Belize - Day 4

Today we left early in the morning to go see Actun Tunichil Muknal (or ATM Caves for short). The words each translate into caves, stone & sepulcher. There are many theories about what the caves were used for, but many believe them to be a site where Mayan sacrifices were offered around 900AD during the decline of their great civilization.

Here's Olaf on the bumpy dirt road to the cave. It was the roughest road we've encountered (our vans even had to drive through a shallow river!) but it was some of my favorite places to drive through.

 Olaf was sure to remember his bug spray and sunscreen. It was pretty hot today!

 We drove by acres and acres of orchards!

 As well as fruit, they had rows upon rows of teak, mahogany & cedar. Ask G-pop what these trees are used for.

 Does this crop look familiar?

We weren't allowed to take cameras inside the ATM cave, which was okay because we had to swim through the river (inside & outside) the cave in several places. As you can imagine, it was a great physical & mental feat for me since I'm scared of water, tight spaces, the dark, and being cold.

But here's a video that talks about it (everything you see in this video, we saw and did!) I'm glad I did it. The air was actually really steamy inside the cave... I'd say it was warmer than outside! Kind of like a mini sauna! And the water was warm (for river standards.) I survived, but that was enough water/caving for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately, there was a 40" height requirement to go to the caves. Olaf is about 36" shy of that (so close!) so he had to wait for us back at the vans. But when we got back from our long hike and caving adventure we had a picnic and explored the little park there at the trail head.

Can you find the basilisk lizard in the tree?

 Olaf will help spot him out to you... he's just to the right of his chin!

 Do you know what this critter is?

 It's a tarantula! Olaf's face explains how he feels about the proximity to this giant arachnid.

 These are Valencia oranges and these are 100% ripe! We saw men out in the orchards with long sticks with a hook on the end that they use to shake the tree and strip the oranges. They then gather them up in big burlap sacks and take them to a truck. These oranges will end up being squished into orange juice. We have had fresh orange juice with our breakfast every day this trip and it is SO delicious!

 These are plantains, which are a lot like bananas.

 The plantain tree:

 Olaf climbed up to see if this orange is ripe. It is!

 These are what coconuts look like! They turn yellow when they're ripe and then the outer husk is removed when it is shipped to us, so all we see is the brown, fibrous part inside the husk.

The coconut palm tree:

Today was fun. Our feet are tired! We saw some really neat artifacts that haven't been touched in over a thousand years! It was as close to time travel as we will ever come. And tomorrow we will get to float through some other caves and go ziplining through the trees!