Cave-tubing.com/Yhony review

[Markk]

We booked cave tubing with Yhony and his crew for Jan 31/02 after reading the reviews on this board and I just wanted to add my own review.

Yhony was quick to respond to our initial email and easy to find upon arrival. He was waiting for us with a sign and our name on it. We waited for a few others for about 10 min then we boarded a large bus. The bus filled up quickly (35-40) people yet for some reason we waited another good 30 min before finally leaving. Our first stop, the gas station where we were told it was our last chance to use a bathroom before arrival at the caves and a good time to get a snack. Most of the people on our bus choose to get off and it took a good 20 min before everyone was back on and we were ready to go again. At this point it had been an hour since we found Yhony and we were only 10 from port. People beside us on the bus were getting seriously worried already about making their last tender, which left an hour before ours.

The drive to the caves took about an hour. One of our guides, Junior, kept us laughing and entertained the entire trip there. He was fantastic!!

Upon arrival, one more bathroom break, getting everyone their lifejackets, tubes and flashlights, took forever. There was alot of standing around and waiting. Finally we were on our way! 5 minutes into the walk we were expected to cross a river with a rather strong current. Keep in mind that the week prior to our arrival Belize had had alot of rain, and the ship's cavetubing had been canceled. Crossing the river was done in our tubes while dragging ourselves across bit by bit holding onto a rope. The river wasn't deep but it was fast moving and hanging on to the rope was extremely difficult for alot of people. There was a large group ahead of us and we stood there for an hour before everyone was across! Guides stood downstream and ran after anyone who couldn't hold on and dragged them to the other side. Alot of people did not have the strength to hang on and alot of people looked scared. I assume the river isn't always that difficult to cross, but if it is I don't know why they wouldn't build a little bridge across. The guides worked very very hard, they took the little one across themselves. I was uneasy the whole time and did not like to see the look of fear in the eyes of some of the older people in our group. Anyways we did all get across safely and I don't want to put fear in anyone, just want to give an honest account of my individual experience.

Finally, again we were on our way. The "hike" to the caves was a simple walk, very easy, no problem for anyone. Once at the caves we were separated into groups of 6, each group with a guide and attached to each other in chain like fashion, feet under someone else's armpits, someone else's feet under yours. Getting our large group organized and everyone into the river was again time consuming. Maybe I'm not used to living on island time, but I was one of the first in and it took forever before we were finally ready to go.

The cave, we only floated through one large cave was beautiful! I thoroughly enjoyed this part. Again the water must have been faster than normal, and at one point we came close to crashing into the wall but the lady behind me pulled her foot out from under my armpit and kicked us away from the wall in the nick of time. 10 minutes later we exited the cave and spent another 30 minutes or so floating down the river. The guide with our little group was excellent at navigating us away from boulders, logs and overhanging trees, but one of the other little groups wasn't quite as lucky. My husband warned an eldery gentleman up ahead that he was about to hit a big rock just in time.

Getting out of the tubes and river was a challenge to some of the older people as well as again the current was quite strong.

Junior had said on the bus there we could vote on whether or not to do the second cave as well as whether or not we wanted to stop for a barbequed lunch but that option was not given, I assume because it was getting late. Once again it took quite a long time, bathroom break, returning equipment, changing clothes, etc (remember 40 people) before we finally were all on the bus and ready to go. Of course the driver on island time took his sweet time as well. We stopped somewhere along the way for people to buy drinks, we were stopped by police as well and we all made our last tender, some of us with only 15 minutes to spare!

All in all I enjoyed the actual cave tubing immensely and I am glad I went, although it was a very long day for only 10 minutes in a cave. The guides were great especially Junior! My advice would be to not go if the rivers are too high. I would never take my eldery parents, no way, or someone who is pregnant. I would also go on a tour with a much smaller group, a minivan with 7-10 passengers max. Being in a large group just involves an awful lot of waiting which means alot of wasted time. I had hoped to walk around the town a bit after the tour but there just wasn't enough time.

