Actun Chapat Cave

Today we were heading out to a private cave for true exploration into the underworld. The story goes that a number of years ago Ken moved from Colorado to Belize and got married. They owned a resort and the land next to it became available for sale. They purchased the land to prevent it from being developed and protect the jungle. A few years went by and Ken got divorced, his wife getting the resort and he getting the land. Locals spoke of a huge cave used by the Mayans and for years Ken searched his property without luck. That is until one day when the cave revealed itself to him and it would prove to be huge. So big that it has not been fully explored yet. We piled into the back of Ken's well used Land Rovers and headed out.



We slowly worked our way deep into the jungle.





Yup, its stuck.

With a little work we were able to get it out and continued on our way. Reaching a point where we could only continue on foot.

We first passed Actun Son of Chapat which is believed to be connected to Actun Chapat, but as many of it's passages have not fully been explored yet that has not been confirmed.

The cave entrance was a little sketchy as you had to traverse along a narrow edge about 30 feet up, being careful not to disturb the many bees guarding the entrance.

Once we were all inside we turned on our head lamps and began to journey in to the underworld. I snorted some tobacco and began to open.



As I went along I stopped at one point, I was a young boy and I was dying. Only a few seconds later Ken said that I was standing right were they found the remains of a young boy who appeared to be sacrificed.

This place was filled with all kinds of pottery and offerings.







The main chamber was huge and it was clearly the alter room that told of many past ceremonies. Ken said they were able to fit two 747 planes in it when using a computer model.



We then reached a chamber that had a sky light. It was too high to climb out of but a perfect place for lunch.





After lunch we went into another chamber and turned off our lights. Malcolm would begin the ceremony. It was not long before I truly was in the underworld. I saw myself from afar as I raced down the various passages or tubes completely lost. I saw myself sit down and start to cry, all alone, stuck in Xibalba. It felt frighteningly familiar and I knew I had been here many times before. I felt sick and wanted to throw up. The ceremony went on and I started to release that energy, replacing it with new energy. I saw myself stand up and slowly begin to drift up through the various tubes. And just like that I was again in my body, but this time sitting in the darkness of Ken's cave.

After the ceremony ended we let the energy settle and slowly regrouped, getting ready to work our way out of Xibalba. I almost got to show everyone my girly scream again when I almost put my hand on this as we climbed through the cave.

As we exited the cave I noticed a big shift in energy. Inside the cave there were long slow horizontal waves, deep and powerful, outside the cave they were high pitched fast moving vertical waves, beaming with life.

We walked back to the Land Rovers and I was delighted to see that Ken had packed a cooler that contained a few Belikin beers. After re-hydrating we drove back to the lodge for our last night in town as tomorrow we would head to the Guatemalan boarder.

VIDEO: Mayan Cosmology - Day 10