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Early this morning we met our guide for the day, Pablo. He gave us the harness that we would need wear to rappel into the Black Hole. The Black Hole is an ancient cave that collapsed to form a sinkhole. Today we are going to explore this huge sinkhole. We are going to rappel down 300 feet into The Black Hole! He took us back to the same orange orchard that we went through to visit the Waterfall Cave yesterday, but to a different hidden path into the thick, green curtain of the rain forest. From there we started our long uphill trek to the mysterious Black Hole! It was hot and very humid. Everything was dripping wet because it had rained all night. The birds were singing high in the trees and insects were buzzing all around. The ground was muddy and the roots of the trees that run across the path were very slippery! Fortunately, a few months ago the Jungle Lodge guides put in some railings along the most difficult parts of the path. Even with the railings to ease our upward climb, the effort and humidity caused us to be drenched in sweat in about 5 minutes. Sweat was dripping off our faces like we were standing under a shower. It was a long and steep climb to the edge of the Black Hole. It took us about an hour and a half of difficult hiking to get there. Some other guides had gone ahead and set up the ropes for our rappel into the Black Hole. We put on our climbing harnesses, helmets and gloves. Pablo went down the rope first. After he was down and off the rope it was our turn. Wayne was first. Karen was second. We walked slowly backwards with the rope sliding through the rappeling bar. When we got to the drop-off we then leaned backwards and slid down the rope in a sitting position. For the first 20 feet of the way down we were next to a vertical wall of solid limestone. After that, we sat upright in our harnesses and lowered ourselves 300 feet to the rainforest floor. Wayne stopped a few times to take pictures on the way down. What a beautiful view from up there! We could look over the top of the bright green rainforest canopy and all around the edge of The Black Hole. The Black Hole is about 1/2 mile across! Three hundred feet down below us, we could see Pablo through a hole in the green blanket of the canopy. He looked to be the size of a tiny bug! He was holding the rope and making sure that we got down safely. After safely reaching the bottom, Pablo led us back to a steep and precarious, narrow trail that would take us up and out of The Black Hole. Unfortunately, getting out of the The Black Hole was no easy slide along a rope like it was getting into it. The trail was steep and slippery. We carefully stepped over rocks and roots. After about an hour we returned back to the head of the trail in one piece, dirty and sweaty, but with big smiles on our faces! We returned to the Jungle Lodge for lunch. Unfortunately, this is our last full day in Belize. After lunch we showered, changed into clean, dry clothes, and drove our packed SUV out of the rainforest and down the Humingbird Highway to our our last overnight in Belize, back to the King George Hotel in Belize City. We have had a awesome time here in Belize! We successfully accomplished our goal for this expedition -- to document the whale shark feeding migrattion to Gladden Spit. We had some exciting surprises, too, like the encounters with bull sharks, manatees and dolphins. And, as a bonus, we had some exciting adventures in the rainforest, just for fun! We look forward to coming back to Belize to document more whale shark behavior, and to make another visit to the rainforest. We thinking about a return next year! Want to join us? Tomorrow we will do a recap of what we accomplished and learned from our expedition! Best Fishes, |
TODAY'S DATA Caves Branch, Belize Position: 17º 10' N / 88º 41' W
Pablo and Karen at the start of our hike to The Black Hole.
Pablo and Wayne get ready for their rappel into The Black Hole. (In the background you can see the large dark opening to a huge cave at the bottom on The Black Hole.)
The small white dot next to the rope in the dark opening in the rainforest canopy is Pablo's climbing helmet.
Karen rappeling through the rainforest canopy at the bottom of The Black Hole. |
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Day 13
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