This is the entrance to Barton Creek Cave. There are several cave systems within reasonable proximity to Chaa Creek. Barton Creek is the most accessible for smaller children. You explore it in canoes, and you are only the the cave for about an hour. There are two other bigger cave systems that you explore either via swimming through the cave or tubing. Barton Creek Cave was used extensively by the Maya (see link for more info). It is a big cave, navigable by canoe for almost a mile, and then (reportedly) at least several miles deeper with blockages making it harder to explore. The creek is narrow, but the cave ceiling is high and there are many formations and ledges, some of which contain visible Maya artifacts.
Access to Barton Creek is via a long dirt road through Mennonite farm land. One of the (many) interesting things about Belize is how much certain immigrant groups have established significant local communities. The Mennonites, many still reliant on traditional horse powered farming techniques, have a very large presence in agriculture. Taiwanese Chinese are another very visible immigrant group, and they have an enormous presence in the retail sector with numerous small grocery and variety stores in every small town.
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