I Beelize I can fly (and stay alive)

    I was nearing my oxygen limit that I was ironically complaining about a few days before while snorkeling in the colorful reef of the Caribbean Ocean. My only option was to resurface and deal with what was waiting for me, I went up ready to take as much air and pain as possible.  “Maybe they are gone, dead or tired of chasing me. Better yet, maybe I’ll just wake up from this nightmare and go get some breakfast and a cup of shitty Maxwell house”. I could only hear the sound of buzzing as I surfaced, the pain was instant as I was stung over and over again on my head, face, neck and shoulders. I pushed my hair back out of my eyes and combed out a dozen of bees, some still buzzing and some already dead after leaving their stinger in my dome. I swam further away, trying to think of a way out, “When will this end?!” I collected the air I needed to repeat this process for what I thought was going to be over any minuet, but lasted for twenty...

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The beautiful river and jungle landscape that we hiked into.

​My fight against the Africanized Killer Honey Bees

​           We were in Belize, shooting with Gramicci, Tempest Free Running and locals.  Most of Belize is a dense jungle with beautiful rolling hills and mountains covered by the jungle canopy. The coast looked like something from a Sandals commercial, white beaches, palm trees and clear blue water. Our goal was to capture the brand and athletes experiencing adventure; Fishing, snorkeling, boating, beach camp fires, horseback riding and yes, even climbing. We decided to go to an area called Pine Ridge 2 hours away from the nearest town called San Ignacio. The area was along a river with mini water falls, surrounded by the green jungle and boulders sprinkled around. It was a 2-hour drive from our hotel and 1hr on dirt roads, tucked way back into the remote jungle – Adventure commence in 3…2…1…
 
Nine of us including the camera crew met up with locals Daryl and Justo (our adventure guides/drivers) and we began our day at 6am, during the last hour of our drive, it was clear we were on our own, we had found our adventure for the day. As soon as we arrived Andrea Szekely and Lauren Holliman (two good friends of mine that went on the trip) and the photographer Paul Luna headed off down the river to a cliff that looked promising for DWS.

Here I am checking out the first line of two.

​About 40’ tall with nice colors and lines, we looked at two potential lines that looked fun to climb. After a scramble to get to the top of the cliff, I traversed a very vegetated and dense hillside leading to the lip of the cliff. I found a tree that was suitable as an anchor and rapped in to check out the first line. After lightly cleaning and checking for loose rock, we decided that it might be a hard line and to check out a line 15’ to the left that looked a bit easier. I was only on a grigri (no ascender) but it was easy enough to just pull up and pull in the slack. I moved over to the lip where the next line could be and I redirected the rope around a large rock just so I could lower directly over the line. As I was lowering down I took a big step over a 2’ deep roof and immediately saw what I thought were bees flying out from a crack and then quickly confirmed by the sound and stings on my legs, I had just pissed off a lot of bees. I couldn’t go up because of the roof, I pushed out with my legs and jumped backwards and up to unhook my redirected line and go for the blind and violent swing 15’ back to the right where I originally went down. I thought for a few seconds maybe the nest was small or they didn’t follow me, but I was very wrong and as I finished that thought I looked down at my left arm to find more than 10 bees digging into me, I felt them all over my face, body and some in my eyes. The sound of buzzing filled the air as the hive continued to pour out and un-lease hate onto me and my friends below me. Andrea and Paul were on the slab below taking pictures and enjoying the sun as some of the bees went for them, they jumped into the water to escape.

​Realizing I was in a lot of danger swinging around on the rope, I had to think of my options and had to think real quick. I couldn’t rap down because I had 2 safety knots in the rope and I wasn’t sure if that was the best option, so I quickly climbed 15’ up the rope to the jungle hillside above where I figured I could make a run for it. I undid my grigri and tried to remove it from the rope to take it and that’s when I realized it was getting worse. I had bee’s stinging me over and over and over again, all over my body, fingers, neck in my shorts (thank god for tight unda-roos) the buzzing sound was all I could here, they filled up the jungle. I ditched the grigri and ran but realized seconds later that if I slipped running this direction I would fall onto the slab 40’ below. I felt trapped, I was on the edge of a cliff, partially over water and rock, and a cliff above where I was, no-where to run or hide. I turned and ran through the thicket towards the left end of the cliff where I knew there was water below. I was getting cut by the sharp branches and thorns and getting attacked with no mercy by the swarm, quickly sounding more intense as I ran. For the first time in my life, I thought that this was it, but I couldn’t go this way, no way. I thought about my entire life in 5 seconds, I couldn’t be beaten by these yellow bastards, I was determined to be smarter and faster.

​I ran past my rope and saw a clearing to run down the hillside where I thought from memory there wasn’t any rock below. At that moment, I slipped and slid down the slab above the cliff, harshly stopped by a tree stump on my left thy. I stood up, took 3 steps forward and with thousands of bees flying around be jumped out over the water 40’ up - Silence - Slow motion – Oh Shit. I hope this works. I had my chalk bag, harness and backpack on as I flew through the air with what Paul described as a – Hollywood stunt jump. My arms and legs still in the motion of running and swatting as the cloud of bees followed me, stinging me, then, I hit the water in the cove...

What an exposed Bee Hive on a cliff can look like. Over 10,000 bees are in a normal sized colony! The hive I encountered went deep into the cliff and was hidden from the naked eye.

