| Caves and Tubing tips and photos posted by real travelers and San Ignacio locals. • 22 Photos
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Once we had made it past the first water hazard, Gliss led us up a narrow channel that wound past large fallen boulders and some razor sharp edges. The air temperature inside the cave tends to stay at about 15 C and the water temperature was not bad either, although some people complain because it is colder than the outside water temperatures. The light from the entrance soon faded as we went deeper, and we passed the small high up hole through which the first discoverers entered by rappelling down. Soon we were in complete darkness except for our head lamps, with an eerie quietness except for the trickling water. Sometimes we were on solid ground, or up to our waists or even our necks in water a few times as we snaked through narrow passages and held on to avoid slipping into deeper water. We passed through several large chambers (2nd photo) where there were amazing displays of stalagmites and stalactites formed by the constant dripping.
It was great having our own personal Mayan guide, as Gliss kept up a commentary on the many features we passed and explained the Mayan customs behind the use of this cave. As you can see in the main photo, we first came upon broken ceramic jars that were used to hold water. In the course of our journey, we came across hundreds of these artifacts, some on the floor and others hidden here and there high up in grottos. Because they are used for water, it is believed that they were offered as sacrifices to the Mayan rain god 'Chac'. The Mayans believed that even inanimate objects had a spirit, so they purposely broke the jars to allow the sacrificial release of this spirit. These relics closer to the mouth of the cave date from the period of around 250 AD. Based on more recent relics found deeper in the cave, it is believed that as the Mayan situation worsened over the years leading to 900 AD, they went deeper into the caves as they tried to get 'closer' to Chac so the sacrifices would have more impact. Continued next tip. Leave a Comment
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 Mopan River Rapids at Start of
Tube trip by Bwana_Brown, 1 more photos
The Mopan River gets its beginnings in the Maya Mountains of Guatemala and crosses into Belize very close to the village of San Jose Succotz where the Trek Stop is located. Once into Belize, it continues northward through the jungle and farmlands before swinging east, where it joins with the Macal River (which flows through San Ignacio) to form the Belize River. Because of its origins in the limestone mountains famous for their caves, the dissolved limestone in the waters of the Mopan deposits here and there along its length, forming many sets of rapids. We were told to be on the lookout for the Clarissa Falls Hotel, because we should go ashore there after besting the large Class III rapids there, otherwise we could be floating off into the jungle for quite some time! Leave a Comment Directions: Start just upstream of Xunantunich and float for 2+ hours down to Clarissa Falls Hotel
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 The Crystal Lady lays as she
fell 1100 years ago by Bwana_Brown
This lady is believed to have been about 20 years old when she was sacrifced, likely by a blow to the head which left her spread-eagled on the ground just the way she fell, sometime around the year 900 AD. Due to natural processes within the cave, the skeleton is now calcified such that it forms a part of the cave floor. Young girls, especially virgins, were believed by the Mayans to be the most powerful sacrifices they could make. All fourteen of the human remains sacrificed to the rain gods were in this deep area of ATM, indicating that things must have been getting progressively worse for the Mayans. This is supported by recent research on lake sediments in the Yucatan Peninsula, which has revealed that a severe and prolonged drought struck the area at around this time, the worst drought in the preceding 7000 years.
Our return trip to the mouth of the cave did not seem to take long and by 2:30 PM, we were back at Base camp enjoying the rest of our packed lunch before we once again headed off on foot along Roaring Creek. The van was there waiting for us, where we got out of our wet clothes and sat back for the drive 'home' - arriving at about 5 PM. It had been a fantastic day!!
This cave complex actually extends much further underground than we covered, and is much more challenging. That night, as we all sat in the Common Area of the Trek Stop, an expert group of American cavers staying at the Trek Stop was discussing this with our two guides, since the Americans planned an attack on its remote parts the next day. Our guides were also interested in buying additional equipment from them, including cave rescue gear. Leave a Comment
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 End of the road - Sue with our
Mayan guides by Bwana_Brown, 1 more photos
However, in talking to him in the morning, I detected that maybe we were not talking about the same cave. Further discussion revealed that he had booked us into Crystal Cave south of Belmopan in Blue Hole National Park, whereas we really wanted the 'Cave of the Crystal Maiden'! John called his tour guys and they said that it was no problem to switch locations on the spur of the moment, since we were the only two people on their tour that day!
It was not long before our Mayan guides, Eduard and Gliss turned up in their van and away we went at about 8:30 AM on a foggy morning that soon burned off into a typical 31 C day. A few miles short of the Hummingbird Highway near Belmopan, we turned right onto a dirt road and headed east toward the Maya Mountains. We were soon driving through vast fields of vegetables that had been carved out of the jungle along Roaring Creek. It was so well organized that I mentioned to the guys that it must be a government experimental farm - no they said, this is all Mennonite land! In fact it was a couple of young Mennonites who discovered the cave in 1989, through a jungle covered hole in the mountain side.
