07.12.07
Caving in Belize at the site of Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM)
Having fun in the Belize Jungle and Pyramids
When staying in Belize there is no doubt you will spend much of your time on the beach. With the 2nd biggest reef in the world next to Australia’s you would be dumb not to snorkel or dive in the reef. After diving, snorkeling and lounging on the beach you will want to get off your lazy butt and head into the interior of Belize to check out the Pyramids and jungle. You will want to go to San Ignacio Belize which is the jumping point to the several different jungle and pyramid locations.
Travelling to San Ignacio
The place you want to go to first after doing the beach thing is San Ignacio. This city is very close to the Guatemalan border. On your way to San Ignacio have the bus drop you off at the zoo. You will see a sign stating that you are now enetering the zoo. Once you have made it in about 200 yards you start to wonder if your lost down some abandoned road but then you will actually start to see the zoo. They have it setup as if you are walking through a jungle. The animals are lightly fenced in with chain link and you can get quite close to the wildlife. They have a black Jaguar which is very rare and several other mean looking felines. Parrots, Eagles, and many different birds are located here.
Playing with the baby Jaguar
There is a young baby Jaguar staying here that was rejected by the mother and so it was raised by the staff. It acts just like a baby kitty and loves people and attention. That was by far the neatest part of the zoo trip. We didn’t actually play with the Jaguar but we were able to tease playfully with it from the other side of the cage.
Riding a bus in Belize
After the zoo you will wait at the bus stop and a bus will be by shortly. Each time you see a bus just try and waive it down. If it is a bus that is allowed to stop it will stop for you and you will be on your way to San Ignacio. Bus fares are very cheap. You could take a bus from Belize City to San Ignacio for probably $5 US.
Where to stay in San Ignacio Belize
After arriving in San Ignacio Belize you will want to stay at “Martha’s Guest House”. They have very affordable clean accomodations. They charge $45 US a night to stay at their guest house. The place is amazing inside and I promise you will be more then pleased with your stay there. They currently only have air conditioning in some of the rooms but for $45 a night you only get a fan. This is good though as the fan blows so hard you will not need an A/C.
Martha’s guest house also does a great job in setting up discounted travel excursions into the jungle available by various tour companies. We went with PACZ Tours which the hotel setup and were more then satisfied with the professionalism and knowledge of the tour guide. We found the tour rate to be quite competitive then if we had gone at it on our own looking for someone. The tour guide could have easily have been mistaken for a college professor. In fact this tour company is certified by the government as official tour guides. We really got our money’s worth during our tours.
Most recommended tour to take while in Belize
The best tour to take while in Belize is known as ATM for short. The actual name is Actun Tunichil Muknal. You have to go with a tour company to take this tour as sanctioned by the government of Belize. For those who would like to know how to get there on your own I can tell you. You take a bus into Tea Kettle Belize from San Ignacio. Have them drop you off at the Yellow Catholic School. Walk down the dirt road until it dead ends. Take a right and follow that road all the way down until you get to an open site with a couple of palm tree canopies. These are changing rooms so people can change from wet clothes to dry clothes. Try and get someone with a car to drive you here as it is about 2 or 3 miles to this location. If you don’t mind the walk then go ahead anyway. Watch out for viper snakes and other poisonous snakes. It’s best advised to go with a tour guide and you will likley be reprimanded by a tour guide if they see that you are on your own.
You will be paying $85 a person to go into a guided tour into the jungle for about 1 1/2 hours. There a bush man tour guide will have you try various plants and bugs if you like and tell you of there medicinal equivalent in the pharmecutical drug market. This trek into the jungle is facinating on its own.
You eat a packed lunch as you arrive at this large mountain that jets straight up from flat land. Many of the mountains in Belize seem to come out of nowhere as they are not a gradual incline. You walk down a narrow slop into a jungle river only to find that it winds into a cave in the mountain and continues on for 5 miles on into the cave. Prepare for your next adventure that will last 5 hours in a very interesting cave.
We swam and hiked into the cave for 1.5 miles until we came to a place in the cave where we had to climb up several steep walls without climbing gear. The tour guide gave us step by step instructions on how to proceed up the cave walls without breaking anything or falling. We made our way up into the cave and began to see pottery from the Mayans as well as skulls and skeletons as we proceeded further. At times I was even walking over bones, skulls and pottery making my way further into the cave. All the while teh tour guide gave us instruction not to step on the artifacts as they are history and very delicate. These artifacts are between the time period of 600 - 900 A.D. This was around the time the Mayan civilization was having problems and was on the decline. They began to sacrifice some of the elite of the people in order to appease the God’s but of course this did not work and the civilization came to an eventual complete decline.
Scorpion Spider - Found deep in the cave.
After going in 1.5 miles into the cave we turned around and came back out and trecked back out of the jungle. Changed out of our wet clothes and drove back into San Ignacio Belize. There were about 6 people in our group and everyone of us were truly amazed at what we had experienced. It almost makes you feel guilty to walk over such old artifacts because I kept thinking I might accidentally step on a pot or a skull but I managed to not break anything.
About 1 mile in the cave. That’s me waving in the black shirt and Melody’s head is behind my hand
I recommend this expedition of all other possibilities when going to Belize. I doubt this cave adventure will be allowed too much longer by the government of Belize because of the chances that some of these artifacts being destroyed.