 Once I and realized nothing was underneath the surface to break my impact, I figured the worst was over and now I just have to make sure I’m not having an allergic reaction. I surfaced - to find hell. The bees stayed on me as if I never went under water and they continued to attack any skin they could get to. I screamed for my friends “Help! Help!” but I realized there was nothing anyone could do, for anyone. I saw them, they were all treading water and dunking under to stay away from the bees. I swam towards them asking for help and if my face was swollen, Andrea had a shocked look on her face as she swam towards me but reassured me that I wasn’t swollen but the bees were still going after me. I dipped under and swam away from Andrea to try escape the bees and not to keep the swarm near my friends.
​If I wasn’t under water, I was getting stung, I swam and jumped off a few little water falls and rocks to distance myself from the bee zone. After a few minutes of swimming away and still being chased, I thought for the second time, this can’t be the way I go, this will not be it. But am I allergic? Is my throat swelling up? How many stings can I take before I have too much venom in my system?  I took my shirt of and wrapped it over my head and face, my backpack was already gone when I landed in the water.
​I kept going, kept swimming and diving under water, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Surrounded by jungle, I couldn’t easily escape and run, I just had to keep diving under and beating them when I surfaced. It sucked a lot.

Zooming in on the Africanized Killer Honey Bee

Finally, the bees slowed down to the point I could swat and kill the few that were still pissed off about my appearance near their home. Andrea and I met back up at a safe distance from the cliff, still in the water up to our necks. We could see the swarm up bees still flying around all of the cliff and taking down bats that woke up from the commotion. (I didn’t know bees could kill bats, until then). Andrea and I plucked stingers from all over my body that was above water at the same time as killing off more that flew in to sting.
​Our guide during this entire thing happen to walk up river right before I woke up the bees but heard by first scream and then watched as I jumped off the cliff. He immediately ran for the van that wasn’t too far away for a rope and medical kit. As Andrea and I started to talk about a way out and where the others were, Daryl appeared and swam over to us with the first aid kit and said Lauren and Paul are in the jungle heading back to the van, they are okay and only Paul has stings, but 10 or so we think. Daryl asked me if I was allergic and I responded with “wouldn’t I be dead already?” We chuckled for a second and got into escape mode. I took Benadryl as Daryl tells us that “Bees can hear you talk, they can smell the fear, they can smell the stingers and dead bees on your body - so when one bee stings you, they all come after you”. 
The other guide Justo arrived to assist and the four of us swam quietly through the water, no words, keeping low as possible. We reached the jungle and we all hiked back the path that Daryl and Justo charged down to save us. We met up with Lauren and Paul who were finding their way through the jungle. We arrived conveniently at the parking lot after a 10 minuet hike. I sat down as the guides tested my blood pressure and heart rate, I was good they said. They cleaned up my cuts and pulled stingers out of my head and all over my body. We all made it out alive.
 
Justo and Daryl really saved us, I don’t have experience or knowledge about bee’s and bee attacks and I have more respect for bees after this event. Daryl and Justo put on rain jackets and covered their faces to go back and gather all of our belongings including 3 cameras, 4 iPhones and other valuable things left on the slabs. They returned and said the area was infested with bees still and only one bee stung them during the gear rescue.  15 min later when the rest of the crew returned back to the van, we chose to leave and possibly head to the hospital if I got worse.  The thought of what happened made me sick, talking about it gave me tastes it my mouth of throwing up and dizziness. I asked everyone to just talk about something else, they did. We jumped in the van and headed on our one-hour dirt road journey back to a civilization.

I played some reggae on my iPhone to try to stop thinking about what just happened, my stress level was at an all-time high, I had no idea if I was going to have a heart attack or swell up. I asked to pull over once because I was about to ralph, I sat on the side of the dirt road, looking out into the jungle in the middle of Belize and took a deep breath and knew it was okay. We arrived at Barton Creek where we would drop everyone off and I would go to the hospital, but I started to feel better. I drank liters of water to flush out the poison in my body and finally had an appetite to eat a little food. To be honest, I found a quiet place, alone, and cried. Thanking God that I was alive and thanking my instincts that helped me make the right decisions. I was so thankful for the friends around me during this event, Lauren, Andrea, Canuto, Paul and the Gramicci crew.  To the locals that saved our asses, Thank you!

A few cuts, swollen legs/body and 100+ stings. Some still in my head over the next few days.

Now, one of my greatest fears - Bees and using an EpiPen...

Bee Guts

With a limp from my thy being struck by the stump, cuts and scrapes and the 100+ bee stings I had, I was moving and climbing by the end of the day. Somehow I mustered up the courage and energy to climb at Barton Creek, a small local climbing area. Yes, I looked in every hole for bees and every sound started with a Buzz that day. Five days later, back in Jackson Hole, WY, I went to Urgent Care because I was feeling - off, odd, weird. I found out that I was having a delayed reaction to the stings and my anxiety and blood pressure was through the roof (152/90 to be exact). The Dr. prescribed me some meds and an epipen, she said that I could have an allergic reaction to any sort of bee or wasp and that should travel with an epipen now. One sting could put me in the hospital at this point. I’m sad I have to deal with an epipen for maybe the rest of my life, but at least I have the rest of my life. I haven’t lived a moment like this in my life before, it could have been much worse and it could have been way better. It was truly unbeelizeable.  

​Lastly, but most importantly - Follow this link about bees and what to do if you find yourself surrounded by a swarm of these unforgiving, protective, bees. Certain things I did could have made the event less stressful and/or safer, read up at - http://www.wikihow.com/Escape-from-Killer-Bees​ . Bee safe out there yall! 

~ Josh