When most backpackers visit Belize, they hit up Caye Caulker, then make a beeline for Mexico or Guatemala. Put off by the country’s less than spotless reputation, indeed most tourists spend their time on the islands and skip the mainland completely. And, look, it’s true – mainland Belize doesn’t have a great reputation for safety. The country has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and violent crime rates remain high here.
But most of this occurs in a very specific part of Belize City, which isn’t really somewhere most tourists tend to hang around anyway. And some incredible experiences await those venture west of the Cayes. One of those, is the famous ATM Cave. Possibly the most unique and yet somehow most underrated experience in Central America.
I had never heard of this cave when I arrived in Belize. My initial plan was to spend a night or two in San Ignacio as a stopover on the way to Guatemala. But I found myself with a day to spare here, and my hostel was running a tour to the cave. Being possibly the easiest person to convince to do literally anything, I found myself agreeing to a trip underground, despite being incredibly claustrophobic.
What is the ATM Cave?
Good question! The ATM Cave, despite the name, is not an underground cash machine (haha) (sorry). ATM stands for Actun Tunichil Muknal, which means Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre in Yucatec Maya. It’s a cave located about an hour away from San Ignacio, in Cayo District, close to the Guatemalan border.
The cave served as a sacred ceremonial site for the local Maya people in the Late Classical period, roughly between 300-900CE. The Maya saw the cave as a liminal space between life and death, and leaders conducted rituals here to commune with the gods and give offerings. There is evidence of these rituals and offerings, mostly ceramic pottery, to ask for rain and fertility. The Maya people, particularly in this region, are believed to have been a pretty advanced civilisation, especially for the time period. But they were victims of their own success. Between 700-900CE, rapid deforestation in the region caused a severe drought, leading the local Maya to begin offering human sacrifices to appease Chaac, the god of rain.
This started with captured enemy soldiers, bound and beaten. But the longer the drought went on, the more desperate the people became. The sacrifices got younger and younger until eventually, they were young children. The rain never came, and this ultimately contributed to the abandonment of many Maya sites in modern day Belize, and is believed to have been a precursor to the Classic Maya Collapse. In total, there are 14 human skeletons inside the cave; seven adults and seven children. The most famous is, of course, the Crystal Maiden. After over 1000 years in his final resting place, this fully intact skeleton has been fully calcified.
How to visit the cave?
The ATM cave is only accessible with a guided tour. You cannot enter the cave without a guide licensed by the Belizean Tourism Board. There are currently 62 licensed guides in Belize. Gaining a guide license can take years and the tourism board doesn’t hand these out lightly. So, no matter who you go with, your guide will know their stuff.
This small number of guides means two things. One: only a certain number of tourists can enter the caves per day. Belize takes natural and archaeological preservation very seriously, so legally, only 125 tourists can enter the caves per day. This ensures the inside of the cave is well preserved for years to come. But it can also mean that during the high season, spaces book out well in advance.
Two: this tour is expensive. Possibly the most expensive tour you will do during your time in Central America. Prices for this tour can vary from $100 for a group tour to $300 for a private tour. This is no small change, especially if you’re travelling on a budget.
However, it’s worth taking into account that this not only includes the tour, but transport to and from the cave, your entry fee to the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, all your safety equipment and, usually, lunch. It also includes your fully certified guide who, as mentioned before, will have spent years training and working towards certification.
What to wear and bring?
In order to enter the cave, all tourists are required by law to wear a helmet and life-jacket. Guides do enforce this, as their licenses can be revoked for non-compliance. These will be provided by your tour compaby. You should dress comfortably, ideally in clothes you don’t mind getting wet and dirty. You are also recommended to wear water shoes or sandals and socks, so you aren’t barefoot in the dry cavern.
No phones or cameras are permitted anywhere inside the cave. This is due to a tourist, back in 2012, dropping their phone and damaging a skull of one of the skeletons in the dry cave. Since then, all devices have been banned from the cave. You can leave them behind at your accommodation, or your guide will provide you with somewhere to leave your phones. Armed guards patrol the car park all day, so leaving it in your transportation is safe. If you want photos, your guide will send you some from a previous tour. I believe all the guides use the same photos, which are the ones I’ve used in this post.
So what does it entail?
Most tours start in the morning, to try and avoid the peak heat of the afternoon. You’ll likely either be picked up or meet your guide at their office at around 6am. The drive is about 45 minutes, and tours usually stop at a small shop just outside the town of Tea Kettle to use the toilet and get some breakfast. You’ll enter the park, and make the drive through the Tapir Mountain Reserve. You’ll know you’re close when you start to wonder if the suspension on the minibus is going to survive the drive.
