needavacation

Hi, Looking for a little guidance-- we are planning to take 2 kids, ages almost 13 and 11, on the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave tour with Pacz tours. The trip sounds truly amazing. My younger son is very sqeamish, can't handle violent movies or books. (Even got upset by the extremely fake "headhunters" on the Disney jungle boat ride.) I was just wondering if there is much discussion of bloodletting rituals or human sacrifice that might have happened in the caves. My kids are pretty adventurous, and I think the physical part should not be a problem. But bloody stories with real skeletons could be too upsetting.
Thanks for any input!

hopefulist

Our tour did not contain any talk of the gory details but there are schools in addition to the full skeleton of the young girl at the top. You can get a good idea of the whole thing from my photos in the Belize 2009 collection here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

You'll see from the photos that we were there with our nephews, aged 12, 14, and 17 at the time. Our guide was informative but not very talkative - a nice balance for us. I'm sure there's a variety and a guide with young boys might think that they'd like to hear the gory details unless you talk to him in advance - I'm sure they'd be understanding and adaptive. You shouldn't have any problem unless the bones themselves are upsetting.

If you decide that it's not worth the risk, you could consider Chechem Ha cave instead. It's not as adventurous and has lots of pots and a ritual ring but no bones. It's a dry cave and not as physically challenging, though there's an option for a small crawl through for those who are interested and a place or 2 where you use a rope to assist your travel and ladders to view ledges. There's a beautiful waterfall and a wonderful mile long hike up through the jungle, too. The photos of our visit there are in the Belize 2003 collection, 1st set, I think. Happy trails!

volcanogirl

I was curious about how narrow the passageways are. I'm not claustrophobic, but I just like to know what I'm getting into. Are there long stretches where you're in very narrow passageways for a long time? Or is it more that you go through a small passageway and come out into a big room? Is the only light what comes from your flashlight or headlamp?

hopefulist

There are many narrow spots and they don't last long. The Waterfall Cave tour at Caves Branch is another story. Most of the time the only light is from the headlamps you're wearing and the guides' big flashlights.

ShellD

Our guide didn't go into the rituals at all either. As a matter of fact, they really don't imply that there were any gory rituals. They seem to focus that they don't know why the bones are in the caves. They don't know if the people died there naturally or were carried there or sacrificed there. The rituals were about the positioning of the bowls and food and grains.

But if seeing parts of skulls would bother your son, then maybe skip it. He could definitley skip seeing the full skeleton. You have to climb up a ladder to see those remains and if he doesn't want to see that, I think he could skip it.

volcanogirl - there really aren't long, narrow passageways - more like sections with big boulders you have to climb over and under and through. The cave itself in those sections is wide, but filled with the boulders that you have to squeeze between and under. It never seemed too dark with our lights on, but there really is no other lights. A few spots there are holes in the ceiling where light comes in. If you turn off the headlamps and flashlights, it would be totally dark.

It's very cool!

volcanogirl

Thanks, guys - you've given me a good idea of what to expect! It looks like from the pictures that they supply you with headlamps. Do we need to bring our own headlamps or flashlights for any reason?

needavacation

Thank you all for your help! I think my son will be fine with just skeletons-- he might find it creepy, but not disturbing. Hopefulist, thanks for posting your great photo's-- seeing them before inspired me to take the boys on the tour in the first place. It sounds like the kind of trip to take when you have a chance.

ShellD

They supply the headlamps. You don't need to bring anything, except you do need to bring socks - you have to wear them when you climb up to the Great Cathederal area. The guide will have a waterproof bag to put any cameras in as well as socks etc.

hopefulist

We were really happy to have a couple of waterproof cameras to pack along - I wouldn't have the photos you see without them. Also, I never travel without an LED headlamp; we didn't use ours in the cave but are happy to have hands-free light other times - more convenient than a flashlight imo. Happy trails!

sylvia3

I also carried my own headlamp (they have cool LED lights that attach to hat brims at Lowes home supply stores), in addition to a small waterproof flashlight. Remember only one narrow place on the way out, but it was no big deal.

bchbetha

Our guide from Pacz did discuss the rituals but in a very matter of fact way. I think that your kids will be fine.

We didn't need to bring anything since we wore shoes and socks (took our shoes off and just wore our wet socks around the chamber though they could have carried a change of socks for us if we asked). I am glad that the guide had our camera secure in the wet bag because I needed my hands to navigate some tight, slippery spots in the cave. I can't imagine where I would have safely stored my camera at those times. Even if you have a waterproof camera, you're kind of screwed if you drop it at certain points (are you really going to try and find it in the water which is dark and could be deep?). We wore the helmets and headlamps provided. The guide was quick to replace bulbs and batteries during the tour.

hopefulist

My camera spent the times it wasn't in my hand under the wide band of my helmet.