Visiting the underworld
The Mayans believed that 13 levels of the heavens and the 9 levels of the underworld were to both benevolent and malevolent gods. This meant from time to time it was necessary to visit the underworld. For example, say there was a drought, it was would have been considered wise to bring a great sacrifice to a specific underworld god that could bring rain.
In l989 a Belizean archeologist re-discovered an entrance to the under world, Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM), a cave that is home to an unprecedented number of untouched Mayan artifacts. If you're brave enough to adventure a little less than a mile into the ATM cave you'll see an impressive array of Mayan artifacts and human remains. Today, ATM is open to the public as a unique type of museum, preserving the Mayan history and sharing it with travelers across the world. Being fans of caving, the site was one of the things that brought us to Belize.
Our pre-booked tour left Gaia at 7:30 am, which would hopefully get us there early enough to avoid crowds for one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Belize. While we left at 7:30, Adam's day began at 4:30am as his ruthless circadian rhythm prodded him awake. Unable to fall back to sleep and a newly minted book worm, Adam moseyed to a nearby reading chair to enjoy his new book Mother of Learning and eagerly wait for our 6:30am coffee delivery.
True to their word, at 6:30am on the dot a worker knocked on our door with a hot pot of coffee, 2 empty cups, and a side of milk & sugar. Now armed with the power of aromas, Adam coaxed Helen awake so that we could have enough time to eat breakfast before our ATM tour. We were out the door by 7:15, and sat down for a quick breakfast. Originally we were supposed to leave at 7:30 but it took us until about 7:45 to finish breakfast. Which meant we were a little late for our departure, but our tour guide emphasized that it was our vacation, so there was no rush.
An hour later we were at the parking lot gearing up for the start of our tour. Our guide gave a verbal overview, explaining that we'd have to do 3 river crossing before reaching the start of the cave and we were not allowed to bring phones or cameras of any kind due to issues they'd had in the past. So if you want pictures you'll just have to search elsewhere.
Our first crossing started only a few feet from the parking lot. Helen unfortunately did not bring good water shoes, so she had to fully submerge her hiking boots into the waist deep river. The current was mild but we had a safety rope to hold as we crossed. We then hiked through the jungle and two similar crossings before making it to the mouth the cave.
Our laid back guide Rudy gave us a quick intro on how to use our headlamps and then we stepped into the river and swam upstream into the underworld. For the next 45 minutes we alternated between swimming, wading, and squeezing between rocks deeper and deeper into the cave. There were several rock formations that the Mayans modified to make the shadows look like faces. Our guide told us the Mayans often used plant based psychedelics on this journey to better communicate with the gods. Looking at the massive face shadows, we imagined them flickering in the torchlight of an ancient Mayan, high on psychedelics and escorting a human sacrifice to the gods. We decided we were glad to be sober.
Once at the ritual site we were asked to remove our shoes, “you can’t feel the ground as well with your shoes and it’s too easy to step on something that you shouldn’t” Rudy explained. The modern Mayan are a bit irrationally obsessed with preserving their history. We learned of many instances where Mayan archeologists refused to collect even a tiny sample for lab testing, opting instead to preserve the natural state of the artifact/remain. The obsession makes more sense when you learn that the civilization, once home to large cities interconnected by limestone roads that glowed in the moonlight had a huge portion of their history destroyed by Spanish conquistadors; who went as far as to burn their libraries. Today, only 4 Mayan cities have survived into the 20th century. So we didn't complain about the potential of the cave floor putting holes in our socks.
The proceeding cave tour was incredible. For the next 45 minutes the tone of our guides voice changed as he spoke with reverence about the Mayan history, beliefs, and all the mysteries surrounding their people. We can never know for sure why the Mayans came so often to this cave, but the ground around us was littered with broken urns. The sheer number of urns and the length of our journey illustrated just how important this site could have been.
Our guide pointed out the formations that they believed were for bloodletting. Combined with all the sacrificial skeletons around us you realize that the Mayans just have a difference relationship with death and pain than our modern longevity obsessed and there's-an-opioid-for-that society that treats dying and physical pain as something to be avoided at any cost. For them it may have been a great honor to meet the gods early and save their village from starvation.
Our tour reached its climax with the penultimate skeleton. An entirely intact human skeleton calcified into the stone before us. Our guide described the history of the skeleton and the debates surrounding it. It's still unknown whether the skeleton is male or female (A great example of how the Mayans would rather live with the mystery than drill a tiny bit of bone to attempt a DNA test).
After the penultimate skeleton we walked, crawled, climbed, squeezed, waded, and swam our way back out of the cave. Thoroughly enjoying our peek into the Mayan underworld, we finished our day with sandwiches and a bumpy drive back to the lodge. Little did we know, Adam had gained a nefarious, tiny hitchhiker.
Back in the comfort of our cabana, we put our soaked clothing out to dry and sprawled under the ceiling fans. Helen looked down and noticed something amiss on Adam’s leg. It was a small, suspicious looking raised bump. It had a circular body and 8 legs... the dreaded tick! Adam, having never lived on the tick-infested East Coast, began wailing "I’ve been ticked!"
Helen calmly shushed him as she scraped it off into a ziploc bag. "You'll be fine, it wasn't even latched on. If you start showing symptoms we'll get the tick tested for Lyme's in the US." For the rest of the trip we checked on "our prisoner" to ensure it was still there. Today Adam is healthy and lives to tell the tale.
Almost to the end of a trip full of motorcycling, hiking, caving, and sunrise alarms Adam insisted on taking it easy for our final day, perhaps a massage and relaxing read by the river. Helen insisted on taking the long way down to the beach, so we hiked a 2 mile loop through the jungle instead of taking a 60 second tram ride, to the curated beach in the middle of the river. To our pleasant surprise the hotel dog Coco followed us the whole way.
Once at the river. We read books, and even enjoyed couples massage with the sound of water in the background. We both fought to stay awake as two well trained masseuses softly massaged any stress away. In hindsight the massage might have been too soft, but we were both very relaxed by the end of it.
In the afternoon we walked to big rock falls. Where we watched local jump off a 15 foot rock into the deep river. "Bet you won't jump" Adam teased Helen.
"I'll do it if you do it" Helen teased back, knowing he wouldn't do it.
Adam in a moment of spontaneous courage turned around, climbed the the slippery 15 foot rock face, and realizing that there was only one safe way down at this point, leapt from the rock into the deep water below. Helen scowled, realizing she made a grave miscalculation and now had to jump as well.
Helen's jump was equally exciting but upon enter the water she didn't stick her pencil and the water hit her shin causing some slight discomfort. "I did not like that" she exclaimed. Adam smiled knowing that, while the memory might not have been Helen's favorite it was still another memory that we'd get to share for a lifetime. "Remember when I tricked you into jumping off the waterfall on our Honeymoon" Adam imagined saying 40 years from now. "Yeah and I did not like it" Adam imagined Helen grumbling.
That night we enjoyed our last meal and schedule a driver for the trip back to the hotel. Fully embracing our White Lotus people moment. We made small talk with a very nice driver all the way to the airport. He congratulated us for making an effort to travel at our young ages, saying he heard countless times "I wish I traveled more when I was young." Little did he know we were spoiled.
