Belize Day Two – Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave

On our second day in Belize, I woke around 5:15 to hundreds of birds calling and the rush of the falls. Once I wake up there’s usually no going back to sleep and definitely not with the racket the birds were making. So loud! I sat on the porch and looked at our gorgeous view while I made notes on the previous day’s adventures. Cora the dog came by to say hello, there are two dogs that patrol the grounds, her friend came by a little later. At breakfast we talked with some of the other guests and discussed our various plans for the day. Our guide, Benjamin, arrived and we headed over to the van and set off for our destination, Actun Tunichil Muknal cave (or ATM for short).

We drove to San Ignacio and headed to Pac’z Tours to meet the others who were joining our group. There were 8 of us in total. We all loaded into the van and started the two hour drive to the cave. 80% of it was on extremely bumpy limestone roads. We stopped at a checkpoint when we were getting near, ATM is very secluded and there are only a handful of guides in the whole world who are authorized to take people there, due to its danger and sensitive environment and artifacts. He let us pass and we drove through lemon and lime orchards til we finally reached a clearing with forest and mountains on either side, and a few thatch roof open air shelters. We unloaded and Ben distributed helmets and lunches.

We had a 40 minute hike through the rainforest ahead of us, then we would reach the entrance to the cave. We moved very quickly through the jungle, stopping a few times so he could point out interesting trees or plants, and also to cross the river three times. The water was knee to thigh high, and the rocks were really slippery and I held my camera extra high in case I was going to take an unplanned swim. We arrived at the encampment where adventurers sometimes camp right in the middle of the jungle. There were a few shelters and fire pits. We ate our lunches there and left everything behind but our cameras.

We finally arrived at the entrance to the cave, and it was truly breathtaking. Blue-green water, a curvy opening in the rock, lush rainforest and moss covered rocks and trees all around us. We handed our cameras over to Ben, who put them in the dry bag. Helmets went on, and it was time to swim into the cave. There’s no other way to enter the cave – you gotta swim! After the sweaty hike through the jungle, the water was more than refreshing. We dove right in and started swimming the short distance to the rocks inside. I could see bats flying around ahead and hear their calls. The cave echoed our voices and the rush of the water.

We all got on dry land and began picking our way through the rocks after Ben. I don’t know what I expected when they said we’d be traveling through the cave. I knew some swimming and climbing would be involved, but I envisioned walking on a flat surface on either side of water in a large cavern. Pretty much as far opposite from what we did that day as possible. The tour was extremely physical. As soon as we were in the cave, we were climbing rocks, ducking under low ceilings, crawling through tight spaces, jumping down into water and pulling ourselves out again. It was very challenging, not to mention completely dark save the light from our headlamps.

Ben shouted instructions which had to be passed to the back of the group, such as “don’t touch the formation on the left!” or “sharp rock on your right in the water!” I felt that we were moving very quickly but once we stopped he told us we’d only gone about 300 meters in over an hour. Along the way he pointed out stalactites and stalagmites, the formations were beautiful and sparkled in our lights. Some had water flowing down, and those were porous.

Some, the water had dried up and he tapped on them with his light, it made a sound like a steel drum with different tones on each formation. We were not allowed to touch any of the calcified formations, where humans touch it turns black and will stop growing because of the oil on our hands. We traveled for a while longer and came to a high rock where we were instructed to leave our shoes and put on socks. The rest of the trip would have to be made without shoes because the oil from our feet would ruin the surface of the caverns. We got our cameras back and followed Ben through a series of caverns.

We started seeing remains of Mayan pottery, most of which dated back to 700-900AD. He showed us how when the water table started rising and falling rapidly, around 1300, the Mayans had to stop coming to the caves. We heard how they used them for sacred rituals, including bloodletting and human sacrifice. We also came upon a very frightening spider which was huge and which of course I was the only one to notice. Ben: “Oh that’s a scorpion spider. If it bites you, you have 8 hours to live.” Sweet! Let me just move away quickly.

Right about that time we came upon the first human remains.  By this time the group was completely exhausted, the tour guide was getting very intense about where we should or shouldn’t step, and we were all ready to head back, we knew we had a lot of cave and a long hike til we could get back to the car. We finally made it to the main cavern, and I have to say it was impressive. After climbing the most sketchy ladder ever, which made lots of unpleasant creaking noises, we reached a high precipice, and a few of us at a time were allowed to go down below to see the main attraction, the crystal maiden.

Sacrificed by having her throat slit, she lay inside a small cavern surrounded by pottery. By this time I was exhausted and kind of over it though, really ready to head back. We got to take a shortcut going back, but it sure didn’t feel that way. We were freezing, and kept having to plunge back into the cold cave water to swim to the next rock. I was feeling a little wimpy by the time we reached the opening, looking forward to drying out. We swam across to the other side of the bank and it was absolutely pouring outside. What’s the rainforest without a little rain though, right? We hiked back to the car and Jimmy and I slept the entire bumpy ride home. We got home just in time for a shower and dinner and then passed out in our cabin.

Awesome tour. I highly recommend doing this if you go to Belize and love adventure. It’s definitely not a relaxing tour, if you wanna do caves and relax, there are several cave tubing or cave canoeing tours that sounded neat as well. The whole time, I kept thinking, they would never let you do this in America. There would be liability waivers and guard railings, and besides, in America artifacts belong in museums so they wouldn’t be there inches from you. One of the guides back at the lodge said the Belize department of archeology is about to change the rules so that no cameras will be allowed, and the group sizes and frequency of tours will be super limited, so check this out before you miss your chance!