We have had some friends in from Guadalajara this last week and have continued with our site seeing. Yesterday we went to a place called Cuzama here in Yucatán. There are several cenotes around this area, but 3 are well known and developed as tourist stops. This was originally a plantation (hacienda) that had the henequin (sisal hemp) carted around on small carts pulled by donkeys or horses.
The attraction is that you ride on a cart drawn by a horse down these old tracks about 6 miles to go see the three cenotes. At the end, you turn around and come back the way you came. If you meet up with another cart, one of you has to get off and pull the cart off the tracks to let the other pass.
The cenotes were crystal clear. All three of these are below ground in a cave. This is unlike the cenote at Dzibilchaltún which is open to the air. The one at Dzibilchaltún is considered a “mature” cenote in that there is no cave structure around it. A new cenote is one which is really just a well to the under ground river. And a developing cenote is one that still has the cave around it.
These cenotes were just amazing. We were told that it was approximately 35 feet d
eep in one of them. You could easily see the rocks on the bottom. We were inside a cave, but there was enough light coming in through the ladder entrance and natural entrances to be able to see. I am not sure that it was really that deep at one point. But it was really deep. I don’t know how deep I can dive, but I can hold my breath for well over a minute. It took me everything I had to dive down and touch the bottom and then swim back up before the breath ran out. It was very deep.
I swam in two of them. One was 40-60 feet deep. I did not get in that one. The third one we were in was a large cave. A friend of mine and I swam to the back of it. I love to swim and scuba dive, but I am somewhat of a chicken when it comes to water and I cannot see the bottom. Being in a cave, it got darker as we got further away from the entrance, which made the water impossible to see through even though it was perfectly clear. After a bit of anxiety, I made it to the back and quickly swam back to the entrance.
Very well worth checking out if you are ever in the area.
I was hoping to visit the cenotes, until I realized I had already visited that village. I guess I never heard the name of the village when we were there.
i just visited the cenotes a couple of weeks ago with a large group…
half went to cenote 1 and the half i was in went to cenote 2…
it was probably the most amazing thing i have ever seen.
i hope to go back there someday.
the water was perfect.
and the color is so incredible its hard to believe.
and the fact that it was so deep and you can see clear to the bottom without a problem was CRAZY!
Can you just show up at Cuzuma and take a tour, or do you have to book it in Merida?
You can just show up. When you get into town you will see an obvious staging area on the right side of the road where they load people onto to the carts. Anyone can point you to the right place. It is a great adventure. Take a lunch, or at least lots of snacks. No place to buy food once you get onto the cart.