Byatangajwe: 22.05.2018
After spending a while at the first cenote, we continued to the next one. This one was even deeper in the jungle and was privately owned. That means, this cenote was not open to the public, so once again, no one else would be there except for us.
Cenote Santa Cruz
First, the family living there warmly greeted us, we could leave our belongings and off we went. Since this was a closed cenote, meaning it was underground, we were equipped with flashlights and life vests. To reach the entrance of the cenote, we had to take a short walk through the jungle. Along the way, we could already see the interior of the cenote through a hole in the ground. The entrance was through a ladder embedded in another hole.
We waded through the water, illuminated only by the lights of our flashlights. It was truly impressive! But also somewhat frightening, how easy it is to get lost down here. To make the whole thing even clearer to us, our guide asked us to turn off the flashlights. Complete darkness! There is really no trace of daylight here. After a while, we arrived at a kind of 'clearing'. Here, we could look up through the hole we had looked down before. We lingered at the clearing for a while, where there was also a rope to swing into the water. Then we went back up to the surface.
Mexican lunch
Once we reached the surface, we had a delicious Mexican lunch, in which the men were allowed to help with the preparation ;) We discreetly omitted the fact that Luke is usually the one cooking at home, otherwise I might have ended up cooking with the men :D
Conclusion
The tour was definitely one of the best we have ever taken. And that's how it should be with all the other Aledia tours. The tours may cost money, but they are worth every penny. The small group especially made the day very enjoyable and we never felt rushed or stressed, like on most other mass tourism tours. The cenotes impressed us a lot. Everyone in the Yucatan area should visit a few of them. Especially the closed cenote was an experience that you don't have every day. We were already looking forward to the other two tours that awaited us with Aledia :)