The Maya Dream and the Water Passage
Walk With Me… I’ll Show You My Belize.
Some places live in your memory long after you’ve left them. And sometimes, they find their way into your dreams.
For me, that place has always been Xunantunich—the Maya city on the hill.
🌱 The Dream That Wouldn’t Let Go
From the first time I visited Xunantunich, something about it felt familiar and unsettling all at once. Not long after, I started to have a recurring dream:
I am standing at the base of the main temple, and I know I need to find a water passageway that runs underneath the ruins. Sometimes, it feels like I am trapped, or that something important is hidden deep in the cave, waiting to be found or rescued.
I begin to move forward through the water. The current is strong—pulling me deeper under the stones. Some nights, I can’t move fast enough, and I wake up before I reach the cave.
Other nights, I make it through. And every time I arrive, the cave is different. Sometimes, it’s full of broken pottery. Other times, I find carvings on the walls or offerings that feel ancient and personal. When I finally emerge, it’s always at the foot of the temple, with water pouring out behind me.
At first, this dream felt like a nightmare—dark, confusing, too real. But over time, it became something else: a kind of curiosity. A call to understand the place better.
🏺 What the Maya Believed About Water
The more I learned, the more sense my dream seemed to make.
In Maya culture, water was sacred. It was life, renewal, and the connection to the underworld known as Xibalba. Caves and springs were believed to be portals between the world of the living and the realm of the ancestors.
Archaeologists have found offerings—pottery, jade beads, even human remains—in the caverns beneath Maya cities across Belize. While no records specifically describe a hidden waterway under Xunantunich, the idea of moving underground, through water, toward something unknown is deeply rooted in Maya spirituality.
Maybe that’s why the dream came back again and again. Maybe part of me was drawn to the same mystery the Maya felt every time they stepped into the dark.
🌊 From Nightmare to Wonder
As a guide, I’ve walked many people through Maya ruins. But this dream taught me something I never read in any book:
These places don’t just belong to the past. They can still reach out to you—if you let them.
Today, when I stand at the base of the temple, I don’t feel fear anymore. I feel respect—and a kind of quiet excitement. I still wonder what those caves might have meant to the people who built Xunantunich, and why my mind keeps returning to them.
🌿 An Invitation to See Differently
If you visit Belize, I hope you’ll stand at the foot of a Maya ruin and imagine the unseen spaces below. The rivers still flowing underground. The stories hidden in the stones. The way water connects everything—past and present, dream and waking life.
This dream isn’t something I share often. But I believe Belize still has stories buried beneath the surface—and sometimes, they find a way through.
If this post resonates with you, I invite you to read What Belize With Alvin Means to Me. It explains why moments like these—dreams included—are part of the reason I guide.
Walk with me, and I’ll show you the Belize that lives not only in history books but in the imagination—where the water still calls.
