Day 21. We spent the day caving in the sacred Mayan caves at Actun Tunichil Muknal (affectionately known as ATM) which is ranked No. 1 by The National Geographic in their Top 10 Sacred Caves! (We wondered at this point what other “Top 10’s” The National Geographic had compiled).
We had to wade and swim for a kilometre underground in the pitch black, neck deep in cold water with fishes nibbling at our legs to get to the Sacred Cave.
Jodie at ATM with Annie and Safe dodging the nibbling fish
We were instructed to wear socks during our visit to one of the sacred chambers so as not to damage any minerals.
Aunty Audrey's Christmas Socks
The cave contains many weird and wonderful looking limestone rock formations and if you squint hard enough, you can make out many images. Our favourite was the so called “Nativity Scene” complete with animals … apparently.
Nativity
The photographs are thanks to our compadre, Jodie, better known as The Woman Who Has Everything (In Her Bag). So far, we’re indebted to her for:
- Two zip-lock bags
- Silica gel
- Bug spray
- Collapsing shopping bag
- Travel sickness pills
- Sticky backed tape
- Films
- Half an avocado sandwich breakfast in San Cristobal when ours fell through
Our camera water experiment is well underway. We have added a bag of rice to silica gel to speed up the drying process. Perhaps we’ll switch it on tomorrow …
An old Belizean recipe - Camera in rice