Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave

After we got back from Tikal, we went to this cave that the Maya used for ceremonies to honor their ancestors. It was a 45 minute hike into the jungle where you had to ford a river three times. We then arrived at the entrance to the cave, the river runs through it, and you have swim for about 50 feet to get to the inside ledge. You then splunk through the cave, wading through the river, clambering over boulders, and slithering through passages. We had headlamps during this...the Maya did this with pine torches and the river was higher....





You then reach a spot where you climb up out of the river to dry chambers. The Maya brought pots and offerings to their ancestors to the massive chambers here. They would cook the offering there and then break the pot to finish the ceremony. They then left the pots there...

It's amazing as you are inches away from 1500 year old pots that you would normally see in a musuem..probably the closest I'll get to being an archeologist. Here's the monkey pot...they've discovered 5 of them in central america...all with the same monkey and they believe they were made by the same guy.

They also did several human sacrifices, some willing and others not..