Independent Lamanai ruins tour and getting back ot the boat.

[Froufie]

Well that's too bad - I know they only take 10 people so maybe they are fully booked?

 

Found this on the internet - $100 pp: http://www.belize-vacation.com/belize/lamanai.htm - sounds like they do cruise ship tours but obviously no personal recommendation here? Try asking on the board to see if anyone has used them?

 

Also found this one for $100 pp: http://www.edecotours.bravehost.com/lamanai_ruin_Tour_guide.html

 

...and another one for $75 - sounds very similar to the BCE one??? http://www.caribbeanshoretours.com/BelizeLamanaiTemples.htm

 

....and one more: http://www.viator.com/tours/Belize/Lamanai-and-the-New-River-Safari-in-Belize/d746-4110DEB3

[DonMar]

Well I was set to maybe do a beach day since the funds are tight for this cruise, but wow, after reading and seeing the pics of Lamanai it seems it might be worth it to do this and save one of the other ports for a beach day.

 

Question: Do you tip your driver, boat driver, etc etc? And if so how much?

 

Thanks!

 

 

We went to Lamanai with BCE in Feb 07 and just loved it. We did tip the driver and the boat driver/tour guide. We tipped heavily as we were the only two people and they went above and beyond.

 

How much to tip? I think it depends upon the number of people on the tour.

 

Enjoy Lamanai. It was the best excursion we have experienced.

[DonMar]

Thanks to everyone for all the great information. DW and I are going to be on this excursion on Feb 5th of next year and the confirmation that BCE sent us says for us to meet them at 8:20 am local time. Does that mean we will have to meet them at 10:20 ship time? Any info would be great.

 

Thanks,

 

BCE works on local time and the ship stays on "ship" or original port time. When we went to Lamanai with BCE - we made it clear what time we needed to be back at the ship. They moved our start time up to around 6:30am local time. We were the only ones (two of us) scheduled for this excursion so we took off as soon as we got to the port.

 

Regardless what time you are slated to start, try to get off the ship on an early tender. Even if you get to the port a bit early, some of the shops are open and you have peace of mind that you are off the ship.

 

Enjoy.

[EBallgrl]

Well I am off for Tampa tomorrow morning, as promised I will write a review of BCE on this thread when I get back! I just wanted to thank those of you who took your time to write your experiences for us to read! It is calling for rain down there though, wish us great weather so that we can even go to Lamanai! ;) Talk to ya when I get back!!!! :D

[Froufie]

Well I am off for Tampa tomorrow morning, as promised I will write a review of BCE on this thread when I get back! I just wanted to thank those of you who took your time to write your experiences for us to read! It is calling for rain down there though, wish us great weather so that we can even go to Lamanai! ;) Talk to ya when I get back!!!! :D

 

Have a fantasticly amazing and awesome time - can't wait to hear all about it when you get back. Wishing you blue skies and calm seas!

[Froufie]

Well I am off for Tampa tomorrow morning, as promised I will write a review of BCE on this thread when I get back! I just wanted to thank those of you who took your time to write your experiences for us to read! It is calling for rain down there though, wish us great weather so that we can even go to Lamanai! ;) Talk to ya when I get back!!!! :D

 

Have a fantasticly amazing and awesome time - can't wait to hear all about it. Wishing you blue skies and calm seas!

[nitenurs2]

Hi!

We did the Lamanai tour with BCE last week and had a great time! There were 11 of us, ranging in age from 12-55.

Most of us were able to get on the first tender, but, they cut the line off to board the tender with 4 of our group not yet boarded.

 

BCE was waiting for us as we got off of the tender. Those of us who made it on to the first tender were walked to the office, where we paid. We then went back out to the tender dock to wait for the others who were on the second tender.

 

About five minutes after we had all paid, they brought our tour guide, Jenny, (Who was excellent!) out. We then walked to the van. Our van seemed to be relatively new. We did get caught up in the rush hour traffic, so it was slow leaving the city. After we got on the main highway (such as it is) she drove about 80 mph to get us to the boat dock.

 

At the boat dock, we had time to use the restrooms if we needed. Other than that, we went right to the boat. When we got here, 4 other people joined us.

 

Jenny went with us on the boat, so we had two tour guides at the ruins. Icee was the boat driver and other tour guide. He had a cooler full of cold water for us to drink.

 

We stopped to look at wild life and at the Menonite settlement as we went to the ruins.

