Cenotes are beautiful with stalactites and stalagmites, but they can also be dangerous.
Last January while on our Mexican vacation, my family decided to do something a little different than hang out on the beach or at pool bar all day. We booked a day tour with our travel group. We decided to try the Extreme Adventure. It consisted of snorkeling in a cenote, rappelling into a cenote and zip lining over the mangrove forest followed by a tour of the Tulum ruins.Our group consiste of my husband, our daughters who were 19 and 22 at the time, my eldest daughter's 23 year old boyfriend and myself. I was the only one of our group brave enough to do all the activities. Our first adventure was snorkeling in the cenote. A cenote is an underground cave full of water. It is a major water source for the Mayan people. The various cenotes are connected by a vast underground river system that scuba divers have explored. I have heard that can be extremely dangerous because there is a chance you could get lost in the river system. The cenotes are sacred to the local people. A property owner recently allowed tourism on his land with the restriction that we respect the cenote. We could not wear any lotions and only approved sunscreen in order to not contaminate their water source. My husband has a dislike of cold water so he opted to be our photographer. The cenotes are beautiful with stalactites and stalagmites and other rock formations. We had to be careful not to damage tree roots that grew from the cave ceiling into the water. We were also warned not to dive down and explore the crevices that were everywhere. There were fish but nothing spectacular compared to snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea.
The next activity was rappelling into a different cenote. This is where the younger ones chickened out. We suited up into our hard hats, gloves and harness. My daughters and the boyfriend took one look at the tower we had to climb up and opted out. My husband and I were the only ones from our family to climb up the tower. A lot of people in our tour group were to scared to try this activity. The tour guide gave us instruction on how to walk backward off the face of the tower until we were suspended in the air. Then we gradually let ourself down our rope until our feet reached the floor of the cave. Later in the day the guide said that although a lot of people are to frightened to try rappelling, it is probably the safest of the three activities since the guide has control on how fast we descend into the cave.
Zip lining over the mangrove forrest was the only activity my entire family did. We had to climb up a tall tower where our instructor hooked us up to the line. We had the choice of running off or just jumping off the edge of the tower. I decided to run. It was exhilerating flying over the trees. You had to be careful on the landing not to injure yourself or the people on the next tower who help you stop. The scariest thing with the zip line was the climb up the towers,. Each of the three towers was taller than the last. It was also the most physically demanding part for me. I was a little winded getting to the top. We were so high up in the air and the wooden towers looked so rickety. You could fall off, if not careful, and kill yourself.
After lunch, we traveled to the ruins of Tulum. It is an ancient city built on a cliff. The ruins were fascinating. You could kill yourself there too if not careful. The bluffs were not fenced off so you could fall off into the ocean or jagged rocks below. I didn't venture too far out onto the rock formations but some of my family did. Also you had to watch out for iguanas that had the run of the place. My youngest daughter ventured into a small building to be surprised by a large iguana when she turned around.
By the end of the day I was beat. I enjoyed my dinner at our resort and retired early that night. It was well worth it. I would definately do it again.