Floating and Frisbee in the Belize jungle

A Calcified skelton at the back of the ATM caves
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We had a little stop-over in San Ignacio as a staging post for going on to Tikal in Guatemala (see next blog).  While we were there we indulged in a caving trip, something we had been looking forward to for a long time.

The unpromisingly abbreviated ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) caves were an amazing trip into an old Mayan ritual site.  The cave trip itself was brilliant, after a 30 minute walk through the forest we had a little swim in a turquoise river pool full of fish, then we donned our helmets and headlights and swam into the cave.  The first part of the cave trip involved quite a lot of wading and a little bit of swimming when it was too deep.  Then we climbed up out of the water up into the ritual chamber.

Pretty limestone caves
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And this was where the sights really started, as well as all of the amazing limestone formations there were lots of remains from sacrificial  ceremonies, mostly broken pots and things, but also a few skeletons, and the cave's most famous site, a perfectly preserved skeleton of a young sacrifice victim, now mildly calcified by the dripping water over the last 500 or so years holding it in place.

And after the trip we got some nice watermelon and crisps.

While staying at the lovely Trekstop hostel just out of town we also enjoyed some disc golf (free to guests).  It was nice to play some proper frisbee golf after pretending a few times, although it is a bit tricky in the jungle.   We also went tubing down the local river.  The hostel manager Tino just took us up river in the back of his pick-up, and pretty much told us to jump in the river with our inner-tubes, and ring him when we got to the end of the trip.  Was good fun, and very refreshing after all the Belizean heat.