ATM Cave

Description

For the fit and adventurous, this is a hands down, the most talk about cave in Belize. Discovered in 1989 and opened to the general public since 1998. The ATM cave is a full five kilometer deep. After a 45minutes hike in the cool tropical rainforest and across three streams, you enter its hour-glass shape mouth a 10meter swim in water about 5metre deep, to land on them rock shelf. The next 600metre is a journey of well over half an hour filled with many sharp and slippery edges and water depth alternates from just covering your toes to portion where only the tallest won’t need to swim. Along the way, you pass many calcite formations and a few which have undergone minor sculpting (purpose unknown) by the. After this distance, you ascend 2 or 3 meters to a shelf above the river. From this point forward is shallow ground where you walk barefoot (socks only).\nNear the mouth of the cave, whereas later generations moved further into the caves perhaps believing that this would bring them closer to the lords of Xibalba. The closer to the gods, the better chance the ceremonies would be answered. Pottery of all sizes and styles lay within the cave, all broken to release spirits contained with within. A not so common artifact found is human remains. So far, remains of 14 individuals have been found, 7adults and 7 children all under the age of 5.