Clarity of Olde Belize River/River Wallace

[pilarkitty]

The last time we were in Belize we did the Altun Ha and River Wallace cruise. We enjoyed it and were thinking about taking my husband's mom on this excursion.

 

Just prior to our last trip, there was a hurricane/tropical storm that had hit Guatemala so the river was really murky. How clear is the river under normal circumstances? From what the guides implied, normally, you'd see a lot more in the water. Would could barely see one crocodile.

 

I'd love to hear about your experience with this tour.

 

Thanks,

Monica

[Cozzette2]

We were there last week and we saw lots of crocs and tons of iguanas. We saw bats, turtles and a monkey.

We really enjoyed the day but it was very long. We went with Carnival and it stated 5 1/2 hours, it turned into 7.

[pilarkitty]

Great. Thanks!

 

 

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.432904,-79.873700

[Banditswife]

Is this offered only thru Carnival? Or can you do the River Wallace privately? I like the personal service, smaller groups of independent tours. We did the cavetubing last time, but the river Wallace/ruins tour would be our choice for our cruise in Nov 2012. Thanks

[pilarkitty]

We did the tour through Carnival. I think there is a private independent tour where you can pilot your own boat. I'm sure you can google it.

 

I'm always too chicken to book a private tour. I'm paranoid that we'll break down and be late for the ship.

[David_Zen]

Is this offered only thru Carnival? Or can you do the River Wallace privately? I like the personal service, smaller groups of independent tours. We did the cavetubing last time, but the river Wallace/ruins tour would be our choice for our cruise in Nov 2012. Thanks

The Altun Ha & River Wallace tour is offered privately. Just Google Altun Ha River Wallace tour and you will find at least one company that offers this tour privately at a discounted rate for Carnival cruise ship passengers.

[ferfoodle]

We were there last week and we saw lots of crocs and tons of iguanas. We saw bats, turtles and a monkey.

We really enjoyed the day but it was very long. We went with Carnival and it stated 5 1/2 hours, it turned into 7.

 

Ditto with us. Carnival needs to re-classify that one. We were well over seven hours on ours on 1-31-12. The last tender was supposed to be at 4:15, but we did not make it back to port until 5pm. Fortunately this was the Carnival excursion and they had a speed boat (vs. a tender) waiting for us to take us to the ship.

We did see a lot dolphins, crocs, iguanas, birds, monkeys and beautiful fauna in and along the river, but it made for a very long day - and we were only at the ruins for a very short time because of how long it took.

If I was to do Belize over again, I would have picked the "shorter" 7 hour excursion to Xunantunich or gone snorkling instead.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Has anyone done this tour in late April/early May?

 

I did the Lamanai Tour/River boat excursion in late May in 2005 and it was over 100 degrees. While the river boat portion was cool and wonderful the walk to the ruins was just a bit too much for me in the heat. I would like to try the Alta Ha Ruins/River combo this time but wondering how long of a walk it is to the ruins from the drop off point and if the weather will by chance be a bit cooler?

 

My DH thinks we would be best to stick with a water tour like snorkeling because of the heat, but we will be doing that in our other 3 ports, so would prefer to see the ruins in Belize, I think.

 

BTW, I would do this tour through the ship personally due to the fact that it is a tender port (cruise line tours get priority for tendering) and the length of the tour. I did not find that there were too many people on the Lamanai tour through the ship at all. I most often do private tours, but have done cruise line tours in circumstances like this without regret. JMHO.