Upon arrival, your guide will give you a helmet and head torch and then lead the way. Within one minute you reach the first obstacle. There’s a river to swim across. This isn’t wading across water up to your knees. You need to jump in the cold water and swim! A rope to the river bank will help you on your way, but you might want to hang on tight. That helmet and head torch aren’t for getting wet, so keep your head above water.

What am I doing here?…

Shaking yourself off, on through the jungle you go. The path is fairly flat and steady, but if there’s been rain, you better watch your step. It gets very slippy! Falling over a few times is all part of the experience.

Your clothes will still be wet from the first river, so don’t expect to dry off. There’s a further two rivers to cross until after one hour, you reach the mouth of the ATM Cave. Completely unassuming, it’s not hard to see why it took so long to discover. One of the main obstacles for access is the rain. A heavy few days of downpour can cause the cave to flood. If it’s flooded, you can’t get in.

With floods in mind, you won’t be surprised to learn this. The entrance is only accessible by descending down a rocky slope and then swimming in! Fish swim around your ankles and bats fly past. This is another world. Turn on that head torch, as there’s no convenient lighting for tourists.

It’s about to get crazy…

When you eventually stand on the rocks, it only gets more crazy. Not only are the passages narrow, but you have to find a way through. It initially involves crouching and bending your body to pass through. That’s only part of it though. At some parts you submerge yourself in water up to your neck. Your neck then has to squeeze through rock formations. It’s too narrow for your head or any chunky body parts.

At this stage you’re either terrified or exhilarated by the mind blowing experience.

Roughly half way through your journey, you have to climb some huge rocks. Your upper body strength (or a strong guide) will help you here. At the top of the climb it’s time to remove your shoes. Belize rightly want to keep this cave well preserved, so you’re going to proceed in socks. What awaits is magical.

The Cathedral is a huge open area. Stalagmites and stalactites are everywhere. Many of them reflect shadows of Maya Gods on to the walls. It is in the Cathedral that the Maya would have tripped on drugs. Lit incense. Watched the shadows dance on the walls and offered sacrifices to the Gods of the underworld. Some of the stalagmites and stalactites were even modified to make instruments. Being a drummer, our guide allowed me to tap out a rhythm for the group. I’ve never known part of nature sound so harmonious.

Not only is the Cathedral’s size and presence out of this word, skulls are visible. Ingrained in to the floor over hundreds of years, noone knows how many bodies might be under the sediment. What is clear, the bodies vary from one year old to mid-thirties. The most likely cause of death for each person was blunt trauma to the head. Death wasn’t something to fear though. Being sacrificed to the Gods of the underworld was a true honour. It also explains why parents would offer their young children for sacrifice.

‘Special’ people were also sacrificed. In the floor it’s possible to see elongated skulls, like the kind you only imagine from aliens in the movies. The Maya used cranial deformation to make certain individuals appear important. For the Maya they looked more beautiful than anyone else.

Surrounding the bone fragments and skulls is immaculately preserved Maya pottery. Many contain a ‘death’ or ‘spirit’ hole, knocked through at the time of sacrifice to allow the souls to escape.

Climb away from the Cathedral you experience the climax of your trip. The absolute jaw dropping, “I can’t believe I’m here” moment. At the top and around the corner of a steep ascent, the ‘Crystal Maiden’ awaits. The fully formed skeleton of a sacrificial ‘victim’ lays preserved in time. Calcified over the years and glistening in the light.

It is here where your journey in to the ATM cave ends. Of the three mile depth you have only visited about a third. Who knows what awaits the archaeologists that are able to travel further on.

The way back is the way you came. Although it isn’t simply a case of retreading your steps. Our guide diverted where possible, at one point allowing me to pick a path and lead the group (I took them the hard route). He also turned out the headlamps and let us walk together, holding hands on shoulders so noone got lost. Walking in waist height water, through a cave with no light was insanely fun. I’ve never known darkness like it.

Exiting the ATM cave and trekking back through the jungle it’s hard to think how you will explain this one to friends and family back home. One thing is for certain, it certainly felt strange to be back in the real world.