Adventures in Pine Ridge

Our last day in San Ignacio we hired a vehicle and headed to Pine Ridge with Ricky along (who looks after the house we were staying in).  Not only was it good to have Ricky along to know where we were going, but also to get us to do things we would never have done on our own (we wouldn't have known you could; nor would we have dared).  

We explored a couple caves going up through a hole I was worried about getting back out of, but it was fine, just a little mucky.  We wandered a pretty nature trail which I have posted photos from below.  In the absence of my SLR (sadly posted back to my brothers in Texas after breaking on its first outing), I am making good use of my iPhone, and in particular my hipstamatic app!  We then went through the Rio Frio cave.  It was beautiful with big openings at either end framing a sunlit jungle scene.  We got a little wet here, but it just required a some wading.  We then got back on the bumpy road that required full concentration from Zac who was driving! (We bought him a drink later!)  

Rio on Pool was next.  Lunch at a picnic table with an awesome view was followed by climbing down in swimwear and clambering over rocks to reach the mulitple pools and small waterfalls that were there.  We shared this spot with a number of other groups.  Lying in one of the pools with water gently pooling around my head was somewhere I felt quite happy to chill for a while! 

Our last stop was Big Rock.  A very steep walk down to the river was followed with a 6ft jump into a pool of water.  Ricky then got us to swim up to the next pool, walk/swim across, climb up the other side towards the large water fall and then jump 20ft off a big rock into the water below the waterfall and then try and get up under the edge of the fall.  Several bumps were got at this final stage - but we had a lot of fun!

The next morning saw up packing up, saying farewell to Ricky and Calvin and Kumquat Cottage and getting the bus (a fascinating opportunity to people watch some of the diversity of the country) to Belize City and then on to Caye Caulker.