Anyone tours combine cave tubing AND the snokeling the reef?

[Chelsm]

I want to experience both but I cant find a tour that combines them. Has anyone done this that can steer me in the right direction?

[driftwood]

Cave tubing takes place about 35 miles INLAND from the coast, and the reef is not especially close to Belize City, either. It is almost as if here in Swampland you wanted to visit the Caverns of Luray and Colonial Williamsburg in the same day. Anyone who offered to take you on such a tour should go directly to jail without passing GO, as it would be a prima facie fraud. Both tours take several hours and much travel time.

[Chelsm]

Thats what I figured :(

Oh well, if you had to choose one over the other, what would your personal choice be?

[driftwood]

Surely you aren't asking me? I'm the one who couldn't make up his mind and went to Belize for two weeks so I could try to do everything! :confused: That's pretty funny in itself--someday I may try to calculate how much more time one would need to do "everything" in Belize!

 

The reef is truly fabulous and very alive with fishes and other creatures, but we only visited it once. The guide is a strong swimmer, and we never stopped moving. My wife stayed in the boat, as she perceived quickly that she would not be able to keep up, and she is not a "confident swimmer" anyway. Our usual idea of snorkeling is to hang in one place and wait for the sea creatures to get used to us and start feeding again--and then photograph them. DW was surprised that I still had enough energy at my age (64) to keep up and NOT get drowned. I did lightly brush the reef with elbow and knee at one point, and came back to the boat dramatically bloodied. So don't brush the reef--you have to follow the guide very narrowly at times, and do NOT attempt a shallow-looking shortcut to get to him. I did get about 150 photographs (yes I did have to change the battery), and can now recommend the Olympus Stylus 770 SW as an excellent camera which will not fill up with water when well submerged, from firsthand experience. But I was pretty exhausted. :o

 

The Major Tom cave tubing experience can be duplicated nowhere else on Earth (and IMHO by no other tour operator, either), and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It is true DW found the initial 25-minute hike rather strenuous, as there is a bit more hiking uphill and down than she anticipated. But otherwise she, too, had a wonderful time. The trip begins with a drive across Belize, moving over the marsh/savannah flatland of the coastal plain, where many large water birds are to be seen, past Belmopan, the national capital, toward the rainforest/Maya Mountains foothills where the caves are located. The cave area could not be more beautiful, I think, if the Maya had built the caves themselves. Here the foliage is dense and lush, and there is a chance you will see no birds--but you will probably hear them! Major Tom and his "Fun Team" guides take the time to show you a number of features of the rain forest environment which almost no one not native to Belize would notice, so if you have an amateur naturalist within you, or have one traveling with you, the experience will be even more rich and strange! Traveling through this magical environment (for those of you who have read Green Mansions in your youth, this is how I imagined the book's jungle back then) at an easy pace--or hanging back a little and helping if they see you are having any difficulty--Major Tom and his guides clearly enjoy the visit as much as you do!

 

At last the caves! First a couple of dry caves, so you can see some beautiful calcite formations which have been growing from the beginning of time almost, and then on to the most beautiful river, with hanging vines or perhaps roots reaching down past the entrance of the cave. Each of you is individually fitted with a life vest and has been toting a large inner tube--surprisingly lighter than I had thought it would be--and a waterproof flashlight or headlamp (do not lose them as they are very expensive and hard to replace). NOW you enter the river--which is cool, but certainly not so cool as I had feared before I went--and sit down in your inner tube. From then on you are seeing--or not seeing--a world you could hardly imagine exists. This is not Disney World, of course, so nothing is going to pop out at you; but if your flashlight is on, you will see a large cave with perhaps a few tiny sleeping bats clinging to the ceiling, a few attractive geological features; if your flashlight is off, you will see nothing, as it is pitch black until you come to the natural exit, float on down the river, and enter the next cave--which is usually the last for cruiseship passengers. Beyond the second cave is the park, where there are bathrooms/changing facilities and a small store--and in the parking lot is your van or bus, with all your stuff locked up safe and sound waiting for you!

 

If all goes well you may very well dine at Amigo's on the way back to Belize City, and it is a good clean and friendly place to dine, with all sorts of things to eat and drink. I certainly haven't heard anyone else complain about Amigo's, and I believe we cheerfully ate there three times ourselves during the two weeks we were in Belize.

 

Either way you are going to have a wonderful time--and remember, you are a lot younger than I am, and youth is quite an asset in a country as activity-oriented as Belize! :D (Wherever you decide to go, TAKE MONEY FOR TIPS, as I can guarantee your guides will richly deserve them, and you don't want to feel bad later on for not having given them)! :rolleyes:

[Chelsm]

Thank you so much, you are so helpful! I have a hard decision to make :eek: