We were up bright and early on Tuesday morning. Some of us met for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. and by 7:40, we had assembled in the Ebony Cabaret to get in line for our tender tickets. This was handled differently than on our last Glory cruise. At 8:00 they came in and made the announcement that an additional gangway had been made available and because of this, no tickets would be issued. Everyone in the Ebony Cabaret would be taken down as one group and would be put on to tenders. This was the view from the Ebony Cabaret - looking out at the tenders waiting for their passengers.
We were told that we were anchored approximately 7 miles offshore. The tender ride into Belize was about 10-15 minutes. Didn't seem long at all. As soon as we stepped off the tender and had our photo taken....
....we spotted the representatives from Major Tom's Cave Tubing. Major Tom greeted us and introduced us to our guides, Mike, George and Junior. This would be Major Tom himself....
We had a group of 20 and we were escorted to our bus and quickly on our way. Mike gave our commentary as we made our way through the city. He gave us a lot of history of the city, information about the schools and hospitals and neighborhoods.
Once we left the city, George took over with the commentary through the countryside. We stopped at a little roadside store, for a bathroom and snack break.
Here's my nephew Lance, posing with our guides - George, Mike and Junior...
As we continued through the countryside, we came across a Police Check Point, and we were told that they were looking for drugs.
After about another half hour, we arrived at the park where we would leave the bus and continue on foot. 
We were told to leave our hats, sunglasses, etc. behind. Didn't want to risk having to retrieve something from the river. We were given our life preservers, headlamps and tubes and the hike began. We walked about 5 minutes and arrived at the river. We were encouraged to get in the river and get wet - despite the fact that the water was COLD! Here's Bob and I working our way into the river....
The temperatures on this particular day were in the low 90's, but the water was mountain fed. Our guides informed us that by cooling off in the water, we'd better prepare our bodies for the half hour hike through the rain forest - and they were right. Most of the guys in our group chose to jump into the river from the rock ledge above - but us girls waded in - very slowly. Here's my brother - getting ready for his JUMP....
George was full of information during our rain forest trek - pointing out poisonous plants and the anecdote plant or tree that grew right next to it. We ate termites - very small, crunchy and minty. I'm proud to say that I DID IT!! Finally, we arrived at the beginning of our tubing excursion. We climbed into the river and our guides helped us link our tubes together. I'm really glad we did this! George told us that Major Tom has been running these excursions since the early 1980's and that he was the first one to use the "linking" and that now, most other companies have followed suit. Once we completed our tour through the caves, we were allowed to "free-float" for the last half hour or so.
Our guides were just the BEST! They divided our group of 20 into two groups and one guide linked himself to the front end of each group. The third guide brought up the rear to watch out for anyone who might become detached. They pointed out various formations throughout the caves that the Mayan Indians used as part of their religious rituals. One major word of advice.....heed the warning "BUTTS UP". The guides will tell you this and repeat it faithfully. There are points in the caves were the water will go from 40' deep to 3" deep. When someone yells "BUTTS UP", you'd better do it, or your butt cheeks will pay the price! The 2+ hours that you are drifting through the caves will actually bring you full circle - back to the point where you first entered the water to cool off. Once you get out of your tube, it's just a 5 minute walk back to the Park and the bus.
We stopped at a roadside restaurant called Amigos. 
We were running a little short on time, so our guides had called ahead and ordered lunch. They ran inside, picked up our lunches and we continued on our way. I don't know if it's because we were STARVING or what, but that may have been one of the best meals of the week. It consisted of stewed chicken, rice and beans, and the best fresh-squeezed orange juice imaginable. It was YUMMY!!!
We arrived back at the port area with about an hour of shopping time. We really didn't see much that appealed to us, so we grabbed a tender and headed back to the Glory. Here you can see all the ships anchored seven miles out....
Once we were back onboard, we made our way to our cabin and sat on the balcony to enjoy the view as we pulled up anchor and departed Belize. This photo shows how shallow we actually sit, as the propellers stir up the sand.
At this point, exhaustion has set in. We took showers and laid down for a nap before dinner. We shared our day's events with our table mates, who did the Mayan Temple Bus/River Excursion and loved it!!!! After dinner, it was a quick stop at the White Heat Club and then back to the cabin - to be greeted by this guy....
