Cenotes in Merida, Mexico

By Jeremy Carter - Guest blogger traveling in Merida, Mexico. Just when I think my adventure in Yucatan couldn't get any better, an adventure like the one I had yesterday comes along. After class on Wednesday, me, two other students (one from the US and one from holland) hopped in the car with Jose Luis, one of the school administrators, for an excursion to a tiny town called Cuzama to visit the cenotes, which are openings to the subterranean rivers that – along with the rainwater – provide the only natural source of freshwater on the peninsula. The ground here has a porous limestone base, so there are no lakes or above-ground rivers whatsoever, but there are more than 3,000 cenotes. The ancient Maya thought the cenotes were entrances to the underworld and thus threw offerings into them to appease the gods. Over the past several decades, explorations of the cenotes have uncovered human and animal skeletons, pottery, and jewelry. Divers have even found paintings on the walls of the underground rivers, leading them to surmise that the cenotes once contained no water and perhaps served as homes and/or refuges from attackers for the early Mayan settlers. When we arrived in Cuzama, we hired a guide to take us on a tour of the town's three most popular cenotes. The four of us hopped into a cart, the guide hopped in the front, and his horse pulled us along a small, uneven train track that was originally constructed for farming the acres and acres of henequen plants lining the roadway (and I'm sure the plants are still cultivated today). When we arrived at the first cenote, we changed into our swimsuits and descended a steep staircase leading down into the cave, which opened up around us with one of the most spectacular views I've ever seen in my life. The cave was large – I'm guessing at least 1/3 the length of a football field, with the most crystal-blue, clear water you'll ever see as well as stalactites and stalagmites. At the entrance to the cenote you can see to the bottom of the water, but in the back of the cave the water is many, many feet deep and eventually goes down to the river that joins it to the next cave. Due to this current, the water is refreshed every three minutes. After taking a dip here, we got back on the wagon (or the "truck," as the locals call them) and went to the second and smaller cenote. This one didn't have as many stalactites and stalagmites, but in the center the roots of a tree from above were spilling down into the cave and all the way down into the water, their mass so thick you could climb up them. A few minutes after we descended into this cave, the sky outside split open and came a ferocious downpour accompanied by loud cracks of thunder. For at least 20 minutes we were the only people in this cenote, so we cannonballed from the platform, rested on the cave walls, and swam to the center of the cenote, where the rain was falling in from outside. Eventually some other tourists showed up, so since this cenote was much smaller, we ran into the rainstorm back to the truck, where – after waiting 10 minutes for the rain to let up with no success – we finally headed back to the car, skipping the third cenote. Swimming in the cool, blue, seemingly bottomless waters into which the Mayans once threw their offerings was one of many experiences from the past month that I'll never forget. But once again it was sum of the parts of the journey – including the truck and, yes, even the rainstorm – that made yesterday a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.