Today we walked down to the local cenotes. These deep water holes were created from an ancient meteor which struck the Yucatan peninsula (possibly destroying the dinosaurs?). This impact created hundreds of miles of underground caverns. When the ceiling of one of the caverns collapses it fills with water and is called a cenote. They are hundreds of feet deep, straight down like a cylinder, and connect via the underground flooded caverns to all the other cenotes in the area. It is the largest source of fresh water in this area!
The first cenote we went to is currently accesible only by a steep descent down. Our host Rod brought a rope to help us climb down. It was scary- filled with screeches and comments like "I'mgonnadie!" When we reached the bottom however, we could see the freshest, clearest water surrounded by thick jungle. Brendan swam out to the middle and the kids swam a bit too. No crocs here, too steep.
Then we walked to another cenote which was a little easier to access due to having been illegally damaged by the neighboring quarry. The quarry is quite beautiful itself, I thought, and Rod thinks this cenote would make a good local beach and park because of its accesibility. We enjoyed swimming there too, and watching the birds fly overhead.
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