We started with breakfast at Mr. Greedy's again. I had a breakfast sandwich that was supposed to be on wheat bread but came on white bread, unfortunately, though it was still yummy. Barry had his usual -- a breakfast burrito.
After breakfast we changed clothes and waited to be picked up on the steps of Casa Blanca, joined by a very pregnant black cat who hung out there during our entire stay. Gonzo and Becky with River Rat picked us up around 8:45 am, and we joined three other people who were taking the tour with us, a Hungarian couple and a man from British Columbia. The five of us, plus Becky and Gonzo, made a nice small group as opposed to some of the groups we saw with eight to ten tourists plus guides.
After driving over to Teakettle Village in their SUV, we parked, then took a two-mile hike along a well-worn trail through the jungle to the cave. It was a beautiful hike, and nice and flat since it went alongside the water. We had three river crossings that were fun -- the water was so clear, with many river rocks visible below our feet.
We were very fortunate to have our waterproof camera along, meaning that we could take photos even in the "wet" portions of the cave. All other cameras were placed into Gonzo's dry bag ahead of the tour and were only taken out in the "dry" portion of the cave, far into our hike. So we were able to get many more photos inside the cave than we've seen on a lot of web sites and blogs. I wasn't totally sure that the camera would hold up to full dunkings, because we'd never really put it to the test, but it stayed in one of our pockets during the deep water crossings and never missed a beat!
At this point in the tour, we climbed up high and entered the dry portion of the cave. Gonzo unpacked the non-waterproof cameras and handed them out. We had to remove our shoes and walk in socks only for this part of the tour after a short rest up on this ledge.