A few weeks ago, right after the new year's celebration, I was driving around in the outskirts of Merida, particularly in the Southern part near a town called Tecoh. Tecoh is a small town in Yucatan known among the local for it's central nature, because you can visit cenotes, ruins, caves and lagoons from there and everything is close.
Well, I was driving by and I realized I had been fooled, I was expecting to run into a cenote every two clicks, or maybe hit some unpopular ruins or something like that, but after a 40 minute drive I decided to go back to Merida.
And that's when I noticed the sign Grutas de Tzabnah, which means Tzabnah Cave Complex and it appeared to be empty; I saw no cars in the small and dirty parking lot, no people around, and the sign looked as if it hadn't been taken care of since before the Covid Pandemic shenanigans began.
-That's my kind of adventure - I thought to myself.
We parked the car and we headed out, just to be received by an old, short and yet strong looking man who said in a calm voice: If you are here to explore the caves, you won't be able to do so in sandals/flip-flops. Naturally, I got even more excited and we went back to put on our snickers that we brought in the trunk of the car.
The place was huge, green and full of trees, and it was deserted. There was a small waiting area next to the cave entrance, most likely meant for the those who've seen too many winters or too few and couldn't tackle the cave adventure.
It was beginning to rain, so we just hurried up and went inside with the tour guide - the same guy who received us and that we paid the entrance to (yeah, I know).
This cave complex is home to 13 cenotes, some of them small, some of them huge, and there is only one way to get there - this means there aren't many paths to explore, just a few but actually only a main one.
So, we headed inside...
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You see, once you go 15 meters inside the cave complex you stop being able to see anything, you can't even see the palm of your hand even if you place it 3cm from your eyes.
Check how dark it gets once you step inside a few meters.
And to my amusement, we found a ton of swallows nests in the cave's ceiling by the entrance. The curious part is that we also saw bats right there - no pics though, they were too far above for my lighting to reach -, something that surprised me as I didn't know these two species could coexist in the same area.
The more you dare going further, the more cenotes you will find, all of this with the promise of a huge lagoon at the end of the tunnels, a place so dark and big that it dwarfs a couple of Olympic swimming pools.
I was thinking that I should make this post as a timeline, explaining everything and then putting pictures as the adventure advances, but I realized that the pictures I have are not that great and not much can be appreciated due to the dark nature of the place.
Naturally, the guide gave us a couple of lanterns and we had our cellphones, but the pictures powered by a cellphone flash or using cheap lanterns as light source are simply not that great so, I think I will just show you the pictures I managed to get from the cenotes, but first...
I want to show you some good quality pictures I took of the cave complex where you can appreciate the stalactites, stalagmites and mineral formations that took thousands of years to form.
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For reference purposes, the front-right triangle formation is the size of a can of coca cola.
As you can see, the space in some parts of the caves is very narrow, and some times you even have to crawl to go through some corridors. I highly recommend using snickers - preferably with non-slip sloes -, not to bring unnecessary and/or heavy stuff and bring 2 liters of water because the weather inside is very warm, humid and suffocating.
Do you want to know the craziest part? Exploring these caves costs only $2 USD, that includes lamps and guide... no matter how many people you are, the price stays the same. We obviously gave the tour guide a big tip, but only because he really did a great job according to us.
The sad part? After we left and I did some research, there is still a lot more to explore after the last cenote - which is huge - one you cross (in complete darkness) to the other shore and do some climbing.
As you can see from the pics, there is no light whatsoever during the whole exploration and the only source of vision comes from the flashlights. The Mayans consider any cenote as a source of magic, but the underground cenotes hold an even greater mysticism. Every cenote represents the entrance to the underworld, and a lot of them are connected between them from below. The cenotes are also the major source of fresh sweet water for many Yucatecans.
Some of these caves - as well as many others in the region - served as hideouts for the Mexicans during the independence war between 1810 and 1820.
I wish I had more pictures of the cenotes but my cellphone's camera wasn't amazing, and we didn't bring the RebelT5 because the tour guide said it would be a rocky exploration and it wasn't safe to bring the camera, I wish I hadn't listened to him.
But still, I was able to take some good pics.
In the 5th and 6th cenote you can actually do some scuba diving because they are huge - maybe not in diameter, but they are massive in depth. The bad side of these is that most of them look stagnant because almost nobody goes inside, so the water looks rather dirty in some of the 13 cenotes even though they are made of running water.
Then we finally reached the final cenote, the 13th one
At first we were reluctant of swimming inside because our flashlights were too weak and we couldn't see anything. The cenote is massive and the bottom lies several tens of meters below, while the cavern itself is very tall.
I mean, a kraken could be hidden there, or maybe just weird crocodile-like creatures from ancient eras.
But seriously, even though I am quite brave for this kind of things I didn't dare swimming far away from the rope that crosses from one end to the other.
In one of the corners of the cave, right where the cenote isn't that deep there was a light source coming from the ceiling, I am not sure if it was natural or man made but it was perfect for a picture or two.
After coming home and now that I am writing this, I just found out there are a few more cenotes once you swim across the final cenote and once on the other side, you climb a small salt-mountain and reach a hidden path.
I just I had known this.
I am not even sure I would've swam all the way to the other side, and I wasn't even prepared to take pictures - no water camera, no water-proof backpack etc - but still, the adventure would've been worth the hazzle.
Next time... Next time.
That's a nice unexpected find. You know swallow nests are actually a very expensive delicacy in Asia? Thought to be high in protein it's very good for your skin, females love to eat them
I had no idea about this but damn, this is exactly one of the things I love about traveling, the cultural, tradition, culinary and even normal life differences from one place to another. I would've never guessed swallow nests to be a delicacy, but then again we eat cow every day and India avoids it at all costs.
Thanks for dropping by, it was indeed a great adventure, I just wish I had brought my good camera, I think the pics are not the best they could've been considering the dark and humid circumstances.
That was fascinating! But also somewhat creepy. We also have similar caves somewhere around here, but it's filled with creepy stories.
There is a story of this caves about a Mayan prince who hid from his enemies alongside his wife, or something along these lines. I couldn't find a more detailed story of this, but yeah, lot's of folklore surrounding caves. Where are you from?
Sounds like an old story, if it's about Mayans. Should be earlier than 16th century.
Also, I'm from Indonesia, a country in South East Asia.
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This looks like an exciting adventure.
I enjoyed your photos.
Daily Travel Digest #1473.
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Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!Imagine being the person that had to swim that rope across ;D
Looks like you're just going to have to go back there to see the other side now XP
with proper gear with waterproof protection so you can take more photos
That sounds like a great adventure, even though you may not have seen it all, as you say, there's always next time!:)