Cenotes

Well, our luck seems to have run out regarding the repair people. One guy was supposed to be here at 9am to do some painting. Never showed. No email. The guy to fix the cupboards was supposed to be here at 10. We waited until almost 11:30 and decided to carry on with our day. L & M, our neighbours who look after our place when we're gone, said they'd let them in if they came. So we left a note on the door for them to see L & M when they arrived.

When we got home, we noted that the guy who was supposed to do the painting hadn't come. It seems that some of the cupboards have been secured but the countertop in the bathroom is still loose so I think we'll have to contact the builder again.

We went out to a cenote this afternoon. Cenotes are these marvelous underground caverns with natural pools. México has hundreds of them. We chose to go to the San Ignacio cenote. We didn't want to drive a long way and this one is about an hour from Progreso. We found the turn off to San Ignacio easily enough. Drove through a small town. Eventually, we could see that the street was going to turn into a gravel road, the kind that has grass growing between the ruts. When we got past all the houses and trees, and just before hitting the gravel road, a magnificent church came into view. It was stunning. Guess what was written on it? That's right. San Ignacio. We weren't at the cenote, at all. We took a wrong turn. Again. We haven't figured out if the town is called San Ignacio or if the sign was intended to point the way to the church.

So back to the highway we went. We found the cenote fairly easily once we got to the right town...lol. It's in Chochola. Chochola is a picturesque little town that, despite having paved roads, didn't look as though it saw a lot of vehicular traffic. We saw lots of people on peddle bikes and those 3 wheeled bikes with seating on front. But we saw very few cars or trucks. The streets were in very good condition so my guess is that many people work elsewhere, making it appear as though there were few vehicles.

We were surprised that the cenote was right in town. We expected it to be out in the country. If it wasn't for the signs, you'd never know it was there. The place looks like any house and yard with nothing to distinguish it as being anything but another place of residence. Inside is a yard with a restaurant, playground, bathrooms and a petting stable. There were goats and sheep grazing right out in the open.

Some cenotes have to be entered by climbing down a ladder but this one had stairs. Very steep stairs. And narrow. I had to go down sideways. They had installed a very sturdy handrail which I made good use of. Señor B was able to manage it without his crutches. The cenote is much smaller than the photos online suggested. There were about 12 of us down there and it was a bit crowded. One of the guys there told us that there is another area that can only be accessed by wearing scuba gear. He said it was massive. We'll have to take his word for it. It was also very hot down there. The temp today was 33C. As we climbed back up the stairs, we all commented on how much cooler the air felt up top. Wonder how hot it was at the bottom.

I took some photos but I'm not able to post them from the laptop. At the blogger's conference, I learned a better and safer way to post pics instead of using Picasa. But it requires an email address and the laptop isn't associated with one so pics will have to wait until we get back home. Sorry.

We stayed there for about an hour and then went to Mérida for a bite to eat. Macdonald's. Ugh. We only chose it because it was 4pm and we were too hungry to do a sit down meal. The girl who took our order didn't speak any English. Or if she did, she chose not to use it. But we still got what we had ordered so it was all good.

We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing. It's almost 11pm and the temp in Mérida is 24C with a humidex of 35C. It's usually a bit cooler here in Progreso but it's still a beautiful night. There's a slight breeze but it's a warm one. Paradise!