Mayan Caves

Mayan Caves

Belize City, Belize

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2004

My driver picks me up at my hotel. He drives  a 1980 beaten up, old 4x4 Jeep with a big, red canoe.  Our first stop is a butterfly farm.  We got there first because it is sunny today. If it is rainy, the butterflies do not fly around.  The farm is owned by a German woman and run by several Latino women.  The environment is pleasant and very quiet and I wonder what it would be like to work in such a peaceful environment.  The air feels great.  It is cool and light and breezy.  The temperature is perfect. The farm is nestled against the outskirts of a forest.  I think this environment is nicer than what the butterflies are used to in the wild.

I hook up with a tour of 12 Mennonites which really took me by surprise. What are they doing out here sightseeing?  They need to be on the farm, working and growing food for the rest of the world.  Some of them speak German.  Some speak English and some speak both languages.  They all look exactly the same and they treat me with nervousness because of our differences.

I am introduced to several species of butterflies. They flew freely over us, around us and on us. We are not to touch them.  But we are not to brush them off if they land on us.  I want all of them to land on me.

After the farm visit, the driver drives me through the Mennonite community.  I feel as if I was right back in Lancaster County, PA.  Most of them are farmers but some of them make furniture.  They are allowed to smoke and drink but they do not drive cars.

We drive further up the mountain to the Benton Creek Cave.  My guide pulls the canoe off the top of his giant vehicle and he loads it with one life jacket for me, a paddle for each of us, two car batteries and two large flashlights.  He drops the canoe in the water and offers his hand to help me in the front of the canoe. With no agility or finesse, I plop into the canoe.  This lack of any flexibility, on my part, makes my driver nervous.

We are the only ones on the river and he paddles to a nearby cave.  As we enter the cave, some people paddles out. We wave quietly to each other. So once they are gone, I am completely at the mercy of this man with the paddles, the car batteries and the big flashlights.  I hope I am giving him good vibes.  I am going to have to be very agreeable.

He shows me different types of rock formations.  He shows me where the Maya Indians would hold their ceremonies.  And he tells me that it is believed that they made animal and human sacrifices in this cave.  The human sacrifices focused on cutting off a finger or two in exchange for being granted a good harvest for the season.

It would seem to me that if you cut off your finger for one season, you would definitely start out at a disadvantage the next season.  For the rest of this trip, I sat on my hands.  And I count twice on the way out to make sure I had all ten of my fingers with me.

I feel calm in the cave.  All I can hear is the methodical dripping of water from the ceiling.  We spot numerous bat holes but even the bats did not bother me. We glide through the water for a while and then we had to turn back.  At one point, the guide asks me to turn off my flashlight as he did the same.  I worry for a second about human sacrifices.   But then I become aware of the level of darkness.  My eyes never adjust to the darkness and you could have spun me around and I would never have found my way out.

He instructs me to turn the flashlight back on and now the whole cave seemed luminous.  I wonder how the Maya people were able to get through this cave with their limited sources of light.  And what did they do if there was a draft that extinguished their torches.  At any one time, there could be 4000 of them in the cave for a particular ceremony.  How would you get them out, particular after a few fingers and hands had been cut off?

As we near the entrance, of the cave, my guide asks me to extinguish my flashlight again.  And again we are in total darkness.  He wants me to leave the cave in the same way the Maya did.  They would just sit in their canoes and let the current drift them out to the mouth of the cave. And so we did too, leaving behind the frightening darkness and entering a world full of glaring sunlight.