Carnival Excursion: Jaguar Cave Zipline & Tubing Combo With Lunch

This was an excursion I was most looking forward to.  I had tried zipling in Thailand a few years back and loved it but since this zipline is the only one in the world that goes through a cave, I knew I had to try it.  

Although there are many different zipline tours offered by Carnival, this one is on their Top 5 Belize Excursions list, although the cost of this excursion is almost double that of some of the other zipline tours. 

Due to the Barrier reef near Belize, cruise ships cannot dock at shore and you are required to take a high speed tender boat to and from shore.  After the tendor boat, we were led onto a bus for the 1.5 hour bus ride deep into the jungle for our zipline tour.  The bus was actually one of those yellow school buses that everyone rides as a kid and throughout the bus ride, our guide educated us with all sorts of information about Belize and made the time pass by very quickly. 

After some time, we arrived at a pit stop where we could change into our swim wear and lock up any personal items.  We were advised that the bus would be manned and so we could also leave our bags on the bus if we wanted to.  Our guide suggested that we bring a camera but that it would be best to leave sunglasses, water bottles and anything else behind. 

We then boarded another bus for 2 minutes, which took us to the zipline area.  Most people were wearing water shoes and I had also brought a pair with me, but I was a bit hesitant because I had heard that there was a steep hike up to the ziplines.  The tour description had also said that we need the ability to be able to walk about 20 minutes on uneven ground, so I had wanted to wear my walking shoes instead.  In the end, this wasn’t an issue at all.  There was a little hike from the bottom where the bus stopped to the top where the ziplines started, but this took us about 1-2 minutes maximum to climb. 

At the top, we were fitted into our harnesses and then watched a demonstration of how to ride the zipline and then it was about a 20-30 minute wait for the first line.  They also gave every person a pair of really worn, sweaty, and disgusting gloves to wear.  It was almost as bad as having to go scuba diving with used equipment!

These particular lines are really slow and as we were watching everyone depart, we felt that they were moving at a snail’s pace.  However, once you got up there, it wasn’t so bad.  The first line was quite long and gave you a great deal of time to get used to zip lining, and then the second line looked to be barely 15-20 feet long.  The third and fourth lines were what we paid the big bucks for.  The third line was relatively long but as you reach the end, you enter into this dark cave and with your eyes needing to adjust to the light, you could barely see where you needed to stop.  The fourth line started in the cave as well but then ended at the exit, so there was plenty of light.

After the first four lines, there was a little bit of a hike before you reached the suspension bridge.

After the bridge, there were two more, somewhat shorter lines and then we were treated with some water and more importantly, hand sanitizer!   I’m thinking we weren’t the first people to think the gloves were absolutely disgusting!

We were then led for a short walk to the start of the tubing area.   All of the tubes were tied together and we were placed into a group of 7, which floated down the calm water through the cave together. 

Your bottom half will likely get wet, but your top half should remain quite dry.  We entered the pitch black caves and our guide ended up telling us about some ancient Mayan beliefs.  The caves were known as “hell” for the Mayans, but we learned that if water drips down on you, that is considered a blessing.  It was quite neat floating through that cave and learning about Mayan culture.  In one part of the cave, we found a girl tubing by herself and she said she had lost her group.  It turns out that you have the option of tubing by yourself or being tied together.  I’m not sure why anyone would chose to tube by yourself as it could get quite scary in there!

After about 30 minutes, we floated out to the exit and it was about a 5 minute walk back to our bus.  The bus took us back to the initial changing area where we waited around for the rest of the people to get back before taking us to a restaurant for lunch. 

The restaurant was set up by the company that runs the zipline tour as the whole area was quite touristy with souvenirs and the ziplining photos for sale.  Lunch consisted of rice with beans, coleslaw and chicken.

Overall, I would highly recommend this tour.  It is a long ride into the jungle but the opportunity to zipline directly into a cave was amazing.  The tubing was also fun but if I had to choose, the zipline was definitely the highlight.

For more photos, please see my Photo Gallery of Carnival Freedom.