature all around us were so refreshing from city life |
After cave tubing, we hopped into a van onto our next adventure: zip lining. I was most excited for this part of the trip since I had never been zip lining before. We had 2 amazing tour guides, Milton and Herson, who had us laughing the whole time with their jokes. The sites we went over were so beautiful. Long stretches of forrest, the river below, and the open sky made me feel like I was flying. I cannot wait my next zip lining experience.
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| Herson helping me put on my gear |
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| I needed a full explanation on how I would be going down the zip line |
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The first of 7 lines for the day
I was super nervous on my first one and hesitant to leave the platform |
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This was one of the longest lines, which went over a river
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| The view from the line overlooking the river and distant mountains. |
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| Milton the "catcher" |
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| The last line of the day, which went over a bunch of fruit trees! |
Milton and Herson surprised us at the end and instead of talking a line, we repelled 50 ft back down to the ground!
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| My face after looking at the distance to the bottom |
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| The drop down |
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| Despite my initial fear, this was the most thrilling part of the trip
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We also got to try more local fruit, the carambola (aka Starfruit) and a bilimbi. The carambola was super sweet and juicy but the bilimbi was so sour! I could hardly finish my one bite of the bilimbi.
OMG!!!
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