Cenote Swimming in Ik Kil

The Yukatan Peninsula of Mexico is made of porous limestone, and there are no visible rivers running through it. However, when it rains, the water is soaked into the limestone, creating underground rivers and caves. You can take boat tours through these underwater rivers, which would have been great…but didn’t really fit within our time schedule.

However, many “cenotes” also exist throughout the Peninsula. Cenotes are basically open sinkholes filled with water. Most of them are very deep, and you cannot see the bottom (or even imagine how far down it may go)!

We went to a very tourist-populated cenote, Ik Kil, near Chichen Itza. For a relatively small fee, we got to change into our swimsuits, take a mandatory cleansing shower. They had lockers available for rent, which were crazily overpriced. We just took our backpack with us, and kept it close. As we walked carefully down the wet stairwell carved into the limestone, down to the bottom of the cenote, window-type openings allowed us to peer down at the cenote.  A large crowd was just finishing up swimming when we arrived:

I loved the atmosphere that the hanging vines created…just by being there 🙂

The water was very dark and made Jared a bit uncomfortable. Who knew my husband (who isn’t scare of much) could be weirded out by a black, bottomless swimming pit?

It was a bit tricky to swim with kids here (we forgot to bring in our floaties–which would have helped IMMENSELY). They had life jackets available for rent, but they were also a ridiculous price (perhaps $10 USD? I can’t remember, exactly!).

There are no sides to hold on to…so you are in a free-for-all-doggie-paddle with a kid on your hip or back…trying to stay above water!  Nevertheless, we each got to swim and we enjoyed ourselves!

Next, Jared and I took turns jumping off a tall platform, into the cenote. We didn’t realize how high it was until we each jumped. Thankfully, we both survived 😉

Overall, a swim in a cenote is an ESSENTIAL experience to have on a trip to the Yukatan!  These are the kinds of things you can’t do just anywhere!

But beware of what lurks beneath. You don’t want to get eaten by the giant cenote crocodiles!

Just kidding…

Kind of.

No, seriously…

😉