If you're up for swimming and climbing through close to 1000ft of cave, then Actun Tunichil Muknal is one tour that will make your trip to Belize outstanding. The caving part of the tour takes you through a subterranean river, over (and under) more than a few rocks and into the main chamber. ATM is the most popular tour in the San Ignacio area and is an experience of a lifetime.
Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013
On a rather warm November Monday evening in 2012, several students who went to Belize last year, were raving about going to 'ATM.' No, I was not a stupid American and assumed that they meant going to get cash. I remember the only thing that they said was that I would be talking about it for a very long time and they left it at that. I found it very odd, I guess, that they had little to no other words for us about the experience. Only after spending three hours fitting into spaces I never thought I would fit into, that I truley understand why they said what they said -- there are no words to describe the feelings and experience. The only way in which you can share the experience with someone is if they go and experience it for themselves.
But, being an overachiever, I'll try to do my best to explain it for you all.
After getting to Proworld at a normal time, for once (I think), we walked over to downtown San Ignacio. After I asked for a lifejacket (which I did not get) we split up into vans again, and started making our way towards The Cave. Again, our van was the cool van. After some talks of Toucans and various other birds, we made our way towards the entrance to the 'pre-cave park.' I really don't know what else to call it so that is what it is going to be called.
Once we got there, we got our lunches, headlamps, re-tied all our shoe-laces, and set off. Along the way, we decided that because our desire to see a Toucan was to the extreme, that we would make the very difficult decision of sacrificing one of the people in our small caravan (consisting of five or six people) in order to see this magical bird.
You know that song that goes, "Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go..."? Well walking to our lunch destination kind of felt like that, except that we weren't going to grandmother's house, but to the cave and had to cross three rivers (one of which I gracefully decided to bathe in). After lunch, the tour guides got hard to work to put on our headlamps.
We then sat around a makeshift (burned out) fire and heard the story of the cave and several other factoids (like the fact that "nothing has been adulterated" and that, back in May 2012, some idiot broke a skull with his camera). Then, with our life-vested, swim skill deficient tour guide, San Francisco (we called him that), we set off into the great unknown.
Ok, who the heck am I kidding with all this writer mumbo jumbo; it wasn't the great unknown, it was just...a very large opening to a cave, which required a ten second swim. Fantastic. Because I didn't get a life jacket (I guess my life wasn't as important as the tour guide's, which in retrospect I totally agree with), I had to climb over a few obstacles -- and by few I mean many and by obstacles I mean rocks -- along with another student and San Fran.
Here's a pictures from Pacz Tours' website of the cave entrance, since we weren't allowed to use cameras.Anyway, after that, it was a cool walk -- we saw fruit bats, corals, and mini catfish. After walking around for a bit we came to a huge rock, which, if you hadn't guessed already, we had to climb. Thanks to San Fran we managed to climb up and up.
Then we took off our shoes and climbed a bit further up.
After climbing more than a monkey would in a single day, we got to some of the artifacts -- remnants of pots and even some skulls and bones.
Then we came upon a very raggidy ladder and went to the main attraction -- a perfectly intact human skeleton. It was very eerie, but pretty darn awesome.You can probably just Google ATM cave and get lots of awesome images and videos. Here's a link for some videos.
On the way back, we went through the smallest holes imaginable-- some that even made me a tad claustrophobic. Imagine this. You are standing sideways in a pretty dark cave with a two pound helmet on your head. To your back is a solid piece of brown rock, which has been standing there for generations. To your front, a few inches away, is a rather sharp, pointy object, aiming directly into your larynx. Below you is a rushing current of water, which does not push you forward exactly, but you can feel it. Above you is a rather low hanging rock, which, were it not for said helmet, your head would turn into goo. Now walk to the other side.
Anyway, after passing through many of these dark holes, one of our group members had an idea. And you know what their awesome idea was? It was to walk through the cave in darkness. Well, because San Fran is a walking GPS, we lined up in a single file line, held hands, and turned off all the lights.
I can't even begin to explain to you the darkness that was around us; I have never in my life experienced such a dark and yet peaceful place. Our walk brought a new meaning to the phrase, "the blind leading the blind." As if this wasn't enough of an adventure, in the middle of our walk, we came upon a rock, and we had to carefully explain to the people behind us that the rock was there and how to get around it.
That was probably one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced -- just walking in total silence and darkness, trusting the people, and person, in front (and I guess the back) of you with, basically, your life.
After that, it was a pretty chill climb down and out of the cave. The three hours flew by, and as I stated before, I can totally understand why the kids from last year said what they said. Even trying to type this out and bring it to life through words is challenging.
Five out of five, would definitely recommend.
To those wondering about the person who we wanted to sacrifice = unfortunately due to the fact that (1) we really liked Angie, (2) it would probably be illegal, and (3) we were too lazy (the latter being the most likely reason), we did not sacrifice anyone. And, in turn, we did NOT see a Toucan.
No comments:
Post a Comment