Thousands of cenotes dot the Yucatan. With no rivers or lakes, these sinkholes are the only source of fresh water. For explorers they connect a huge network of underwater caves, for the Maya they were gateways to the afterlife, and for us they were awesome places to fuck around.
These were near Cuzamá, and were only accessible by horse drawn rail cart. We can honestly say they are the best swimmng holes we’ve seen anywhere in the world. You can float silently in crytsal clear water, illuminated only by streams of light coming through the ceiling. Roots climb down the walls, and cave fish circle around you. For me, the highlight was the jumping. Crawling up the walls or from holes in the surface, their was no shortage of places to hock yourself off of into the water.
Here are some videos of me taking a leap at progressively higher – and more testicle injuring – spots.
This was the first centote, with a nice 5-meter platform built on the stairs to get down. A good place to get comfortable.
I followed some tree roots down a hole above this cenote and found a nice ledge you could drop in from. You have to be sure and dodge a few stalactites on the way down.
Just at the opening of the last cenote was a barbwire fence blocking this ledge. At about 10 meters, it was probably there to prevent people from jumping – for a good reason, this one hurt.
This really is a awesome post. Thanks a lot for taking the time to summarize all of this out for all of us. It truly is a great guide!
Totally epic!