Finally, the last of my Mexico posts!
Our second to last adventure in Mexico was visiting the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve. Sian Ka’an is a UNESCO World Heritage site that protects about 1.3 million acres with an estimated 103 mammal species and 336 bird species. It holds 23 Mayan archeological sites and around 2,000 people still make their home within its borders.
Our tour guide picked us up early, transferred us into a jeep with another couple and then drove us for more than an hour on paved, then rough dirt roads until we came to a little outdoor restaurant called, Bone Fish. From there we loaded onto a boat and began our search for wild sea animals. We sped around for hours looking at birds, dolphins, sea turtles and starfish. After a while the sightings dried up and we anchored the boat and snorkeled around a small reef rich with colorful fish and half-buried rays. Once we were finished there our guides took us to a place called “The Swimming Pool”. We misunderstood and thought they were taking us to a real swimming pool but were delighted to find out that it was just the name for a wonderful section of crystal clear shallow water, carpeted in white sand. Nothing swam through the water or grew out of the sand. It really was like a gigantic heated swimming pool and was pretty surreal. After horsing around for awhile we cruised back to the beach to have some lunch and drink lattes made from a propane fueled coffee cart on the beach.
The next day we decided to hit some cenotes. Cenotes are freshwater filled sinkholes with rocky edges. There are tons of them in the Yucatan and many of them are connected by underwater caves. This turned out to be my favorite part of the trip after the whale shark adventure.
First we hit the Gran Cenote where Kel swam back into dark bat-filled caves and I snorkeled in the more shallow areas with sweet little fishies. A party of scuba divers showed up and fought with their gear for a bit before jumping in and disappearing into the darkness underneath us. After awhile we decided we’d probably try to hit another cenote so we started trekking back to the road. Just before we got to the road we saw a little house converted into a restaurant. We walked in and immediately thought we’d somehow teleported to a college kid’s dorm room. There were semi-dirty pics of scantily clad girls wallpapering all four walls. And to make things stranger, one corner of the room looked like an executive office with a tasteful desk and office accessories. We sat down across the way at a small table near the grill and ordered some tacos and quesadillas. The waitress came over and started teasing Kel in Spanish, asking him if he liked the room because “all of the guys do”. It was so odd! Especially for a place filled with kid traffic. But you’d never see that sorta thing in the U.S. so we kinda loved it.
After porno-lunch we headed to the road where we didn’t find a taxi like we thought we would, so we just started walking towards town. Eventually we were picked up by Marco, the coolest taxi driver ever. He and Kelly became fast friends and chatted it up like old war buddies. Now and then he’d stop and shout “Carmen! Hola!” and I couldn’t help but giggle every time.
The next cenote was called Dos Ojos and it was amazing! There was one path that split, leading to two separate openings. We hopped in one side, snorkeled around and then moved to the other opening. Once on the other side we could see that the two sides were actually connected if you swam through thin waterways created by stalactites dipping from the cave ceilings into the water. Beneath us the water would change from shallow rocky sections to cavernous black holes within just a few feet. At one point we saw little pins of light appear in the blackness and watched them grow bigger until a group of scuba divers appeared. It was pretty alien (and awesome!).We swam around forever, exploring the cave and watching the little fish and sleeping bats. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. If I didn’t have panic attacks every time I got within a foot of deep water, I’d commit myself to learning to scuba so that I could go back and experience cenotes the right way!
Click here for a slideshow of more of my pics from Sian Ka’an and the two cenotes. They look best in full-size mode.
And here’s a video I found on youtube of some scuba divers at Dos Ojos. It does more justice than my pics.
