Lagoon and Cenotes and Critters---Oh My!!!

We went to two different types of cenote this visit--neither of them like the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza nor the one we swam in en route to that site in 2007.  This particular cenote is called a 'open' cenote and is ancient. It looks like an "ol' swimmin' hole".  It is probably about 30 meters across and about 20 feet deep.  One can see (under the water) the place where the cenote is connected to the underground water system.  Apparently its younger but much larger cousin is about a kilometer away. That particular cenote was closed because a film was being made there.  But this was an absolute delight.  The bottom was covered with a rich fern-like growth that was host to several different kinds of fish such as a beautiful blue catfish.  Mostly, though, the inhabitants were several different colours of tetras that nibbled at your skin as you floated.  I guess you could say that we 'were feeding da fishes'. There was only our tour there (six of us) and that was amazing.  Later in the swim we did have two more visitors, young people from Germany on their gap year world tour, a charming young couple who now know all about Canada from their week in Montreal.  Oh well, I suppose I can't say I know all about Mexico from four trips to resorts here.

  That day we also stopped at a lagoon in Akumel.  This place did not support as many varieties of fish as Xel ha. but was quite lovely to swim in.  Mike and I lazed in the water and watched a huge eagle wait for, and finally catch, a fish.  I was not bright enough to take a picture of the lagoon itself, but at the site was a large, permanent show of three artists' work.  I spent a long time enjoying the works.  I have no idea who the artists were but it occurs to me if I could check it out on the web as the site is called Yal-Ku.

After Yal-Ku we drove to Akumel to have lunch.  It is all included in the day, and is great to get out of the hotel (that doesn't serve that much Mexican food--more international, including sushi) We stopped off at a Mom and Pop style restaurant and had chicken and tacos.  We finally found out why the bean sauces are so runny in the Yucatan--they are cooked, spiced and then stored, sometimes underground, historically.  The chicken was great, I purchased some of the paste they used to marinade it--just add lime juice.

Yvan and I tried to make this the other night using pork ribs.  We discovered that the taste of the pork overpowers the spice; everybody prefers the home made rub I make anyway.  Next time it will be with chicken and with a little chipotle spice added to zing it up a touch.

After lunch the gang of six plus driver and guide moved off on another cenote, called the Grand Cenote.  It is a cave cenote as well as having open areas.  The water was beautiful as well; not as many fishes as in the first cenote but a few.  It was very large--we could swim quite a way into the cave part which was much deeper than the other part.  We disturbed the bats as we swam around the stalagmites, stalactites and columns.  When we looked back towards the mouth of the cave the light entering made the water turn the most exquisite blue.

Finally I am going to include some of the fauna we saw this time, jut for the fun of it. First I have a lovely iguana from Tulum, overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  He was just resting peacefully, and then another male clambered on to a nearby rock and off it went scrabbling down with his ruff flaring.

I have already mentioned the birds in a previous posting, but there were several that I had not seen before.  One morning I found a couple apparently doing some sort of mating ritual, or exhibiting aggressive behavior -- I don't really know which, but I was having a bit of difficulty deciding on their gender.  At any rate, they kept hopping sideways --if one hopped to its right, the other would hop to its right, and then left, and then right.  It was quite odd and seemed to have been going on for a long time, and would seemingly continue to do so.

Mike woke up eye to eye with this little fellow on the beach one morning.  He thought at first that it was just a grain of sand, but when he looked more closely he saw the tiny shell.  It looks like the uni residence version of a hermit's home.

Finally I have a couple of pictures of the variety of animals we found in our rooms everyday.  Alonso would leave them with us when he left.  Some of them were quite clever. We aren't quite certain why he decided we should have the swan display (reserved for the bridal suite), but it may have been that after finding out that we had been married so long, we needed a little romance.  Que sabe?