Actun Tunichil Muknal

Photos

Following a wet, cold, and miserable 2.5 hour hike out of the jaguar reserve, I caught a series of buses all the way across Belize to San Ignacio.  This sounds like a larger undertaking than it actually was, Belize is a small country.

At this point I was getting impatient to start Spanish lessons so I wasn't planning on spending anytime here.  It was to be a place to stay before crossing to Guatemala the next day.  I ended up, however, getting a really good deal on a tour through the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave, known as the ATM cave.  And I'm sooo glad I did.  What an amazing treasure this cave is!  Discovered only 20 years ago, the cave contains ancient Mayan ceremonial chambers that have remained entirely unlooted.  Following the discovery of the cave, archeologists and the Belizean government made the unusual decision to leave the cave nearly entirely as is.  With only a very few exceptions none of the artifacts or remains have be disturbed in anyway, much less excavated.  With a guide, tourists are allowed to walk  amongst them.

This tour was unlike anything I've ever done before.  Walking, in socks only, just feet, sometimes inches from the remains of sacrifice victims.  Over the centuries the bones had slowly been covered with the same limestone material that stalactites grow from.  Glued to the ground by mineral deposits were nearly complete pots, some entirely intact with just small holes intentionally punched into them after use in a ceremony.  Walking through the cave was an entirely different experience than, say, walking around a museum.  These bones are laying exactly where the victim fell and died a thousand years ago.  It was easy, almost impossible not to imagine myself here in this spot a thousand years ago.   A central bonfire throwing shadows of stalactites, columns and other people across the walls and roof of the chamber.  Nothing but blackness leading deeper into the complete unknown. Having my hands and feet bound, here, deep in the mouth of the underworld.  The home of cruel gods, here to be tortured and killed and offered as sacrifice.  My god, I would have been terrified.

Getting into these chambers involved hiking through deep jungle, fording rivers, swimming in subterranean rivers, and wading through neck deep pools past spectacular natural formations.  The ceremonial chambers were about an hour trek deeper inside once in the cave.  I am so lucky to have ended up staying the extra day and taking this tour.  One of the highlights of the trip so far.