Merida

Our group split up into various activities today and I chose to go for the coolest option - visiting 3 cenotes (water sink holes) south of the city with K and I. The transportation to the cenotes was a bit of an adventure in itself as it involves taking small wooden horse-drawn carts that run along old rail tracks. It was a jerky ride and since there aren't any places to pass, we often had to climb out and take the cart off the tracks to let another cart go by.

When we got the the first cenote there were already 7 carts there, so our guide decided to continue on the the next one and come back to this one later. It was a great decision, because we got to have the second cenote (which I found the most beautiful) all to ourselves for quite a while. The water was a perfect temperature for swimming! Our guide brought along snorkel equipment for us to use, which was great.

The second cenote had the best entrance - through a small hole down a 20 - 30 foot "ladder" made of branches cemented unevenly into the walls. The third cenote (the one we skipped earlier) was the largest and busiest, but it was interesting because we were able to swim way into the back were it was pretty dark! Our guide had a flashlight and showed us different things under the water, including a large catfish that started to come after K ... until she screamed :P

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Merida - a pretty, colonial town.