Chunyaxche and Hidden Worlds

Despite the appeal of simply staying at the resort (and trust me, the appeal is strong!), we’ve been on an outing on both of the days that we’ve been here. And the cool thing is, there is so much variety, it’s sure to entertain everyone!

Yesterday afternoon we ventured to Chunyaxche, a ruins site about 20 minutes south of our hotel. The guidebook we have correctly stated that we’d “probably have the entire site to ourselves” as it’s “too far” south for most tourists. The number of ruins there is also small compared to some of the other sites, but they’re still impressive none-the-less!

Probably the most significant structure here was this temple thingy. I should have paid more attention the the sign at the base which described what it was all about, but I was too busy taking photos. Salomon (whom I used to work with) warned me that the steps on these things were very narrow, and I was amazed to see them for myself – they were barely wider than my foot!

On the way back to the resort, we made a brief stop in the town to grab some pesos and browse through the tourist-centric shops. We were somewhat discouraged when Michelle tried to buy a couple of nice little bowls from a guy that she guessed were worth five bucks for both, yet he tried to charge us about $30 and told us that was a discount! No thanks. I also saw this sign and thought of the Durhams – no way would I be trying the local “expresso”!

Today we ventured north to a place called “Hidden Worlds”, where we went snorkelling through two different cenotes (see-NO-teh) – basically underground caverns. This will go down as one of the coolest things I have done in my entire life! The first bit of fun was sitting in the comfort of the in the air-conditioned limousine (read: standing in the back of a rusty old truck) for the ride from the reception area to the cenotes.

Once we got there, we had to squeeze through a narrow entrance way and down a very steep ladder, into the massive cavern. It was breathtaking!

Holy moly, the water was wicked cold! I was pleased to be wearing that wetsuit, and frankly I think I looked rather becoming in it as well. Anyway, swimming through the caverns was just amazing! The stalactites on the ceiling we sometimes so low that you could barely raise your head out of the water. Similarly, the stalagmites came right up out of the ground, but they weren’t so spikey so I wasn’t too concerned about them.

The part I liked the most was when we were floating along with the current of an underground river, through really narrow bits of rock. As Kristy so rightly put it, “it’s like being in an action movie”! We’re hoping that we can do this again this week at some of the other local cenotes around the traps.