June 20, 2007

The Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour was a budget-blowing day trip that was probably the most exhilarating, Indiana Jones-meets-the Discovery Channel, eight hours we had on the entire trip.

Located in the limestone foothills of the Roaring Creek Valley, Actun Tunichil Muknal (which means “Cave of the Stone Sepulcher”) is a pre-historic Mayan burial chamber full of calcified skeletons, skulls and artifacts.

First explored in 1986 by a Belizean archeologist, Jaime Awe, ATM, as it is known, was the subject of a National Geographic Explorer television documentary (Journey through the Underworld) in 1993.

Following a period of intensive study, the sacred cavern was made accessible to the public in 1998, though only when accompanied by licensed guides.

We signed up for the adventure with San Ignacio-based, Mayawalk Tours, based in San Ignacio, one of the more popular tour operators in the area.

The drive from San Ignacio to the ATM access point took about 90 minutes, half of which is on narrow dirt back roads.

After we had parked in a clearing, our guide, Emil, handed us our safety helmets and box lunches before leading us single file into the nearby trail through the lush vegetation.

It took about 45 minutes to hike to the mouth of the cave, on a trail that required us to wade, mid-calf deep, across Roaring Creek at three different places.

The stream that runs through the cave has formed a deep pool at its vine-clad entrance, and so we kicked of the cave exploration by jumping into the cool, but not cold, water and swimming 15 or 20 metres to the first rock ledges.

From there, we swam (often), hiked, and crawled our way deep into the five kilometre long cave, guided only by the small beams from our head lamps and the voice of the person in front of us.

It took about an hour twisting and turning our way through rock formations to reach the base of the "dry” or “main” chamber, and from there it was a precarious 15 metre climb up the slippery cave wall to reach its mouth. At this point, Emil asked us to stop and take off our shoes and socks so that we wouldn’t inadvertently damage the fragile site.

In Mayan mythology and cosmology, caves represented portals to the underworld (known as Xibalba) and pathways to the gods. And this fascinating dry chamber was an underworld like no other.

Interspersed among jagged rock formations and wide, natural staircases were dozens of ceramic jars marked with hieroglyphs and several Mayan skulls, all of which had, after more than a thousand years, calcified to the floor of the cave.

Farther yet into the dry chamber, at the end of small, elevated rock platform accessible by climbing up an aluminum ladder, was the intact skeleton of a young girl. Archaeologists believe that she, along with the 13 other skeletons they had found in this area, had been the victim of human sacrifice.

We spent two hours exploring the dry chamber and soaking up the information that Emil, a native of the area and a guide for seven years, imparted to us, about Mayan culture.

We easily could have spent another two hours taking it all in.

Key Facts & Figures:

-Actun Tunichil Muknal tour, Maya Walk Tours: $75/person