Day 20- I would make a great servant! ~Jose

At 6:15am sharp we (Hannah, Tara, Robbyn, Kayla, Jose, Chris and I) crossed the river and headed off in an air-conditioned van toward Caracol.  We bypassed it actually and went into Cayo so our driver could pick himself up some lunch.  As we were driving through the area, I saw this awesome market that I thought- had I had the time- I would have scavenged through for sure!  Amazingly enough, the driver read my mind and dropped us off at the market while he went to get his lunch.  The market had a lot of cool tents with vendors selling clothing, goods, and food.  I found more movies than I care to mention that I picked up for a little over $2 US and also bought grapefruit juice- Fresco grapefruit juice.  It is amazing to me what Americans buy when they see something familiar that strikes their fancy that they are so excited to find in another country but would never buy if they passed it in a grocery store in the US. 

At any rate, we made it to the bumpy road that was worse than the road we take to get to Yalbac daily- which surprised me.  We traveled 37 miles on that road and stopped along the way to visit a cave with two large entrances, so, it was pretty light in there.  Since they have a bandit problem, we had 2 escorts that came with us to the cave.  Both were very young- probably still in their mid-20s- but wore full camo gear and backed large automatic weapons.  The bandits didn't dare bother us, and we went on to Caracol.  It is the largest site in all of Belize and included some pretty impressive temples and such.  Actually, Caracol wasn't of interest to very many people until the late 1980s when they found out that it had actually conquered other Maya centers, including Tikal.  We climbed all around these temples, since they are not as threatened as Tikal's temples, and took photos of it all (mine are now on Facebook).

We ate lunch at a picnic area near our parking lot- I was excited because they had banana bread packed for us!  Then, I rested in the van on the way to our third destination of the day- a waterfall next to a river that we swam around in.  I was reminded again of my lack of swimming abilities as I fought the currents of the waterfall, the downward pull of the water, and the slipperiness of the rocks I was trying to cling to.  It was a very interesting task and made me wish wholeheartedly for more endurance.  I actually sat on the edge of the waterfall for awhile- and the spray of slightly-cold water was amazing.  I wish someone had had a water-resistant camera.  But, we had more fun than pictures would allow I guess.  Robbyn, Kayla and Chris were risky enough to jump off of several rock outcroppings into the water.  It was fun to watch but, after my first and only jump- in which I inhaled water, found myself in over 10 ft of water trying to cough and swim against a current, I decided I would much rather watch thank you very much :)

Also, after the water trip, I found out that white skin soaking up the sun all day changes colors- even with sunscreen applications (yes, I did apply sunscreen, Mom).  But, I am doing fine now, so, I guess it is not as bad as it looks in some of my pics.

We made it home just in time for supper!  Which was perfect.  All in all, rather awesome adventure!