We arrived in San Ignacio latish Friday afternoon after nobody was in any state for the 7am start we had intended for our trip across the width of Belize. The town is lovely and it was fairly refreshing to be back in comparitive reality after going so slow in Caye Caulker! San Ignacio is surrounded by things to do so we decided to do the tourist thing and visit the tour company about our options for the next day. We settled on a day in the Tapir Mountain Reserve to visit an ancient cave system called Actun Tunik Mikhnal (definitely a variation on the actual spelling) managing to negotiate some student(ish) prices!

Pne early start later and we were back on a dirt track in a patched together old bluebird bus with antique suspension (always a lovely experience) bound for the jungle. We had to trek for about an hour through the jungle but it had rained (obviously, as we were there) and the path was a treacherous red clay bog. The boys trooped on whilst I faffed about behind being very female and the burden of a poor unsuspecting french man. (I didnt tell him I was mainly concerned about the state of my new denim plimsols...) When we reached the camp we were led down a bank to the jungle river and told to get in and swim into the cave. It was quite a surreal experience wading into a river fully clothed and swimming into darkness but also amazing. What followed was an incredible three hours of pitch-black swimming, rock climbing, navigating tiny passages all 600ft below the ground in an underground network of caverns and rivers. The Maya people used the cave for rituals so it is full of the remains of ritual ceremonies - statues of their gods towering in the rock, pots arranged symbolically, and the skeletons of human sacrifices. Nothing has been touched and the artefacts aren't even roped off, just marked by sections of bright orange tape, so you can literally wander around their underworld.

The way back to the bus was similarly hilarious and this time I managed to stack it not once but three times - then Lauren got jealous and decided to slip over too - she was a bit less stylish and did an all-legs-akimbo cartoon fall right into the boggiest pool. I just about managed to direct my falls into the undergrowth where I managed to get bitten by a biting plant (as if the mosquitos aren't enough already.)

That night we were exhausted so chilled out in San Ignacio with some live Garifuna drummers letting us play the marracas and things, a couple we met on our tour, and a free local rum courtesy of the tour.