On Wednesday, March 18th, we headed south to Merida and then headed southwest to a small town called Maxcanu. We got there before the two men who serve as guides to these caves. That gave us time to eat our breakfast and do a bit of exploring.
Then, when the guide finally arrived, we began the descent into the huge cavern. Wow! Imagine a small forest all below the surface level of the ground above filled with banana trees and other plants!
The roots from the trees on the surface provided climbing opportunities, a means of entering the caves for those of past centuries. We began the descent which would take us 40 metres under the surface, the underworld. With natural light on the first leg of our journey, the scene was incredible. All I could think of was Jules Vernes and his “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”.
As we walked along, continuing our downward trek, there was quite a bit of evidence that this place once served as home to many people. Many hollowed out stones such as this one we placed to collect water that dripped from stalactites overhead. The centuries that have passed have worked magic on some of these water troughs.
We entered into a cavern larger than any we had yet seen, far from any source of natural light. It was as big, if not bigger than any cathedral we had yet seen. In the centre of the vast space was a grouping of three almost white rocks. Our guide told us that these formed the altar of this underground temple. As we moved on to one side of this temple we were told to kill our lights, to experience total darkness, to experience a meditative moment. We listened to the silence hearing only occasional drips of water. The blackness was deeper than anything we have yet experienced, even with our eyes wide open. After a few minutes of a fully “awesome” experience, we turned on our lights. The guide then showed us a huge quartz crystal and told us of a vein of crystal that extended for at least a kilometre somewhere within the cave system.
Then we were shown a number of small shelves, natural little grottoes in which we saw broken pottery. He explained that these pots had contained offerings to the gods, especially the rain god and the god of the underworld.
At the end of the temple area, just as we were to enter into another space, we stopped so that he could reach into yet one more little grotto in which sat a conch shell. He told us that the shell was used to alert the Mayans living in the caves about danger approaching. All would then scatter into small side caverns, some which required crawling through narrow crevices and then blocking them with rubble set nearby for just that purpose.
It was time to begin the return journey. Needless to say we made our way back wishing we could have explored more of this incredible place. But, the other paths which we didn’t take were for more adventurous people, people who could rappel and didn’t mind tight, claustrophobic spaces.
With a final moment before returning to the surface, we got our guide to take our photo. We then climbed with the aid of a rope to the next to last level where we tooks some time to ask a few more questions and listen to our guide. Of course, I forgot to mention, our guide explained all of this in Spanish. Somehow or other, we both understood most of it.
Then we climbed back up the ladder to arrive at the surface. It was kind of sad to have to say goodbye to this Mayan who served as our guide to the underworld. If we ever come back, we want to bring our grandchildren so that they can have the most incredible journey, so they could experience a Mayan journey to the underworld.