Waterfalls! Caves Branch - Belize Ian Anderson's Caves Branch Adventure Company and Jungle Lodge Day 12 by Wayne & Karen Brown

We rode with them in an old bus, down the road, through an orange orchard, over a dry river bed, through another orchard, and then finally to the edge of the rainforest. They led us to a path in the rainforest that leads to the waterfall cave, explaining to always watch where we step so that we can avoid stepping on a snake!

We notice that the rainforest is made of different layers of plants. The top layer is the canopy, about 60-100 feet (20-33 meters) high. The bottom layer is the forest floor. Between the canopy and forest floor is the understory, about 30 feet (10 meters) high. Between the understory and the forest floor is the herb layer about 3-6 feet (1-2 meters) high. Popping out of the canopy are the trees the emergent layer (over 100 feet/33 meters).

We see that the canopy is made of the branches of the tall trees that reach over the rainforest and cover it like a blanket. The plants and trees that are under the canopy are ones that can grow in shade, because the canopy blocks out the sunlight. The plants and trees that we can easily touch and see are in the understory and herb layer.

The soil in the rainforest is only about 10-12 inches (25-30 centimeters) deep. Roots cannot grow deep into the ground to support a plant. To protect itself from being knocked over during a wind storm many of the large, tall trees have special buttress roots. To us buttress roots look like rocket ship fins. These roots support the tall trees of the emergent layer and absorb nutrients from the soil.

We walked slowly along the path stopping frequently to look around and to listen to the birds. We heard lots of birds but they are very hard to find high up in the trees of the canopy.

Then Alex saw a snake! A bright green one, skinny, and about six feet long. It's tail end was on the ground and the rest of its body went up a green leafy plant and it was watching us. Alex and Carlos told us to be careful because this snake will bite if it gets scared of us. It is not venomous, but it does have teeth and it would hurt a lot of a person was bitten by it.

Finally we made it to the entrance to the cave. We put on our helmets and turned on our headlamps and started walking into the cave. It got dark in there very quickly! Almost immediately we saw some beautiful cave formations called stalagmites and stalactites. Many stalagmites and stalactites have grown together and become large columns. These formations are formed by water dripping from the roof of the cave.

Soon we came to the stream that runs through the cave. This is part of the ancient stream that actually carved this cave out of solid limestone thousands of years ago! We were able to walk along side of the stream for a while. We found some other people in the cave, too. Four student archeologists from the University of Mississippi are in Belize to study and document the Mayan artifacts that are in the caves. We had a chance to climb up into a side cave chamber to see pottery and a human skull that were left there by the Mayans over 1,000 years ago!

We have been in the cave for several hours, so we stop for lunch. Carlos and Alex spread out a white table cloth on the cave floor and spread out our lunch. We made our own burittos out of flour torillas, meat, cheese, cucumbers, onions and carrots.

After lunch we continued to walk upstream deeper and deeper into the cave. Pretty soon the water got deeper, too. Our shoes were soaked and then in a very short time our pantlegs were, too. We followed the stream and then came across areas where we had to climb the rocks to get to the upper levels of the stream. We came to a pool of water and at the other side of it was our first waterfall! By this time the water was so deep in some places it was over our heads and we had to swim!

The waterfall was small and about 10 feet high. It was a lot of fun to climb! We climbed up a series of stair step waterfalls. We kept going until we reached the largest waterfall. It was about 30 feet high! Alex climbed up the waterfall and then hooked a rope at the top, tossed the end down, and after hooking the rope onto a harness that we wore, we took turns climbing up the waterfall. (The rope was just there for safety, in case we slipped and fell.) It was really fun to climb while the cool water showered down on us!

To get out of the cave, we had to turn around and go back the way we came. One fun thing that all the guys enjoyed doing was jumping from the tops of the waterfalls into the deep pools of water below. Karen didn't want to do that so she climbed back down instead.

When we returned to the mouth of the cave we could see and hear that it was raining. Even though we would have to walk through the rain back through the rainforest, it didn't matter. We were already totally soaked from head-to-toe!

It was an exciting and fun day. Belize has so many unique and adventurous things to do for those who come to visit!

Best Fishes,
Wayne & Karen

Left to right: Carlos, Karen, Wayne, Alex.

The rainforest understory

This cute little skinny snake is about six feet long but only about 3/4 inch wide.

Karen with stalagmites, stalactites and a huge cave column.

Wayne holding a Mayan shoe pot and part of a human jaw with teeth stiil attached! These are over 1,000 years old!

Wayne and Karen with Carlos climbing up one of the smaller waterfalls inside the Waterfall Cave.

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