Cuzama, Yucatan

This morning we got a bus to Cuzamá. We hopped off the bus and onto a mototaxi to head to the cenotes!

Now, the only way to see the cenotes is through a tour. This tour transports you via a cart connected to a horse. The tour is 400 pesos per cart, and two girls asked if we’d like to join their cart and split the price! So, for less than 12 USD total, Bailey and I started the “Three Cenotes Tour” with our cute new friends.

It was a bumpy ride to say the least! But the breeze was nice and we enjoyed the ride. We decided that it was one of the more adventurous modes of transport we have experienced.

For a lot of the time, it was as if the beautiful local yellow butterflies were leading our way. There were so many of them!

Soon enough we reached the first cenote.

We climbed down a some steep stairs to reach the pool of water underground. We were completely in awe of how gorgeous it was! It was lit by openings above us, which let in the sunshine. 

We climbed down into the water and it was pretty cold! The air inside the cave was cool so we were a little hesitant getting in the cold water. But we remembered that we had no time to waste, and soon jumped in!

The water was a beautiful blue, but when we swam around with our snorkel goggles we were amazed by how crystal clear it was.

I was surprised by how many little tiny fish lived in the cenote! They were so cute to watch. But I especially loved how the streams of light looked underwater.

We got about 30 minutes to swim around, then it was back to the cart for us!

After another bumpy ride, it was time for the second cenote.

The descent into this second cenote was a dangerous one indeed! Here’s a tip: if you ever visit a cenote, wear sandals with straps on the back. We love our leather backless Tevas, but we were grateful that we wore more secure sandals today after watching some girls lose their flip flops!

Anyway, this cenote was very dark but just as beautiful as the first. We enjoyed our swim and trying to figure out if the flying animals were bats or birds.

Shoutout to my inlaws who loaned us their underwater phone bags. We had fun taking pictures even though we looked like crazies!

After yet another ride we arrived at the final cenote. This one was very different because after climbing down the ladder, we had to walk through a cave to find the water. The only light was artificial (I much preferred the sky-lit cenote look) and there were stalactites everywhere! Honestly it was kind of creepy in there but creepy is fun. The pictures don’t really show how dark it was!

We swam around for a little bit but were disappointed that the water was a little more murky. We couldn’t see very much with our goggles! The water was very cool and felt nice once we were used to it.

By this point we were soaked and there was no hope for my swimsuit cover up. I might as well have swam in it! I normally hate being wet after swimming, but today I didn’t mind it. It was nice to have some relief from the heat!

It was time to head back to the starting point. By this point we had learned about our new friends and chatted with them as much as our Spanish would allow (which was a lot for Bailey, but just the occasional “si!” and hand gestures from me).  We never really got to know our tour guide, but found it funny that he texted while driving the cart. I mean, not much could go wrong since we were on railroad tracks!

Once we got back to the starting point, we asked our friends if they took the bus from Merida. They said that they drove and when they learned that we took the bus there, they immediately offered us a ride back to the city center. That was such a blessing because we actually didn’t know how to get back! They saved us so much time, money, and trouble. I now wish that we had a picture with them, but their names were Jacqueline and.... well, we could never figure out what the other girl’s name was. It sounded like “Pelly” but I don’t think that’s a name. 

Once back in Merida, we thanked our friends as sincerely as we could, then we cleaned up for our date! I like to have specific “dates” while traveling even though the whole trip could be considered one big date. Bailey had asked our new friends where their favorite food was in Merida, and they suggested La Chaya Maya. So that’s where he and I headed!

This was taken just outside of our Airbnb before catching a ride to dinner.

The food was delicious! And the atmosphere was great. We both ordered the “the flavors of the Yucatan” and loved it. To be honest though, after a serious conversation at the end, we decided that yesterday’s street taco dinner was superior in flavor to this nice sit down restaurant. That’s how good those street tacos were!

Afterwards, we made our way to the main plaza for a serious game of pok ta pok. They play it every Saturday night in front of the cathedral, in costume and everything! They started with some sort of ceremony, and had someone explaining what was going on in both Spanish and English. We had a pretty good view of the game and really enjoyed watching it! The main goal is to get the ball through the hoop, which surprisingly happened a few times. Super impressive!

We stopped by a few little souvenir shops off of the plaza before getting an Uber back "home" tonight. Today was amazing!