Actun Tunichil Muknal

Yesterday we drove to Belize city. The production lights, (remember those?) that we needed were confirmed to be there. An hour and a half of driving gets one across the country to the east coast. Weaving around the streets of the beat up capitol city we arrived at DHL got our package and weaved back out.

We made a spot at the Belize zoo to shoot the Earth Roamer driving into and out of the park before completing the drive.

We had made arrangements to meet both Dr. Awe and our guides/ porters at our hotel. For once we, (I) would not be crushed by gear. I volunteered to ride in the back of the Earth Roamer. Not my best decision. After getting savaged by the dirt road I fell out of the back to start the hike.

We shook hands with Dr Awe. He is the archeologist that did the initial scientific survey of the cave. It was a six year long study where he lived, with his crew, at the site, in the jungle.

We had bought a gigantic cooler to put the camera in. We had gone to another guiding service to get some help. They had been very negative about bringing the cooler, it wouldn’t fit, it would be too heavy. we didn’t use them.

Our new guides found a long pole and tied the cooler to it like a cannibal sacrifice going to the fire pit. Two of them put either end of the pole on their shoulders and off we went. There was a forty five minute hike through the jungle to get to the cave. The path went along a river and delighted in veering across it. The first crossing came just a few minutes into the hike, that was the last of dry shoes.

Our guides had gone way ahead. Dr. Awe and Keith where discussing the shoot, Don was hiking a shooting the river crossings, I was bringing up the rear. we found our guides stopped a ways up. They had stopped to warn us of the poisonous snake sitting in the middle of the trail. One bite and you’ve got three hours to get a shot or you’re toast. It was a small thing well camouflaged. With the help of a stick our main guide Edward convinced it to move on.

At the end of the trail we came to the remains of Dr. Awe’s camp. Beyond that was the entrance to the cave. we first shot the an interview with Dr. Awe. It would be hard enough shooting in the cave. let alone getting good audio. The light was perfect, beams of light strained through the canopy where playing across the turquoise blue waters of the stream, the pool of water and moss covered rocks. But my eye was drawn to the yawning mouth of the cave, I was going in there.

In the interview, Dr. Awe explained that the Maya had always used caves. Their gods were believed to dwell there with their ancestors. They used the caves to get closer. Inside exactly how the Maya had left them thirteen thousand years ago were, pots, knives and the remains of the people they had sacrificed there.

The entrance revealed a pool that we would need to swim across with our sixty five thousand dollar camera... But, with our much scoffed at cooler the the camera was simply floated across. Then by staying close to the edges we brought across everything else in on our heads or shoulders. we weren’t done yet. There was another three thousand feet of going in and out of chest deep water and scrambling over rocks, squeezing through passages.

I hadn’t been caving in a few years and was enjoying the experience. And this was a good cave. Great speliothems of all sorts, came out of the darkness as I swung my headlamp around. I saw waving flags of frozen stone, reaching stalagmites, dangling stalactites. Caverns came and went, the river deepened and receded. I was warned about being cold, but my winter blood came through for me. The water was quite pleasant.

Finally, we got at the of the back of the cave. We would do the cave backward. Dr Awe had limited time ot spend with us, so we would cover the most important things first, with him. I clambered up a rock wall, following the group, leaving the river behind. At the top the cooler was left behind as were our shoes that were not allowed further into the cave. I was in my socks for the rest of the time.

Watching not to stub my toes, I hurried on. we were rushing now to get the in cave interview of Dr. Awe done before a second guided group got into the cave. We were in a huge cavern with flow stone everywhere. The floor was absolutely littered with thirteen hundred year old pots. You had to pay attention to not veer off the path and step on them. Some where shards , some were near whole but none were complete. All were, “killed” as part of their use in the ceremony. We reached a ladder at the end of the cavern.

Up the ladder, went the gear and ourselves. At the top was a complete human skeleton of girl lying on her back. The skeleton was it a small alcove very far back in the cave. At times in the year, water covers it. Over the years, crystalize stone has been laid over it, till now, in sparkles.

The camera got me beyond the barrier where everyone else stop. Dr. Awe then told us about the sacrifices. I was sitting holding a light in just the right place so that Keith asked Dr. Awe to speak to me. I would look right on camera then. So I was like I was getting private lecture by the Dr.

Here’s how it went; The Mayan rulers had set themselves up conduits to the gods. This means when things are going well, you could get people to do anything. “The gods tell me that you need to do so and so...” But when things are going badly, the people start thinking, “Dude you are screwing up, cause the gods are pissed.” and the rulers are in trouble. What happened is that the area was suffering from a drought, the Maya had over reached what the land could provide and the system that the mayas had lived by started to come apart. This is where the sacrifices came in.

Desperate times calling for desperate measures brought sacrifice to this cave. What better way to stop a drought than kill a few children and put their blood in pots in the back of a cave? We spent the rest of the time till the camera Lights fail, shooting, pots with monkeys on them, children's skeletons left in some obscure hole, amazing flow stone formations.

As the last camera light faded out, we wrapped it up. We went back down through tight spots, into the river. Then after handing out last piece of gear, I belly flopped into the last pool and swam into the light.