There was a bug on my finger!

This weekend was quite the busy one. On Saturday, we were invited to go to Ian Anderson's Cave Branch to go cave tubing for free! This was all because we were white...well, because we were tourists. They were working on getting pictures for their website and brochures and they just happened to come across us! Phyllis was invited to go cave tubing with us, but she backed out since she didn't want to get wet. Instead, our new friend Heli came with us. We took an old bus out to this citrus farm and made our way to the river. We had to paddle upstream for a bit in order to get to the cave. Once we were in there, we walked around and got to see all the cave formations, bats, mayan cites, etc. It was really interesting to climb throughout the cave and walk through the river.

At one point, we were able to go to a Mayan cite where they sacrificed things to the fertility god. There were carvings and a stalactite shaped like a woman carrying a baby. There were also two forms that, when light was shined on it, depicted shadows of, well, babymaking. There were kids in the group, so they sent them down to the river with a guide for that part--adults only..kind of funny.

Afterwards, we got to eat lunch in the cave. It was flour tortillas with meet, cheese and vegetables. So I can now officially say that I've eaten in a cave. After all the touring, we were finally able to float downstream and back to where we started. The fun thing about this was that there was a 24 foot cliff that we could jump off and into the river. Some people jumped without hesitation, but others, like Amy and I, needed some coaxing. Ben promised Amy a weeks worth of ice cream and I get a weeks worth of Coke Light. I also needed the help of one of the tour guides. He grabbed my hand and jumped....so there was really no choice. But either way, it was terrifying but exciting!

Then on Sunday, we woke up at 530 and headed out to San Ignacio to meet up with our tour guide and go to Caracol. There was a lot of traveling involved, we left Pacz Tours at 730 and didn't get there till 10:30. The roads were almost nonexistent. They were all stone roads and often times get washed out from the rain. So that was for sure an adventure. We were about 3 miles from the border of Guatemala and so in order to go to Caracol, there must be military people present. That way, if you get jumped, they can pull out the big guns and protect you. Only about 1% of Caracol is excavated, which doesn't sound like a lot, but there was so much to see. The biggest ruin sat 143 feet tall. Ben, Amy and I were the brave ones who climbed all the way to the top. The views were incredible. You could see for miles and now I can officially say that I've seen Guatemala. Overall, it was an amazing trip that took all day. After the ruins, we went to this swimming spot with waterfalls. It was really pretty.

So our weekend was done and over with in a flash. This weekend, we're planning on doing this crazy thing called relaxing. We're hoping that maybe we'll be able to sleep past 8 one morning. But we'll see if that actually happens.