today we visited the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave with a local guide, Carlos. This pretty much blew us away and has been one of the most amazing things we´ve experienced so far.

We were given some leaf, a natural probiotic to chew. Dave manfully took his down without a wince, but Emily had to supress some wretching and pray not to throw up and expose herself as the weak city girl she is.

After a couple of miles walking through the jungle and wading through rivers (´don`t fall over English!`, as Carlos named Emily) we entered the cave by swimming into the darkness, armed only with a head torch. Pretty much no concession has been made for tourists, the only way to go is swimming or climbing.

After an hour we reached a massive cavern with many Mayan remains, from about 700-900 AD and the only thing stopping you from squashing them was a bit of coloured masking tape on the floor. Emily was pretty terrifiedshe was going to trip and squash some priceless artifact and bring the wrath of Belize (and Carlos) on her English head, but luckily the the clumsiness was kept in check. Apparently part of the reason the artifacts are still there is that Belize doesn´t have a museum with the right conditions, and also they are calcified to the floor, but whatever the reason it was amazing and a triumph that they have not been spirited out the country to a foreign museum.

Clumsiness resurfaced on the return and Emily took a dive in the river (`Dance England, Dance´). A spectacular day and really hope that the caves stay the way they are (tho a few handrails may save some pots to live another day)