Green Iguanas Conservation Project
 
- Known as bamboo chicken in restaurants.
- Purpose or main objective of the Centre is to educate children.
- The tail is twice the length of the body. If angry or aggressive it will flick their tail at you.
- 10% survival rate from laying its eggs.
- Once a year they lay eggs.
- 10 - 30 eggs initially laid then 50 - 80. Sometimes even 100 eggs.
- When fully mature they go from green to turn brown and then black.
- For mating the males become a beautiful attractive orange for the females.
- This Centre has 20 adults, 50 juveniles and 30 - 40 babies.
- Some are released back into the wild.
- Gomez is their star attraction.

ATM

The 2 ¾ hour excursion to the famous Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre), (ATM), where untouched Mayan ceremonial and sacrificial remains were found.

ATM is a Maya archaeological site that includes skeletons, ceramics and stoneware. The best-known is "The Crystal Maiden", the skeleton of a teenage girl, possibly a sacrifice victim, whose bones have been calcified to a sparkling, crystallized appearance.

The ceramics at the site are significant partly because they are marked with "kill holes", which indicates they were used for ceremonial purposes. Many of the Mayan artifacts and remains are completely calcified to the cave floor.

To me so far this is certainly one of the highlights of the trip to date as it has the 'adventure' meaning I am not too old to be really stretched and cambering over rocks, swimming through the underground river, plus factor in the ancient Mayan civilisation. It was a real privilege that the archaeologists decided to leave the artifacts that they only recently found in situ ie exactly as they found it.

As NO cameras were allowed (because a tourist who dropped his camera onto a skull and broke it!) we are reliant on the supplied images.

The day was going to be WET. As it had rained most of the night and rain was still falling as we drove the hour to the national park passing newly planted cedar and mahogany tree plantations.

Helmets issued, packed lunch given out (roll, Snickers bar, piece of pineapple, bananas and a bottle of water) and off we walked. Three river crossings over the same river with one being up to our chest. We followed the bank for nearly an hour to the picnic area. Toilet stop and lunch was eaten under the shelter of a thatched roof shelter while our lights were fitted to the helmets before the start of the 2 ¾ hour caving experience.

We were broken into 2 groups of 8. At the cave entrance, first it was about a 30 metre swim to the far end before the start of the rock scrambling in single file. Instructions had to be relayed to the next person ’loose rock on the left, don’t touch the right-hand wall, step up, sit down and slide in, sharp rock on the left, break in the floor ahead etc’.

Passing thousands of years in the making of the stalactites and stalagmites the guide shone his touch highlighting the many different formations. Some have now joined to form columns, some still had water dripping down and others it had stopped. No lights, not walkways like the other caves that I have been into around the world. This was nature’s continual ongoing creation in its rawest form.

Climbing out of the water following the foot holds no doubt hundreds if not thousands of people but first by the Mayans have used in the past hundreds of years up further into the upper chamber of the cave.

Yes, the highlight was certainly the ceremonial chamber at the end. Staying in single file wearing just socks, we stayed within the narrow walkway at times marked out with the orange tape that indicated that an artifact was near by.

Seeing and understanding why the pots were deliberately broken (to let the spirits out), remains of the fire pits plus at the end the calcified skeletons will remain with me for a long time.