Brooke's Mérida, México Adventure: Thrill of a Lifetime=CAVING.

One word.

CAVING.

Would I go everyday of my life to a random Mayan Cave with a Mayan Guide who tells me to become one with myself in order to pass through the cave?

yes.

Was this the coolest thing that has happened to me in Mexico thus far?

Double yes.

Was I scared, smiling, laughing and almost in tears at one point?

Triple yes.

Would I do it like everyday until I leave?

OOOOO YEAHHH.

CHECK THIS PLACE OUT....

Entrance to the Cave. For the Mayans the Caves were sacred and representative of the underworld. Coming out of the Cave was like being born again.

Before the mud.

Entrance to the Cave from below. Beautiful.

Rocks. The scary movie "The Cave" was filmed here. And there is a good reason why!

Beautiful lush Oasis inside the cave.

The Gang. Marie, Tyler, Me and Jojo. READY FOR ADVENTURE.

Gold.

A Stalagmite in shape of a Llama!

Incredible forms at the beginning of the cave.

Thought this was as legit as it was going to get until......

....Our tour guide went through this tiny little opening. OOOH Shoot. Maybe I started hyperventilating--and almost died of excitement.

Yes, on the STOMACH. CRAWLING through the Cave.

As a source for water, when the Mayans would come to this cave they would shape little vases from the clay within the cave. The water dripping from the stalagmites would accumulate within the vases and they would drink from it. AMAZING.

This is Quartz. Real quartz. If you shine a light on the bottom of the rock, it becomes transparent. I learned a lesson today..."Not everything that shines is gold." in Spanish "No todo que se brillan es oro". Basically it means not everything is as it seems. Sometimes the best of life's treasures are found in the least expected places.

Us with are vases that we made!

Clay. The Mayas would take this and paint their entire bodies with it as decorations for ceremonies within the cave. So what did we do? We decorated ourselves.

This is a symbol of a running man created by the cave.

The number 9 is very significant to the Mayans, and it is found all throughout their architecture. Thus, here are three 9's left by the Mayans. Also there is only one way to enter the cave but 9 ways to exit. Kinda awesome.

Claustrophobic anyone?

Jojo the Champion.

Caving is my new passion.

Caving=scariest thing I have ever done, but is such a blast.

Yes, we went in there. Did we crawl? Like toddles we did.

We asked our tour guide how many times he had done this. He replied, "7 days a week, for 30 years." He can literally walk through the cave with his eyes closed. He taught us something extremely profound. "The light is not from your flashlights or your lamps, the light comes from your heart." How beautiful is that? and how true is that even in our own lives. We need to have our own light and rely on the love and light of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to led us through the darkness of life. We also need to have our own light burn bright enough so that we can help others in need as well.

Me and roommate kinda amazed at the cave's awesomeness.

Caving Rockstarz.

I am so glad I didn't see any gigantic spiders at this point.

Stalagmite!

Tyler. Tyler was very tall compared to the Mayans. A typical Mayan was only about a meter tall, thus walking through the caves was simple for them.

It was like 10000000 degrees in parts of the cave. So here we are catching our breath.

This is the part of the cave, where the Mayans believed that if you entered you would be born again.

Our amazing tour guide!

This is the tight quarters that we had to pass through in order to "be born again"...

Holy Smokes. I think I got my full body massage I had been looking for. I have never smiled so much doing something so painful and dirty. WHAT A BLAST!!!

Marie. So legit.

Tyler. YES.

JoJo. Gangsta!

Tyler and I in the dark abyss.

Marie and I in the dark abyss.

Jojo and I in the dark abyss.

This was the funnest tunnel we went thorugh. We literally had to slide on our backs for a time to get through it. Holy Smoly. If you get stuck...you figure out how to get out yourself because there is no room for two.

A conch shell that was left by the Mayans over 300 years ago. Here we are in the place of the cave where they did Human sacrifices and weddings! It was HUGE! Apparently they would light it up with torches and the conch shell was blown as a symbol of the portal into another world. People can pay to get married here.

Our tour guide was amazing at blowing that shell. It echoed through the cave like a haunting dream. I wish I could have been there was people celebrating down there. Kinda eerie.