If the blitz of publicity and rotisserie of soft news hasn't made it abundantly clear, its tourism week and in terms of the public relations, the major thrust has been to show that tourism benefits Belizeans, involves Belizeans, and invites Belizeans. But we weren't convinced on the "invites" part of that because for many Belizeans it seems that those upscale, all inclusive resorts are in fact exclusive to regular Belizeans. Well the BTB set out to prove us wrong this year by inviting us to partake in the tourism product and show that it is accessible and available to regular folks. And Alfonso Noble played 'Joe Regular' yesterday when he went on another great adventure. Here's his story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, [alfnoble@yahoo.com]
The intensity of this expedition crystallized itself when we arrived at Cave's Branch Jungle Lodge and the first order of business was to sign a waiver, meaning the tour company would not be responsible for any loss of limb or life. While the rest of the media team read the fine print, I dashed into it, eager to get on with it; after all it was only a matter of signing on the dotted lines.
After a quick pep talk by the lodge's owner, Ian Anderson, representatives from Love Fm, FM 2000, Krem, the Placencia Breeze, the Amandala, and the BTB loaded on to a tractor drawn cart. After a fifteen minute drive we arrived at the entrance of the jungle, we loaded up with rappelling gear and water, then a quick brief.
Guide,
"The hike is an hour and a half. Its uphill so we going to take our time."
It seemed like an eternal trek through the jungle always, always moving uphill. After about an hour and a half of trekking we arrived at the sinkhole. Thousands of years ago a cave collapsed here leaving behind this spectacular indentation in the earth's surface as well as leaving evidence of what was there before the collapse. From this point we could see our objective: the almost 300 foot drop from the rim of the sinkhole to the base. We could also see one of the guides rappelling.
Marion Ali, Love FM
"But look how he is doing that like...."
That seemed easy enough for a trained guide but to get there and to have as much fun as he was having we had to circle the hole's rim again, continuing the trek upward, always upward. This was the last hill and soon enough we were there: the rappelling point.
Abel Garcia, Tour Guide - Caves Branch
"Right now we are on top of the sinkhole as you can see behind me. We call it the black hole drop and I think the whole group is here now with me. We all still alive and the sinkhole itself in diameter is maybe about 1,000 feet in diameter. The depth down is like 300 feet. So I hope everyone is ready to go down with me which in a little bit we'll explain to you the whole system
we have set up here which that will take time. We have to go point by point, knowing everything that we have set up here. What you see I have on here is a seat harness and this device here is known as a break bar device and the rope is a static rope and basically this is the way we're going to be going down; hooked on to this device and we'll be having gloves on and we'll be starting from this point here going right down to the bottom."
Alfonso Noble,
Any last minute advice for anybody who wants or doesn't want to do this?
Abel Garcia,
"Well what I'll say is I've been doing this for ten years and up here a lot of people get scared but you'll make it, I'm sure."
That seemed simple enough and within minutes Abel and the other guides suited us up: giving us helmets and a harness complete with an additional safety rig in case something went wrong. But before anything could go wrong, group member
Arifah Lightburn, was having second thoughts welling up with tears. That was understandable for we were going to be making our way down 300 feet with only a small rope as our support line. But the team got its reassurances.
Abel Garcia,
"We have that on the tree itself. We using the trees for the anchor points."
After the crash course in rappelling it was time to go. Now that I am fully geared up, the decision now is to take this rope and go down."
[Alfonso Rappelling into the Sinkhole]
Suspended in the sinkhole at about 300 feet the view is next to none. As much as I would have wanted to stay there longer, there was simply no time and had to make my way down. Definitely, one of the most exhilarating things I have ever done.
While waiting for the others to come down, it is difficult not to be overwhelmed by nature's amazing design inside the sinkhole. A breath-taking view...which on this day was interrupted.
Participant,
"I mean I felt like I was jumping, ending my life. I am just shaking right now. I am just glad its over and glad I did it, the first and last time, never to come again."
According Caves Branch founder Ian Anderson this secret has been out for about 14 years.
Ian Anderson,
"We started about fourteen years ago looking for a type of tourism in Belize that wasn't done too much at that time and that was high adventure, something that gets your adrenaline running and makes you sweat and makes you dirty and even scratches you up a bit rather than sightseeing tours. And we thought there was a market, not from only within Belize but outside Belize, of people coming and having that high adventure experience which Belize is now known for.
Over the last years my guides and I have gone out for days and sometimes weeks on end just exploring the area and we came across this massive sinkhole through an explorative trip, one week when we specifically out looking for what's on the property here and we came across this sinkhole which we've called the Black Hole Drop, not because you're dropping, as you've experienced, into blackness, but on the way down there's a spectacular entrance of cave which then goes four hundred underground, and that is definitely black. We decided that it will be a terrific adventure, a real high adventure experience, to rappel into the sinkhole and then explore the cave, just like you did today."
But while I was able to do that today courtesy Caves Branch and the Belize Tourism Board as part of the Tourism Awareness Week, the long held perception by many Belizeans is that this kind of adventure is not for Belizeans and even so prohibitively expensive. Not so says Anderson.
Ian Anderson,
"The most important tourism that I think can happen in Belize is for Belizean, we really have to encourage our fellow Belizeans to get out and see more of the country. It is such an exciting place and there's hundreds of thousands of tourists from other countries that come here everyday but it's a real shame that we can't encourage our Belizeans to get out and see a bit of the country itself.
And yes, there are expenses involved in running tours like this, such as the tours you went on today, it took four guides to conduct, for safety reasons. So there are expenses that have to be met and I can't speak for anyone else in the country but we at Caves Branch give a minimum of fifty-percent discount on all our prices for Belizeans to come and to experience the adventures that we offer in a way to try and make it a little more affordable for them.
There are so many wonderful areas of Belize, not just Caves Branch but throughout the country, that if people took a weekend off to travel, to just enlighten them so much on what Belize has to offer, rather than just always sitting around Belize City or going to the bars on weekend. Pick up your family, take a bus if you want, if you have a car that's even better, but there's public transportation throughout the entire country that you can move around quite inexpensive and there's jungle lodges like Caves Branch that really do want the local Belizeans to come experience."
I for one am glad that I did, any maybe just maybe I'll be one of those tourists in my own country.
Keith Swift also went on one of those tours so join us later this week if you want to see him test his sorry driving skills on a four-wheel all terrain vehicle.
