We got our own tour guide, Mitch, a Bocas man through and through who was born on the island. He took us in his boat out to the end of Bastimentos and then through the mangroves. We had to slow way down because the channel was narrow and there were lots of plants and vines overhead. We saw a lot of birds and a bunch of crabs. It was like The Jungle Ride at Disneyland, only real.
Then we disembarked and took a muddy walk through this guy Juan's property and then arrived at THE CAVE.
The cave was large and the water was ankle deep at first. There were bats overhead and when you shined your flashlight on them, you could see their round bodies wiggling upside down, suspended from the ceiling. Water was dripping from stalactites up above. It was soon pitch black. Thank god for my headlamp.
After a few minutes of slow walking, the water deepened significantly. We set aside the camera (wrapped in several ziplock bags) and waded through. When we were waist deep, I peed my pants. On purpose. (When I told Nadiv, he said, "Oh yeah, me too.") This calmed me down significantly and from then on, I wasn't scared.
We went farther into the cave and the water got deeper. It was up to my neck in a few places. But it felt cool and refreshing compared to the humidity in the cave. We kept going and got to a swimming pit with a waterfall pouring in. It was eerily beautiful in the glow of the flashlights. Bats were still flying through, occasionally.
Eventually, we had to come out. We were dripping wet. We walked back past Juan's land and back into our boat and we motored on out of the mangroves and then into open water to Old Bank.
The caves were pretty fucking awesome and I am soooooo glad we went. Here is a list of animals we saw today:
- various birds
- crustaceans
- bats
- red frogs
- monkeys playing in trees
- a sloth!!!!!!!
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