Tag: Cenote

We have been to two cenotes that were very ‘touristy’, one that was ‘otherworldly’, and one that was ‘gone to the birds’. Today, we visited one that was ‘amateur splunking’ with a small cenote on the side.

We are camping at La Candelaria Grutas y Cenote, a small establishment in Homún, Yucatan. In the middle of the compound is a large tree growing out of a hole with a steep staircase leading down. Darrin being the adventuresome one headed down immediately to check it out. A few days later, he convinced me to descend.

Cenotes are limestone caverns filled with wonderfully cool, fresh water. They are basically the aquifer for the Yucatan. The prevalent theory is that they were formed many years ago when an asteroid hit the earth…think dinosaur extinction.

Today, we visited our third cenote, Choj Ha. It was a wonderful place! Down, down, down into the cave. Clear, cool water, swim, swim, swim and swim…repeat. Trying to keep cool in the 100 degree heat. In between swims, we set up the Wee Rover for the night and showed a few locals the tent, maps, and set up.

Promply at 6PM the workers left for the day, after explaining that the outside gate to the cenote would be closed for the night. Alone, we cooked up our dinner, and settled in for the night.

About 2AM we were awoken be someone trying to open one of the doors on the Wee Rover. The person must have heard us waking as they crept off into the jungle. A bit rattled and hyper aware, we listened to see if they were coming back. We finally drifted off to sleep.

This was our first occurrence of the sort. Nothing bad happened, except for a couple missed hours of sleep. It was unsettling, but it is hard to think too badly of someone whose needs are probably far greater than ours.