Grand Cenote

I got home at about 10:15 p.m. on Thursday night and had to go into work on Friday because it was the first day of registration for the fall semester at the university.  Even though I was so tired after a day’s worth of traveling, I ended up tossing and turning on Thursday night and didn’t get much sleep.  So I was pretty much worthless on Friday.  It took the weekend to recover, so now I need to go back through my photos and post some things I never got to while I was in Mexico.

I will have to admit that this was a strange trip for me.  There was too much jumping around from one place to the next and it didn’t end up to be a real relaxing vacation.  Plus, having to deal with Hurricane Ernesto wasn’t in my plans, so that took away some of the fun, too, although it was somewhat interesting, nonetheless.  Since it had been a year and a half since I had been to Mexico, I think I tried to fit too much in and it just ended up being kind of disjointed.  I never really felt a connection with anywhere that I stayed and that was a disappointment for me because I’ve always felt that before.

Anyway, I still want to make some posts of things I experienced along the way.  This post will be about the Grand Cenote which is just outside of Tulum on the way to Coba.  I hadn’t planned on making any stops before Coba, but since I had the car, it was convenient.  It cost 100 pesos to get in…and here’s the first thing you see when you enter.  I don’t think the restaurant was open…maybe it is during a busier time.

They had a pen full of peacocks before you got to the cenote…

So the cenote isn’t far from the road and this is what you see when you get there…

It isn’t that far below the surface of the ground level which kind of surprised me…especially being named “Grand” Cenote.  My first cenote was Ik Kil, near Chichen Itza, which you can view here:  Ik Kil   Ik Kil is much deeper underground and more impressive in that respect.

There were lots of lily pads.  See the turtle in the center?

The thing that was impressive about this cenote was the incredible reflection of the sun on the water.  It created beautiful shimmering effects with the camera.

I particularly like this shot…and I did not manipulate this photo at all…

And it looked like there were caverns and crawlspaces underneath the rocks where you could swim…

See another turtle?

Okay, so I climb back out of the cenote and see a sign where there are some more down a pathway.  No one else is going down this way, but I decide to see if there’s something worth seeing.  After about a five minute walk, I come to what looks like a cenote in progress.  It’s very shallow and dirty and there are about five Mexican workers moving rocks and talking…until they see me and everyone stops talking.  Okay…time to turn around and go back since I’m out here all by myself.

On the way back, I see this.  I’m adventurous, but not THAT adventurous.  This is what horror movies are made from.  Nice home-made ladder, though.

Now we come to a “feeder” cenote off the main one.  It’s amazing how clear and blue the water is…

This is the view going back to the main opening under the rocks…

Then this is back at the main cenote again…

But this time, a bunch of scuba divers had come and were just getting in the water.  If that’s the case, then there must be caves and caverns back there that are worth exploring.  I’m not a scuba diver (yet), but I’m thinking that would be pretty fun to explore what’s under there.

On the way out, I saw the customary chickens and roosters…

This is probably his son (awwwww)…

And a final picture of the beautiful flowers that were blooming on the grounds.  I don’t know what they are but they were as delicate as tissue paper…and such a pretty color.

Coming up next…my stay in Tulum.