"...Until the first load of American cruise ship
tourists arrived, there was this wonderful
"Raiders Of the Lost Ark" feel to Belize. With
just one guide and another family for
company, you almost have the place to
yourself — no bad feeling given the
extraordinary stone temple that’s rising up in
front of you. Aside from the country’s
"undiscovered" feel, there is another joy to
holidaying in Belize.

They have, it seems, very little time or
interest in anything connected with health or
safety. Which is why, a couple hours after
clambering up, down and over Xunantunich,
our little man — still only five-years-old —
was happily sat in the middle of a kayak, lifejacket
on, following the course of Barton
Creek as it wove its magical way through
fields of stalactites and stalacmites, up past
ancient Mayan burial sites and on into the
pitch darkness for 1,600-metres beneath the
vine-clad mountain. All with one guide and
one electric light for company.

And we never saw another soul.

Admittedly kayaking up a pitch dark cave
with just a torch, a guide and a thousand
Mayan Indian ghosts for company might not
be to everyone’s tastes. Certainly, anyone
with a more than passing
interest in the finer points of recent European
health and safety directives might be well
advised to give Belize a miss.

For holidaying in this particular corner of
Central America is very much as Mother
Nature intended, not as Brussels decreed.
Wherein lies so much of the country’s
fascination. It is — the odd, American cruise
ship party aside — still far enough off the
beaten tourist track to retain its magical,
untouched charm and yet still has
everything that anyone would ever need to
keep up with the Indiana Joneses.

In particular — and, again, great credit
to our hosts at the Jungle Dome, ex-
Charlton Athletic striker Andy Hunt and
his partner, former MTV presenter Simone
Angel — the standard of guides was superb.

Take Barnaby, our guide for a morning’s
cave tubing. Given that it requires a
certain leap of faith to entrust your wellbeing
to an inner tube and a small caver’s
lamp as you bob and bump your way
down a shallow jungle river and on
through three extensive cave systems, it
helps to have Barnaby’s calm authority
and deep knowledge guiding your every
move.

Particularly when you are entrusting
a five-year-old to his care. Rafted
together by nothing more substantial than his
toes hooked underneath the little man’s inner
tube, the pair of them were soon floating off
into the darkness without a care or a fear in
the world — happy to let the river’s crystalclear
water take them where it wanted.

If I had one complaint, it was Barnaby’s
story of the time he found himself floating
downstream with a fierce electrical storm
raging in the mountains above.
One bolt of lightning later and his legs and
arms started to tingle — the river having
become "live" with a heaven-sent electric
charge. An unscheduled break on the bank
swiftly followed.

Fortunately, we barely saw a dark cloud all
fortnight. It was sunshine and smiles all the
way....."

Part 4 coming soon

Click here for Part 1
Click Here for Part 2