Rainforest river tubing in Harvest Caye, Belize

I would have liked to snorkel in Belize, reportedly a great destination for scuba diving and snorkeling. Unfortunately the trips were all sold out; I had to settle for river tubing in a rainforest. The day was cloudy and rainy, the ride to the river from the Norwegian cruise port took about 30 minutes by boat, then an hour in a bus. The long bus ride passed through small towns, and the road turned into unpaved one-lane road as we entered the rainforest.

The three guides on the trip were Mayan. They spoke very good English and quickly established rapport with the group. They also gave us an informative overview of the Mayan culture and of life in Belize.

We stopped at the take out (end) point where we had the opportunity to use the restrooms and given a life vest each. We were warned that we will get wet; I put on a rash guard over a swim suit, water shoes and left my bag with towels in the bus.

The bus then drove on to the launch area where lime green tubes were waiting for us. The guides tied 7 tubes together, making 3 groups, each led by a guide who mostly walked on the river floor as we were led down the river.

We had a mostly relaxing tubing experience, the environment was serene and peaceful, with occasional sounds of birds. It drizzled on and off, and it was rather cold but not unbearable. Unfortunately we did not see any interesting wildlife from the river although the guides assured us there are a lot of them around. I was surprised by the number of rapids we encountered. At first I did not understand why the guides had told us to raise our bottoms in the tube until mine got bumped by rocks going over the first set of rapids. I quickly learned and prepared myself for subsequent rapids. Some parts of the river were a bit rough. There were rangers on the rocks at those sections and they helped the guides push the floats out to avoid hitting the rocks. It was a pretty exhilarating experience. Everyone had a great time, some of us squealing as we passed particularly large rapids.

Too soon, we reached the take out point where we got our life vests. I was glad I had a towel and a change of dry clothes, because we were all shiverng from being wet and cold. On the way back, the bus stopped at a Mayan structure for photos (see below).

We were dropped back at the cruise port; I decided to take a detour to look at the Norwegian beach resort at Costa Maya. A number of my cruise mates had opted out of shore excursions to use the free resort that was a Norwegian cruise highlight. The area was very pretty, great for those who like to sit on a beach although there were also water activities. Later, I heard that it rained at the resort as well, and most of my friends went back to the ship early.