Belize Cave Tubing A Must

Belize is home to one of the largest cave systems in all of Central America. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how caves are formed. What starts out as just a drop of water will slowly become a trickle and then that trickle turns into underground rivers. These rivers are kind of like Mother Nature’s paintbrush as they design artistic and mysterious places over millions of years.

Scientists have spent a long time studying the Belizean cave systems. Research began in the 1960s and by 1984, researchers found and documents 65 different sites. Most of the sites are not yet accessible to the general public, but there are several cave locations you can visit during your Belize vacation. Many caves have been well known for a lot of years, but there are still several waiting to be discovered.

If you are looking for something to do in Belize, cave tubing should be at the very top of your list. There is no other place in the Western Caribbean (possibly the world) where you can do anything quite like it. Take it from someone who’s been before … you seriously don’t want to miss out on cave tubing.

I went on a Caribbean cruise in November 2010 with several girl friends. During our trip we visited the beautiful little country of Belize. I had heard that cave tubing was a must during my trip and I’m so glad I took their advice!

Our tour guide met us at the port and we drove about an hour to the cave entrance. During our drive we laughed and joked as our guide told us about the culture of Belize.

Once we arrived at the site, we headed off for a quick zip line through the jungle. Now, the zip line adventure was pretty fun, but if you’ve only got one day to spend in Belize, I’d recommend skipping the zip line and just head straight for the caves.

We got changed into our swim suits, put on our water shoes, grabbed our tube and headed for the caves. We “hiked” about 30 minutes through the beautiful rainforest before we hit the Cave Branch River. Just a note, don’t forget bug spray. No one in our group thought to bring bug spray for our walk through the jungle (dumb, I know) so our legs got pretty eaten up.

Once we got to the river, we put on our helmets and head lamps, jumped in our tubes and started floating down the river. It’s an amazing site … your headlamp’s ray will hit on glistening crystal formations as your imagination takes you back to a time 1,200 years ago when ancient Maya people were in the caves completing ancient religious ceremonies. Caves were considered a spiritual spot to the Mayans, so the carved sculptures you see in the caves are pretty neat. Don’t forget your camera, you’ll want to take lots of pictures … just make sure it’s waterproof.

We spent the next two hours or so floating through the cave system. Because we went zip lining for the first part of our day, we were only able to go through one cave formation. While the zip lining was awesome, I wish we would have skipped it because the caves were so amazing I wanted to see more!

Cave tubing is a great activity for anyone … families, singles, couples and groups … anyone can do this! Just find yourself a guide, a headlamp and a tube and prepare for an experience of a lifetime.

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