My Travels in Belize: Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave Tour

After my time backpacking through Belize, here is my review of the caves at Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize. This was an excellent day out.

Ready for the cave tour in Belize!

Recently my boyfriend and I were in Belize and lucky enough to go to a very unique and special Cave. A cave complex that was once used by Mayan for sacrificial rituals, Actun Tunichil Muknal. Which is near Belmopan, Capital City of Belize. We based ourselves in the excellent El Rey Hotel and headed out on tour with Hun Chi ik Tours.

Tour company Hun Chi’ik Tours

To make things clear for you, here are some simple facts about the cave tour.

1. You need a guide to lead you into the cave and only around 20 guides in the country are allowed to take tourists into the Cave

2. No cameras allowed, this is due to some stupid tourist (!) who dropped the camera and broke a skull a few years ago. Which is a bit sad as I do not have much photos of the tour and you know how much a Hong Kong girl loves photos!

3. You will get wet and need to swim a bit. As the cave is along the river. This is not deep and you can don a life jacket if you don’t feel confident (Well I have my life jacket on)!

4. The cost for the whole day out can be around US$150 to US$170 : to break that up – Tour price US$100, park Entree fee US$15, Private transport between Belmopan and Teakettle (US$40) , Tip to the guide US$10 (Optional and base on the budget). You can save money by going in a group and asking for discount or by not getting private transport – we took the chicken bus which was only a few dollars from Belmopan to Teakettle.

On route to the Caves

So the day began and we needed to meet our tour guide at 9am in the town called Teakettle. Meeting place is outside a Chinese grocery store (felt at home) which is a green building. There is also a road sign nearby mentioning directions to the ATM cave. From there , it is around 7 miles from the park.

To Teakettle, we could either get private transport or take a local bus from bus station. As we love to budget, we picked local bus. The bus cost 2 Belize dollar per person. It takes 20minutes for the bus ride. The bus normally run every 15 minutes. But it was a holiday that day, so we waited almost an hour 🙁

Bus to ATM

We told the driver and bus assistant we were going to ATM cave and wanted to get off by Chinese grocery store. Our guide was there already when we arrived, his name is Gliss. We jumped into his car and he drove us to the park. It took around 25 minutes to get to the entrance.

Driving in Gliss’s car to ATM

We had to pay for the park fee, which is US$15 per person. Then we leave our personal stuff locked in the car, including our wallets – don’t take too mich cash out with you… Gliss has prepared all the gear for us which included Helmet and headlight. For me, I specially requested the life jacket :).

Ticket for ATM – 15 US Dollars

Once we were ready, we left the carpark and walked along the trail. We had to cross the river 3 times, the water is not particularly clean and clear 🙁 . It takes about 45mintues for this trail before arriving at the entry of the Cave. We left our drinking water in the rest area and enter into the cave.

Jonny and I ready for cave tour.

The day we went is a holiday, so there were not many tours. Otherwise, there can be long queues. To enter the cave which started up with a short swim, I had my life jacket on, so I am more than happy to do that swim – it’s a bit cold at the start! We turn our headlights on and our adventure starts in earnest. After a short swim, it was continuously walking through the water. Most of the time the water level is around waist high. The water is very clear and fresh. There is some climbing inside the cave too, but not difficult. There are loads of fish too!

Cave entrance

On the walk/swim, we see the lime stone formations, as well as crystal. To protect them, Gliss kept reminds us not to touch it. After some walking, we reached the a place that was used by Mayans for sacrificial rituals (as least that’s what our guide told me and how Jonny my boyfriend helped explain it to me). There were some pots and skulls. The cave is very huge, we only could walk some part of it. We spend around 2 hours inside the cave in total.

Stalagmites and stalagtites

My highlight was the swimming part and admiring all the cool stalagmites and stalagmites in the cave. The only sad part is that cameras are now banned so I dont have any photos of me in there. But also because of no photos, this gave me more time to admire and enjoy the cave instead of keep taking photo on the way : )

Loving my tasty lunch!

When we head back to the carpark, we quickly take a cold shower and get changed. (There are shower facilities in the park). Since we needed to walk into the river, our shoes are totally wet too. But we are smart enougth to bring the flip flops with us. So if anyone plans to take this tour, make sure to bring a spare shirt, short , shoes or flip flops to change after you finish the tour. After this, we were ready for our lunch. Gliss brought us ham , tomato, cheese, tortilla, cucumber and some spicy sauce for our lunch.!We just put the ingredients that we like, wrapped them with tortilla and eat. Simple but satisfaction.

After lunch Gliss drove us back to the Chinese grocery store where we met in the morning. We said thanks and goodbye to him and wait for the bus back to Belmopan.

However, we were waiting for an hour, no bus arrived (due to the holiday) . No one knew when the bus will come or even if it will at all. We decide to try hitch hiking for the first time since Iraq or Armenia. Luckily, the second car we hail stops right away. The driver is a Taiwanese gentleman which his nephew!! He told me that he saw us before when we were waiting for the bus. He just returned home after buying cattle from another town. The cattle is in another truck. He dropped us in Belmopan at the bus station and we walk back to our hotel.

It is really a fun day, we both enjoyed it a lot. Thank for Hun Chi’ik Tour. It is a great day out and well recommended. My boyfriend wrote a load of other articles on this too – backpacking in Belmopan and touring Actun Tunichil Muknal.

Thanks to Ray Wiecha of The World According to Weech for the use of his photos in this article, you can read Ray’s stuff on that link. Ray toured ATM before the camera ban.