 

At the ruins, Jenny and Icee took turns explaining the history and the ruins to us. We saw some howler monkeys, but no other wildlife (unless you count the mosquitos!). We had taken insect repellent with Deet and no one in my familyhad any mosquito bites. Others inthe group got some, even tho they used bug spray. I don't know if it had Deet in it or not (I had told them "with Deet").

 

After we had gone through the ruins (we spent a lot of time at the high temple), Icee told us we had 5 minutes to spend at the museum or in the restroom, but no more than that.

 

On the boat ride back, we didn't stop for anything, but it was fun!

 

Once back at the boat dock, lunch was waiting for us. As another poster stated, it was salad, cole slaw, plantains, beans and rice, some sort of pepper (I didn't get those) and chicken. We also had the fruit flavored drinks (they were good!).

 

After lunch, back on the van. Jenny drove about 80 mph all the way back to town.

 

We arrived back at the tender dock about 20 minutes before the last tender was supposed to leave (but Jenny told us that the tenders will actually run about 1/2 hr later than the time in the capers, and we saw some leaving abou 20 minutes after that time).

 

A few photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

A

[Froufie]

Thanks for the good info - great pics!

 

Just surprised that you had lunch on the way back at the boat dock? This is the first I have heard of this? Seems everyone else has lunch at Lamanai ? What time did you get to Lamanai - what time did you leave? And what time was lunch?

 

Sounds like you did make it back on time tho!

[DonMar]

Thanks for the good info - great pics!

 

Just surprised that you had lunch on the way back at the boat dock? This is the first I have heard of this? Seems everyone else has lunch at Lamanai ? What time did you get to Lamanai - what time did you leave? And what time was lunch?

 

Sounds like you did make it back on time tho!

 

 

When we went to Lamanai in Feb 07 we had lunch back at the dock in Orange Walk. We left very early in the AM and lunch would have been too early at Lamanai. (We left the port around 6:30am Belize time.) Therefore, where you have lunch might have to do with what time you begin the tour and what time you need to get back to the tenders.?

 

The lunch was very pleasant - not fancy by any stretch. We ate with our tour guide and were able to learn more about the Mayan/Belizean culture. "When in Rome...."

[nitenurs2]

Thanks for the good info - great pics!

 

Just surprised that you had lunch on the way back at the boat dock? This is the first I have heard of this? Seems everyone else has lunch at Lamanai ? What time did you get to Lamanai - what time did you leave? And what time was lunch?

 

Sounds like you did make it back on time tho!

 

 

Yep--we ate at the picnic tables at the boat dock.

 

Can you believe I never looked at my watch? I was afraid I'd get too nervous about getting back on time and not enjoy the tour. :p

 

We got back to the tenders at about 3:40 ships time, so, allowing 2 hrs travel time + lunch, I guess we left Lamanai at about 1:00, which would be 11:00 island time.

 

I just noticed that my pics are dated Jan, 2004! I never remember to reset that date when I change batteries. :o I don' think we've ever taken pics with the right date on them.

[EBallgrl]

Hi everybody! We made it back...barely...but we made it back! We had a great time, though we had a few minor hiccups in the journey. I will write a full review in the next couple days, things are kind of crazy at work right now so I can not write one today. I just wanted to let you know that we loved the tour and I would definitely go with them again. As promised I will write a review as soon as I can. Till then, think up some questions for me!

[Froufie]

Hi everybody! We made it back...barely...but we made it back! We had a great time, though we had a few minor hiccups in the journey. I will write a full review in the next couple days, things are kind of crazy at work right now so I can not write one today. I just wanted to let you know that we loved the tour and I would definitely go with them again. As promised I will write a review as soon as I can. Till then, think up some questions for me!

 

Hi there - glad you make it back and loved the tour. I am DYING to hear all about it with details please.

 

You MUST post soon okay? I am leaving friday am and will definitely want to be dreaming about this before I leave!;)

 

Also hoping you can post Western Capers - pretty please with a cherry on top? (or if you prefer to email them to me let me know!)

 

Thanks so much and looking forward to your review!

[EBallgrl]

Ok since you are leaving so soon, Froufie, I will put work aside and write this now…I would rather do this than work anyways! :D Sorry, I did not take pics of the capers, nor have I uploaded any of the trip pictures to my computer yet. Just got back! I will try to keep this to the point but I tend to ramble, but I am sure everyone wants to hear my unnecessary details anyways…brace yourself, this will be long.

