We once again got the “Jungle Bug”: we wanted out of the coastal areas and into some wild mountainous terrain. In our efforts we stumbled upon Ian Anderson's Caves Branch Jungle Lodge (www.cavesbranch.com). This place is everything you expect a good eco-friendly jungle lodge to be: organically maintained landscaping, sustainably harvested building materials, local organic produce, communal eating, outdoor showers and towels made into animal shapes on your bead each day! This is the type of resort that a lot of people come and stay for a week, each day exploreing a different part of Belize through organized trips. 
As we ate dinner the first night we met lots of other people seated with us at the long “camp style” table. Some had already been on a few adventures and others, like us, had to choose what we wanted to do the next day. The choices all sounded great: hiking through and up waterfalls, tubing seven miles though caves, hiking a cliff then rappelling 300 feet into a cave, exploring ancient Mayan sites. We chose a combination of river tubing with exploration of Mayan ceremonial areas within the cave system.
We didn't need to get to excited about our jungle trip the next day because we were literally all ready in the jungle. As night fell the sounds enveloped us and the darkness allowed our imaginations to place whatever creature we wanted just beyond the glow of the walkway torches. In our thatched bungalow we only had screens for walls so nature did not feel very far away.
After a huge buffet breakfast the next day, we going four others on a tractor ride with our guide to the river. At the river's edge we all got into our tubes and started paddling backwards up the river. This seemed a little odd to my sense of “tubing”, but you have to try new things. After 10 minutes of being a spastic water bug, we came upon the cave opening that the river flowed out of. From there we spent the next 5 hours tubing and hiking so far into the cave that we could see no light at all if we turned out our lamps. Not only were the formations fantastic and the cave immense, but our guide knowledgeably pointed out numerous ancient Mayan ceremonial sights.
Our guide did a outstanding job of explaining the cave system, the nature within the cave and the research that has gone into the ancient human uses. He also pulled a unbelievable amount of food out of his backpack, deep in the cave, where we ate lunch.
We stayed another night, but did not have time to do another adventure. Before we left we met the man responsible for the organic turn the resort took years ago. He was called the “Head Gardener”, but he seemed more like an ecological prophet. After talking to him for an hour, Caroline and I wanted to give up all of our worldly possessions, wear burlap sacks, sit cross legged and listen to him speak of a environment in balance. “Bugs will always eat plants, you just don't want them to eat all of the plant”, wow. His grandfather came to Belize from Guatemala and was a Mayan preist. Some of the medical uses of plants were handed down to him. Long before he came to this place though, he was a immigration officer, prosecutor and forestry manager. We could follow this man around for years and still not learn enough!
As we boarded the bus for the trip home, we were left excited and looking forward to more adventures in the jungle.
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