Day Four: Acton Tunichil Muknal Cave

see all photos »

I meet Dennis, another Pook’s guide, at 9:30. He walks me to meet the PAX tour guide. We cross a log over a stream and forge a river. The path is covered in yellow flowers. Then we walk through an orange grove to wait for the van. It’s sunny & hot. A van full of people picks me up. Danny is my tour guide. 2 other couples - one from Islip and the other from BC - are in my group. After a short van ride through orange and grapefruit groves we reach the start of trail to the Acton Tunichil Muknal Cave (ATM for short). Acton Tunichil Muknal means ‘cave of the crystal sepulcher’ and the site was featured in the 1993 National Geographic Explorer film Journeythrough the Underworld. It’s about a 35 minute hike through the Tapir Mountain Nature preserve to the mouth of the cave. I’m on the lookout for snakes. I don’t see any (thank god). I slip in the mud and twist my ankle. I hear it pop but forge ahead. We forge Roaring Creek 3x.

see all photos »

We eat half our picnic lunch (it’s only a bit after 11) and don our helmets. The others, from Hananasi in Hopkins, have ham and cheese sandwiches. My sack lunch is much more Belizean – fresh fruit, hardboiled egg, 2 sausage links and some sort of sandwich I can’t discern but enjoy. Our guide informs us that there is no #1 or #2 in the cave so I visit the outhouse with the other two women. It’s gross. I fear I’ll fall into the pit. One of the women decides to squat in the woods instead. I wish I had done that.

Given its remote location and fairly recent discovery, Acton Tunichil Muknal has been spared much of the serious looting that has plagued other Mayan cave sites.

see all photos »

A stream flows out of the mouth of the entrance. We get ready to swim into the mouth of the cave. It’s cold, but refreshing. The water is very clear & clean. From here we wade, crawl, and scramble. Sometimes I’m up to my neck in water. There were a few tight squeezes. There were two really scary parts for me – a climb up stalagmites and another climb up a ladder. Pottery and sacrificial bones are everywhere, left as they were left, over 1000 years old. Today they are cemented in limestone which gives them an eerie effect. Flood water still run through cave today. At the very end, we encounter a complete skeleton of a woman. She’s sprawled out, the victim of sacrifice to the rain god Chacs (which sounded like ‘Chuck’ to me). Without our headlamps, it’s completely dark. We move much quicker on the way out, but it’s still challenging stuff, maybe more so for me as I’m not good climbing down. Given its remote location and fairly recent discovery, Acton Tunichil Muknal has been spared much of the serious looting that has plagued other Mayan cave sites. It truly was a special opportunity. Definitely not Disney World.

see all photos »

As we came in, we hike out. Again we forge the river 3 times. The bus lets me off where they picked me up in the orange grove. I have to make my way back to Pook’s alone. I’m a little more scared that I’ll run into a snake. I forge the river by myself. I walk the log alone. I make it. I’m feeling solid and pretty proud of myself, though my ankle is really starting to throb.

On the way back to Pook’s I discover 2 cabanas on stilts out over the forest that I didn’t even know existed before. What a private idyllic location!

see all photos »

I’m back early which gives me time to check email & facebook. The group of 5 has left for Guatemala and I’m now the only guest at Pook’s. I dine with Ray, Kat, Dave and Jerry. Dinner is pork. We have yummy brownies for dessert and play dominos after dinner.