Day 12 - Cenotes

The official definition of a cenote is a sinkhole with exposed rocky edges containing groundwater, typically found in the Yucatán Peninsula and some nearby Caribbean islands. My definition of a cenote is a heavenly haven. I have never seen anything more pure, beautiful, and serene. It is both an amazing visual, providing some optical conundrums as you gaze through the absolute transparency of the fresh water onto the jungle outside the cave, and an incredible sensation of all human emotions descending upon you all at once, forcing you to simultaneously feel peace, quiet, danger, age, exhilaration, sadness...

Today, we went to 2 cenotes in Playa del Carmen (a short ferry ride from Cozumel) - Kukulkan (named after a Maya snake deity, who is believed to be the pet of the Sun God) and Chac Mool (it is the name given to a type of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican stone statue that depicts a human figure in a position of reclining with the head up and turned to one side, holding a tray over the stomach; the meaning of the position or the statue itself remains unknown; not to be confused with Chaac - the god of rain). By the way, our dive guide gave us totally different information on origins of these 2 Mayan words: he said that Kukulkan is the god of sun, and Chac Mool is the god of rain - but thaks to Wikipedia we can straighten that out:)).

















After the dives, my cenotes buddies and I went to celebrate the perfection of the day in a local beach restaurant called La Tarraya, where over yummy whole fried fish we laughed at each other's life stories and marveled how our oh so different paths somehow brought us all to the same table today.