tubing in Belize (help)

[c8305]

We are interested in tubing and have looked at a number of independent tour guides, cave-tubing.com, cavetubing.bz, my friendmario, islandmarketing among others, and of course Carnivals own. It gets very confusing. We want to make sure we have fun, are safe and get to the ship on time. It's also important that they use good equipment. (some bad reviews and also good ones from the same company) If anyone has used any of these or knows of a great one let me know.

[T&Dcruisers]

cave-tubing.com all the way! I wouldn't even consider anyone else. Last year we used them and while on the tour other companies were also on the river at the same time. These guys are local guys and have one priority, the passengers. They will see to your every need. I would go back to them in a heartbeat the next time in Belize. BTW, I totally recommend doing the ATV/cave tubing adventure.

[c8305]

How were the tubes, life jackets etc. Someone posted that the were in horrible condition. Also is it hard to get into the water, someone said the had to jump in or have help going down a large slope. We have someone with us that is 80 but in excellent shape.

[GinDon]

Two years ago, we used X-Stream Cave Tubing for our excursion. Independent, booked on-line. Had a great time. We were free floating, not tied in a chain of tubes, like some tours do now. Entry to the river: we had a choice of jumping off the cliff (which all the manly men in my family did) or go down the slope. It's quite the slope, we went down backwards a few feet, holding on to a rope. Our guide was below us, holding our tube. We then let go of the rope, and fell backwards right onto the tube. The lady before me, somehow slipped right through the hole in the tube, and landed in the water. I still can't figure out HOW she did that! But, to be on the safe side, when it was my turn to fall, I made sure I was spread-eagle, so it wouldn't happen to me!

Reading this over, it sounds kind of hard, but it really is easy. And fun!

[melehundele]

I don't mean to hijack this thread. I am still trying to decide what to do in Belize, and would like to do cave tubing (though I, too, have to decide who to go with). My question is, I am not sure if I can do it physically. I have two "frozen shoulders" (adhesive capsulitis) and am very restricted on moving my arms backward at all and in the air much. I went sea kayaking in Alaska last year and was able to do that, because the paddling is mainly a forward and down motion. Though I did have a BAD time getting out of the kayak, as it required putting your hands sideways and behind to push on the kayak and lift your butt onto the back of the seat. I have polled my PT practicioners on whether I will be able to do this but it is all inconclusive. So can anyone say, how much "arm work" is involved in cave tubing??

[GinDon]

I sympathize with you on your "frozen shoulders". My father had that at one time, and it was very restrictive, and painful when he moved too far the wrong way.

You DO have to paddle, so that might present a problem. However, if you go with a company that does the tubing in a "chain", maybe if you were in the middle, you wouldn't have to do much but float along. Then you would only have to worry about getting in and out of the tube.

[CMM]

I don't mean to hijack this thread. I am still trying to decide what to do in Belize, and would like to do cave tubing (though I, too, have to decide who to go with). My question is, I am not sure if I can do it physically. I have two "frozen shoulders" (adhesive capsulitis) and am very restricted on moving my arms backward at all and in the air much. I went sea kayaking in Alaska last year and was able to do that, because the paddling is mainly a forward and down motion. Though I did have a BAD time getting out of the kayak, as it required putting your hands sideways and behind to push on the kayak and lift your butt onto the back of the seat. I have polled my PT practicioners on whether I will be able to do this but it is all inconclusive. So can anyone say, how much "arm work" is involved in cave tubing??

 

Don't know if this would be good or bad with your condition, but with cave tubing you are linked together with others. Their feet go under your arm pits. Maybe you could request to be the last of the link to avoid this?

 

Our equipment was ok with cave tubing dot com. Nothing torn or anything, it was chaotic though with little instruction. Our experience didn't earn a high safety rating from any of us, but I think we had a freakishly atypical experience. Our own bad luck I guess. No desire to repeat that one.

[melehundele]

Thanks for the feedback! Maybe I should go to Lamanai instead this time around... Having my arms out like that for too long might be painful at this stage.

[nw_cajun]

can i do the 30 min hike ("up the mountain" -- a reviewer's words) with the cave-tubing dot com tour? i'm 65, appear to be in good shape, but exercise to me means tapping this keyboard. what % grade is the hike? also, do we hike it carrying our own float tube?

 

it sounds like fantastic fun tho, but don't want my hike to slow up the others...?

