adrian's caving adventure

A few days ago I went on a cave tour with several friends I'd met in Bocas. After some haggling over the price (we got him down to $25 per person), we took off by boat. After about 30 min we entered a small shallow river - our guide had to stop and push us with an oar twice. We entertained ourselves by searching for sloths, and Barb won the eagle-eye prize by spotting one! We then did a 10 minute jungle walk to the cave. On the way we saw a red poison dart frog, some cool baby pineapples, and some cacao plants with seed pods (what they use to make chocolate).

Finally we made it to the cave, got our flashlights, and headed in. The ceilings of the cave were anywhere from about 10 feet high to 35 feet high, and we were walking in a stream which was usually a foot deep, but occasionally as deep as 4 1/2 feet. We walked very slowly so as not to trip over submerged rocks, or fall into sudden deep parts, and ducked as the occasional bat would fly on through. It was definitely an adventure. It was made even more exciting because I had my camera with me and wanted to make sure it stayed dry, so I only had one hand free for balance. Oh, the sacrifices I make for all of you so I can have good pictures for my blog! (fun fact - at one point our guide was taking a group photo of us and he tripped backwards over a rock - luckily he managed to keep my camera out of the water!).

We wandered through the cave for a while, and even went swimming in an underground pool. This trip was really awesome. I'd say it was my favorite expedition so far! Pics below. Enjoy!

our group of the intrepid explorers outside the cave

look at all those bats! This is right at the entry of the cave, but the guide didn't show us until we were leaving. Good call.

cool rock formation

swimming in an underground pool

group photo in the cave

now for a more serious moment