Caves, shoe-boxes, and Bats...OH MY!

We're 26 yall!

My cake, Greg sang me a lovely rendition of happy birthday.
The cake was made in our new toaster oven!!!

For my birthday we decided to go to this place called Caves Branch Jungle Lodge. We get the 'local rate' since the prices are all in USD we just pay the same in BZE. We stayed in a sweet 'Jungle Cabana' with a luxuriously soft bed complete with towel animals! It reminded me of the 'Euro Camp' we stayed at in Italy. We got an orientation, including when dinner starts (chips and salsa at 6:30 where the tour guides come around and you sign up for what you want to do the following day, then salad & soup, main course, and desert!), how to use the jungle shower, and how to light the oil lamps. The whole place used oil lamps and torches, giving everything that warm romantic glow.

One side of the pool area, with the Caves Branch River in the background

A HOT TUB!

Couples table and our sweet cabana!

For the first time in six months we swam in a POOL! We got in even though it was freezing and swam all around, mixing it up with the hot tub when we got too cold. That night at dinner we met two couples that were here for our Erin (one of the tech trainers for Peace Corps) wedding, and another couple just traveling through. Dinner was so good and we had fun laughing with the three other couples, a nice break from the often awkward conversations with my villagers.

Greg skipped rocks clear to the other side...the banks were just lined with perfect skipping stones!

We chose the River and Cave Exploration tour. We took a 20 bus ride through an orange planatation then carried our tubes to the river...you could see the entrance to the cave and we just floated backwards right in...headlamps on. We alternated tubing and hiking for 5 hours inside the massive cave that archeologists said were used around 400 BC (the same time as the large Maya cities). We went to two chambers inside the cave. One was where they believe offerings were made to the fertility god (they found a carved face and an alter). This is where we ate lunch! I found a small cave nearby that you had to crouch down to get into but then it was almost head high inside. there was a little shelf of clay and apparently other kids on the tours thought it would be fun to make their own artifacts of smiley faces and hearts. I showed some kids who were with us and they had a fun little arts and crafts room all to themselves!

We saw fruit bats and insect bats, brain-suckers (like a glow worm with out the glow), and catfish. The water was freezing but as we got into the belly of the cave the air was nice and warm. It is believed the maya people would prey to the gods, sacrifice, or do blood letting here because the stalagtites were thought to be the roots of the tree of life of the Ceiba (or Kapot Tree) and that the smoke would travel up through the roots, the stem, and finally out to heaven from the leaves. We saw evidence of these rituals in the second cavern where there were several fire pits with pieces of pottery. They would collect the blood then burn it for the gods, finally smashing the pots to release an evil spirits trapped inside, or boring a hole at the top of the pot. The head lamp hurt my head and the water was freezing but other than that it was pretty much the coolest (no pun intended) trip, floating down a river deep inside a huge cave, our splashes and distant rapids echoing as we creep closer to the sacred grounds of the ancient Maya.

Fire pit and curtain and pond formations!

Fruit bats...their acidic poo eats at the limestone making these little cylindrical homes for them.
They flew around the cave periodically too!

Fertility God, notice the tongue

Little insect bat...he was so cute!

We caught the bus after we got back (after one last warm jungle shower) and got back home at 8:00. I wanted to be home for my actual birthday. We slept in luxuriously (until 8:00) I heard the family bustling around, and heard iswa (ducunu) several times so I knew already that we would be eating good. I came out to many birthday wishes and we went to the shop to get some breakfast supplies. We spoke only in ketchi again and the shop keep said my ketchi was getting good. With a smile on my face we started walking back and saw kids pouring out of the church with shoe boxes. I stoped some kids and asked what was going on and they said some white people came and gave out boxes of presents. Sweet mother, I live in a village that the Good Samaritans send their shoe boxes for kids to! This was a surreal revelation to me, I do not think of my village as poor, destitute, or oppressed, but this was just a reminder that by most of the worlds standards it is. Well it was great non the less. All the kids tore into the gifts as we and the adults all gathered around oohing and ahhing and there was much murmuring of "mas chabil" Very beautiful. They all got toothbrushes and toothpaste a book (Sheldon is not seen without his from sun up to sun down) and lots of little trinkets and some clothing. This did cause some drama which I heard about at the river later in the week. The ladies were all talking (I am less of the entertainment now and starting to be just one of the ladies....sometimes) and they said not all the kids got boxes, and that some families got one box while others got one per kid. Speculations were made that you had to know someone in the church to get a box for all your kids...I just kind of tried to stay neutral. I was just happy that they were asking my opinion by name and not just watching me wash. We had a great day helping to get the corn ready for ducunu (it was Murphy's birthday the day before mine!) We went to church, sang ketchi songs and watched 3 kids get baptized.

Sheldon with his goodies, Fermin and Andres with Tanisha and Brendon.

Cecilia the mom checking out all the kids gifts, she put them in this basket because Murphy destroyed his box.

Taking the young corn off the cob to make ducunu...even little Hermin helped!

So all you out there...I had a great birthday, and a great start to my 26th year of life. Happy Valentines Day everyone!