Monday, March 3, 2008

More Sacrifices

I am bone tired right now, perched on a stool in my guest house, about to go to bed. Today I went on this pretty amazing tour of this cave in western Belize, in Cayo, called Actun Tunichil Muknal. The same family that I talked to on my way here told me about it, and I was intrigued from the start. It's outside of this town called San Ignacio, a quite uncharming town that makes me think I live in the most beautiful city in the whole world. I got here the day before yesterday, after a water taxi from Caye Caulker, and then a crazy bus ride from Belize City here. All of the public buses here, like Guatemala, are old American schoolbuses. It's kind of fun to see where they're from, and it brings back a serious rush of grade school memories (DON'T stand in front of the yellow line). On the way here, our bus, packed to the gills, broke down. Various people got off, milling around, pretending like they might fix it, and then they gave up, and we all piled off and stood by the side of the road, waiting for the next bus to come. When it did, everyone from my bus piled on to yet another bus filled to bursting, and we all set off. I was basically sitting on the dashboard in the front windshield with one leg braced against the railing. Every time someone would get off, I'd practically have to swing my leg over their head to let them by. Good thing it was the one day I wasn't wearing a dress. I must admit it was pretty fun, while slightly sketchy.
I'd heard this town was quite charming, which is a gross overexageration, but the scenery surrounding it is quite beautiful, with lush expanses of tall grass, palm trees, and green, green, green. This morning we all piled into a van, and drove for about an hour to reach the start to the trail. The walk in is another hour or so, through green, green, green jungle, and on the way you cross three rivers that you wade through, at about knee height. Our guide strode across them in about two seconds while the rest of us slipped and slid over the rocks, in a not so graceful way. We reached our little stopping point outside of the cave, where we all got our little helmets and lights, and then headed in. I had thought I had a reasonably good idea of what the cave would be like, but, really, I didn't, nor did anyone else who I was with. The entrance to the cave is gorgeous, as it's basically a blue, clear tropical river gushing out the side of a rock face, with jungle vines hanging down in front of it in a very romantic manner. You climb down the rocks and then swim in to the cave. From the second you get in, you can hear a distant waterfall, and some bats from further in the cave. Next we proceeded to spend the next hour or so making our way far into the cave, which is just over 3 miles long. The whole distance we traveled, you alternate between water that is around waist high to areas where you have to swim across, and then climb up rocks before you duck down and squeeze yourself between small spaces, that would then open up to huge chambers...it was very dramatic. And really frickin' cool. You can't help but feel slightly Indiana Jones, or something along those lines, pulling yourself up and around.
Our group was a very interesting mix of people. There were four younger people (all married) who are Jehovah's witnesses, and are here in Belize on a mission for a year. There was a very outdoorsy couple from Boston on their National Geographic honeymoon, there was me and then...there was Bill. Ah, Bill. You can't help, when on a trip as an American, but to come face to face with the American question. Especially when you're in Belize, where every other person is an American tourist. It brings up some interesting stuff. I actually have to say that some perspective makes me think about a lot of things about our country that really are amazing, and how lucky I am to live there in many, many ways. In my optimistic way, I really do think that most people wish general goodwill towards others, and do their own version of their best to be good people. Naive? Whatever. So when people talk about Americans in, um, not the most favorable light, my immediate instinct is to jump to our defense, and enumerate many ways in which this is a ridiculous oversimplification, not true, etc. But, being here, I have to admit I look around and, damn, I see where people get these ideas from. I find myself talking about American tourists in the third person, as though I'm not one. And I realize that I'm truly, in my mind, disassociating myself from this whole group of people. Ah, like Bill. Bill is from St. Louis, but spends his winters here in Belize. He is retired, and maybe in his late 50´s or so. This tour seriously kicked his ass today, which I get (it was hard!). I went back and forth, all day, between being kind of proud of him and a little bit concerned, while he clambered awkwardly over rocks, dog paddled through pools and basically came close to killing himself multiple times. He also somehow managed to lose both his watch and all his money. Just as I would put out a hand to steady him, he'd say something about all of us women having a wet t-shirt contest in the cave, or pretend to stomp on some pottery, and I would shudder with the utter jackass behavior. Gosh, it's easy (and slightly tragic) to see where people get these ideas about us...
Anyways, finally we reached a place where we crawled from the river, climbed a ledge, and the cavern opened up into a series of huge rooms, where the Mayan people used to come and, what else?, sacrifice people and animals. I found, on the way there, that I was very much able to imagine people from 1000 years or so ago, carrying their torches as they swam through these slightly spooky caves, and crawling up these same ledges....One of the really interesting things about this specific tour is that it was only "discovered" (of course locals have always known about it) about twenty years ago, and nothing has actually been moved. So while you're walking, our guide kept saying "Watch out for the pottery beneath your feet" and you'd look down to see, oh, a bloodletting bowl two inches from your right foot. Crazy. Apparently, this cave was actively in use during a time when things weren't going so well ecologically. Droughts were dragging on to the tiresome tune of fifty years or so, and people were getting desperate. Apparently the king donating blood from his penis or tongue wasn't working, so they had to step things up. There are the bones of different animals, including jaguars, and, then, the skulls and remains of humans as well. The highlight (if you can really call it that) is a perfectly preserved human skeleton that they call the Crystal Maiden. From what they can tell, she was about 13 or so, and they think she must have been royalty. Also from what they can tell, it seems that as she was sacrificed, they chopped her hands off, and then, possibly by an axe chop, her spine was broken to kill her. No matter how it happened, the most striking thing to me is that she clearly died screaming. Her mouth is wide open, and I certainly don't blame her. So brutal! I think it's so interesting that after so long, everything else seems like speculation about what happened, except for her look when she died...somehow that endures throughout all of these years.
After a long hike back out the cave and through the jungle and a good meal of some awesome ginger rum shrimp, I am SO ready for bed and a bus to Guatemala tomorrow. I *seriously* have to switch my mind back over to (attempting) to speak some Spanish, after my ten day English vacation.
Buenes Noches and Besos,

3 comments:

rachael said...

Hmm. JJones comment is kind of weird. Is it somehow affiliated with your recent tour of duty traveling companions?

Oh my gosh, imagining you sitting with a combination of contorted grace across the front of a yellow school bus is almost too much for me to handle. The caves sound amazing - not quite real. The image of the girl screaming is going to haunt me; I can't imagine how it would feel to be so close to her, and to see all of that pain and fear preserved. Aye mi.

Please be a good detective's daughter's BF in Guatemala. You know how I can prescribe caution to any situation!

As for "Thoughts," will respond soon with some of my own. Thank you for another fabulous post (sans much craved imagery). XoXoXoXo ... to infinity, squared.

Carson and Melissa said...

ahh kira, i miss you so much sis! love, carson

Back to Eden Bakery said...

Hi Kira,

Last night we watched this History Channel program on the cave Actun Tunichil Muknal and we got to see the whole thing on camera. We even got to see the sacrificed women who seemed to be screaming. What a fascinating place and I was so thrilled to be viewing what you had described so well. It was almost like being there with you. I love you and hope you are well.
John