Strange Cave tubing question....?

[brookiepoo]

Okay, I've looked on the past threads to see if I could find an answer to this question without asking it but I didn't find anything.

So for all of you who have cave tubed before me, here goes. Did any of you see any "critters" of any kind (snakes, crocs, huge bugs etc....) while cave tubing in Belize? I'm only asking because personally I'm terrified of snakes and I'll be travelling with my 13 year old cousin and my 11 year old cousin, both girls who it seems are scared of everything that moves! haha. We go tubing here where we live in the summers and they generally do well but I'm not sure any of us could handle it if we saw something big and scary LOL. I've always wondered about this.

Also, how strenuous is the hike to the river??

Thanks

[Threecharms]

We went cave tubing 3 years ago. I loved it but my dds did not. They were 13 and 15 at the time. While we did not see any snakes, there were birds or bats flying around our heads while we were in the tubes in the caves. My girls flipped out and there was no place for them to go. The bats or birds didn't swoop down and touch us but they were too close for my girls.

 

The walk to the cave was through a jungle - the path is extremely well marked but tree roots, etc. are all around. My guess is, if I looked hard enough, I would have seen some wildlife. I was trying hard not to think about it! Wear bug spray but I don't remember any of us having a problem with biting bugs. It was a long walk on a mostly flat trail - maybe 30 minutes or so. Make sure to take a water with you.

 

Threecharms

[psbtrvlr]

The hike is not strenuous. We saw ants. In the caves there were bats hanging on the ceiling, but none were flying around. We had 3 children with us, 7, 12,13. The only problem we had was that the 7 year old got cold in the water.

[PKG1965]

We went last July and I saw no critters. Our guide spotted a snake in a tree way away from the water and was pointing it out to us. Of course, I did not see it. The bats stayed high in the caves and never moved. No problems along the hike. Major Tom (our guide) was very informative about the types of plants and what they could/couldn't do to you. Awesome. We had children ranging from 14 to 5 years of age. They all loved it!

[driftwood]

. . . as Shakespeare might have said! Young women have had equivocal feelings about snakes since the Garden of Eden, it seems, and your question is not unreasonable, considering you are entering a tropical paradise in the Barton Creek Caves of Belize. HOWEVER I was just there last month, [January 12, 2008, in the caves themselves, for those of you who want only the facts] chasing all natural objects from one end of the country and even into Guatemala for two weeks, to the other, and the fact is, in Belize there are only two products for sale, viz., shore excursions and rice'n'beans, neither of which has any appeal to a snake of any description; and one product for free, SUNLIGHT. You won't see a snake unless you beg to see one. If you are fortunate enough to have Major Tom for a guide, you will have in your company a man six feet three inches tall, whose size 13 shoe would discourage any snake from interfering with, or even approaching within a hundred km. of, his guests. Major Tom can pick 'em up, or put 'em down! For I have seen him do it. But I have not seen one live snake in the wild anywhere in Belize. Much like my own backyard here in Swampland, they have better places to hide. In the caves we saw one bat (asleep), and in emerging from the caves I saw two spiders (which somewhat resembled Daddy Longlegs but are not). There are airheads among tour guides--they know who they are--, but not with or near Major Tom.

 

Now unless St. Patrick were to send in a shipment from Ireland before your cruise, probably the last thing you are going to see on a cave tubing expedition (with Major Tom--some other tour guides are more "fun-loving" and may supply their own) is a snake. There are snakes in Belize,--even in the Belizean government before this February's election, when most all of them were trampled out of town, strangely enough--and very pretty ones, some of the legless ones--but they are a tourist attraction wherever they are, and they don't like it, and hide out. You have to pay to see them, and then they are confined in spacious cages for a limited period of time, purely to amuse and delight.

 

So fear not! If this excursion does not take you to some of the most beautiful scenery you have ever seen, and give you an adventure (in the tamest sense of the word) that you will treasure the rest of your lives, I would be very surprised and apologetic. Cast caution to the winds! Or at least to Major Tom, with whom you will be 100% safe!

 

Happy sailing, and happy tubing! :D

 

Also if you think you could keep pace with a 64-year-old man and his similarly handicapped wife, you ain't going to have any trouble with the walk.