Cenotes are natural swimming holes found all over the Yucatán area. I love jumping into them from cliff edges, swimming in the crystal clear water and seeing thousands of fish. Read on to find out some cools facts about cenotes.
How many are there?
There are over 6,000 cenotes in the Yucatán. In fact, they are all connected together like a giant underground river. Cenotes are the only source of fresh water in the whole area, and they have been described as the veins of area, giving life to fish, plants and people.
How were they made?
The process for making cenotes started over 3 million years. Cenotes were made by rain falling on the limestone rock that makes up the Yucatán area. The rain is slightly acidic so it kind of eats away at the limestone making giant underground caves. Over time, the caves filled with a combination of fresh water from the rain and salt water from the oceans. They grew bigger and bigger and eventually the ceilings of some of the caves collapsed. And woo hoo, we get cool natural swimming pools!
Maya and Cenotes
Maya were the original people who lived in the Yucatán area. Cenotes were really important to them as they were the only freshwater they had for drinking, cooking and washing. As a result they built their cities around cenotes. Maya considered cenotes to be the entrance to the underworld. They worshipped the rain god, Chaac, through cenotes by making sacrifices into the cenotes when there was a drought. Sometimes even people were sacrificed!
Fun at Cenotes
I visited two different cenotes in Tulum. The first cenote was called Zacil Ha and was very good for jumping. They had two different platforms and it was very deep. They even had a zip line into the centre of the cenote and then you dropped from really high.
The second cenote was called Santa Cruz and it was a circle with an island in the middle. There were two different spots for jumping and heaps of fish in this cenote.
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