Cenotes of the Riviera Maya
Underground Swimming Near the Yucatán Peninsula's Mayan Ruins
No visit to the Mexican Caribbean is complete without a look at (or a swim in) one of the breathtaking swimming holes surrounded by caves for which the region is famous.
The Yucatán has nearly 10,000 "cenotes," or very large, limestone-walled natural wells, many of them deep enough (and safe enough) to be used as swimming holes.
You can walk down into some, like the breathtaking Sacred Cenote; rappel into others, like the Cenote del Jaguar in Pac Chen; climb down past stalagmites and stalactites to see others, as in the case of the Aktun Chen; or enjoy an inner-tube adventure in the Xel-ha cenote.
Sacred Cenote
Chichén Itzá's Sacred Cenote, which today is a pleasant swimming hole, was once used for human sacrifices to the god of water during periods of drought.
In fact, when archaeologist Edward Thompson dredged the site in 1904, he found numerous human bones as well as jewelry, masks, precious metals and even pottery, the latter of which were presumably mingled with items left by the early Spanish colonizers.
Not to worry – by all accounts, there’s not much chance anymore of swimming, The Ring-style, with skeletons.
A 900-foot sacbe, or paved “white road,” leads into the cavernous depths of the hole.
The nearly 1,000-acre park that makes up Aktun Chen, or “cave with cenote inside,” has three caves leading into a 39-feet-deep cenote. The caves are, by all accounts, five million years old, and the cave system has, like several parts of the Riviera Maya, only recently been discovered— recently, as in the 1990s.
There’s no swimming in the cenote, but a guide will lead you on a walking tour of the cave system for a view of the spectacular cave formations.
The cave system is pierced by shafts of sunlight at various intervals, and it also has openings to the rainforest every 325 feet, for those who don’t so much love the dark and cold.
Xel-ha
Xel-Ha (“place where the water is born”) was a busy port city until about the time of the first 16th-century Spanish visits.
Today, it’s an extraordinary, almost Disney-esque ecological theme park that offers snorkeling, swimming in cenotes, inner tubing, walks through the Mayan jungle, a “drunk’s” bridge that even the sober have trouble keeping their balance on and an amazing 45-minute or so swim through a cave.
At one point, you’ll look up through what looks like a break in the cave ceiling to see a sparkling mosaic. When you encounter the mosaic later, you’ll hardly believe that you were recently swimming in the well below it. Biodegradable suntan lotion is passed out freely at the entrance. (Your own suntan lotion is a no-no, since the oils upset the eco-balance of the waters.)
“Cenotes are to the Yucatán Peninsula what the Alps are to Switzerland,” a Quintana Roo official told a New York Times writer, and indeed, no trip to the Riviera Maya would be complete without a visit to one or several of these fascinating structures that appeal equally to lovers of history and of the outdoors.
For more on the Riviera Maya, see:
For more on the cenotes of the Rivier Maya, see:
