Our first cenote

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Blogger Doug

After travelling to Playa we couldnt get hold of our guide, Ben. He lives in Playa and told us to call him at home when we got there. He gave us the wrong number so we strolled on down to the beach. Much like Cancun, the beach was pretty washed away. There was maybe 15 metres of sand to sit on and I thought it was pretty dirty. Cigarette butts and bottle caps were everywhere. I was pretty disappointed actually. The surf was pretty bad too. A severe side wash made everyone drift miles down the beach if they werent careful.

Eventually we got hold of Ben and we went for a drive in his old school VW Combi. Only it is not really that old school. Its a 1992 model!! VW were the first to open a plant in Mexico and thus they are VW made. They love the old school Bettles as well. Would you believe that production on those only ended 2 years ago!!

Anyway, we ended up at our first cenote. Basically a big hole in the ground, worn away over thousands of years by ground water that is fed by the Caribbean or Pacific Ocean. I was expecting a dirty old water hole. Instead, I found the spectacularly clear waters you see here. It even has its own eco system with fish that have made there way into the cenote via the underground tunnels that link them all together.

Some of the fish took a liking to your feet and began nibbling away. I had a few jumps off the 3m ledge into the water. I was pretty scared coz there was rocks underneath the surface. I finally realised that they were 15 m below the surface!! The water was so clear that they looked really close.

We had a great day, it was like being a kid at the pool again.

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Photos

More fish
There were literally thousands of these things!!

Snorkelling
After an hour we hired a snorkel. It was then that you could see just how deep the cenote really was!