Barton Creek Cave

After Xunantunich we headed to Barton Creek Cave. We didn't have time to go to the famous Actun Tunichil Muknal, which was a full day visit, and came here instead.

The road was quite bumpy, Belize-style, and we had to cross a river to get to Mike's Place (http://bartoncreekcave.com.)

This is actually an interesting story. A Canadian, Mike Bogaert, bought the land where the cave is located years ago, but Belize's law gives the ownership of all caves to the Institute of Archeology. That means the landowner, who has a restaurant and rents our equipment and canoes to explore Barton Creek, can't prevent access to others. In local media I read that Bogaert was not happy about this situation and had accused the government of wrongly taking his land away from him.

“It’s going to be overrun with cruise ship business; we are going to terrorize our Mennonite community. I’ve already lost any privacy I’ve ever had back here now with these people here, and we are going to destroy Barton Creek Cave as a tourist destination,” said Bogaert, according to a story of News News 5 Belize from September 2003 that continues:

"But the government insists they are at Barton Creek to properly manage and protect the sensitive remains at the site. According to the Department of Archaeology’s Jaime Awe, the Bogaerts have been compensated and the appropriation of the land was only necessary because the family refused to compromise with the government. G.O.B. says in the end, they just want to ensure access to everyone, even those carrying canoes."

In any case, Mike looked quite happy when we visited the place and the garden surrounding the restaurant by the cave was beautiful. However, the visit that we booked with one of his guides was interesting but somewhat expensive, considering that it only lasted about an hour.

The cave was used by the Maya and you can still see some pieces of pottery and human remains. Not a lot, because many were looted soon after the cave was first reported, but they indicate that the cave was used as early as 1800 years ago and until the Late Classic period (600 to 900.) The remains of at least 28 humans have been found here and archeologists believe the cave was used for ritual ceremonies, possibly including human sacrifices. Some areas of the cave seem to have been purposely modified by the Maya to access some locations that were difficult to reach. This was actually a very interesting visit after Xunantunich.

When we reached a deep part of the cave, our guide told us to turn off the lights. I don't think I've ever been in such a dark place. Even after a few minutes, I couldn't see anything other than blackness.Read more