Mayan Water Park

After our time at Ek Balam, it was back on to the tour bus. The drive at times seemed more harrowing than any of the scuba diving had been. The road wasn't wide enough for two vehicles side by side, yet was fairly well traveled by bicyclists, cars, and other tour buses. The protocol seemed to be that the larger vehicle would always make way for the smaller vehicle, pulling briefly off the side of the road, but generally vehicles barely slowed down for one another.

After half an hour, we arrived at Cenote Maya. Unlike the underwater cave system of Chac Mool, this cenote was a single, enormous cavern in which you could simply enjoy a swim. First, though, we ate a lunch that was said to be authentic Mayan food. I can't really speak to that, though it was delicious -- the handmade, fresh tortillas most of all.

Before entering the cenote, all visitors were to be blessed by a Mayan shaman. Our tour group was led into a small, open hut where a brief ceremony was performed:

While Americans have something of a reputation for being dismissive or intolerant of other cultures, such was not the case on this occasion. The rest of our tour group was made up of French speakers from Canada and Belgium, and one of them was quite disrespectful indeed. As the shaman came around to each person to hold a brazier at the chest to let us inhale the smoke, one of the Belgians pulled a bandana from his neck up tightly around his mouth and simply glared at the shaman.

Perhaps since we weren't total pigs, the shaman had something special for my me and my friends. This particular day of our trip happened to be July 4th, so the shaman pulled us aside, as the only Americans in the group, for an additional blessing said to honor our country's anniversary. Honestly, this acknowledgement seemed to mean less to us than it did to the shaman himself and to our tour guide (from France; strangely, none of our excursion leaders this trip were actually from Mexico). Still, it was a fun moment nonetheless.

From there, we went to the cenote. Now, I mentioned that was a giant cavern you could swim in, but that's only half the story. It was also sort of a water park. (This maybe undermines the authenticity of the whole "you need to be blessed before you go in" thing, but it was really cool.)

First, you can rappel down into the cenote from an opening more than 50 feet above the water:

From there, you can swim over to a giant tower built in the center of the cavern:

And from there you can do all kinds things. There was a seated zip line, and a more Tarzan-style rope swing:

There were also dive platforms, from both 10 feet and 25 feet.

It felt like you fell forever when you jumped off the 25 foot platform, even though the POV videos we shot move so fast you can hardly see them. We got to play around in the pleasant, cool water of the cenote for an hour, then got dressed and got back on our tour bus for the three hour ride back to the hotel.

The double header of Ek Balam and the Cenote Maya made for a full and fun day. The next day would be out last full one in Playa del Carmen.