Soon we were off on the trails. A guide leads the group, and one of the first things they do is stop the line and parade you one at a time past the photographer, bandana removed. At the end of the tour you can purchase the pic for $10.00. We chose not to at this time.
The trails are great fun, pretty safe and there are both fast areas and bumpy, curvy slower runs that are a blast to travel through. The bandanas are necessary to keep the dust off your face and out of your lungs – on a dry day, which 15 minutes into our adventure, our day was not. The skies opened up and it poured, which was both beneficial and detrimental: The benefit was that there was no longer any dust. The detriment was that now we were eating mud spattered up by the tires of the ATV in front of you. There was also slim chance of a bandana refund either.
Our first stop was to Cenote Luna for a short walk into the jungle. As we were walking, the man in front of me (here in white) thought that this might be a good time to share with me that of the 14 known snakes in the Ycatan, 12 were poisonous. All of a sudden, every tree root looked suspicious:
On to the cenote safely and then a refreshing swim:
Already soaked, so why not?:
It was fresh, deep (up to 70’), cool and life jackets, snorkels and masks were available. Cenotes are sink holes filled with fresh rainwater runoff, and this one has a very slowly moving current. Our guide explained cenotes and that Cenote Luna eventually mixed with salt water as it emptied underground into the ocean. The swim was refreshing and there were some very small and cool catfish type fish swimming there.
Some very cool plants in the jungle:
We trail rode for a while then headed for an underground cavern. In this one, there was an opening near the entrance where roots and vines from the jungle above dropped down and grew into the cave. There were also stalactites and stalactites and a pool of rainwater. I think one bat flew overhead too. The guide explained that since most of this area of the Yucatan was limestone, the rainwater runoff had eroded away the rock to form both cenotes and caverns over time. The guides did a good job explaining (in English and Spanish) these stops along the way:
Bats?
Back on the ATV’s:
A short ATV ride finished our adventure. Our cabbie, true to his word, came back exactly at 1 p.m. Some of the other ATV’ers tried to hijack him but he held out for us (tipping on the ride out was perhaps a wise investment) yet he did call his dispatcher to call some other taxis out to fetch people.
Once back at the Sandos, we headed out to the beach to retrieve our completely soaked towels. Due to the rain, many chairs were available, and the coolness may have driven some away as well. We found a nice spot and had some beach time:
Looking south:
