The last really cool adventure we had in Belize was a tour of some ancient caves in Central Belize: Achtun Tunichil Muknal, which means "Tomb of the Sepulchre". It was discovered in the 80's. National Geographic did a cover story on it in 2001. Anyway, it's over a half-mile long, and there are many interesting things lying within. You have to swim upstream to enter the cave mouth, then slide over to the side, being careful to avoid putting your hands on any of the big hairy tarantulas that hang out there. These were a big hit with Lisa. One thing we realized after the blood returned to Lisa's head 3 hours later was that the "tour selection" before entering the cave was rather limited: Lisa could either enter with us, and try her luck with tarantulas, bats, and climbing rickety ladders and slippery stones (did we mention her fear of heights?), OR... she could wait outside alone for three hours and hope that she wouldn't be visited by a passing Fer deLance (aka, viper, or "two-step" snake. More on the name two-step below). Well, she opted to stay with the group. So, once we got inside, we started walking in, rather far, alternating between wading waste-deep in water and on a fairly flat stone floor. Once we got about 1/4 mile in, we saw some of the first really cool formations. See our photos. As you go deeper into the cave you pass sections used for Mayan rituals at preggressively earlier times in their cultural evolution. Most of them involved using pots, which were said to contain sacred spirits. Once the ritual was completed, they would break the pot so as to liberate the spirit (to heaven?). None of these pots have been moved from their original position by modern man, which is really amazing considering they are still brining tourists there every day. This won't last long, methinks. These artifacts are over 1,000 years old. In order to move through the cave, we had to walk on the hardened natural stone boundaries between the depressions made by ancient water pools, long since dried up. I forget the rules on the way out, and was severely reprimanded by our guide. I shoulda waited with the vipers.
Anyway, I didn't step on any pots. At least, I didn't hear any subterranean crunching beneath my sneakers!
As we neared the furthest extent of the cave we were treated to "up close and personal" views of some skulls and two full skeletons, one of a young woman, and one of a man in his forties. See the pictures of the man. He had his hands tied behind his back and his face was up against the cave wall. He was thought to be held captive. The other bodily remains were human sacrifices, and it was considered a great honor to be chosen for this ritual. The rituals were conducted to appease their major gods (nine in all, three major ones). Usually, they were looking for more rain so the crops would grow.
Oh, about the two-step snake: it is named after the local story that if you're bitten by one, you'll be dead in two steps. Luckily, our trust guide had a venom extractor. I had a curious reaction when he explained how it works, then mumbled "but I don't really know how to use it".
Next stop: the Guatemala border...
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