We started out with a continental breakfast at Gumbo Limbo with our charming hosts, then we drove the two miles on their God-awful road to the western highway. About thirty minutes later we met our guide, Manuel, in the village of Teakettle, the start of the road leading to ATM. We dropped off our car and hopped into his van with two other couples who would be our tour companions, one couple from Canada and one from L.A. We then rode down another God-awful road for about an hour, surrounded by tree farms raising mahogany, oranges and more. Once we got to the entrance of the cave park, we hiked in the jungle for about 45 minutes to get to the entrance to the cave. On the way we saw cute little leaf cutter ants carrying bits of leaves about three times their size. We also saw yellow flowers littering the path in some places, but couldn't tell where they were coming from. They our guide pointed out the tree covered in blooms that was so high above the canopy that it couldn't be seen unless there was a break in the canopy! He also pointed out a cacao tree with a ripe, red bean, so I finally got to see chocolate at its source! During the hike, we had to cross the river three times - the water was pretty cold, and at times it was waist height! I was really glad I had read reviews that said to bring Keen water shoes, because we did the first river crossing five minutes into the hike, and we stayed wet for the entire rest of the day!
We stopped outside the cave entrance, where the river flowed into the cave, to take a couple pictures. Our guide gave us a couple rules for the cave: "Rule number one: no peeing in the water in the cave. Rule number two: no doing number two either!" :) Then we had to walk into the river, and suddenly the ground dropped off to fourteen feet in depth, so we had to swim into the cave! From that moment we walked, swam and slithered through 850 meters of darkness, almost always with our feet or our whole bodies in the cool, flowing water of the river! We all had hard hats and head lamps, so it wasn't too dark, except when our guide told us all to turn off our head lamps and experience the full darkness of the cave. He had us do that several times, and one of those times he decided it would be a great idea to tell us about all the nasty things that live in the caves, like centipedes, scorpions, spiders... Thank you, Manuel, that is just the thing I want to hear while I am standing in complete darkness. Luckily, I didn't see any creepy crawlies the whole time, just a couple bats.
Speaking of bats - in the ceiling of the cave were several deep holes called "bat holes." Our guide pointed them out to us, but with his accent it sounded like he was saying "butt holes," which made us giggle. (the guide admitted to us that a woman he had guided previously had though he was saying "butt holes," too... so it wasn't just our dirty minds. :) )
This cave tour was one of the most fun, amazing and adventurous things I have ever done. The stalagtite and stalagmite formations were absolutely incredible - filling caverns several stories high with sparkling drapery! There were also some hollow stalagmites that we could knock on with our knuckles and they played different pitches like a marimba! I was never claustrophobic because the spaces we were walking in were big and open, not closed and cramped. We did have to walk through neck deep water in the dark a few times, though. Once we had gotten through most of the trip, we had to crawl up some rocks to get into the main chambers, called the Cathedral Chamber and the Sepulcher Chamber. We had to take off our shoes and walk barefoot or in socks in those chambers so we would be mindful of our feet and not step on the artifacts. There was a ton of Mayan pottery in the chambers, some was even whole and unbroken! There were also several human skulls and other bones, but at the very end of the cave was the Crystal Maiden - a whole skeleton still intact of a woman who had been sacrificed to the gods, and her bones were covered in calcium carbonite, which made her sparkle - hence the name "Crystal Maiden."
On the way out of the caves, the guide took us on a more "adventurous" path. This one was definitely more interesting - we had to wedge ourselves through tiny openings in the rock while still in neck deep rushing water. Really fun and a bit thrilling! (Gavin later in the day started recounting all the dangerous things I make him do on vacations and asked if I am trying to collect on life insurance. :) )
All in all, I am so glad I decided to do the tour - I was on the fence and thought it might be a little "too" adventurous for me, but it definitely wasn't too much for me to handle. (though if I had run into any of those scorpions or centipedes, that may have been a different story... :D )
After hiking the 45 minutes back to the van and then driving another hour back to Teakettle, Gavin and I drove back toward Gumbo Limbo, stopping at the Orange Gallery to tour their shop. The shop is full of absolutely beautiful wood work, all of which is done on site. There were bowls. chairs, little nick nacks, vases, etc. We ended up getting a cutting board, a rolling pin, some wood bottles, a giant vase and a hot plate. We're suckers for hand made wood stuff, plus the wood here is so beautiful and wild looking with different colors and shades, etc. Now we just have to figure out how to pack it all...
After arriving back at Gumbo Limbo, we had a drink with Jenny and Mike and shared stories about our favorite places to travel. Then we got a lovely dinner of garlic shrimp, saffron rice and stir fried veggies. Now we are back in our room, me writing my journal and Gavin reading about top iPad apps (the Ugly Meter is in the top twenty. Nice.), and we are both getting lulled to sleepiness by the sounds of the jungle surrounding us...
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