Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Yucatan adventure : Tuesday

What a breaky, we chose our table to the side of the pool and supped fresh orange juice, and cafe con leche and enjoyed yogurt and granola with a super croissant and toast, fueling ourselves nicely for the Cenotes day!

Navigating our way out of Merida was quite a challenge, especially with the maps we had, something that became a recurring theme for todays adventure. But after seeing the baseball stadium and finding a useful Pemex gas station we were on the right track, a few more villages and topes major, and now anti-topes, some being anti-topes major which might in another life be confused with cenotes, and we turned down the right road.

We boarded our tiny horse drawn carriage with our swimmers on and masks in the rucksack and set off down the railway track at a leisurely clip. After a few minutes, we got to the first cenote. We went down a flight of wooden stairs and found an amazing pool of clear water. It was absolutely magical. You can understand why the mayas thought they were magical places and they were dedicated them to the god of water. The water depths was 3meters for the shallow part and about 10 meters at the 'deep end'! There was a few people in the water but we had a really nice time swimming in the blue water and looking at the small fishes. After 30 min in the water it was time to get back on our little carriage and go to the next cenote.

The access to this cenote was much steeper than the previous one and getting into the water was quite tricky as you had to go down a very slippery ladder type thing with tilted wrungs, some of which were missing. D went first and helped me out. We took our masks this time so we could see the bottom of the cenote which was much smaller than the previous one but still had quite a bit of light coming through some small holes in its roof. There were also some tree roots hanging down through the ceiling of the cenote. Since it was so difficult to get into the cenote S decided it would be fun to jump into. It was a lot of fun but my swim suit decided to go visit a different part of the cenote ;-)

Now time to move on to our third cenote. This one was very different as it was only accessible via a small hole (literally) and we went down through it descending a vertical ladder. Definitely worth it. The cenote was only lite via a few collapses of its roof, so t was actually quite dark until our eyes got used to it. The access to the water was even more difficult than the previous one so D and i jumped in and it was a lot easier. We saw a few bats flying around in the dark above us. After a few minutes of swimming and snorkeling around the clear water we decided it was time for us to head back, really a fabulous experience. Our little horse brought us back safely to the start of the "rail road". Before hitting the road again we stopped for some lunch, a buretta and a poc cho (yucatan speciality like pork tacos), after which we headed back to Merida. This time we found our way a little bit more easily than on the way in!

Back in town, we dropped all our stuff and went for a bit of a tour of the town and bought some xmas decoration - a little angle and a little santa claus. We also found a shop making chocolate from yucatan, so we bought a few bars to sample and a few to take with for the family at xmas.

After all that swimming and walking, it was time for some dinner. We went to a place recommended in all the guide books called alfredo continental. We had some enchiladas and pollo pibil. Very filling and yummy. Time to go to bed for a good nights sleep to be full of energy for Uxmal tomorrow!

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