About two years ago, an amazing network of watery underground chambers were discovered beneath the vast Yucatan jungle. They were just a few of the thousands of cenotes, sinkholes formed over millions of years partly as a result of the catastrophic meteor hit that took place in the sea just off this peninsula.
Rio Secreto is the name for this place. Today we donned miner’s helmets, wetsuits, lifejackets and water shoes and walked for about 90 minutes in the watery underground chambers.
We swam quite a bit too, sometimes it was up to our necks, and the lifejackets helped keep us buoyant as we bobbed with stalagtites dripping down on top of us. Our guide was a lovely young woman from Finland, with pure blond hair who easily spoke four languages.
The more than one meter of yearly rainfall is filtered down through the ground to form these calcium chloride stalagtites, and there is life in the cave…tiny fish and a few bats. The experience of swimming along and then hiking was a thrill and the beauty of this subterreanean world was stunning. This is another attraction that brings nature up close and is renewable and creates good jobs here.
This with the other ecotourism attractions we’ve experienced is enough to call Cancun an excellent destination for a lot more than just lounging by a pool…not that there’s anything wrong with that too!
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