The capers (we were on the Legend) said that anyone with an independent excursion could not get on a tender until 9:30 (ship time), which was 10 minutes after we were supposed to meet them, so that wasn’t going to work. So the night before I verified with the Pursar’s desk and they just told me to go to the Follies Lounge when we were ready to go and show proof and they would let us off. (This is where everyone was to meet to get a tender sticker) So we got up early, got ready and headed down to Follies and got a sticker from a lady who said if we hurry and catch up with the group they just called we could get on that tender. So we got a tender immediately. I believe when we sat down on the tender it was 8:40 (plenty of time). It took several minutes to fill the tender and about 20 mins to get to shore. I think we got to the dock at about 9:15, just in time for our 9:20 meeting time!

We walked to the left and easily found a lady with a BCE hat and sign exactly as described in the confirmation. She asked to see the confirmation and passed us off to another guy who took us to their little booth where we paid. Due to VERY heavy rains they had had recently the cave tubing tours had been cancelled so we ended up with a couple extra people on our tour who decided to take this one instead. We had 11 people total. They told us to go use the restrooms (the one in the terminal is clean), then we met our guide Javier. He then led us to our van, which was one of those tall ones that you can stand up in. It looked a little run down but it was fine, and had A/C.

So off we go, we got stuck in early morning traffic, Javier was great, very funny and informative. He memorized everyone by name. Once we got out of the city into the country he told us that 2 days before we wouldn’t have been able to go on the trip because most of the roads had been flooded. (On an off note, we had rain EVERY day on the cruise…didn’t even get a tan.) There were many potholes and many yards were still flooded. He said they had never seen flooding before like this. Eventually we got stopped at a checkpoint and things got a little scary. The guard was supposedly checking for drugs, guns, etc. but happened to ask for an insurance card which Javier could not find. :eek: He got on the phone and things sounded serious, eventually one of the passengers asked Javier if it was on the sun visor, which luckily it WAS! So after that we were off again. If you get Javier, make sure he knows where that insurance card is before you leave! :p

The van ride was a little over an hour I think, I did not have a watch but my sister did (I cruised with my sis, mom and niece). It starts raining and I am thinking this is going to be a really miserable day…especially on the boat. We finally get to the dock, use the restrooms…which were fine. The road to the dock was flooded, eventually I will post pics, but we were able to drive through it. We then boarded a small boat with Javier and our Captain (did not catch his name). They offered us water before we left and again when we reached the ruins. It had stopped raining when we got on the boat but eventually started back up. It was cold and miserable going that fast with rain, all of us were in tanks and shorts…I would recommend a light jacket even in nice weather because this is a fast boat, even when it wasn’t raining it was chilly, at least to me! We spotted some birds, termite nests, some bats, and they pointed out some plants. No crocs or monkeys. The water was about 2 ft higher than usual so that might have kept some wildlife away.

After a long, freezing hour we make it to the dock at Lamanai which is flooded. Yay. Luckily there was another dock that had some land build out to it so we were able to dock there instead. We were able to use the restrooms there (FYI no soap, mirrors, or anything to dry your hands). Javier then told us we would have lunch when we get back to the boat dock due to the bugs. Bugs…another subject…they were bad. We sprayed before we left the ship and then again when we reached the ruins. I will get back to the bugs later. So off we went, my mom spotted a small animal and asked what it was and Javier screamed “LUNCH!”…it was some large rodent that apparently tastes like pork w/ no tail. The tour consisted of us trekking though the jungle…awesome, but very muddy. I think we lost a lot of time trying to navigate around the mud. Wear tennis shoes, even if its dry. He pointed out various plants used for healing, etc. We saw a couple ruins, we were actually fairly rushed, I would have liked more time exploring the ruins than hearing about the plants. The temple you can climb was much higher and steeper than I imagined. He told us we had about 5 minutes here, so I booked it up the stairs. Do not do this, take your time. I did not realize how fast I was going and by the time I got up there I was winded and sweating like a pig. It was very humid. Great view though! There was another set of steps to reach the very top but there were some people up there and I couldn’t see how they got up there because it was even steeper and steps were not in good condition. While I was up there I heard Javier yell that it was time to get going so I started down. Well near the bottom I passed some others in our group just starting to go up, very slowly (one lady had a bad knee, she was crawling up). My legs were shaking by the time I got down and I slipped a couple times…use the rope, or sit down and scoot down the steps! Even the steps were slippery with mud, my hands were filthy from the rope…bring wet naps!

