| big |  | The harbour entrance was kind of narrow, and we had to motor over a sand bar. The boys were asked to move to the bow to keep the propeller from hitting anything. Nice to be good for something...
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| big |  | The view from our porch.
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| big |  | Another view from almost our porch, with some boats and stuff. All that white stuff that looks like sand is dead bits of coral washed up in storms. Is that still called sand?
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| big |  | Anne trying to wake John up, on their porch. Apparently, John didn't sleep the day we left, nor the previous week. Silly him for running a start-up. He didn't talk much on the first day.
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| big |  | Ben was hungry. Underripe coconuts, anyone?
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| big |  | The view from the coral bar to the east of our cabins. We waded out to it and wandered around, and Ben made a conch horn. He was rather more successful playing it than I was.
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| big |  | This picture needs to be joined to the last one.
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| big |  | Me looking sunburned and squinting at a sunset or something?
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| big |  | Tesla and I were trying to play Go when these two dogs came up and said hi, and then started playfighting quite enthusiastically at our feet. Understandably, they got sand everywhere, so we moved. They followed us. We moved. They followed us. We had to stop playing Go.
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| big |  | Ben, me, Ann, and John on our first trip from Caves Branch, hiking in to the Black Hole.
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| big |  | Me looking stoned.
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| big |  | While the guides set up the belay for our rappel into the Black Hole, we had a wonderful lunch.
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| big |  | I was unanimously voted the one who had to go first and test out the rope. Just as I passed that tree you see me almost touching, the guide mentioned that I probably shouldn't touch it. Belize has a few different kinds of poisonous trees. I still can't tell them all apart.
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| big |  | At the bottom of the rappel.
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| big |  | One of our guides was belaying us from the bottom. Here he is, awaiting the next victim.
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| big |  | What's that in the canopy? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a pair of pants someone dropped?
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| big |  | It's... Ben!
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| big |  | It's... John!
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| big |  | Trees and stalactites - tunnels lead off in various directions. Some were huge!
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| big |  | The path led down and down, along the cliff wall. You can see the huge cave opening ahead. Pictures of it turned out really badly, in general...
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| big |  | Stragglers.
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| big |  | Howler monkeys. Back at Caves Branch. They were just hanging out and munching on leaves.
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| big |  | The other Blue Hole. This is a pond fed at one end by a subterranean river. Actually, the outlet is also subterranean. At one end the pond is shallow. At the other, it's bottomless. Swimming, you feel like you're about to fall into the hole.
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| big |  | After the swim. Like my boxers?
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| big |  | The butterfly farm. The butterflies had a thing for my elbow.
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| big |  | Eating beans outside a store. The store's sign said "Dis da foo we chicken".
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| big |  | A 1000' high waterfall. Here are the top 300' or so, which is all you can see without hiking all day. It would have been amazing to see the rest, and probably to take a much-needed shower under it.
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| big |  | From the top of the largest Mayan ruin in Belize, Caracol. Across the lawn is another, smaller building, currently covered by tarps.
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| big |  | Looking up at the main temple.
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| big |  | There are quite a few more Mayan buildings at the same site. Those that haven't yet been excavated look like odd hills under the trees.
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| big |  | ...and speaking of trees, this is one of the biggest trees I've seen. Even including California. Here I am after walking several meters up one of its roots.
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| big |  | Standing on one of the roots, wondering how many photos will be needed, and if I'll fall off first.
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| big |  | Looking up.
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| big |  | We stopped for a swim in a river on the way back from Caracol. We had to boulder a while before we found somewhere where we could get in and out again. We probably all got liver flukes, too... but it was a wonderful swim!
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| big |  | On the way back from the preserved cave, we stopped at the hilltop to watch the sunset.
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| big |  | A very old tree with vines hanging from it. We swung from the vines, hopped from vine to vine in midair, and generally carried on likes tourists.
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| big |  | In the "Baboon Sanctuary" (actually a Howler Monkey preserve), our guide picked some fruit for us to feed to the monkeys. Here I'm feeding one.
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| big |  | Which way's up? These guys have amazing tails. I'm jealous.
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| big |  | Slob! They're very messy eaters, and the fruit are very juicy. They tend to retreat into a tree to eat the fruit, and the tree tends to be right above you.
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