Pause for Adventure

If I'm being honest, this week felt like one long (but pleasant) April Fool's joke. On Wednesday, I found out that I would be leaving the next day and taking a two day trip to the Southern part of the country. Details: Vague. Basically the information I had was that I was going to meet up with my host mom's friend who owns a tour business to help him out with his website.

So Thursday morning I got on a bus at 6am and headed south. 4 hours later and I arrived at the unmarked intersection, locally known as "the Placencia junction",  where our family friend, Cesar, picked me up. "What's the plan?" I asked.

It turns out that Cesar single handedly built and owns the longest zip line in Belize and runs a river tubing tour on the river below the zip lines. During the months of January through March, there are scarlet macaws that fly at the same level as the zip lines. After rumbling down 4 miles of dirt road through the jungle, I found myself at the Mayan Sky Canopy Tour center. Despite being deep in the jungle, the entrance to their driveway is less than subtle. Just a casual 2 story statue of the Mayan rain god, Chaac.

The "plan" so to speak, was for me to experience all the tours alongside other tourists and photograph the whole experience as best as possible. Up first?- 7 zip lines strung 400 feet high across the valley in the Maya Mountain foothills. Despite being a rock climbing instructor back in Boston, I have to admit my legs got a little wobbly jumping off that first platform. There are no photos of me from this trip since I was not about to lend my SLR camera to a stranger while hanging by a harness 400 feet in the air. Instead you can enjoy these photos of other tourists enjoying the ride:

After a quick change of attire, I was handed a giant green inflatable tube, and the group was sent floating down the river below the zip lines. The camera had to stay behind for this one. With all of the small rapids in the river, the risk of my camera going for a swim was a bit too high for my comfort. The rapids themselves weren't that intense. I would liken it to the speed boost bumps in Mario Kart, but this was not exactly white water rafting.

The best part of the river tubing? The silence. In the district where I live (Cayo), there are very few patches of untouched jungle where you can't hear people nearby or cars on a passing highway. Except for some of the quiet chatter amongst the group, all you could hear were the birds and monkeys that were inevitably hiding in the trees along the river banks. While the birds themselves were elusive, the butterflies were not as shy. Several small yellow butterflies kept us company as we floated along and frequently landed right on my nose. 

Cesar and I sat around for the rest of the afternoon discussing his website (https://www.mayanskybelize.com/)- what he liked, what he didn't like, what he needed help with. At this time, no changes have been made to his original work. Although I'm not a web designer by any means, I can navigate a drag and drop system like wix.com, where Cesar had built his website. We agreed that I would redesign his logo, add tour descriptions and prices, a booking plug-in that links to their email, add detailed driving instructions, and finally, create an "About the Staff" section where customers can learn about Cesar's extensive experience in building adventure courses. 

The biggest surprise of the day? The accommodations. I had been told to be prepared for camping so I had my hiking boots, headlamp, and other gear ready to go. But after we had finished for the day, Cesar dropped me off here:

I was totally blindsided by being gifted a night in a 5 star resort, but definitely not complaining. I spent the rest of the evening and the next morning working on content for Cesar's new website. I can't thank Cesar and the crew at Mayan Sky Canopy Tours enough for their hospitality, so I'm really throwing my energy at helping them out with their web-presence. 

Cheers to another week in Belize!