A brilliant day underground

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6/5/09 = Cuzama Cenotes


Wish never had to wake up this morning; one of those rare days that could sleep forever. Trudged off for toast to wake me up - 4 slices did the trick - then got ready for day visiting ‘the caves’. Both caves and Chichen Itza = re-opened as of today = 😊. Got ready and headed off to bus station at 10am. Bus was just first part of journey; today would be a day of many forms of transport.


Bit tricky finding bus station, especially when blinded by sweat dripping into eyes - still 40º - but got there eventually, and onto bus at 10:45 for 1 hr journey to Cuzama. 1hr seems like nothing on a bus these days and arrived in Cuzama just before midday. Next stage of journey = a bike man…what a nightmare! Only way to get to caves = via a bike man. The bike men = the same kind of guys you see pulling people around London and nearly just as expensive. Have a bike attached to a little metal cart, where 2 people jump in and relax while the poor guy has to struggle on up hills and in heat. You would feel sorry for them if they weren’t such scammers!


Stepped off bus to several bike men all trying to get us into cart. Had already been told that a reasonable price = 20/30peso, so when they offered us 50, said a definite no and moved onto next guy. After a bit of haggling, found a guy for 30peso and jumped in. Little did we no he was the biggest idiot of all, so when he set off pedalling, couldn’t help but feel really sorry for him. Boiling hot and it wasn’t a flat journey. Took me straight back to our biking days in NZ; felt every hill for him and cringed every time could see him struggling against it. Funny that just minutes later could have punched him in the face was so mad.


Awful, scamming bike man pulled up in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere and said that was as far as he would take us for 30peso - well, that’s the general gist of what he said…he was speaking Spanish! Got out to see where we were and walked across a farm type situation to find a seemingly bottomless hole in the ground, perfectly, never-ending, vertical ladders going down, and a random guy charging money for us to end our lives by going down the hole! As if! This wasn’t right. Had to have a team talk at this stage. Clearly we were in the wrong place, but clearly the scamming bike man wanted more money to take us to the right place. I contemplated going down the precarious/potentially life threatening hole, but with a straight up ‘no’ from Debs, had no other choice but to return back to the lying, cheating bike man, who, non-surprisingly, was still waiting for us outside the hole to hell… ‘just in case we changed our minds’ - yeah right!


For the bargain price of another 20peso, he offered to take us to the right place - idiot - and I wished on him every hill that came up. We should have jumped up and down and invited more people to sit in with us. If someone had have handed me a whip, I even think I would have used it on him. Needless to say, I smiled as he struggled along the last part of the journey, glad that I ate 4 slices of toast this morning and not just 2.


Was quite a bit further on, but when we arrived, could tell it was the right place. Lots of people and also our next method of transport…horses. Had to stifle a laugh as climbed out of cart and bike man asked if we wanted him to wait and take us back for another 50peso…erm…let me think about that…I’d rather crawl back! Hastened off towards horses and another man gestured for us to get into a horse cart. Next part of journey = 200peso, but horses would take us to all of caves for rest of day and had already expected that price. We sat down and the horse man pulled over a small, black and rather unruly looking horse. It pulled and dragged to get away from him, but as he fastened the reins to the cart, that was it, we were away. Now, better clear up this horse and cart image…it really wasn’t the kind you might hire for a fairytale wedding. It more resembled the kind of cart/buggy used in the olden days for mining coal and where the coal should be, is where we sat, the main exception being that our buggy had a roof. And just like the miners buggies, our cart moved by being pulled along a metal track built in the ground, the crazy albeit lovely, black horse doing the pulling.


Took about 15mins of being pulled along the metal track, through cut away forest, before got to the first cenote (underground waterhole). Few buggies waiting there already and groups of people approaching the underground cave. Stepped forward anxiously - really don’t know if I can descend though a hula-hoop sized hole into the pitch black darkness of a bottomless cave. So relieved when saw the giant hole in the ground that was cenote no.1. No hula-hoop hole, no pitch black darkness, no vertical ladders. Happily descended the diagonal ladders to get to the shimmering water below.


Was exactly like you would imagine a cave to be. Big, fairly dark, went v.far back, and with a deep blue water at the bottom, which people were swimming in. Cool. Stipped off, climbed over rocks and in we went. Was pretty cold, but after travelling through the midday heat, the coolness was a welcome relief. How weird to be swimming in a cave. The water that looked so dark from above, was crystal clear and a v.blue colour. The only reason it looked so dark was because of the lack of light and when the light from the hole above did shine on it, it looked a beautiful colour. Did some swimming, treading water, could even risk a jump in because it was so clear and deep. Brilliant. 30mins later, was time to get out and move onto cenote no.2..really excited now.


Climbed out of cave, back into boiling heat of day, into our horse and buggy. Off along the track again until got to cenote no.3 (no.2 was really busy, so had to bypass that one). Had only been travelling for 15mins, but the wind created by the speed of travel and the unbelievable heat meant that we were completely dry once again and couldn’t wait to get into the cooling water. Followed a group from another buggy over and were just as disappointed as them with our discovery. It wasn’t the lovely big hole and diagonal stairs of cenote no.1, it was a tiny black hole and vertical stairs, just like the mistaken cenote we had been to. Oh no. All huddled round the tiny circumference, trying desperately to see the bottom. Impossible. Oh no. Hate heights...hate small spaces…hate this cenote!


