While vacationing in Western Belize, Josh and I had the opportunity to experience two Mayan excursions. The first was Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) or the “Cave of the Stone Sepulchre” tour. It was full of hiking, rock climbing, river swimming, bats, Mayan artifacts and skeleton bones. ATM is a geological cave which was used in ancient Mayan times as a sacred/sacrificial burial grounds. In order to get to the cave, you have walk along a dirt path for about forty-five minutes and forge through three cold rivers. Once in the cave, you navigate through stalactites and stalagmites searching for sacred Mayan burial sites using only the light produced by the headlamps you and your group are wearing. At the end of our search, we were rewarded with a view of the famous crystallized "Crystal Maiden" skeleton. What a super cool experience!
Sadly, I was not able to capture any footage of our actual experience as cameras are banned from the tour so tourists cannot damage the artifacts. So, all of the photos below are credit to MayaWalk Tours and other Belize tour companies. I have even provided a YouTube video below that walks you through our three hour tour in about five minutes.
Sadly, I was not able to capture any footage of our actual experience as cameras are banned from the tour so tourists cannot damage the artifacts. So, all of the photos below are credit to MayaWalk Tours and other Belize tour companies. I have even provided a YouTube video below that walks you through our three hour tour in about five minutes.
One of the rivers we crossed
The entrance to ATM Cave
Walking around the cave
The Crystal Maiden
Video Tour
The second Mayan excursion we experienced in Western Belize was a private guided tour of Caracol Mayan Ruins. Our Blancaneaux tour guide, Geraldo, was fantastic. He was so knowledgeable about the Mayans, their culture and history. We spent about three hours walking through the entire campus. I am always super impressed with how advanced these ancient civilizations lived. Caracol (which means snail) is the largest of the Mayan archaeological sites and covers about 30-square miles in the Belizean jungle. At its height, Caracol housed more than 100,000 inhabitants, had five plazas, an astronomic observatory, 53 carved stone monuments, and 35,000 buildings. The tallest is a massive pyramid which scales to a height of 140 feet above the ground which Josh and I both hiked to the very top.
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