So while we were waiting at the bottom for the others to reach the top and come back down AFTER he said it was time to move on, I noticed that my leg was bleeding in a couple places…from bug bites. They never did itch, and I didn’t feel a bite, but they are still on me now. My sister got them too. WEAR BUGSPRAY! We heard some howler monkeys off in the distance, eventually found the tree they were in but we couldn’t see them. So now the tour is REALLY rushed. We saw another temple and headed back to the dock. We had a few mins at the end to use the bathroom or visit a building that had artifacts on display. Then back on the boat for a mostly dry ride but still chilly.

We finally reached the dock, tipped the captain and had a few mins to use the bathrooms again and eat lunch. It honestly did not look that appetizing, but I was starving and tried it…I went back for seconds, the chicken was GREAT! The fruit drinks they offer were really good too even though they looked really generic. I recommend the Orange Mango. I did not have a watch but my sis kept looking at it and was worried. I think we boarded the van around 3:00 with last tender at 4. We drove fast on the way back, he assured us that we would make it and that there was actually another tender after the “last” one that they don’t tell you about. There was some risky driving involved but we made it back, he let us off, we tipped and rushed through the empty terminal, found the tender, sat down, and after maybe 2 minutes we were off for the ship. So needless to say there was no souvenir shopping this day. Now once back on the ship it seemed like we sailed away almost immediately, so maybe they had everyone on board so they didn’t need to wait for the “last” tender because I didn’t think there would have been time for another to reach us. So it was a very, very close call. But overall it was great, beautiful scenery, great tour guide, and worth every penny. I am sure we would have had a more leisurely trip if we hadn’t been held up at that check point, had not had to wait for the others to climb the ruins AFTER it was already time to move on, and if not for the mud.

Back to the bugs, my ankle was very, very swollen and super itchy the next 2 days due to those bites. I took pics, but after the swelling went down it seems that I was bitten by a red ant…which I believe that I am allergic to. I have never had such a big reaction so the red ants in Belize must be super evil…either that or it was the combo with those other mysterious bites also on my ankle. Oh and my leg is still sore from climbing the ruins…take your time if you have it to take! Told you the review would be long…any questions?;)

[Froufie]

Wow - quite the exciting time at Lamanai! I guess the weather certainly didn't help so hoping we don't get the rain or muddy conditions.

 

Thanks so much for the excellent information tho - it is very helpful. I do have the insect repellant ready (small bottle that can attach to my purse - maybe if the red ants see it they will keep away? :) ). Also bathroom info good - will make sure to pack antiseptic wipes and hand sanitizer (which I usually carry anyways). Was already planning to wear my runners and my white gauze shirt - which I can convert to long or shorter sleeves as required!

 

I too am planning to do the climb but am aware of the challenge as I have climbed Chichen Itza in Mexico - quite the experience (and sore leg muscles afterwards). Well if I make it to that halfway point that's okay too. And I love anything with mango in it so I am definitely going to try the Orange Mango juice.

 

Personally I would have been freaking out a bit more with the timing - you sound like you were pretty calm..... as for disembarking - should not be an issue as my cruise buddy is platinum so we do get priorty tenders which is nice!

 

Actually I think next week at this time I will be visiting Belize! Will definitely report when I come back!

 

Thanks again!

 

P.S. Does anyone know if you do sunscreen first or bug stuff? or does it matter?

[EBallgrl]

Froufie! I know you are not back yet, but I just read your post about missing Roatan and saw what you said about missing the last tender! So sorry that happened to you, cant wait to hear YOUR review! I am telling you, it was a very, very close call for us! I was hoping you would have a blast...please tell all when you return (i know you will!). Sorry you missed Roatan...hopefully you got some extra DOD's in there to make up for it! :D

[HRHMadonna]

Well, I can't wait to hear all about your adventure with BCE....We were all here on CC planning our trips and excursions at about the same time last summer....We were in Belize in mid-August, and if you recall my review, we loved the excursion itself, but I had real issues with BCE over the timing....we got back to the tender area with only 19 minutes to spare...and that was too close for comfort for me! I figured it was only a matter of time that someone "missed the boat"...sorry it was you! :(

 

Can't wait to hear how you managed to catch up with the boat & what caused you to miss it in the first place. I will be curious to know if BCE continues to tell potential customers that they have NEVER had anyone get back late from Lamanai!