The Spanish speaking girls headed down first; they weren’t keen either. Even had to take their bags off their backs because they couldn’t fit through the hole. Watched as they disappeared into the darkness…heart rate increased. Debs went next and as she disappeared into darkness, knew it was my turn. If can jump out of an aeroplane, or jump off of a bridge, surely can walk down some ladders Natalie! Waited a few minutes until thought Deb was at bottom - knew if I was going to get down it I would be moving at speed - took my last breath, and off I went. As soon as feet came off solid ground I felt it…that instant sickness and thumping in my chest. Did not look down. Focused solely on the ladder in front of me, moving feet quickly to feel the next rung of the ladder. Moved further and further into darkness, but closer to the voices below me. Didn’t think, just kept moving, until eventually felt the new floor below and came off the ladder shaking. Had to move to the corner and take a minute to re-adjust before could look around and take anything in. It was amazing…better than cenote 1 had it not been for the death inspiring descent. Not at all your traditional cave, this was much more like a hole in the ground. It didn’t go far back and it was nearly fully roofed, save from a few holes in the ground above letting shafts of light in. It reminded me of one of those onion shaped, glass containers we used to use in science, with a tiny/narrow funnel neck opening out into a fat, round belly. It was much darker than the first, but much more beautiful. The minimal shafts of light were like spotlights on the diamond blue water and right in the centre of it all, above the main area for swimming, were a group of huge stalactites that hung from the ceiling nearly all the way down to the water - amazing.


Stripped off again, down some rickety ladders and in we got. Such a welcome cooling. Lovely. Paddled, floated, found some neat rocks to stand on, did some cool jumping in and then out we got ready for next cave. 2 things spoiling it = camera battery running low, so taking blurry pictures & knowing that had to walk up awful ladder again. Walking up was nearly as bad as coming down, because knew how bad a drop it was. Followed same procedure again. Once Deb was nearly at top, I scrambled up behind her as quick as I could. Pausing ¾ way up for a photo was a mistake I almost regretted, but got through it.


V.happy to step back onto solid ground, but couldn’t understand what our horse man was telling us as he gestured to another hole in the ground. Took a few minutes of both parties not understanding, before he decided to just show us. Oh no. Watched as he climbed into another small, dark hole, but this time, it wasn’t just the look of it that scared me, it was the sound. All could hear was buzzing, a large, collective sound of buzzing. And as got closer, found the source of the buzz…hundreds, possibly thousands of flies all swarming the hole he was now climbing through….gross! Watched in disgust as he squirmed through them, only to be more horrified as he gestured for us to follow. Oh no…surely no! Could barely look at the scene in front of me, let alone climb through it. Please no. He stood in his little hole, head popping out, still gesturing wildly for us to follow. Deb didn’t want to, and I can’t say it was on my list of top 10 things to do in life, but how could we not now? He had crawled through it and there was obviously something good to see on the other side…would have to do it…would be rude not to. Closed my eyes and, more importantly, my mouth, then ploughed through the buzzing swarm, moving as quickly as possible to get through to the other side. This episode was one of the most disgusting things I had to do on my whole trip…and that’s saying something.


Debs pulled through afterwards and then we were all squashed into a tiny, but totally cool mini cave. We were sitting in one of the holes providing light for the cenote below…we were looking over the water, down through the stalactite. Cool. Had our 5mins wondering over it all, battled back out through the flies, then onto cenote no.2 = the last one for the day. Fully dry again by the time we reached it, fingers crossed, praying for a wider entrance hole and diagonal stairs. Yeh…got my wish. This cenote was like a mixture of the other 2. It had a large entrance and good ladders, but was quite small and not as deep as a normal cave. Did all our usual things = swim, jump in, float, but this cave also had some cool vines that hung from the ceiling, nearly all the way down to the water; could grab them and pull yourself up…little bit of exercise. Had 20mins in, then got out and made our last horse and cart journey back to the start. Brilliant day - well worth doing - made even better when found out was 200peso for the cart and not 200peso each…brilliant.


Was 3pm then and in our stubbornness created by the lying, cheating bike man from this morning, decided to walk back to bus stop; should only be 40mins or so. Refused a 30peso return offer, until the sweet old man on the bike who made the offer, followed us and offered a ride for just 20peso. Couldn’t say no to him then…he was so cute, but it just made me more mad at how much got ripped off this morning.


Cute old man pedalled us all way back and felt really guilty about how hard he was having to work for his money. It was still so hot and took at least 25mins to get back. Wanted to ask if we could swap and I could have a turn at biking, but stupid lack of Spanish language left me helpless again.


Didn’t find a bus when got back, but did find a mini-bus on it’s way to Merida. Paid our 10peso and in we got for the nightmare of all journeys. Had to sit for 15mins in sweaty van until it was completely full and then the van stopped at every available interval to pick up more people and cram them in. Even had people standing up. In end, the hour journey took 90mins. It was longer, more expensive and much less enjoyable than your average bus. Really ready to get off and disembarked in any random part of town. Took a while to figure out whereabouts, and when did spend 10mins looking in supermarket for dinner, decided were too tired to cook and would just have to waste more money by eating out. Went to a nice place had spotted in Zocalo day before, decorated with a totally over the top Mexican theme; reminded me of our local Mex Cantina in Wakefield.


Got tasty food and beer, a good photo with Sombreros on and even had photos taken by some local Mexican kids loving the English. Came away full and happy and back towards hostel. Spent some time at work (a.k.a. blogging) then went through usual nightly routine of eating fruit salad and writing in diary. Showered, washed clothes, then went to bed at midnight. Really good day at cenotes today; excited for Chichen Itza tomorrow now.

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Photos

Horse and cart?
Not quite what I pictured for my wedding day.

Down we go
And this is the nice one!