ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) Cave of the Crystal Maiden

ATM was our favourite tour. It starts with a 45 minute hike, crossing through the river 3 times along the way. Then a short swim into the cave, and hiking in water from ankle to chest deep while inside the cave (about 3 hours) in complete darkness except for the light of our headlamps. The whole cave is filled with stalagtites and stalagmites (mostly stalagtites) and then the beautiful calcite crystals gleaming by the light of our headlamps. When you get to the part where you have to climb up to where the ancient Mayans had done their sacrifices, you have to take off your shoes and wear socks only so that neither your shoes or the oils from your feet destroy any crystal formations. Up there is where all the Mayan pots and skeletons from sacrifices were - even young children.

Afterwards we had lunch at the camp site, and then headed back along the trail, crossing through the river three times again, but this time soaking wet.

After a whole day of hiking, soaking wet, it was great to change into our dry clothes at the end.

I was going to do these in order of how we did our tours, but this was our favourite, so I did it first :)

Here's the pics:

CavesBranch_ATM