[lzeit71203]

we used jungle paw and would not recommend it--3 women-60's-two with knee issues and one with ankle probl. from info we felt there would be no jungle walk, but there was and it was tough--45 min through jungle carrying tube. walking rough surface, mud, roots, slippery rocks with no hand holds. caves were beautiful, but, it was tough on us. others at dinner enjoyed airboat ride--next time, thats for me.

[GinDon]

The hike through the jungle is not "up a mountain". It's mostly on a packed down path, about three feet wide, I think. I pant climbing a set of stairs, and I don't remember having an issue with walking up steep inclines. Muddy and slippery? That might depend on if there had been a lot of rain. It wasn't that way the day we went. But that's not to say it doesn't get that way. Yes, you carry your own tubes. I'm 62, small, without a muscle in my whole body. I carried mine O.K...............just kept switching shoulders. Hubby offered to carry mine, but I was O.K. with it. My husband's uncle was with us. He was 65 at the time, and a long haul truck driver............always sitting down. He was fine with the hike.

[Sarae]

I sympathize with you on your "frozen shoulders". My father had that at one time, and it was very restrictive, and painful when he moved too far the wrong way.

You DO have to paddle, so that might present a problem. However, if you go with a company that does the tubing in a "chain", maybe if you were in the middle, you wouldn't have to do much but float along. Then you would only have to worry about getting in and out of the tube.

 

 

I went to cave tubing dot com..never had to paddle ..they carried my tube due my having had neck surgery..Omar was the greates.

[jennymae]

Wondering with cave tubing dot com, if the changing area that is available has lockers to keep your stuff in? After the hike, is there a place to leave tennis shoes? Seems like a long way to walk in water shoes....I booked this tour for our March cruise..and a couple people in the group were wondering this.

 

Thanks!

 

Jenn

[nw_cajun]

ok, thanks for the encouragement. i could do 18 steps. so glad to hear the trail is really flat. i'm a klutz, but think i can manage if it's dry. husband does not want to go:(, but i plan solo & feel very cool:D.

[CMM]

ok, thanks for the encouragement. i could do 18 steps. so glad to hear the trail is really flat. i'm a klutz, but think i can manage if it's dry. husband does not want to go:(, but i plan solo & feel very cool:D.

 

The day we went with cave tubing dot com we went to an alternate site that was very steep, slippery and was pitch dark for over half of the long descent(they give you little battery operated flashlights for you head).

[debnjoe1438]

we used jungle paw and would not recommend it--3 women-60's-two with knee issues and one with ankle probl. from info we felt there would be no jungle walk, but there was and it was tough--45 min through jungle carrying tube. walking rough surface, mud, roots, slippery rocks with no hand holds. caves were beautiful, but, it was tough on us. others at dinner enjoyed airboat ride--next time, thats for me.

 

I'm 51 and went with Jaguar Paw. I didn't think the walk was so bad. I believe our walk was about 25 minutes. (I did have a slight advantage, my husband carried my tube.) Yes, I was under the impression, from the website there would be less of a walk.

 

Izeit71203 did you go cave tubing on 2/3/10? I remeber there were 3 ladies traveling together, one with a bandage around the knee. It seems someone also had an ankle problem.

[LibrarianJen]

Two years ago, we used X-Stream Cave Tubing for our excursion. Independent, booked on-line. Had a great time. We were free floating, not tied in a chain of tubes, like some tours do now. Entry to the river: we had a choice of jumping off the cliff (which all the manly men in my family did) or go down the slope. It's quite the slope, we went down backwards a few feet, holding on to a rope. Our guide was below us, holding our tube. We then let go of the rope, and fell backwards right onto the tube.

 

My mother and I went with X-Stream Cave Tubing at the end of January this year and we had a good time. Our guide Ernesto was extremely knowledgeable about Belize and he made sure we would make it back to the dock with at least an hour to spare. He put us into a chain and he was the only guide we saw doing that, which I thought was fantastic. I didn't realize others preferred paddling the whole way! Maybe it was because the river was low, but he let us paddle through the first cave alone and then linked us up and kept us that way for the rest of the trip. We didn't have to do anything, he steered us from the back and from the front, running from one end to another through the water, making sure we didn't hit rocks, thorn bushes, or get stuck in the shallows (as I saw happen to a few people left on their own).

 

The equipment all seemed to be in good working order. The walk was about 45 minutes, and because it was raining it was slippery. There were some sections of large rock 'stairs' where there wasn't always a railing to hang onto, and my 58-year-old mother took those very slowly as she was afraid of falling. I think we both would have felt more secure during the walk had the path been dry, but we made it without any mishaps. Because the river was low, nobody jumped in. Ernesto got in first and held our tubes while we used the rope to slide down the rocks, and he helped people get into their tubes if they needed a hand. I'd recommend wearing comfortable shoes on the walk that you're willing to wear into the water; my new crocs tore my heels up pretty badly, but there's no way you can change your shoes after the walk and leave them behind, unless you want to walk back to pick them up again.

