ATM cave, Xunantunich, and life lessons

One of the greatest adventures you can ever have is a trip to Actun Tunichil Muknal (or ATM) cave.  I did not go on this particular adventure, because it is very, very intense, and I knew that Zachary was a bit too young for it--not only because it is strenuous, but also it is 3 hours inside of a watery cave.  We had all planned to go, but the night before we went, I just had a very uneasy feeling that Zachary should not go.  So he and I spent the day together wandering around San Ignacio and getting to know some of the locals while the rest of the family headed off into the Mayan underworld.

ATM is about an hour drive from San Ignacio down a bumpy rock road.  When you arrive at the parking lot it is a 45 minute hike through the jungle to get to the cave entrance.  From there you have to swim across a very deep pool to the cave entrance.

For the rest of the trip you are either walking through or swimming through water, climbing over big rocks, climbing down big rocks, walking along high ledges inside of the cave, squeezing through narrow cavities inside the cave or some other adventurous and physically-demanding activity.

All along the cave you are shown mayan artifacts, such as pottery, skeletal remains from sacrifice victims, and altered cave formations which would produce certain shadows when fires were lit in the cave.

Because this cave is so wet and was untouched for so many hundreds of years many of the artifacts have been preserved by mother nature by turning things into fossils or attaching them permanently to the cave. At the end of the tour you arrive at "the crystal maiden."  An entire sacrificial victim skeleton left untouched.  Inside of a dark cave.  Good times.

While the guys were in Xibalba, Zack led me around the town.  We stopped wherever he wanted and went down whatever street looked interesting to him.  San Ignacio is a small town, so we saw it all at least 4 times.  One guy we really loved getting to know was Carlton.

He owns Back To My Roots, which is his shop where he sells his custom jewelry and other Belizean souvenirs.  Carlton is awesome.  He is a man at peace, and happy with where he is in life.  He was so kind to our family.  The kids all adored him, and we spent quite a while visiting him every day.  I love the necklaces  I bought from him.  He's a great artist and just a great person.  If anybody needs a gift for someone, just contact Carlton and give him a price and he will make you the most amazing jewelry he can for that price.

On another day, we took taxis to visit Xunantunich.  It is another  Mayan city that has been excavated by archaeologists.  The great thing about Xunantunich is that it is very easy to get to.  No bumpy roads.  Just 6 miles west, over a hand-cranked river ferry, and 1 mile up a hill.  The taxis can take you all the way to the parking lot, and will wait 2 hours for you before taking you back to San Ignacio.  All for $30.  Why will they do this?  It's time for a tangent.

Throughout Belize, we were touched so much by the humility and happiness of people who have so little.  They do their best, work hard, survive, and they are happy.  The taxi driver that day taught me a great lesson.  After I knew he was a nice guy, I started to get the money out from my running shoe.  He laughed at me and told me that's what he does with his money when he goes to Guatemala (which was about 3 miles from Xunantunich).  He then started to tell me about how his heart aches for the destitute people in Guatemala--this coming from a poor taxi driver in 3rd hand clothes with a very beat-up car who sits in the hot sun all day hoping to get 2 or 3 passengers each day.  He told me that in Belize he has it good.  "I can eat chicken 3 times a day.  Those people in Guatemala don't have it so good."  I had to hold back the tears.  For the rest of the trip every time we walked through town, there he was standing by his car at the taxi corner, with 5 or 6 other taxis just waiting and hoping.  He was so kind, and talked to us every time we went by.  He was happy.  He had nothing but a beat-up old car, but he was happy.

Anyway, Xunantunich.

We spent 2 hours climbing and exploring this beautiful place.  From the top of El Castillo you can see forever.  I loved it.  I loved it so much that seeing the Belizean army guys with fully automatic weapons patrolling the place didn't even bug me.  It was heavenly there.  Hot, but heavenly.

On Saturday we went to San Ignacio's market.  A huge block in town that sits empty all week is then covered with canopies, every selling everything.  We had corn tamales baked in banana leaves for breakfast from this sweet family on the street.  We saw where the locals buy their rice, beans and produce for the week.  We saw where they buy their clothing--which is all just 3rd-hand stuff bought in the US or Mexico by the pound and then sold at this market.  It's what everyone wears.  If it fits and doesn't have holes in it--great!  So humble.

It was a bustling market, and we spent hours there watching and walking and buying a few things.  But one experience absolutely touched my heart and I will remember it forever.  Sorry if you are not the religious type.  But I am still going to tell this story.

At this market there was a beautiful Mayan woman with her son selling bracelets and necklaces at a little  flimsy table.  We stopped and bought a couple of things from them, and then went on with our day.  We were sitting in a restaurant having lunch, and I had an idea pop into my head that I should go back to that lady and buy bracelets for all of my young women at church.  At this point I just thought it would be a fun gift for them from Belize.

That morning I had randomly found $3 in a bag I was going through, and I stuck it in my secret money pocket along with a handful of Belize dollars.  I didn't really pay attention how much it was.  I just knew that it was more than we needed for lunch and a few things at the market.

Tangent again, this is the best skirt EVER! I bought two for our trip, and I wore them the whole time.  They dry fast, keep you cool, and they have a secret zipper pocket for money and keys!  You want one.  Or two.

Anyway, I went back to the woman in the lovely green dress and told her I was going to buy 16 bracelets for the girls at my church back home.  She got tears in her eyes.  We talked church a little bit (she goes to a baptist church there in San Ingancio), and her cute son helped me pick out the 16 prettiest bracelets they had.  I decided to get 2 necklaces for our sweet next-door-neighbor kids back home as well.  I was not thinking about money at all.  I just thought I had had this fantastic idea to buy souvenirs for my young women and neighbors.

This woman was telling me about how much they needed this money.  She and her son were despairing after we had gone the first time because there were really no other tourists at the market that day, and they were in desperate need of some money. They had been without a phone for some time, and they had been praying to make enough money at the market that day to go buy a basic cell phone.  The little boy hugged me and hugged me and hugged me.  He was so grateful.  The woman cried as she knew this was more than they had prayed for.  I cried because it was so little to me.

And then it hit.  I reached into my money pocket to get out the money, and I found EXACTLY the amount I needed to pay her.  To the dollar, thanks to the $3 I had randomly found that morning.  It hit me hard then that it wasn't MY idea to go back and buy bracelets, but that it had been God telling me to do it.  He knew that this woman needed the money and had been praying for help.  I was so happy that I had listened to that little voice and had gone back to help this beautiful woman and her son.  The money was nothing to me, but it was everything to her.  Those bracelets were nothing to her, but now mean everything to me--and hopefully to the girls I told this story to before I gave them to them.  Truly, the fact that I had the exact amount of money in my pocket stirred my soul and I knew that I had been given the privilege of being an instrument in God's hands to help another person.

I always tell my kids, "You never know when you are the answer to someone's prayers."  You just never know.  When you get an idea, go with it.  Don't second-guess yourself.  Sometimes you won't have any idea what you have done.  Sometimes you'll find exactly the right amount of money in your pocket and you'll know.