Actun Tunichil Muknal (A.T.M.) - March 15, 2008

Since Actun Tunichil Muknal is such a mouthful, it has been shortened by just about everyone to "A.T.M.". When I visited San Ignacio, this was the "it" tour, the tour to take if you wanted to see Mayan ruins. Unlike most Mayan sites I knew about before my trip, this was is located in a cave. Since my trip, I have discovered the Mayan ruins are both above and under ground.

At Pacz, my tour guide home, they always had a tour going to A.T.M. Not so Caracol or Tikal or Mountain Pine Ridge. I got really lucky that I got to visit those as well - the stars aligned for me out in San Ignacio!

So, why is A.T.M. such a big deal?

Well, part of the reason, in my opinion, is the work it actually takes to get to the site where the Mayan artifacts exist. When I visited in 2008, a guide was only allowed to bring in 8 tourists in his group. The 8 of us visiting on this Saturday morning gathered early at Pacz, climbed into the van, and headed east on the Western highway. At some point we turned south onto a badly rutted dirt road. We traveled (more like bounced from rut to rut) on this road for a bit, crossing a river a couple of times, until we arrived at the parking area.

At the parking area, we were given our box lunches for the day, helmets (we received lights to attach at the entrance to the cave), and a bottle of water. Prior to the trip, we were also told to bring a pair of clean socks. Along with our cameras and any other things we wanted to bring, we headed off to the cave.

The cave was located about 1 and 1/2 miles away from the parking area. This meant about a 35 mintues hike, during which I was attacked by mosquitos and the entire group had to cross the river 3 times. The water wasn't very deep but there were rocks on the bottom and they were quite slippery. On the journey back, I feel at least once.

We arrived at what I will call a staging area at the end of the hike. Hear there was a place to leave our backpacks (basically leave everything behind but your socks and your camera which you gave to the guide to carry in his waterproof bag). This was also our last chance to use the bathroom, of which there was an outdoor toilet for the ladies (no idea what existed for the men).

The entrance to the cave was in the river. We had to descend the river back and swim into the entrance. That's a picture of it on the right. The actual swim at this point was about 50 feet or so. Once in the cave, we turned on our helmet lights and we were off.

Off meant alternately wading, swimming and scrambling upstream for about 1/2 mile in the river. It was an experience. At the end of the 1/2 mile, we climbed up about 20 feet using two very larger boulders to the actual site.

At this point, we removed our water shoes (thank goodness I actually brought some on the trip!), donned our socks and the guide gave us our cameras. The socks were required so we would not damage the cave with whatever might have been on our bare feet. Shoes are not allowed in the cave. And off we went to explore a very large cavern that had some Mayan artifacts and skeletal remains. Yes, the pictures you will see here are pictures of actual skulls and bones that still reside in the cave. The theory is these were sacrificial offerings (for lack of a better word) to the gods in order to provide rain and/or food.

A.T.M. Cave

Mayan Artifacts

It took about an hour or so to tour the room. Throughout, there were many, many pots - most were broken in some capacity. And then there were the skeletons. I believe there were about 4-6 total that have been located in the cave. Most were male adults. The picture of the complete skeleton was of a teenage female, and there was also a child's skeleton as well. The female and child were in a removed part of the cave from the rest of the skeletons and artifacts. To get to them, you had to climb up a ladder (it wasn't a very secure ladder) and then scramble over some rocks and boulders. Then, of course, you had to come back down that same ladder.

Cathleen scrambling over rocks in the A.T.M. Cave

The climb down from the cave back into the river seemed harder than the one going up. But the wading/swimming/scrambling downsteam to the cave entrance and sunlight was not nearly so long or so difficult. We spent about about an hour at the staging area, eating and swimming right outside the cave entrance before we hiked back to the parking area. My journal says my knee was sore from all of the climbing and that my water shoes gave me blisters from rubbing. If I remember correctly, we were back in San Ignacio by mid-afternoon.

Female Skeleton

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