Indian Jones Adventure

On Saturday we went to the ATM Caves, or Actun Tunichil Muknal (Mayan for Maiden of the Stone Tomb).  It was amazing and felt like something out of an Indian Jones movie.  Our guide, Manuel, looked like a stockier, lighter-skinned Denzel Washington and sounded exactly like Antonio Banderas.  He picked us up and we drove about 45 minutes to the site.  From there we hiked about a mile and crossing the river three times before getting to the entrance of the caves.

The adventure began by swimming into the mouth of the cave and climbing onto a little ledge where we paused to receive instructions from Manuel.  Throughout most of the cave it was shallow enough to wade through, but there were several spots that required us to swim.  There were lots of amazing rock formations, bats, fresh water crabs, and plenty of small fish.  As we reached the end of the cave (well actually only about a mile in out of 5) we climbed up the "Mayan Ladder" that opened up into a big chamber.  In the new chamber there were pots everywhere.  It was so cool.  Most of them were still in the place that the Mayans had abandoned them. 

(Not our group since cameras are not allowed, but this is how close you can get to the artifacts. We used the photos from the ATM website)

 As we continued climbing through the new chamber there were even the skeletal remains of several sacrificial victims.  The tour goes all the way until you find the "Maiden of the Stone Tomb" (who is actually believed to be a man now).

We chose to take the "adventure way" out instead of the "tourist way."  It was a few pretty tight fits and sliding down a couple of rocks into pools of dark water, but it was definitely more fun than whatever the tourist way was I'm sure. It was worth it to see Adam try to squeeze into the small spaces.