Veggie Vacations

Belize day 2: Barton Creek Cave and the intoxicating scent of orange blossoms

We woke up to our first full day in Belize to a 6:30am knock at the door – there are no clocks or phones in the cottages!  It was somewhat misty and chilly in the mornings, but then warmed up by mid-morning.  I enjoyed a breakfast of fresh fruit and granola, and then we were off on our half-day excursion to Barton Creek Cave.

day 2 breakfast

The drive was beatifully scenic – just outside of Chaa Creek, our guide Ian pointed out a type of bird (whose name I don’t remember) that lives symbiotically with cows and horses by eating the bugs that land on them.  Very sweet to see these pairs of friends hanging out together!  Much of the drive went through groves of orange and grapefruit groves.  We learned about the important role of citrus in Belize’s economy – Belize’s top produce export is citrus concentrates, mainly white grapefruit, which are produced by freezing rather than heating giving a “fresher” taste.  We also learned that orange trees can blossom and bear fruit simultaneously, and therefore must be harvested by hand.  The scent of orange blossoms was unbelieveable!  After passing through what seemed like several miles of citrus, we reached a Mennonite community, where we saw tamarind, jackfruit, and pineapple growing.

Once arriving at Barton Creek, we got in the canoe and began our trip through the cave…

Mayan artifacts, including pottery and human remains, have been found by archaeologists in Barton Creek Cave.
Caves were important structures to the Mayans – they believed that a cave entrance was a door between the world of humans and the world of the gods.  There are several caves in Belize under which rivers flow that can be explored by canoe, kayak, tube, etc.  We saw beautiful stalactite and stalagmite structures, and a couple of Mayan artifacts.  Unfortunately, inside the cave it was too dark to get any good pictures.

Before we left, Ian asked if we were cooks – I of course said yes, and he picked a leaf of a plant off the ground and asked me what it was – I said cilantro.  It was actually a wild plant called colantro, from which the domesticated cilantro plants we know of originated.  Growing right there in the grass!!

That was the end of our excursion, but we continued to have some adventure back at Chaa Creek…

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