Nana's spirit is here!!!

For those who don't know, Mark's mom, Nana (Karen) has a favorite creature, the butterfly.  She also had and amazing sense of adventure.  She loved the things lots of people might hesitate to try.  She instilled in her family that willingness to take a risk and step outside our comfort zones.  When Mark and I First shared our adventure for this trip with Nana and Papa we knew we were taking a risk because our resort is in a little fishing village towards the end of the Belizean peninsula, still quite third world in many ways trying to cross over into a more resort type community. The pictures looked great but there was still a risk that it could have been a dump.  In fact part of the reason we got it for the price we did was because they are still under construction.  There was a moment when I'm sure Karen wondered what we were getting into because it looked kind of risky.  Well, we could not be more pleased and we truly believe Nana is pleased with our decision as well and this is why . . . You cannot walk around this town with out a seeing a ton of butterflies.  Everywhere we turn there are butterflies. We have had our moments of tears thinking about the butterflies and Mom.  In that same spirit, yesterday we had a "Karen" adventure.

On one of the many adventures Nana and Papa took over the years, they talked about getting off a cruise for an excursion in Belize and went cave tubing.  That was one of the reasons we decided to start looking into Belize for our #25thAnniversary.  Yesterday we headed out on that adventure.  We were picked up at our cabana by a personal driver, Rosendo, and his side kick, Sharon who escorted us everywhere and took care of all the details.  Talk about a day of being spoiled, our own private tours and minimal waiting in lines!!!  He had water in the van for us.  He stopped when we needed to, he had towels ready in the van and so much more.  He earned his tip, that's for sure.  On the two hour drive to the caves, we could see butterflies everywhere.  We knew it was going to be a perfect day.  

Upon arriving at our destination, Rosendo checked us in.  Our adventure started with a 2 hour cave tubing adventure, with lunch in the middle and then a zip threw the jungle.  😄 We have minimal pictures for this adventure because of logistics.  The cool part is Mark attached the Go Pro camera to his forehead and off we went.  We'd share that, but we have to wait until we get back to download the video.  We got a few shots however.  One with our escorts and a couple in front of the zip line station and some basic selfies.  

Let's start with the cave tubing.  This is a cross between Carl's Bad Cavern and lazy river tubing.  Victor, our cave guide was a wealth of information about Belize and all the different trees, plants and animals around.  I learned why cashews are so expensive, even in Belize.  It apparently has quite the toxic shell and the process to shell them requires special clothing and protective gear so the workers don't get the oils on their skin or in their eyes.  I could have been fed a line, I don't know but it sounded good.  After walking across a river and taking a short cut to bypass a few cruise groups, we crossed the river in two more places and arrived at the entrance to the cave.  When we arrived there were still a bunch of cruise groups all being loped together and bunched up in groups of 16.  On the other hand, we looped the four of us together and pushed off down the river and into the cave.  The caves were peaceful and filled with the sounds of waterfalls, the faint sounds of a few bats that awoke in the middle of their slumber and beautiful formations of stalagmites and stalactites.  After coming out of the caves we still had another 25 minutes or so of lazy river tubing.  It was beautiful.  

When we arrived back at the camp, we were served a lovely buffet lunch with local favorites, red beans and rice and cole slaw (different than at home).  The chicken was wonderful and we had fried plantains.  Dessert was banana cake, basically a banana bread similar to what I make but fresh picked bananas, no waiting for them to ship to America. It was served with water or fresh squeezed orange juice (did I mention there are orange groves everywhere???). After lunch we were off to zip around the jungle.  

We had a blast zipping from tree to tree.  However remember you zip down hill, which means you have to get up to the top somehow.  Well it's climbing.  It wasn't horrible, but we did get our workout for the day and there were only two climbs I actually had to rest for a few minutes before continuing.  They had a water station waiting so I'm guessing that was normal for a lot of people.  Only once did I have to be pulled in because I didn't have enough momentum.  I thought that was pretty good.  

After the long day of adventures, we headed back to the cabana.  We were exhausted.  Mark was able to take a little snooze in the van, but I just couldn't.  After driving threw a rain storm, we arrived to our temporary little home. Mark was super sweet and made dinner and then I pretty much crashed because of exhaustion.  

Today is a chill day.  We went for a walk to get some fresh juice and a couple new T-shirts for Mark.  We moved to the beach front cabana (stayed the first few nights in the cabana that was set back about 50 feet farther than the beach front one - it was tough, I know) and got settled in, ate some lunch and now we are going to get a few more tomatoes for some more pico de gallo.  Shopping for two people is way different than a family of 5.  Tonight might include a little karaoke, Mark hasn't decided yet. 

Love you all.  Until next time . . .