Since we've been in the Yucatán, the almost unanimous chorus of recommendations has been, “go to a cenote.” So, yesterday we suspended our “ruins tour” for an hour and did just that. Near Cobá, where there are great ruins, by the way, we detoured off the highway for about seven kilometers to Cenote Multun-Ha. After a slow drive over a bad road for the last two kilometers, we arrived at some more ruins, and few huts with bathrooms and showers, and the cenote.
For those who don't know, and we didn't until we got here, cenote basically translates as “sink hole.” The centuries of rain and the action of the water table caused the limestone geologic formations here to give way into hundreds of cenotes, leaving what is basically an underground lake of impossibly clear water. The Mayas used them as their principal sources of drinking water, and often located their cities around them.
Many of them allow swimming, after a thorough shower, and we were lucky enough to arrive at about 5 p.m., when every other tourist had been long gone. So we had it to ourselves.
To get to the water, you walk down a wooden circular stairway, 15 meters into the ground. That's about four stories, if you want to get an idea of how claustrophobic you might be getting as you descend into the darkness. But when you arrive at the platform at the bottom, the view in front of you opens into a cave, lit by two enormous floodlights, which features the most incredible riot of rock and water color I've seen since we were on the Great Barrier Reef a year ago.
Kris went swimming, while I stayed on the platform and took pictures. We stayed underground for almost an hour as Kris glided around and gave a running commentary mostly along the lines of “Oh my God,” and “Wow,” and “This is amazing.” I fiddled a lot with the camera, shooting in the very low light provided by a small hole from above and the two flood lamps that made balancing the color of the blue green water and the limestone walls nearly impossible. Thank God for Adobe Lightroom.
More photos, please!
It’s sad to think that the cenotes were also used for human sacrifice — no staircases then. Once you were thrown in covered in offerings to one god or another, it was pretty much lights out.
More to come, Suzanne. Was in a rush this morning but now we are in Cozumel where there’s nothing to do but drink and catch up on photo editing and writing.
That is incredible! Limestone seems to do some really cool things in nature. Definitely putting this on my list!
Yeah, the cenotes are pretty cool. The locals down here did some pretty interesting stuff with it as well. Pyramids, for example.