It’s a roughly 45 minute hike from the car park to the mouth of the cave. The hike is pretty flat and isn’t particularly strenuous, however there are three river crossings. The first is fairly innocuous, the second is a bit wilder. By the third, you’re chest deep holding on to a rope pulling yourself across.
At no point during this tour are you required to swim underwater. In theory, you shouldn’t have to swim at all. However depending on your height and the time of year, you may find at points that you can’t touch the ground. For reference, I’m 165cm (around 5’5”), and visited in mid-March. There were a few points on the river crossings and in the cave itself where I was swimming and the rest of my group were all walking. If you can’t swim or you’re not a confident swimmer, this may not be the experience for you.
Once you get to the cave entrance, your guide will explain a bit about Maya mythology and beliefs, before you gear up and get in. Heads up: the water is COLD. You then enter the cave and begin the journey to the underworld.
For the first hour or so, you’ll traverse through the wet part of the cave. There is some element of paddling, some crouching and a little bit of climbing, and there are some parts where you have to squeeze through some fairly tight gaps. If you’re claustrophobic, this might not be ideal but at no point are you in danger of getting stuck. The views are absolutely spectacular. Huge stalactites and stalagmites, and calcified walls that glitter in the torchlight. Your guide will point out specific structures of interest, and will guide you up and through any difficult passages or climbs. This is where going with a smaller group really helps, as he’ll have more time to help you if you’re unsure or nervous.
Eventually you’ll climb up to enter the dry section of the cave, also known as The Cathedral. Here you’ll be instructed to take off your shoes and, if you’re wearing socks, leave them on. Here, your guide will take you through the cave, pointing out the pottery and explaining how the rituals worked and what they were for. As you venture deeper, you start to see the human remains and your guide will explain how the human sacrifices started with prisoners of war, then volunteers, then, finally, children.
Finally, your guide will direct you to climb up a small ladder, where you enter a small cavern to see the Crystal Maiden. We now know that the Crystal Maiden was a young boy, around 17 years old, who would’ve been sacrificed somewhere around 900 CE. The skeleton has calcified, giving it a sparkling, “glittering” look, hence the name.
On the way back, your guide may spring a little surprise on you. Our guide took us past a small fissure on the way in, pointed it out and said “That’s the emergency exit!”. We all laughed, and kept on going. On the way back, we stopped there again and he explained that, no, it wasn’t a joke, we really were going through here. Lifejackets off, helmets on. He told us to wiggle through the small gap and to let the river current take us back near the mouth of the cave. I am pretty claustrophobic, but I found this to be very manageable, even fun! Not all guides do this part, so it’s worth checking beforehand if you’re not sure!
After the cave and the walk back, most tours provide lunch. You will be able to rinse off in the showers in the toilet block in the car park, and then you’ll get to eat! Our guide brought us some homemade Brown Stew Chicken, which was just what we needed after our long morning! Then, you’ll be driven
Things you should know
This tour is super unique, and I really do believe that it’s the one thing in Belize that you just cannot do anything remotely similar anywhere else in the world. However, as much as I think you should do this tour, there are some caveats.
You need to have a reasonable level of fitness. It’s not Mount Everest, but it can get fairly strenuous in parts. The walk to and from the cave is a flat walk, but it’s around 45 minutes long and includes 3 river crossings. And, on the walk back, you’ll be walking in the midday heat. Which, in mainland Belize, believe me, is hot.
Once inside the cave, there are parts where you need to climb. It’s not hugely difficult, you’re not climbing up huge walls with equipment. But you should have a reasonable level of fitness before you commit. Equally, there are sections where you’ll need to crouch quite low. If you have issues with your mobility, you may find this difficult. If you have a fear of heights, you might find some of this challenging as some of the structures you climb feel very high up.
From pickup to drop-off, the tour takes around 5 hours, including around 3-4 hours in the cave. Once you pass a certain point, there is no emergency exit. Most of the cave is pretty open and wide, but there are a few sections that get pretty tight. And of course the whole thing is underground with little to no natural light. If you’re really uncomfortable or scared at the idea of being underground for that long, this may not be the tour for you. Your guide will support you the best they can and it’s better they know before you enter the cave than after.
San Ignacio
Staying in San Ignacio? You won’t be short of things to do here. There is a farmers market here every day from 6am till 6pm. It’s great for local produce and a fantastic way to get stuck in to the local culture. And just a short (but steep) walk uphill, the ruins of Cahal Pech are a great way to spend an afternoon. Or, for something more nature-themed, the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve is a short drive away, and is a great way to see the local nature, hike up to some waterfalls and swim in some beautiful lazy rivers and streams.
The great thing about San Ignacio is how accessible it is from other parts of the country. It’s a 2 hour drive to the ferry port in Belize City, an hour to Belmopan and 20 minutes to the border with Guatemala, making it an ideal stopover between Caye Caulker and Flores/Tikal.