A month prior to my trip to the Yucatan, I actively began researching tours to Chichen Itza. All included an excursion to a local cenote (pronounced ‘sin-o-tay’). Not knowing what one was, I googled & watched a few YouTube videos. Underground pools of cold clean water abundant over the Yucatan – check, sign me up!
A cenote is a deep natural pit, characteristic of Mexico, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula and some nearby Caribbean islands, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings.
Having done the research, I knew to backpack a bathing suit & towel for Thursday’s all-day excursion. I read one could swim in cenotes as long as you showered off all sunblock & bug repellent – to keep the underground water clean & pure.
Scheduled only an hour stop for buffet lunch & viewing Cenote Hubiku just past Valladolid. I can eat anytime – but the cenote was something I had to see & experience. Changed clothes, showered (kinda), and headed down the 60 foot stairwell to the mouth of Cenote Hubiku. Pristine BLUE water trapped inside an underground cave. WOW!
Swallows flew in & out of the opening high above — limestone walls reverberating sounds of swallows & swimmers below. Swimming an option? Heck yeah. I question why so many people on the tour were not capitalizing on this amazing opportunity.
Minutes earlier: 90 degree temps, high humidity & hot Mexican sun — honestly, I couldn’t jump in fast enough.
That said, not an ease-in situation, cannonball required 🙂 I temp adjusted quickly, laying on my back watching the swallows dive in and out of the natural window created above.
FAAANNNNTASTIC! Highly recommended!
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- Iglesia de San Servacio (Valladolid, Yucatan)
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- walk down to underground cenote (1000% worth it!)
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- light shines thru the surface high above
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- cold, refreshing & 75-feet deep
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- swallows danced in & out of the sky opening
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- Highly Recommended!
Travelled on Wednesday to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for a NYC friend’s Destination Wedding. What to do before her Saturday afternoon wedding? Gym, check. Dinner, check. AND booked an all-day excursion to the Mayan ruins.
Chichen Itza was been on my travel wish list for years – but never thought I’d have an opportunity, me being so averse to hot weather & humidity. Thanks Krissy for motivating me to travel south of the border!
Chichen Itza is one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destination, and rightfully so. The Yucatan’s grandest archaeological site is Chichen-Itza, a UNESCO World Heritage area of immense cultural significance.
Chichen Itza is perhaps the largest, most famous and most accessible Mayan site, about 125 kilometres west of Cancun and Cozumel. This ancient Mayan ruin, a major tourist stop in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is a rugged place of soaring pyramids, massive temples, startling carved columns and do-or-die sports fields.
Can no longer climb Kukulkan Pyramid (the large Mayan pyramid of Chichen Itza) but remained uber impressed by its aged construction & immensity. Most of the Mayan tale conveyed by our guide Jorge, was reminiscent of the Egyptian pyramids (visited in 2009). Both Mayans & ancient Egyptians utilized a pictographic language, were cultures abnormally advanced by high sciences & cohabitated within a restrictive social caste system.
Additionally, the Mayans developed intricate practices to answer the Gods in times of extreme drought & weather turmoil (hurricanes). Flattened misshaped skulls, purposeful teeth alterations & (jade) adornments, and sacrificial rituals dominated this ancient people. Ultimately we’re all searching for meaning – how was our world created? Where did we come from? Lucky for me, my God doesn’t require youth sacrifices or wood planks tied to the head to square off my look 🙂
That said, super interesting. Would have been a complete miss had I travelled to the Yucatan peninsula & not seen one of the new 7 Wonders. LOVED it! Crazy hot day but suppose better in May than July or August 🙂
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- This is Chichen Itza! (World Heritage site)
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- Temple of a Thousand Warriors
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- creepy skull collection
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- rattlesnakes – Mayans loved ’em
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- the Great Ballcourt
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- GOAL! – Stone Ring (30 feet UP) – game ends when first team scores
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- heavily armoured 18 year olds
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- the WINNING captain is subsequently decapitated (a honor…huh?)
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- Agua Fria, por favor!
Have had Antarctica on my adventure ‘wish list’ since boyhood — ever since [reading] an issue of National Geographic (which came with a full size pull-out map 🙂 ). Someday gonna happen. Still dreamin’ BIG!
To the ends of the Earth (slide show)
