Bat poop shoes and vomit bags

In this past week, sans internet, we have managed to experience our favorite time thus far, as well as our most ridiculous . . .

Our favorite time was living the life of Indiana Jones, The Goonies, Batman and other possible cave dwelling / adventurous / attractive persons. We floated down a river, jumped off a trecherous bridge (well, Erin did. I was unwilling to plummet to my certain death, but Erin very much enjoyed it), rode in the backs of pickups that sped over potholes hurdling us into the air (where our faces were also whacked by tree branches). Oh yes, and we were chased by a large boulder while indigenous Mayans shot poisonous darts at us.

Well, not the later, but we did explore this amazingly awesome cave. We swam through this cave with candles in our hand, the goal being to keep it lit. Erin and I, however, experienced laughing fits, compounded by clumsiness, and my candle was quite familiar with the water. After so many dunks, it was rather reluctant to light. We climbed ladders, and jumped off into a swimming hole (again just Erin. I prefer to observe and say, "Bravo!"). We walked up a waterfall, and bouldered along walls. We also had to fall backwards down a waterfall / black hole, and it was really scary to trust the guide shoving you down it. It was basically the coolest thing ever! and the Indiana Jones theme was whistled, hummed and shouted a good portion of the way. Harrison would be so proud.

The next day we hiked into another cave, full of bats and their poop. The attraction of this cave is to wait until dusk, and sit in the entrance while hundreds of thousands of bats fly out. This was really amazing to have them all whooshing past, with their echo locational abilities and all. We waved our hands to try and hit them, while also squinting our eyes fearing they would pummel our face. A few special ed bats did run into us, one into Erin`s head and another into my leg. I wonder if Christian Bale has ever come out of his cave covered in guano. It`s very sticky and won`t likely come off our shoes for ages. Mmmm.

Now for the events of last night. This has been in the works for awhile, as our adventures are usually packed with mishaps and ridiculousness, but thus far our trip has been rather calm (for us). After travelling for ten hours in a van, packed with tired, sweaty people we pulled up to a lake side hostel. Alas, there was no room at the inn. Our tired, sweaty group were too many for the beds, so Erin and I took one for the team and opted for the tent. As it began to rain, we discovered this tent did not zip up, or have a rain guard. Excellent. We moved it to the kitchen area, where staff had to sidestep our room and cascading belongings. As we stood outside the tent whispering sweet nothings, I began to notice a brown substance dripping on the tent. It dripped on my arm, then my head, then chunkes began to fall from the ceiling. I gagged, as Erin repeatedly asked, "What is it? What is that?!" Turns out it was vomit, seeping through the ceiling. As we moved the tent out of harms way, it dripped on Erin`s arm. Also, having no rain guard, the mosquito netting of the tent served as an excellent strainer. The chunks remained on top, slowly sliding down the sides, while bile mercilessly covered Erin`s backpack. Good thing we moved indoors to save us from the rain.
After much more gagging and cursing / laughing at our lives, our tent had been cleaned out.
At 1:00 a.m. we finally sulked into our kitchen room, where lights were kept on and staff were busily working and chatting. The tent was too small, and our legs stuck out the end, essence of vomit was still circulating, and a cockroach crawled on my head. Luckily we had arranged a 4 a.m. sunrise tour (which ended up being a fog tour), so we didn`t have to attempt much sleep with those excellent conditions.

Bat poop shoes and vomit bags . . . who is picking us up from the airport? Lucky you.