Op-Ed, Part 5: Belize Adventure Introduces Hikers to Garifuna History, Music and Cuisine

Members of the St. Croix Hiking Association were off again, this time to visit St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park. It was a long drive from Dangriga to the beautiful landscape of the Karst Mountains of Belize.

This range resembles the Alps in Europe, especially in France, with its limestone cliffs of hanging vines, underground streams, rivers and lush tropical forests. The park is over 500 acres of land that contains two cave systems, Crystal and St. Herman’s, with various hiking trails and a cool tropical rainforest pool from which the park gets its name. However, the inland pool of St. Herman’s Blue Hole should not be confused with the offshore Great Blue Hole of Belize. The national park has many options to choose from such as bird-watching, with more than 200 species of birds, exploring caves, several hiking trails, river tubing, and swimming in the inland Blue Hole.

The adventurous hikers went river tubing through the cave’s pitch-dark environment with headlights on their heads. St. Herman’s cave is cool inside due to the rock formation of limestones. Limestone caves are usually cooler when outside temperatures are hot or warmer. Other hikers, like myself, explored the cave on foot. As we entered, it was cool and with our flashlights we were able to see the different formations of carbonate rock (limestone), and the weathering process of minerals for thousands of years.