And if the ship's cavetubing excursion is cancelled take that as a sign, it is not safe, and don't go no matter what Yhony tells you. Cave tubing is an amazing adventure, just use common sense, do the research and if you want to do something else as well on your day in Belize, go with a smaller group. It is worth the drive, but it doesn't have to take all day!

[marcussusan]

thanks for your review

 

We are in port from 7:00 am until 5:00 pm. I'm not sure what time the last tender will be but do you think there is enough time with Yhony's group.

 

I just booked yesterday.

 

Thanks for the tip on keeping track of whether the ship cancels it's tour.

[ojaidenny]

Did you take this tour Jan 31 of 2002? If so, why did you wait so long to

do this review. The web site states a 15 passenger van, was your trip in a larger van? This outfit sounded good until I read your review, I am going to look for a smaller group.

[canadiangirl]

Hi, thanks for the honest review. We are booked next week for this tour. Just a few ?'s.

 

What time did you get into Belize? What time did you have your tour booked for? And what time were you leaving???

 

We are in port from 8am-6pm and are suppose to meet Yhony as soon as we can get off the ship. I was hoping to do some shopping when we are done. Yhony has told us we should be back to the ship around 2-3pm.

 

Thanks

Cali-Ann

[Markk]

I am sorry, the date should have read Jan 31/06. We were in port with the explorer from 9am to 5pm. We got the first tender off our ship at 9am and returned to port at 4pm. Last tender for our ship was 5pm. Another couple on our tour from a different boat barely made it as their last tender was 4:15. I do think our tour that day was unusually long. Maybe we were just unlucky. I've read from plenty of people that they had time to do both the second cave and do lunch. Yhony and Junior both said that nobody on their tour has ever missed the last tender. I wouldn't worry about that too much. It's only and hour drive from the caves and as much as they like to take their time I don't think they want to deal with the responsibility and bad reviews if they were the reason for their customers missing the last tender.

[Markk]

Ojaidenny, to answer your question, we were in a bus, like a school bus. Yhony said he has three such buses. Once the first bus is full they load up the second bus then the third. That's why he doesn't give you a specific time and tells you to meet him as early as possible.

[fitters]

We had a group of about 30 people (that included about 7 kids) back in December. We did not experience any of this with Yhony. We were able to go through two caves and have lunch. I think with groups you have the chance of running into people who don't really know how to "travel" with groups. Meaning....taking their time and not worrying about how many people are waiting on you.

 

Our group was my group of 18 and we added another ship's group of 12 with ours and had no problems whatsoever. I would highly recommend Yhony and his crew. Guess it's the luck of the draw with the people in the group.

 

:rolleyes:

[vernamay]

I agree with "Fitters". We went the middle of January and had a bus of 45 people and had no such problems as what was described. Everyone was considerate of everyone. We hardly waited at the bus terminal. We got a great tour of the city. It was raining the whole time and still didn't take long to get up to the site. After unloading it maybe took 10-15 minutes for everyone to get their tubes and we were off. The crossing on the water wasn't bad. We had an 8 year old and a 56 year old in our group and no one had troubles getting across. Our only trouble was the road going up was muddy and even then it didn't take long. For everyone to get into the water in their tubes and all probably took 15-20 minutes. Our ride through the caves was at least an hour and a half. The water was high in some areas and low in others, but you never really knew how deep because you were always in your tube.

Unloading at the end took maybe 5-10 minutes, it was like a creek, so it didn't take long to get out. Once we got to the bus, people might have taken another 5-10 minutes to change and we were off down the road.

 

Our cruise ship (because of the ocean) is the one that made us late so we didn't have a lot of time to shop, but it wasn't the tours fault - just nature. We had superb time and everyone of us want to do it again! Cave-tubing is the best!:)

[ojaidenny]

Thank You for this info. I booked with him yesterday.