I have decided “rain forest” may be the most appropriate term for this beautiful mountainous jungle we are in, because light (or even heavy) rain showers will appear without warning. Of course the sound on the tin roof of our open air treehouse was pretty spectacular- at least at first. The 4th time I woke up during the night “spectacular” was NOT the word that came to mind. But all a part of the experience (I kept reminding myself). The day finally dawned a little overcast and we were anxious to get our first days adventure underway. After the fabulous breakfast they had for us, we met our guide to go on the “river caves expedition”. The Meyer family of 4 from New York joined us. We couldn’t have chosen better companions for the day, they were so much fun. We boarded a bus that looked like it was a military bus from the 40’s. 20 minutes through the rutted roads and THROUGH a river in an orange grove and we arrived at the edge of the jungle at the base of a mountain. We all took one of the black inter tubes from the back of the

bus and began a 5 minute hike on a trail through the jungle that brought us to a river. We all jumped into the cold,clear spring fed river and were instructed NOT to float downstream but to begin paddling upstream. Our guide seemed to find it a little too funny to inform us that we would be paddling upstream most of the day before we floated back to our starting point. So we all starting flailing wildly against the current just as

big fat rain drops began to slap us in the face. The whole scene was pretty hilarious and started off an amazingly fun day. It didn’t take long to reach the cave entrance. We were totally unprepared for the breathtaking sights we were about to encounter. Bats, stalactites and stalagmites were only the beginning. We climbed huge rock formations that led to carvings in the rock believed to be done by the ancient Mayans. There were shards of pottery, a large mask carved into rock and a few faint carvings in the walls. Glittering Quartz an

d crystal formations took out breath away. A collective WOW from the group came at every turn. After several hours of exploring our guides pulled lunch out of their packs and laid out a spread of fresh homemade tortillas still warm to

the touch along with meats and veggies to pack inside. Round it off with a little guava juice and we enjoyed a picnic lunch by the light of headlamps listening to the roaring of the river a mile inside a cave under a mountain. WOW! An experience of a lifetime for sure. After lunch we finally got to start the float back down the river, which meant no paddling. But to make it more interesting our guide had us turn our headlamps off so we were floating in the blackest darkness I’ve ever seen. We were gliding in between rock walls on either side that we ran into without warning while the lights were off- now I was sure

the guide was having fun with us. We made it back to the cave entrance all too soon and floated into bright sunshine and the most beautiful jungle along the banks. JoAnn (of the Meyer family) commented that if Disney created a perfect jungle river this is what it would look like, and she was right! We finished with cliff jumps into the river (only for the bravest among us) and a trek back through the Orange grove to our old bus. On the way back we took pictures with the maya mountains as a backdrop and picked and ate oranges. We were exhausted when we returned to the lodge but still had to scale a series of ramps and then 76 tall concrete steps to our mountainside treehouse. I then spent the next few hours on the rooftop deck reading and gazing at the jungle canopy below me. A gourmet 4 course dinner finished off the night and we drug ourselves back up all the steps to bed. No wifi and no TV is not such a problem when you are so tired by 9:00 you can hardly keep your eyes open. The rain began its nightly beating on our tin roof and we slipped in between our humidity soaked sheets already looking forward to the next day’s adventures