 

Hope the rest of your cruise was enjoyable!

[vfb2girls]

Now I am really starting to worry about booking with this company. We will be in Belize 12/4 and have booked the cave-tubing excursion with this company but after hearing about the flooding and the cancellation of the cave-tubing I am beggining to wonder if I should just go ahead and cancel and find something else to do. I also am not thrilled about the reports of the excursion getting back to the dock with minutes to spare and I certainly don't want to be the party that misses the boat. I really wanted this vacation to be stress free but so far there just seems to be glitches in everything I have planned.

[Froufie]

So here's the REAL SCOOP!

 

It was recently rainy season in Belize - just ended last week so many of the main roads/highways are flooded - BUT THIS IS NOT A SURPRISE TO THE BELIZEANS - this happens every year and as far as I am concerned should be taken into consideration when scheduling a tour.

 

Due to DST - we are only 1 hr behind belize as we disembark instead of 2 - We got the first tender out which left at 8:00 (I will report using ship's time) - got to the office around 8:30 am and by 9 15 am we were on our way to the green van, there was me and my friend Ray and a family group of 11 (all adults).

 

On the way out of the city our guide Elio (who said he was doing this tour for 6 years) pointed out all the flooded roads - we're talking major big puddles, potholes and huge areas of flooding on the way out of the city - got to the boat dock around 11 am. With only 2 stops on the river (one to see the air cactus and some bats on a tree and then to look at the mennonite village) we literally raced down the river - it was actually quite fun and pretty exhiliarating. Got to Lamanai around 11:45 - so it took us 2 HOURS TO GET THERE - and logic would dictate it would take 2 hours to gets back - and perhaps the 'experienced' tour guide should make that 2.5 hours to allow for a bit of a cushion for timing and/or shopping? Guide was told and well aware of the fact that the last tender left the pier at 4:15 pm

 

The tour was excellent and Lamanai was fascinating - we saw the marching ants crossing our path, a jaguar print (no joke), the mask temple, ball court, jaguar temple and the very challenging Lag temple - which most everyone climbed - yes it was hard (and my leg muscles were so sore for the next 2 days I could not do the stairs on the ship!) and we were roasting hot up there - but the view was magnificent and I am so glad I did it!

 

Then lots of picture taking by the 11 family members at every stop, etc. Here is where the problem I think began - being with 11 others meant everything took just that much longer - esp taking pics with different family members, etc.

 

We finally headed back to the Lamanai picnic area near the entrance around 1:45 pm - at this point I was getting a bit nervous but figured guide knew what he was doing? Then came the lunch spread - which was really good (rice & beans, chicken, fried plaintains, coleslaw and salad (avoid the salad dressing - looked like it was mayonnaise based and was 'hot' and not refrigerated!)) - we started eating but some of the 'other' family members were wandering - washrooms, gift shop - and guide was not keeping track of them - they finally wandered back to have lunch - about half of us finished eating and the rest just starting - it is now 2 pm! At 2:15 pm - they start loading up the leftovers and carrying coolers back to dock to the boat - by the time we load up, untie boat, board etc it is 2:30 pm when we leave - now remember it took 2 hours to get there and if it takes 2 hours to get back (which it did) we would miss the last tender.

 

Most of the 'others' on the van are pretty calm as was I - I actually cant' believe how calm I am (and yes I did take my passport off the ship which I don't usually do!) - The boat literally flew down the water - and we boarded the van quickly (no bathroom stop there) and headed back to town.

 

Elio was driving okay - fast but not speeding - but at some point I realized we seemed very far out of town - as we got closer to the city you could see MAJOR TRAFFIC - and now there were construction trucks on the highway to the city working on the flooded potholes so traffic was backed up! They tried not to let us pass but Elio told them we had to get back to the boat so they let us by.

 

Now we are driving behind another 20 or more cars going slowly on this highway trying to go around or carefully thru the flooded areas. At 4:04 (on my trusty baby g waterproof watch) Elio says we are 3 minutes from port - a blatant lie! At 4:08 we had only gone 100 yards and it was obvious we would not make it back for 4:15

 

A couple of time thru the trip Elio was on the cellphone with his 'boss' Richard - Richard was monitoring us and wanted to know where we were - while we were late Richard told elio some of the Carnival excursions had not returned yet so ship would not leave without them.

