The Actun Tunichil Muknal Natural Monument - commonly known as the ATM. Caves - is one of Belize's most popular tourist attractions. Visitors from all over the world travel to the Cayo District specifically for that tour.
But recently, some of those guests haven't even been able to complete the journey because of leg injuries.
And according to the owner of Maya Walk Tours, those injuries are because of the deteriorated and muddy trails. Just today one of the guests sprained their ankle on the trail. These incidents have pushed the owner, Aaron Juan, to write to NICH - which manages the site - to ask them to give some attention to the trails before another accident happens. Juan told us more via Zoom today.
Aaron Juan, Owner, Maya Walk Tours
"The cave is getting over 200 visitors per day. NICH has increased the amount of guides that have licenses for it so this is the first full year that we're seeing the new wave of guides along with the peak season so we're looking at over 250 people per day. The problem is that the trails were never really built properly so only the approaches to the river crossings. So we have a 45 minute hike and the approaches to the river crossing have concrete and stone and gravel but then the rest of the trail doesn't and so it's just a picado, a bush trail and with the rain and the combination of people walking, the trail has gotten really bad. In areas where the trail is too close to the river, it has caused a lot of erosion and then the rest of the trail has now become wider and wider as people try to avoid the mud puddle, a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right and once the rainy season comes down it's very hazardous. On a daily basis, people are falling, they're getting hurt, they're getting injured. Today we actually had somebody who got a leg injury, the other day somebody had a sprained ankle, a broken leg has happened, it's getting really hazardous and I think it's unfair because we pay a lot of entrance fees. The government is receiving at least $15,000 in entrance fees on a busy day so all we're asking is for them to properly fix the trails for us."
"Recently the road condition got really bad to the point where vehicles could not pass and there were big potholes that were naturally created by rain and traffic on the road and so I reached out to people that can help and I think probably like 3 or four tour guides came together and we did a small donation, including my company and so I basically had to do the work of the road contractor people and we came together, we put some funds together, and we spent about $1,000, we bought some gravel, we had to get a backhoe to come out there, we put some gravel and while I'm doing that, I spent an entire day focused on that and I'm there sitting thinking, this is not my job, this is something that I feel the government should be taking care of."
Juan is asking NICH to not only redesign and reconstruct the trails using rocks and gravel but also to include proper drainage systems and install culverts and other erosion control measures to manage water flow.
In a response, Dr Melissa Badillo, the Director of the Institute of Archaeology, has committed to repairing the trails soon.
