Our stay in the jungle was lovely. I don't want to go all Chris Harrison on you, but it was the most (insert ridiculously positive adjective here) stay ever. I think what really made the trip spectacular was that we stayed in a tree house. Yes! A flippin' tree house! That alone was worth the trip.
Our place had electricity but no a/c. No matter though, because it was screened in on all sides from floor to ceiling and there was always a breeze. Also absent were tvs, wi-fi, clocks and phones. Though we may have been little bummed about the lack of wi-fi, we settled into the all-day-adventure-eat-dinner-promptly-pass-out routine very quickly. The heat and activity is just exhausting. Hearing the jungle sounds all night was pretty incredible, too. In case you're wondering, the sound of coconuts falling through the thick leaves sounds just like a jaguar lunging at the screen next to the bed. Because that happens.
The lodge offered daily adventure excursions like touring ruins, rappelling, tubing, and cave exploring. On our first day, we chose to go on a 7 mile cave tubing trip. The tubing was in a warm crystal-clear river and took us through 5 different caves.
Commando-style ride to the caves*
Not digging the head lamps.
Headed into cave #3
The river is low this year so a couple sections were shallow with no current. This required a quick lift-the-tube-while-still-keeping-bum-inside-awkward-walk-through-rocks-to-deeper-river. Those pictures would have made fantastic Christmas card material.
We ended the tubing with a traditional Belizean lunch (which, from what I can gather is basically lots of rice and beans) and then went straight to the platforms for our zip lining. It was really fun. We have done this in several countries and it seems this one was the most safety conscious by far--they actually had age requirements! There were 7 separate lines through the jungle canopy, and the last two took us directly over the tubers in the river.
There he goes!
The lodge stay included family-style meals. Before each meal they assigned guests to random tables so that everyone had a chance to get to know one another. This typically makes me break out in a cold sweat because I am a "slow to warm up" kind of person. But, it was fun to hear where everyone was from and to talk about where they had been before/where they were going after their stay at the lodge. The dessert grabbing strategies were literally the topic of discussion at each daily adventure. For some reason, desserts weren't given to each table and there was never enough for everyone. The brownies one night almost caused a riot.
Aside from the day trips, they offered tours through their own botanical garden (with 400 species of orchids-wow!) as well as a Cheese House, where they made their own cheeses and a tour through the chocolate making process at a nearby chocolate factory. We weren't able to take the food tours but we did drink our weight in rum punch. When in Belize...
*Commando like the 80s movie, not "commando" like wearing no undies. Felt I should clarify.
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