 

I figured that there would be a a huge lineup for the last tender - and they would not be able to fit everyone on - and of course would not leave those in line behind so we would be okay. We finally got to the port area around 4:30 pm - grabbed our stuff and ran to the pier area - I was shocked to see only 3 people there along with a Carnival Security guard - he was on a walkie talkie and seemed to be aware of our group - asked if we were the private tour that was late? Yes - you are very lucky he said - we have the last tender here (looked like it had Carnival wheelchairs, table, ice water containers and other stuff they used at the port) and were loading up stuff to go back to the ship.

 

We were then told that if we were less than 7 people they would NOT have held the ship for us - but because we were a large group they did. The tender ride back was very exciting as we bounced across the water speeding back to the ship - got there at 5 pm (departure time) as they were pulling up the anchor!!! We were thrilled that we made it but I was not impressed with Belize cruise excursions - there is absolutely no excuse for the timing of the tour. Elio should have had a tighter control of the group and he didn't - I honestly wanted to take over and start herding people to the boat earlier - too bad if you missed lunch or did not get to see the gift ship - getting back to the ship on time was more imporant in my opinion.

 

My friend and I first thought that luckily it was not just the 2 of us cuz they would not have held the ship if the tour arrived late - but then we realized if it was just the 2 of us - the Lamanai portion would have gone much quicker with less 'photo ops' and wandering and we would have made sure we made it back on time (and we did have some shopping plans which obviously were cancelled).

 

I plan to send an email to the company (I have an email from the vice president in Grand Cayman) to let them know of our ordeal - and that the tour guides should really have a schedule and stick to it - leaving at the last possible moment - which in fact did not allow for any emergencies or traffic was completely unacceptable. I shudder to think what would have happened had Carnival not had that last (unofficial) tender there waiting for us (esp as we never really stopped In Roatan which should have been our next port of call).

 

So yes the tour was great - the ride was fun - but the timing was way off. If you do go on this tour I would highly recommend that at 1:30 pm wherever you are you insist on returning to the dock to get on the boat and head back to Belize city - at least this allows time for any unforeseen emergencies and if you're early back so what - more time to shop!

[vfb2girls]

Thank you for the very honest reply, I am thinking that I just might go ahead and cancel with this company and we will decide once we are on the ship what we want to do in Belize. I do not want to take any chances with even being a little late, and I would not be as calm as you were. I do have two other excursions booked through Island Marketing but don't think those two will give us any problems. Thanks once again for your report.

[HRHMadonna]

Attn: Froufrie

 

Wow! That was a close call indeed! May I ask who you contacted with BCE?....I'm thinking I may write them RE: our August experience....Too many close calls lately...If they plan to continue serving cruiseline passengers they need earlier departures, they need to be sure all excursion participants are from the same ship & they definitely need to stick to a set schedule.

 

Also, based on recent CC reviews, I find their written assurances about having a "back-up plan" to get you back to the cruise ship on time to be dubious at best.

 

Glad you made it...It would have been a long, long swim to Roatan! :eek:

[Froufie]

Yes a little too close for comfort - and I also can't believe how calm I was.

 

HRH - can you please email me at froufster@hotmail.com? I will then be able to provide you with further details as per your request.

[StarryBugg]

Crazy.... So many seem to be having the same problems. A shame considering how AMAZING the actual excursion is. I'm quite reluctant to advise others to use this company. Hopefully, things may change for the better for them soon.

[vfb2girls]

I went ahead and cancelled my cave tubing excursion with this company, I just didn't feel comfortable going on a fun excursion only to have to worry about making it back to the ship in time. I really wanted to do the ruins with them but now I am so undecided on what we will do in Belize. I think whatever we choose to do we will do it through the ship, I know more expensive and so many more people but I really need to have that peace of mind.

[RizzoLee]

Wow - thanks for posting your experiences!

 

We were originally going to do the cave tubing excursion, and then cancelled it due to timing and the tragedy that occured.

 

Then were looking at this one - once again, I'm not even going to consider it anymore.

 

I hope you guys get some sort of positive response from the powers that be for this - it should definitely be handled in a better fashion.

[Scanman717]

I was on this excursion a couple of weeks ago.. There was a post here about that experience, but it seems to have dissapeared.. hmmm.. Anyway, even with the mishaps, I would recommend BCE. In case there are other GPS Junkies out there, I was wearing a GPS tracker that day and here is a picture of that track in Google Earth.. the track going north is the Van ride, then the southerly track is the boat portion. Enjoy.