Day 5 - Gran Cenote

There wasn’t much to do in the hostel today; an early morning power cut meant the internet was down.  Last night through conversation with one of the only other guests I discovered a bit more about the history of the hostel.  Apparently the hostel was originally set in a nice building a few blocks down.  Here there was a bar, hammocks in the social area and electricity that worked.  The story goes that the building’s owner got tired of noise complaints and the party reputation the hostel had so they put up the price forcing the hostel to move into this abandoned house.

Today we were visiting Gran Cenote.  There were many of these amazing natural water filled sinkholes in the area but we only had time to visit one of them.  To get to Gran Cenote we hired some bikes from a car rental place.  The bike I was given was bright red and had no brakes.  When I pointed out the lack of brakes the rental guy demonstrated that I could stop the bike by placing both my feet on the ground.

Oasis

Gran Cenote was only a few kilometres down the highway, a journey that luckily did not require any sudden stops.  We left the highway and pulled up at the entrance, with my flip-flops still smouldering hot from the friction of stopping the bike we tied up the bikes to a tree and gave money to a large man who was stood at the entrance.   He didn’t seem to enjoy his job very much.

The cenote being below ground level was accessible via stairs that led down to a wooden decking area.  Gran Cenote was indeed an amazing sight.  The lush clear waters were such a contrast from the dry and barren wasteland that surrounded it.  It was a little oasis hidden away from the busy diesel smelling highway.

The water was surprisingly warm considering it was fresh water that was a few metres below ground level.  The clear blue waters were home to lots of fish and small turtles though they usually hung out in the dark and inaccessible corners.  To the far side was a half submerged cave that led to another opening.  The roof of the cave was home to a colony of bats who didn’t seem to mine our presence.

Not too shabby.

The other opening after swimming through the bat cave.

A completely illegible map.

Last place on Earth

Towards the other side of the cenote was the mouth to a black ominous looking underwater cave.  Looking down into the depths of this cave I could see the water deepening and turning from the lovely clear blue colour to an uninviting jet black.  Below I could make out the floor of the cave which consisted of black jagged rocks.  I know that monsters probably don’t exist but if they did they would live in this cave. 

I had heard that all the cenotes in the area are connected by a huge labyrinth of underwater caves and that if you were mad enough you could try and swim from one cenote to another.  Cave divers from all over the world come to explore parts of the cenotes here but I think some caves are just too deep to be reached.  Perhaps these underwater caverns will remain one of the only truly unexplored places on Earth and there will be a large chamber somewhere that will always be silent.  This is what I was thinking whilst staring down the mouth of this black cave.

Mouth to that black scary cave.

Not my photo, but I saw an identical sign in the black cave

Gran Cenote was awesome with its warm clear waters, submerged caves and various forms of wildlife.  Not even the best swimming pool in the world could ever compare to this place.  For our next destination we would be leaving Mexico behind and heading south into the English speaking country of Belize and getting a water taxi to the popular backpacker island of Caye Caulker.  I have heard this island is more African Caribbean than Latin America and is a popular stop off for anyone on their journey to Panama City.  I had to drop by to Caye Caulker and see what the fuss was about.