Today we had breakfast with another guest here at Villa San Juan. He works for the security organization that works with the Peace Corps and he's here checking things out. Super nice guy! I guess people actually have to work sometimes when they come to Belize...

We headed out to meet the Pacz Tour guide in Teakettle Village so we could follow him to the ATM (Actung Tunichil Miknal) Cave tour. We had already been told that we couldn't bring cameras - apparently there had been too many accidents with people dropping a camera on important artifacts inside the cave. Pacz actually gave us a bunch of pictures though so although these aren't pictures of us, it's an idea of what the experience was like.

7 miles down another dirt road, only this time it had been raining so we got a bunch of mud to add to it. What I didn't know was that we'd be crossing a river in the vehicles! The van went before us but as we drove down into the water I had visions of the cars submerged when our road floods... Clearly we made it out without a problem but I was pretty nervous. We arrived at the parking area and grabbed helmets and started the hike to the cave. It's about 45 minutes of jungle hiking with 3 river crossings just to get to the opening. I really hope my shoes dry out eventually!

Once at the cave, we climbed down in and swam through the opening (yes, swam). At various times, we were in water up to our knees, waists and a couple of times we swam. Other times, we were scrambling over rocks and cave formations. There were a few climbs that had me wondering what I had gotten myself into.    A woman in the group said, "but we're just regular people!?!?" and I totally felt that way. At one point, the instructions were to lean your right foot against the rock wall behind you and hold on with your left hand over your head while you hoisted yourself up and straddled a gap so you could climb up a huge rock. Another time we were going through a gap between a high rough formation on one side and a flat pointy one on the other. We were in water up to our shoulders and were told to slide our necks into the gap, look over the flat rock and slowly turn our heads toward the other side...that was how we fit through. At times like that I really was wishing for a camera because I was living it and I couldn't really believe it was happening.

At the end, we took off our shoes and walked in stocking feet further up the cave. Everywhere you looked, there were pots, plates, just all sorts of artifacts. The archaeologists believe that this was where the Mayans came to do special ceremonies to appease the gods. Since the Mayans believed that the caves were the way to the underworld where the gods lived, this was their way of getting closer to the gods. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for them climbing into these caves, with just torches to light their way. The formations in the cave were totally crazy looking and they probably thought the gods made them. So, not only were they crawling through rivers and cave formations, they thought they were getting closer and closer to Hell. So, that's were they performed their rituals and gave offerings to the gods. When they used a pot for an offering, they made sure to break it or put a hole in it afterward because then it could never be used again. That seems to be why there are so many still here.

In addition to all the pottery, there were also quite a few skeletal remains found there. The Mayans were known for their sacrifices, and based on the state of the skulls, these are believed to be sacrifices. At the very end is an almost perfectly preserved skeleton lying alone. For years it was believed that it was a woman's skeleton and she's known as the Crystal Maiden because the mineral deposits covering her sparkle in the light. Apparently in the past few months, a new theory has come up that perhaps it's a man so our guide said they were going to rename the cave the "Cave of the Crystal Dude". Not quite the same ring to it.

We went out a different way - one that had more tight squeezes and narrow passages - but it was a little quicker. At the end, we jumped off a ledge into the river and swam back to "dry" land. We had some lunch and then hiked back through the river to our vehicles. I wasn't interested in riding home in soaking wet clothes so we changed and then headed back. The drive through the river even went ok!

Back at the hotel, we did our laundry (wet, filthy clothes) and went to find a place for dinner. Not finding anything we were interested in, we headed back to Pasquale's for pizza. The night ended with packing everything up for our flight and boat ride out to Hatchet Caye tomorrow. Not sure how strong the wi-fi will be so it may be some time before I post again...