The Entrance to the Mayan Underworld

Actun Tunichil Muknal cave in Belize is where the Mayan's made ceramic, stoneware, and human sacrifices to honor and appease their gods. They believed that it was the entrance to the Underworld, and would wade through it's chest-deep waters for almost two miles, sometimes under the influence of hallucinogenic plants, to reach the summit of dry cave bed where they would make their sacrifices.

The Magical Mouth of the Cave of the Stone Sepulcher

This is the mouth of Actun Tunichil Muknal, a cave in Belize that the ancient Mayans believed was the entrance to the underworld. They took spiritual journeys deep inside of the three mile deep cave, often on hallucinogenic mushrooms, to make offerings and sacrifices to the gods.



the water is naturally this blue around the cave

I wish I was in New Orleans

Happy Mardi Gras

Mamma Spider Monkey Bridges

A gang of spider monkeys were frolicking around in the trees of the ancient Lamanai Mayan ruins, when they jumped from tree to tree a mamma monkey sprawled out like a bridge between the two sets of branches and patiently coaxed her little baby monkey across. He was very shy, and it took some serious monkey noises to get him across. After he was safely and stable on the branches again they started throwing hard fruits down at me, trying to knock me in the block. Wild spider monkeys are really cool. They ruled the trees of the jungle before the Mayan Empire and they have held control since they fell, around the 1st century CE.

rope bridge

test your guts

wild Toucans

Toucans mate for life. You will always see toucans in twos in the wild. They make sounds like croaking frogs.

and here's an ocellated Guatemalan turkey:

jungle plant walks

This is the national flower of Belize, the black orchid.








wild cocoa growing on the trees





I would really like to identify this orange mushroom if anyone has any ideas...



mushroom creatures
(I would also appreciate some help identifying these blackish purple mushrooms too)




rubber tree