 

We didn't have too much time on our way back to the dock, but Ernesto wanted to make sure we got the lunch that was supposed to be included, so he called ahead and we met a guy by the side of the road with delicious creole lunchs for everyone - chicken, rice & beans, coleslaw, and a fried banana. Just what we'd needed after all that activity!

[dicoop99]

My wife and I went cave-tubing in Belize over X-Mas 2009; (Wow, is that already two months ago??). We used REGGIE's Tours. Here is the link:

 

http://regtourbz.com/index.htm

 

As it turned out, we were the only two people that had booked with REGGIE's Tubing that day! Still, REGGIE's TOURS did not back out, or change the price or anything. To book them, we had to pay $10 each online through Pay Pal, with the balance payable after the Tour. It was just $45 per person, in total. This is about 1/2 what the ship charges. They met us promptly at the agreed upon spot near the ship, and had signs with our names on them. Reggie did not meet us himself, but his daughter and son-in-law did; they were charming, delightful, knowledgeable guides. Because of their efficiency, we got into the whole system before the hordes arrived, and had a very pleasant tour. Afterwards, they dropped us in downtown Belize, with a short tour of the city, at no extra cost.

 

I would definitely recommend REGGIE's...

 

Stephen & Diane Cooper,

Toronto, Canada

[branndi]

How about......wildlife? I would really like to do this, but HATE snakes.... All I can picture is some huge jungle snake hanging on a branch over the top of me..... Do I need to worry? (Silly, I know!)

[INTERLINER13]

I have the same question as Branndi. Any snakes?

[PnkyandtheBrain]

We did not see any snakes on our hike up to the put-in point. Truth be told the only critters we saw on the hike was the tarantula that our guide found for us, and several ant and termite colonies.

 

We used Vitalino at cavetubing.bz and recommend him highly. A very customer friendly operation, they gave us top notch personal service for a great price.

 

Brad

[StartrainDD]

Our group of 8 CC'ers in early November 2009 went on the cave tubing and lunch ($45) with Jaguar Paw. Our guide, Miguel, was terrific. He showed us where the big operators park and people start their walk... We drove on for at least another 1/2 mile to their private resort within the park (they owned the land before the area became a park).

 

The walk begins with a "Wet" river crossing as you ford the river with your tube. It was refreshing. We walked the trail for about 45 minutes, and saw no one else the entire time. It's a wide trail and I suspect Jeeps (or something like that) go up the trail occassionally when they need to get things up to the upstream river. The reason this took 45 minutes is we stopped and asked lots of questions about the plants and trees. Miguel showed us termite nests and tunnels, and I was taking photos of the flora. If you didn't stop, the walk is about 1/2 that time.

 

We entered the river in a most wonderful setting between two caves. For the first 45 minutes or so in the cave system we were the only group and we could float free or in small groups. As we were nearing the end of one cave we could see the masses coming into the river from the big operators. At this point Miguel told us to all link up so we would stay together.

 

Right after this point we all went down some minor rapids (it was a lot of fun) and the middle of our 8-person chain fell apart. No problem for Miguel though, he had it under control.

 

At the end of the cave system we exited and were right back at the resort, it's not more than 100 yards from the river. We changed into dry clothes, had a great indoor bug-free lunch at the resort, bought the neatest T-shirts (you HAVE to buy one of these) and Miguel gave us a tour of the resort. He had us back to the pier by 3:00 and the last tender was at 4:30.

 

We never saw any snakes. Equipment was in very good order - the headlamps were surprisingly bright. Another plus is Miguel told us if the main river is closed they have an alternate river on their grounds they can use (smaller) but with a similar experience.

 

This was the BEST SHORE TRIP WE HAVE EVER DONE, PERIOD!

 

 

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[ERinke919]

We are doing cave tubing thru cave-tubing dot com in a couple of weeks.

One question I have is - at the end of the river, is the bus right there to pick everyone up, or is it another 45min walk back to the bus?

 

Thanks!

~EC

[PnkyandtheBrain]

The walk from the river exit point back to the parking lot / equipment turn-in area is about 5 minutes tops.

[ERinke919]

The walk from the river exit point back to the parking lot / equipment turn-in area is about 5 minutes tops.

 

Cool Thanks!