Outstanding Mayan Ruin and Cave tube tour - Elio is an amazing guide, historian, and comedian. His knowledge of the sites and talents to get us to experience the most of each location was spectacular. The Mayan ruins were powerful and beautiful and he helped us all understand the history behind the site and each of the structures. In the caves, he showed us so many extra nooks and spaces that others just passed by. He truly knows and loves his job. He used each of our names in stories making it very personal and funny. We have traveled the world and taken many tours, this was the best we have ever had. You have a diamond in the rough with Elio.

The Best Way to Experience the Caves! - For those with a sense of adventure who want to see all the Jaguar Paw cave has to offer, skip the bigger tours and book THIS. My son and I had Elio to ourselves, and it was amazing. I almost felt bad for the folks on other tours getting ushered through the cave on boring tubes, hardly ever leaving the safety of the shallow river, while we were seeing and experiencing the real stuff. Those people didn't even know what they were missing. Elio was knowledgeable and professional while also keeping it fun. Free pick up at our air bnb right on time. Good Belizian lunch included. Learned a lot just hiking to the cave (and ate some termites on the way... Elio said they taste like carrots and mint... he was right!), and Elio customized the experience in the cave based on our skill level and interests. Great experience. Thanks for an awesome day, Elio!

Challenging but oh so worthwhile! - Carla, Elio and Victor gave our group a terrific day of cave tubing. From start to finish, they were very accommodating, taking good care of a wide range of ages. They freely shared their vast knowledge of the area, the history, the flora and fauna, and the caverns. They were very safety conscious and took care to be sure we enjoyed ourselves safely. The walk to the river was a little challenging over rough river rock, in hot sun and carrying our tubes. Whenever anyone needed help, one of the guides was at the ready. Lunch at the end was traditional native foods all prepared by Carla. Fresh and delicious. All in all, it was a great day.

Trustworthy/Knowledgeable/Fantastic Tours - My siblings and I took a joint vacation with our children (10 people total) and spent three wonderful days with Carla from St. Leonard's. From the very first email Carla was responsive, flexible and clearly committed to ensuring we all had a great experience. She created a custom package for us which included a day at ATM, a day at Caracol and a day cave tubing. Each day's tour included wonderful home cooked Belizean food for lunch that everyone in our group enjoyed served on reusable dishes in a sustainable fashion which I really appreciated. Carla attended to every detail including providing mid-morning bananas or energy bars to keep people going. Carla is extremely well connected and respected in the community and called the night we arrived to ensure we had settled in and to confirm the next days pickup time. The drive to Caracol does take over two hours on a bumpy dirt road but the time flew by as we were listening to Carla describe the passing villages, scenery, natural features, political situation in Belize etc. Carla is exceedingly well educated and is married to a teacher who also enjoys archaeology/anthropology and she had an amazing fund of knowledge about the Mayans (she is part Mayan) and about the various settlements throughout Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. After about four and half hours at the ruins we drove back toward town and stopped at the "Big rock" waterfall where most of our party swam in the natural pools at the base of a lovely waterfall. On our last day Carla arranged to accommodate our group's desire to stop by the small Iguana rescue project at one of the San Ignacio hotels, and then took us to a beautiful cave tubing location where again her connections provided us with excellent rapid service and a second top-notch local guide- so that she could assure our group's safety during the caving experience. Our group had at least an additional hour in the cave (as compared to the other groups on the river that day ) as Carla took us to an "off the beaten path" section of the cave where group members could jump off rocks into jet black pools. Even those more timid, claustrophobic and "anti-swimmers" among us felt safe and really enjoyed the entire experience. After the tubing Carla drove us to the outskirts of Belize city to the nature reserve where we spent our last night. Even though this was a new lodging location she had not been to she had a wonderful attitude about finding the location and telling us about the local area. She ensured that we had access to dinner that night and with a simple phone call was able to arrange complicated airport transfers for our group for early the next morning (which was very impressive as this turned out to be a very remote location and I was worried about us all getting to the airport for an early flight). Carla has developed her business with her husband who steps in on weekends and holidays to lead tours when he is not teaching. She is very particular about the other guides she uses and is working on cultivating more young women to join the tour guide ranks. I cannot express how comfortable our entire group felt with Carla and how knowledgeable she is and how much we enjoyed our time with her. I recommend her highly and with no reservations. I found her by very carefully reading multiple Trip Advisor reviews and I want to "pay it forward" by adding my own detailed review in hopes of helping someone else have the wonderful experience that we did.