The hike to the top of the cliff was about two hours, with a lot of steep climbing. I could only imagine how much more difficult it would have been if the boy did not carry all of our water. We were sweating buckets! Four guides join us to assist with the actual drop. They turn our attention away from the heat, sweat, and exhaustion by pointing out the different kinds of plants and trees in the jungle.
There was the big tree the Mayans consider the tree of life. There were trees with poisonous roots we were warned not to grab onto while we were hiking. There was the thorny tree called Give and Take, aptly named because the thorns will give you pain but only its sap can take the pain away. Our g
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There was the big tree the Mayans consider the tree of life. There were trees with poisonous roots we were warned not to grab onto while we were hiking. There was the thorny tree called Give and Take, aptly named because the thorns will give you pain but only its sap can take the pain away. Our guides use their machetes to hack through the occassional overhanging vine.
We reached the top of a sheer limestone wall from which we´d make our drop. Our guides attend to our harnesses and ropes.
One of our guides had already gone down to then serve as a belayer for the rest of us. The boy volunteers go first. None of us really realized how scary it would be until he said "Jesus" when he was finally able to look down. You rappel with your legs against the cliff for about 25 feet, and then you let yourself fall the rest of the way down. You control the give of your rope and it's entirely up to you if you want to slide down fast or stop a few times along the way to take photographs. The photo on the left shows my feet dangling and the rope going all the way down to the ground.
After we made it to the bottom, the guides set down a picnic blanket for our lunch. We feasted on boiled eggs, cheese, ham, and vegetables wrapped in tortillas. After a few minutes of rest, we proceeded to the next round of our hike. We visited a couple of caves that honeymooners can opt to camp in for a night. Newlyweds sleep inside the cave on an inflatable mattress, while the guides camp outside the mouth of the cave to give them the privacy they need.
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