Cenote Fun

It’s Dan this time. Allison is taking a night off to recuperate from her amazing feats of daring acrobatic skills. See below video for highlights.

We’ve been in Mexico going on two months now but we’ve hardly done anything REALLY fun to show for it. We’ve been laying low, buying stuff for the house and in general, settling into a routine. We all know what routine means… momma’s happy. So by all means, let the routines unfold!

Other than our quick trip over to Cozumel island to see Allison’s friend who’s BAB (#bigassboat) docked for the afternoon, all we’ve seen is Krispy Kreme and Costco. (NOT complaining!!!)

So today, we gathered up our swim trunks and paler than normal dermas and headed to what big-hole-in-the-earth experts call a “cenote”. In case you think that’s just a musical note between B and D, allow me to disabuse you of that notion. A cenote is a “sink hole resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath.” (Thank you Mr. Wikipedia… such a know it all.)

BTW… in case you were dozing off curious, it’s pronounced “say KNOW tay”.

The verdict is in, folks. Cenotes rock!!! We absolutely loved it. They’re a LITTLE chilly when you first get in, but not too cold. After you’ve been in for a minute or two, you’re fine. (And I HATE cold, as you may or may not know.)

There are literally hundreds of cenotes in Mexico. I guess they won the “hole-in-the-earth” lottery at some point. Especially with that one 65 Millions years ago.

Anyhoo, there are several around here that are essentially natural theme parks. There’s Xcaret, Xplor, Xoximilco, Xel-Ha, XMarkstheSpot, Xrays, XXX, Xspouse, Xtra Xtra Read All About it… aaahhhh!!!!!!!!!! Somebody needed to remove the X from the Mayan keyboard… geesh. Anyway, there are a LOT of ecoparks that feature a lot of stuff within their park, but they cost an Xarm and an Xleg. Xcaret is the biggest and most popular one and it was going to cost the 4 of us (Haley is sick, or it would have been 5 of us) over $600 to grace them with our presence. That’s greenbacks… not the really cute peso/rainbow money. So we decided to try one of the more modest water holes cenotes, of which there are plenty. The gas station guy told us about Cenote Cristalino and 20 minutes later, a match made in heaven. Pricetag? A whopping US$20 for all of us and that included use of their very nice life jackets.

As for the cenote itself, I think the video I put together will give you a better sense for how great it was. Better than I can explain in words. So be sure to watch it.

After the cenote visit, we stopped by a beach town called “Akumal” to check it out for future reference. This is the town where you can swim right from the beach out to where HUGE sea turtles are feeding on sea grass, a little ways offshore. It’s definitely a touristy town (tourists love turtles… go figure), but less so than Playa del Carmen or Cancun. There are houses in Akumal that are literally a dozen feet from the ocean’s edge. Kind of crazy. Would HATE to own a home there when a serious hurricane comes along. Yikes. But it sure is beautiful. We took in some of that beauty, stopping at a local beachside restaurant for lunch. FABULOUS meal! While we were there, we found out that the very large lizard staring at us from 3 feet away does NOT like nacho chips but does like lettuce. #LizardsAreStupid

Enjoy the video.