Tulum/Coba/Cenote Azul (Bacalar)

Ahora estamos en un pueblo que se llama Bacalar, que tiene una laguna bien grande y dicen que tiene siete colores, es muy bonita, y el cenote mas grande de la zona que se llama el Cenote Azul. Nadas y se ven todos los peces porque es completamente transparente, pero al mismo tiempo es como estar flotando arriba de un abismo – impresionante! Saben que tiene por lo menos 90 metros de profundidad, pero todavia nadie llego al fondo y probablemente tenga 130 metros o mas! Nos hace pensar en eso que decian los Mayas, de que los cenotes son como portales a otra dimension o al mundo de los espiritus….
We finally decided to rip ourselves away from the beach and begin our trip toward Chiapas (back into the mountains). We are now in a town called Bacalar where there is a beautiful lagoon that they say has seven colours, and the largest cenote in the region called the Cenote Azul. It is huge, and apparently at least 90 metres deep (no one has ever been able to reach the bottom and know for sure). It makes me think about what the Mayas used to think, that cenotes were the way to reach the spirit world, or at least a portal to another dimension! You swim out and can see everything, but it is like you are on top of a huge abyss. For the past few days we have been bumming on a Tulum beach with no mosquitos because of the wind, we had some fires but we are usually in bed by around 8 pm and up before the sun rises. Gustavo has been playing some futbol with the other campers and Mateo’s been hanging out with his buddy Tibu, either on the beach or at their fort at the fallen palm tree or getting cocos to drink. Ari and I went out pretty far with the snorkel stuff, and saw some interesting fish, including a ray and a weird one that looked like a cow (!) that Ari calls a box fish, for some reason. The other day some people saw a nurse shark out there. It is usually pretty quiet here, except for Sunday when the beach gets totally crazy so it is where many locals come to enjoy themselves on their day off.
On Tuesday it was raining and windy (and we were out of food and water) so we decided to go to Coba, which is a town about 40 km inland where there are some Mayan ruins and three cenotes (underground caverns with crystal clear waters, some don’t even know how deep. If you don’t know about them find out – they are very cool!). We passed by one called Cenote de las Calaveras (skulls), but after reading up on cenotes (and the fact that sometimes the Maya used them for human sacrifices) we decided to pass on that one. At one of them we went down a 18 metre spiral wooden staircase, and then the cenote itself was 40 metres deep! Couldn’t go to ruins because it was raining and getting late (even though it is relatively warm here, it still gets dark too early in January!) but we did stop at a laguna in Coba where you can see crocodiles. Actually, it looked like there were both alligators and crocodiles…but I would not want to meet up with either one when swimming.
Los ultimos dias hemos hecho playa, Gustavo hasta juega futbol, y Mateo juega con un amigo que se llama Tibu. El otro dia Allison y Ariel se fueron lejos con el equipo de snorkel y vieron algunos peces, pero no es tanto como en el arrecife en Mahahual. El domingo se lleno esta playa de una manera loca, con todos los Mexicanos con el dia libre, una fiesta total. Martes hizo frio y viento y lluvia, asi que nos fuimos para Coba, unos 40 km par adentro, y fuimos a tres cenotes impresionantes. Estan todos debajo de la tierra y en una tuvimos que bajar 18 metros por una escalerita caracol! Habia un cenote llamado El Cenote de las Calaveras, pero despues que leimos que los Mayas a veces hacian sacrificios en los cenotes (por ser lugares sagrados) decidimos no entrar en ese! No pudimos ir a las ruinas porque se nos hizo tarde y estaba lloviendo, pero ya vamos a ver mas ruinas pronto. Despues pasamos por una laguna donde habian cocodrilos y pudimos sacar unas fotos!