Crystal Cave

The journey, in full

This adventure is a one hour and twenty min drive from San Ignacio towards the Blue Hole National Park; departure time is usually 7:00 am. Arriving at the park, the guides will provide you with the necessary equipment needed for the rest of the day like helmets, headlamps, safety instructions and a history of the park. A one hour and twenty min hike through rugged terrain will lead to the cave entrance. The entrance is located at a certain point of the mountain, getting there the guide double checks your gear, and sets a piece of rope to lower into the cave. The rope is not for rappelling but just used for safety. Once into the first section of the cave we have lunch before venturing deeper. The guide has several options to continue deeper into the cave but the favorite is a small passage where the “crab walk” technique is necessary. Leading into the crystal chamber you will see sparkling formations everywhere, but Crystal Cave is not only about challenges and formations there is also cultural remains to see and learn the beliefs of the ancient Maya; the only thing is that we have to work for what we want to see, crawling through passages or going up or down a rock, but it is very fulfilling after each challenge. At the end of exploring the first section of the cave there is an option of doing a loop or exploring more. If the choice is exploring more we have two more hours and we take you to a place we call Wonder Land. Wonder Land is one of the most impressive places of the cave with sparkling formations everywhere. At the end of the day we finish dirty and sweaty and we definitely feel that we have done something for the day. We hike back one hour downhill then drive five minutes and finish the day with a refreshing swim at the inland Blue Hole.