Saturday, April 19, 2014

Spelunking Actun Tunichil Muknal!

Caves were the most sacred places for the Mayan people. Today we got a chance to go spelunking through ATM outside of San Ignacio and it was great!!  We left the hotel around 7:30 and drove for about an hour to a parking lot that looks like it would lead to any other hiking trail. I'm the parking lot we head to attach our head lamps to our hard hats and make sure everything was adjusted right so we would be all set in the cave. Because the cave is a sacred place and the water that runs through it is drinking water for people, we were told to not put on sunscreen or bug spray so that we didn't contaminate their water or hurt the cave. Also, we couldn't bring cameras (or phones) into the cave because the flash is damaging to the cave and they're trying to preserve it. So we left everything in the van and started the hike with our hard hats in tow!
The hike to the cave was probably around a mile and a half. We reached a stream pretty quickly that was had to walk through so staying dry was no longer an option. We crossed two more streams that we trekked through and eventually reached a small area with picnic tables. Our guide told us that while archeologists were examining the cave, the picnic area is where they set up their lab to so further research and to show their findings to other people in the area. Now it is just used as a place for the tour groups to put their water bottles and put on their hard hats. We stayed there for a little bit and or guide talked to us and then it was time to enter the cave!!
The cave had a pretty large opening, but swimming was the only option to get inside. We went one by one trying to avoid rocks and then climbed up into the cave on the other side. Our guide explained that the Mayan people started using the outer edge of the cave and as time went on they moved deeper and deeper within the cave. So the oldest artifacts were found closer toward the entrance. The beginning part of the cave involved a lot of water and climbing through small holes. There were certain walls we couldn't touch - any of the ones  that sparkled. During some parts we would try to step on ledges close to the wall and hold on to the wall for support, but would end up slipping and swimming instead. We had to have on socks and sneakers so it was hard to stay balanced and keep our feet planted on certain rocks. Some of the areas of the cave were more treacherous than others and some parts involved climbing up a ladder or using huge rocks as ladders and hoping you didn't fall. 
Once we got further into the cave, we reached a point where we had to take our sneakers off. In this part of the cave there wasn't any water so there were still artifacts that were preserved from the time when the Mayan people were using the cave. There were certain ridges that we were supposed to walk on because there could have been artifacts mixed in with the less other parts of the cave floor. We saw old ceramic pots and ceramic plates that were used to catch the drippings of peoples' blood from human sacrifices. We went even deeper into the cave and saw human remains including skulls and the full skeleton that is thought to be female. Here's a picture of the skeleton (I found it online from when they used to allow cameras! The magic of google!).
Once we got pretty deep into the cave it was time to start venturing out. By this point we had spent about 5 hours hiking/spelunking and we were hungry!!  The deeper into the cave we got, the cooler it got (not that I would consider it cold) and the colder the water was. The hike out of the cave was funny because there was a lot more slipping and a lot more swimming when we probably could've been walking.
Spelunking was really awesome and I wasn't expecting to see actual artifacts/human skulls so that was definitely an added bonus! I wish I could've taken pictures although I don't think they would've captured what it actually looked like inside the cave or the way a lot of the walls sparkled. Also, the word spelunking is pretty cool and I'll probably be able to use it once in awhile in conversation now that I've actually done it!

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