STOP 10 | Belize: on the Mayas’ roots, with 25+ mosquitos bites and deep into a Cave

Dedicated to the ingenuity of the little kids, who with their lightheartedness know how not to be afraid of the world. And to the young parents - among all Nick, Cara, Lukas, Olga, Ivana, Federico - who know how to guide children in such an effort.

Day 3

 

The 3^rd day was a travel day. I woke up pretty early (still jet lagged, probably) and I saw the a beautiful sunrise.

We left Crooked Tree and we headed to San Ignacio. Technically, the municipality is called “The Twin Towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena”. And they were called this way by the British: San Ignacio and its sister-town Santa Elena make up Belize's second largest urban area.

Belize was an English colony, that got its independence officially in 1981, on September 21^st. No blood was shed, it was a mutual agreement with the British government and Belize is still part of the British Commonwealth. The original name of this territory was British Honduras.

 

The capital used to be Belize City till 1971, when a hurricane (Hattie) hit and destroyed the city in 1961 so badly, that they decided to move it to Belmopan, a city equipped to host 90K people, but now populated with only 12K, as it’s considered probably expensive and not too sexy by Belizeans themselves.

 

This day was also the day when new restrictions against the spread of covid-19 came into effectiveness, so we had to order our lunch take away.

 

In the afternoon we visited the Maya archaeological site of Cahal Pech. This site has been 85% excavated and it’s pretty cozy considering many others. Evidence of continuous habitation has been dated to as far back as 1200 BCE during the Early Middle Formative period (Early Middle Preclassic), making Cahal Pech one of the oldest recognizably Maya sites in Western Belize.

Visiting this site left a sign in me, actually two, a mental sign and a physical one. Mental one: a beautiful lady bug, I've never seen one with such colors. And for the physical one, you need to keep reading.

After the tour, some of us did a Chocolate Experience. I did so many of those across the globe, and two recently in Costa Rica, however it was fun to spend some time there.

After taking a warm shower I noticed the 25 mosquitos bites, the physical sign of my visit to Cahal Pech 😏.

 

 

 

Day 4

 

This day was a free day and we could have signed-up for any activities we wanted or even decide to lay down in our hotel room or at the pool. The pool was out of order, due a malfunctioning pump, however I had already signed-up to do the ATM Cave experience.

 

Actun Tunichil Muknal cave – according to National Geographic – is one of the most intact cave of the Mundo Maya and the number one secret cave in the world. There are other caves, even more beautiful probably, but they have been vandalized, while this one is pretty intact. It was discovered and mapped by Thomas Miller during the years 1986-1989 (they were working about 3-4 months per year, during the dry season) and this cave was open to the public in 1998-1999.

 

I signed-up a little bit due to social pressure (3 out of 6 from our group wanted to do it, following the lead of Desiree, who really wanted to visit it). Also, I wanted my Belize trip to be memorable for something.

 

I’ve never been claustrophobic per se, but being inside a cave for 3 hours, partially with the water hitting your hips, climbing rocks at the light of a head-torch, was not that appealing to me, and I was not really sure what I signed-up for.

 

Usually when things I may be scared of are close to happen, I start being anxious. Anxiety brings me sadness and bad thoughts and I start living in the past instead of focusing on the present moment. And this is when everything can fall apart. But it didn’t happen, thankfully.

 

I felt extraordinarily self-confident after the tour started. We got picked up at the hotel at around 8AM, we drove to the Tourist Office to finalize payments and then we drove for about 1h and 20m towards the Tapir Mountain Natural Reserve, which contains the Archaeological reserve.

 

After wearing our helmets and head-torches, we were ready to kick-off: we had not been able to bring any cameras, either professional cameras, go-pro, or even phone as in the past – probably 2012 – a tourist dropped his camera on a skull, destroying it partially. Since then, the Belizean authorities decided not to allow cameras anymore.

 

 

But we got some pics right at the start of our tour: the first part on the tour entailed a 45 mins walk towards the park, crossing 3 rivers, to reach the point of Cave entrance. The first river was the one, which water reached our waist. Hence it was equipped with a rope. So we were already completely wet right at the starting point of our walk.

 

 

We got 2 more rivers to pass and about 40 mins walking till we reached the entrance to the cave. Our tour operator MayaWalk Tours was so kind to provide us with pictures of the most important spots.

 

 

We enter the cave swimming: my friend Teo would be amazed by this. And then we alternated walking in the water, walking on the rocks, and short swims. For once, I really felt self-confident about what I was doing, probably the fact that I lost 56kg (110 lbs) over the past year and a half helped me with that, as I felt a way more agile than the average.

 

As said in the previous post, a lot of mastery covers Maya. Mundo Maya is comprised by 5 Central American countries: Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico. Re: Maya chronology, we can detect 3 periods:

-       3000 BC – 200 AD: beginnings

-       200 AD – 900 AD: apex of Maya culture

-       900 AD – 1500 AD: decline

 

The ATM Cave goes back to 200-870 AD: it was a cave in the rock, with no water inside. It was originally used (200-600 AD) to say thank you to the gods, while towards the end (600-900 AD), it was used to beg gods to provide water. According to our guide, 3 were the causes of Mayas' decline

-       2 internal factors: overpopulation and deforestation

-       1 external factor: no more rain, cause by the internal factors

 

This is when the decline started, and it was much before from 900 AD onwards, till the Spaniards came in 1500 AD and brought diseases.

 

 

In the cave we observe huge set of stalactites and stalagmites: many of them still intact, with a vein of water flowing through them (and calcium formation on top), some of them dark and "dead", because of no water. It took hundreds if not thousands of years for such phenomena to form: "nature is not in a rush, our lives are too short", as Hugh, our guide told us.

 

 

The cave per se was a huge repository oh historical finds, which are almost intact - except for the Tourists' clumsiness.

 

 

And dulcis in fundo, we managed to enter the "The Crystal Maiden" chamber, the skeleton of an adolescent (a 17-year-old Boy), possibly a sacrifice victim, whose bones have been calcified to a sparkling, crystallized appearance.

The way back was not more difficult than the way in. It's unbelievable how fear and uncomfortability can disappear in "social pressure" environment. The 25y in me still thinks about all the lost occasions and opportunities in his life.

It was a fabulous experience and I suggest everyone fit/agile to take on. At night we celebrated the Belize Independence with booze and fun, at the hotel, due to the curfew. But we were freaking tired anyways.