We awoke to another beautiful Belize day. The sun was shining and the breeze from the sea was beautiful. We showered and went down for some breakfast with Brian and Jennifer. We were fueling up for another adventure day while they were fueling up for their flight home. We exchanged contact information and wished them well before piling into the van toward St. Herman’s cave.
After about an hour drive, we arrived, loaded up with bug spray and headed on a short jungle hike. As we approached the magnificent opening, cave swallows flew around us and we secured our headlamps. St. Herman’s cave is a mile long cave loaded with stalagmites and stalactites and pottery shards from use by the Mayans. Mike and I have visited caves before and were impressed that this one has not been excavated the way the ones in Canada have. It is in its natural form and therefore there was no real comfortable path for humans to take. It was a rigorous journey up, down, over and through rock formations, some wide spaces and some tight spaces, some steady foot holds, some slippery. It wasn’t easy by any means, but we enjoyed the effort and were glad we were with people that didn’t slow us down.
As we exited the cave, we saw little black bats perched on the cave ceiling. That completed the experience! Looking around at our group we all laughed at one another, covered in dirt and sweat, we were a mess! Mike and I had gone through 7 bottles of water on this trek, afraid of becoming dehydrated again.
After the caves, we drove a short distance to Blue Hole National Park where we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch of chicken sandwiches, pasta salad, chocolate chip cookies and orange juice. I just love the juice here. It is so fresh and sweet. As we ate we watched hummingbirds feed from the bright red hibiscus flowers and leaf cutter ants carry leaves 10 times their size across the jungle floor. We even spotted a tarantula spider. Okay it was dead, but it was still a tarantula!
After lunch we hiked down a short path to the Blue Hole, a large, sapphire blue, 30 foot wide sinkhole fed by crystal clear underground streams. The sinkhole goes about 25 feet deep and surrounded by incredible rock formations and lush jungle. We wished we had brought goggles with us so we could have had a better under-water view of its severe drop off, but instead we simply enjoyed the fresh, cold water after a strenuous morning and it felt good to drive back to Hamanasi nice and clean.
When we arrived back we had a couple King Kong drinks from the bar (coconut rum, fresh banana and other stuff) and just chilled by the pool. We took another walk with Sasha along the beach, enjoying the breeze and watching the waves turn up the bottom and wash in sea grass, it was too rough for boats to go out and too yucky to swim in, but nice to walk along.
We got ready for dinner and wasted time on the porch of our tree-house sitting in jungle silence which is not silence at all, but rather is filled with the calls of birds, the rush of the ocean waves and the squawks of geckos. I thought to myself that there is no more peaceful place that I have been to and I hoped that I would be able to recall this moment, these sounds, this breeze, this feeling of peace and love, whenever my real life warranted an escape.
Dinner was the best one yet, if you can imagine. We were seated at the most romantic table, away from the dining room, secluded under a tree and a string of white lights, the breeze blowing our white table cloth over our place settings.
We started with a Jungle Salad with Conga dressing. Because we were only eating by candle light we had limited visual connection to our food and had to rely on taste and visceral senses. It was sweet and refreshing, a nice portion served in a half coconut shell. Avocado, tomato, pepper, celery, carrot, cilantro… ??? It was yummy and a nice start to the meal.
The breeze was incredible, the moonlight and candlelight was so romantic and the bottle of wine went down so easy, that Mike and I stared deep into each others eyes and had probably the best conversation of our stay. It was an incredibly romantic setting, meal and company and I could have stayed, talked, drank and ate all night, not wanting it to end.
Our main was lobster. Mine broiled, Mike’s grilled and it was served over rice with a side of carrot medallions. The lobster tail was enormous, twice the size as we have had in our experience, but it’s juicy texture and amazing taste allowed us to devour the entire portion.
For dessert we both chose the berry crumble cheese cake. This was he first meal that I completed in it’s entirety without waste. I was satisfied and drunk and after a few sentimental words and laughs with bartender King, we headed off to our tree house for our second to last night in paradise.
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