Thursday, January 22, 2009

Last Day of Vacation

So as the afternoon draws to a close after a very long day I am a bit sad. Going home with be a tough adjustment. This has truly been the trip of a lifetime, nothing I have ever done compares to this.

Today Ben & I woke up had Breakfast at 7am and left at 8am for our visit to 1000 ft falls. (which is actually 1600 ft tall since the British Army did a repelling exercise a couple years ago and measured it) It's the tallest in Central America. Our car & guide waited for us while we viewed the falls to take us to on actual drop off point for the days hike ahead.

Our drop off point was the beginning of the Cascade Trail and we hiked along the trail for most of the morning I would say, there are many foot bridges, ladders and zig zags across a stream with many mini waterfalls and pools where you can go for a swim. It was very beautiful and I really enjoyed that part of the hiking the most because it was visually so interesting and like a series of monkey bars and jungle gyms to play on!
There is a cold front here so it was a bit cool for swimming but we did have our swim suits just in case the mood struck us.

Then we hiked along the road for a while and hopped on the Lizard Trail which took us to the trail to the Secret Falls & Hidden Pools where we hiked along for 45 mins about before we climbed down into a steep valley to find a private paradise just for us! It was truly a secret waterfall and hidden pool!
There was a little covered dining area & hammocks where we ate our packed lunch and had a little relax. It was so special and lovely.
We set up the camera and the automatic timer and posed in front of the falls & pool so we could have a photo as couple to look back on and remember.

Then we continued on to our next trail Butterfly Falls. It was quite the hike in but the falls were SPECTACULAR! Then we hiked up to High Point where we had a wonderful view of the whole area of Mountain Pine Ridge. It was quite the view! I hadn't realized how high we had climbed.

We also saw thousands and thousands of leaf cutter ants. Ben and I never got tired of finding the ant highways and trying to find out which tree the ants were using and then follow their highways and find the home base! We must have taken SO many photos of leaf cutter ants, we seriously never got bored of them.

We also tried not to step on them, but on the Butterfly Trail we were nearly falling off the trail because the ants were using the trail and the bridge as their own personal highway! They are very cool insects.

It's really interesting because at one level (the highest) the whole area is a true forest of pine! And then if you go down into the valleys it's broad leaf jungle forest again! All day long we went back & forth between the 2 distinct forest types. There is a very clear line which divide each one which is very interesting.

Anyways at High Point I bailed on the hiking at 3pm I called and got pick up. I was tired and my leg (which a pulled a muscle in yesterday climbing the temples at Caracol was giving me problems & pain) so Ben took the radio and continued onward to Devil's Falls on his own and then he is going to walk back to the Inn. If dark falls before he gets back to the Inn he will radio for a pickup.

On the drive back I saw a Jumping Pine Viper snake. (I think that's the name) He was sunning himself in the sun after just eating, he was very fat! and he was very poisonous. The driver/guide pulled over and let me get out of the van to take a closer look, but still a good distance away! I didn't get a photo because Ben had the camera though.

Because the Inn owns 7200 acres of property and there are over 90 miles of trail systems when you leave on a hike they give you a 2 way radio in case of any problems and also so you can get someone to come and pickup you up between trails or take you back to the Inn etc. It's a very good idea I think and came in handy.

When I got back to the Inn I went in the Hot Tub! then went and had a shower came up to the main house and I am having a coffee and updating the blog. It's about 5:10pm now. I expect Ben back around 6:30pm or so. I am going to be hungry I worked up a appetite today! Oh wow! Ben is back and it's only 5:15! He has gone back to the room now to shower and change since he is gross & sweaty! lol...

Well I guess this is almost the end.

Tomorrow we fly out at 3:25pm from Belize International Airport and we arrive in Toronto around 11:30pm or something like that it's going to be a long COLD day of travel.

This has been the best vacation ever! the only thing that would have made it better I think is if Mike, Pauline, Nathan & Katey, Mom, Dad and Jeanetter could have come with us I think it would have been really cool to have done a big family vacation and broken up into groups depending on what activies you wanted to do etc.... Maybe sometime in the future we can do something like that.

We are SO coming back to Belize again!

Okay that's it for now.....

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