It took us about 45 minutes to make the drive, including a few fords (second photo) of a relatively placid Roaring Creek, now that the rainy season had abatted. Continued next tip. Leave a Comment Phone: 501-600-9192 or 501-601-5673Directions: Southwest of Belmopan on Roaring CreekWebsite: Hun Chi'ik Tours
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 With my gear on, close to
the Cave mouth by Bwana_Brown,
2 more photos
Once Gliss got our miners helmets out of his bag and showed us how to adjust the intensity of its headlamp, I wandered the short distance over to the mouth of the cave itself. This is shaped like an hour glass (2nd photo), and there was not a large amount of water coming out from the underground stream that created the cave. However, once you are standing on the bottom lip at the cave mouth, you then have to plunge into a 16 ft (5 m) deep pool and swim for about 35 ft (10 m) in your clothes and sneakers before reaching solid ground that you can climb onto. Because of the climbing required on the 600-m trip into the depths of the cave, sometimes over rough rock surfaces, it is recommended to wear sneakers and long trousers. It was about 11 AM when we took the plunge! Continued next tip. Leave a Comment
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After over an hour of making our way up the cave, we came to an area that had a large natural platform high above the stream. Using the protruding rock formations, we followed Gliss as he climbed up and out of the stream onto this portion of the cave. It was here for the first time that we saw another, much larger group also doing a tour. In this sacred area of human remains, we had to take our sneakers off and carefully walk among the many artifacts of pottery and human bones in our sock feet.
The first human skull (shown here), Gliss explained, was that of a 35-year old male. Close examination showed signs of cranial modifications (flattening) to his forehead and his teeth had been filed. Since these things were done by the Mayan elite as a form of beautification, he must have been an important sacrifice.
Further on (second photo), we came to a jumble of sacrificial remnants that had been washed loose over the centuries, ending up as a pile of broken pottery, two human skulls and a large bone.
We were getting close to the furthest Mayan sacrificial relics now, as we climbed an aluminum ladder to an even higher small ledge. As we came off the ladder into a roped off section, Gliss explained that this skull (3rd photo) belonged to a 15-year old boy who had been sacrificed with his hands tied behind his back.
Just beyond this were the remains of the victim for which the cave is named. Continued next tip. Leave a Comment
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 Mopan River view as it leaves
San Jose Succotz by Bwana_BrownLeave a Comment Directions: A 5-mile stretch of the Mopan north of San Jose Succotz on the Guatemalan border
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 Rio Frio cave by windsorgirl
This cave was neither dark nor claustrophobic and technically speaking it isn't even a cave! Rio Frio Cave has a very large 65 foot high entrance. You walk about 50 yds and the cave makes a right hand turn where you can then see it's equally large exit. So that makes Rio Frio Cave, a tunnel not a cave. It is a quarter mile walk from end to end. When you exit the cave you can follow a nature trail through native plants and trees.
Inside the "cave" you will find a stream and a small beach, stalagtites and stalagmites, possibly some bats and some interesting terracing. This cave is a great option for those of us who do not love spelunking. Leave a Comment Directions: Take a tour, I went with Eva's. The cost was $30US for a full day with lunch and stops here and at 3 waterfalls.
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 Paddling in Barton Creek Cave by diver-x
Six of us and our guide, Clifford, piled into the back of a pick-up truck (with padded benches & an awning) for the 45 minute drive to Barton Creek. Our drive took us through a citrus farm, a quarry and an Amish community. The ride was almost as good as the tour itself!
When we finally got to Barton Creek, we slipped into our canoes and paddled just a few minutes to the cave entrance. Clifford gave the front person in each canoe a powerful flashlight and the back person had the paddle. But for most of the time in the cave, we held our canoes together while Clifford did all the paddling.
Inside the cave, fruit bats fly about overhead, but none of them got too close to us. Stalactites formed on the ceiling high above us and stalagmites reached up from the ledges on the sides of the cave. It was like being in the largest cathedral in the world. The colors & patterns formed by centuries of dripping mineral water are breath-taking.
At some points we had to duck to get past the stalactites and at other points the ceiling rose up hundreds of feet. Clifford pointed out some Mayan artifacts as well as a skull embedded in the minerals on a ledge. Every now and then we’d shine the lights in the water to see the fish below us and once we spotted a turtle. Leave a Comment Phone: 9-22267Directions: Sign up at Eva's Restaurant on Burns Ave in San Ignacio.
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there are numerous cave trips from san ignacio. i only went on one, so i can't tell you if it was the best one. rumor has it, there's a really great trip out of belmopan.
this was a combined canoe and tube trip thru the barton creek caves. the drive to the river is beautiful, and will lead you thru a menonite community over back roads. the canoe trip is a short one, and soon you're in the cave, ducking under bats and stalagtites. you can see some of the structures, tools and remains of the mayans who used it. it was a little frightening, but then again, things just aren't fun if they're aren't a little bit scary. on the way back, we put tubes in the water and paddled our way out. unnecessary, but fun.
all in all, about four hours. think we paid around 25 usd per person. Leave a Comment Address: Barton Creek CaveDirections: find David. rasta guy, well known in the tourist biz. super guy, and he was supposedly the guy that found this cave. he has a small office near the entrance of town, along the road where the taxis gather.
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