GRAN
CENOTE PARADISE
After watching another beautiful sunrise at the beach
in Tulum Casey and I met our friend, tour-guide Blake, who is taking us to the Gran Cenote, on the road towards Coba from Tulum.
We made our way along the Tulum Beach road past a little ‘pueblito’ of palapa shops selling t-shirts
and local carvings and out through the Tulum jungle reserve in his dune buggy. After
that we drove another 7 minutes north towards the Coba ruins through virgin
jungle on a road which was barely a paved goat’s path a few years ago.
It’s only a little sign that warns the speeding drivers
that they are about to pass one of the best cenote snorkeling spots in the Yucatan.
Casey, Blake and I entered the cenote park through a palapa-style
entrance beside a sleepy guide. It was a beautiful short stroll along a pebbled
garden walkway lined with local flowering shrubs. The Riviera Maya is rich with a wide variety of plants and
flowers. There are an estimated 20 to 30 thousand different species of plants
growing in Mexico, which is considered to be one of the most floristically
diverse countries in the world.
We arrived at the top ledge looking into a breathtaking tropical
sinkhole oasis. The Gran Cenote was formed over a period of thousands of years
when rainwater wore away the limestone making its way back to the sea.
As we walked around the lip of the cenote I heard some
scuba divers getting suited up on the island in the middle of the sinkhole,
talking about exploring the tunnels snaking off from the main pool. There are
hundreds of miles of divers ‘line’ in the Riviera Maya tunnels.
I have been in many cenotes before, but most were in out
in the sunshine – this one was like entering the yawning mouth of a prehistoric
rock creature … and right where the throat should start I took a deep breath
and plunged downwards, not expecting the small cave above the water to suddenly
expand into an arena the size of a small stadium, filled with stalagmites and
stalactites.
The bubbles from the diving group swimming below me rose
up and I watched the group enter one of the tunnels near the bottom. I have
heard of divers finding completely blind fish in those tunnels that after
millenniums of years in the dark have lost the ability to see.
I spent the next hour swimming around the island and I
peered into more tunnel entrances with lots of colorful cenote fish swimming in
and out of the rocks. All in all it was breathtaking.
On the dock after the swim, my tour guide Blake, who I
now consider a good friend, told me that the Mayan name for Gran Cenote is ‘Sac Aktun’, which in english means ‘White
cave’, possibly because the island was formed when the cave’s thin roof
collapsed thousands of years ago letting in the sunlight.
I heard some young children snorkeling and I thought what
a sacred and special place for parents to bring their children on holiday.
I closed my eyes and felt thanks that I had the
opportunity to live in and experience such wondrous beauty tucked away in the virgin jungles
of Tulum.
Until next time…