Cave Tubing

This is us, our awesome group that we traveled Guatemala with. Left - Right : Tim Shurtz (BYU student), Dave Hadlock (tour guide), Alora (her name's from Willow, and she was scared of everything, didn't want to do the tubing because she thought she'd get dysentery, I asked her how much water she thought she was going to drink), Araina (artist, her husband bought her this trip for Mothers Day), Steve Shurtz (Tims Dad), Jane (Steve's wife), Me, Jared, Ryan (tour guide), Sel (Guatemalan Driver)

So we're about to go Cave Tubing. Notice the awesome Miners Lamps on our heads. Totally dark in those caves, kind of creepy but awesome.
We had to hike a good 45 mins to the start of the river, well, where we jumped in anyway. Here's a few things we saw on our hike.

This is a termites nest. They lit it on fire because some other bug had infested it and was causing problems.

We passed a few caves on our way, and walked through a few that had bats. Alora was freaking out because she was just sure they were vampire bats, cracked me up. They were so cute and tiny, and just regular fruit bats, not a big deal.

At the start of the hike we had to cross the river. That water was so freezing cold, and the rocks were slippery. I was grateful for the rope to keep my balance. After our 45 min hike though we were all very grateful for the cold water.

No actual pictures of the tubing, I just didn't want to ruin my camera.

So at the top of the hike there was a 15 ft jump into the water to then get into your tube. You could either do that or slide down on your butt to get in. I slid down first then realized the jump wasn't that big and got back out and jumped instead. Jared of course just jumped from the start.

The caves were amazing, I think we were on the river for almost 2 hours. The water moved so slow in parts you had to paddle just to keep moving. My arms were SUPER sore the next day.

At the end of the ride we got to cliff jump and swing on the rope into the water. So fun. This is Jared about to jump.

Here's what it looks like from where he's jumping from.

You can just make out the yellow rope. Climb to HUGE rock an swing out. We both did it a million times. So fun. Sometimes it's good not to have kids with you. :) That being said, I can't wait for the kids to get big enough that we can do this stuff with them.