Wonderful Waterfalls

So Belize has turned out to be more amazing than I expected.  It is just full of natural beauty.  Also, it is a bit cooler than Guatemala, which is handy considering that we don't have any air conditioning here.  I will give you a brief rundown of our activities the last couple days.

Day 3 (Monday)

In the morning we took a trip to go cave canoeing at Barton Creek.  This was interesting because in each canoe one person would paddle and one would hold the lamp.   Madeline volunteered to paddle since I was designated photographer.  The views in the cave were really nice, and we saw some Mayan artifacts (old pots, some bones from sacrifices).  There were also fruit and insect bats flying around.  Some areas were a bit tight, but Madeline did an excellent job navigating.

Deep in the cave

Returning to the light

After canoeing we made a stop at a butterfly farm where we learned about the life cycle of the butterfly.  They had a butterfly house with 14 species of butterflies.  My favorite is still the Blue Morpho, although the Green Malachite and Glasswinged butterflies were also popular.

One of the main attractions of Hidden Valley is the plethora of hiking trails and waterfalls on the property.  After lunch we decided to do a short hike to Butterfly Falls, a picturesque waterfall with a deep pool for swimming.  As it turns out the hike to the falls was a bit more challenging than anticipated, but the reward made the toil worthwhile.  The waterfall was not to be believed, and we had it all to ourselves.  I haven't been somewhere so idyllic in a very long time.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.