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My mom always said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” I often like to relate this quote from the movie “Forrest Gump” with traveling, by saying that traveling is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. This time my chocolate was Belize! When I first landed in Belize it was December 2017 and at that time I was working as a tour escort on a cruise ship from the fleet of MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company). The ship had just crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was sailing the Caribbean Islands. We were lucky to have Belize as part of our itinerary since it is a country that is part of the Central America but is also part of the Caribbean Islands and it is as well the only english speaking country in Central America due to many English settlers. The first person I met there was our tour guide whose name was Shanna. We were told to call here Shanna Banana! She is a kindred spirited person and she loves Belize and knows how to make people fall in love with her country!!! Since entering Belize by sea, we took a bus to the harbor and headed to our destination which was Chukka, Jaguar Paw Jungle where we would take a tour inside the Crystal Cave. Crystal Cave is a famous cave whose pictures have been published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine. The nature of Belize is so divine. The people there are very hard-working. The land, because of humidity, sucks up their homes inch by inch, day to day so they build and rebuild their houses often. They need to be careful with burials too, because if they dig the ground more than they should, the bodies can be carried away in the sea, especially in the coastal areas. After driving for about one hour from the harbor we entered the Jaguar Paw Jungle and I was amazed by the trees, the plants and the bird songs. That’s all it took for me to fall in love with the jungle. I have to say that jungles are a place of inspiration for me, especially if Mayan’s have lived there! There is something sacred in nature and in us as humans who can take care of it, nourish it just like it nourishes us. In that jungle I had a sort of an enlightenment because it was the first time, I felt one with the nature. One with the trees. One with the air. One with the ground and one with the sound of nature’s melody. Before entering the Crystal Cave, we took a tube with us and Shanna told us that we would ‘’drop it like it’s hot’’. Funny how I took it figuratively, but in the end, we literally dropped it like it was hot in the tubes! The Crystal Cave is so charming and enchanting. It is full of crystals and growing day by day as a living organism, it is a well-preserved place despite being a big tourist attraction. The guides make sure to take care of everything and advise the tourists in what they should and what they should not do. For the Mayan, caves were considered the holiest places on Earth, part of a mystical underworld outside of normal time and space. Deities also dwelled in these caves, while Mayan priests communed with them there. For me the Crystal Cave was the place where a journey of my soul happened, in the depths of the waters, in the light of the crystals, in the shapes of stalactites and stalagmites and in the nostalgia of memory or the déjà-vu. I leapt into the unknown and that brought the answers to my soul!