VINTAGE VENTURES: I write my travel journals to look back and remember our ventures. A secondary reason is to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a cohesive story makes sense.

We spent the day in Cuzama, Mexico, home of four Cenotes: X'Tojil, San Felipe, Ayuso, and Sak Paka. We snorkeled to our hearts' content.

DAY 15, Saturday, February 17, 2018

CUZAMA CENOTE

Another morning and another superb breakfast, then out the door for Cuzama. All the Yucatan travel blogs and tourist articles cite the Cenotes de Cuzama tour as a 'must-do'. The write-ups discuss riding a donkey-driven cart on rails to three different cenotes. 

Cuzama is a small town about 25 miles from Merida. The Cuzama cenotes are out in the sticks a couple of miles outside Cuzama. The best way to get there is, you guessed it, colectivo. So, after breakfast, we hopped on whatever bus listed Centro on its windshield, and off we went to find the Cuzama colectivo in the maze of colectivo stands. We had heard that the Cuzama colectivo was near the Noreste bus terminal, so we went there first.

In our quest, a guy promoting a different set of cenotes that he claimed were better than the Cuzama cenotes approached us. His photos looked nice, but we didn’t fully understand his Spanglish. I did catch enough to indicate that I’d research it and maybe come back on Monday or Tuesday for his cenote package. 

We located the Cuzama colectivo just behind the colectivo where the promoter worked. The colectivo was 23 pesos each, and it quickly filled up. It took about 55 minutes, with half of the time just getting through Merida.

I don’t get how these colectivos make any money. The Cuzama colectivo makes about $20 US for each run to Cuzama. By the time they wait to fill all their seats and figure in the drive time, it takes at least 1½ hours to gross the $20 US. Each run probably burns up 2 gallons of gas. Gas in Mexico is not cheap - $1 US per liter or approximately $4 US per gallon. That leaves $12 US gross profit per run. But you have payments on the van, insurance (maybe?), maintenance, and repairs. They might make five runs on a good day, grossing $60 US minus expenses. Is $40ish net per day a reasonable estimate?

On the way to Cuzama, the colectivo went through the town of Achena. I read that Achena was a cute little town boasting a thriving market, a Mayan pyramid downtown, and a yellow church. Sure enough, the colectivo drove right by all three. What struck me, however, were the hundred or so tuk-tuks scurrying about town with their passengers.

Breakfast.

The Mayan pyramid in the village of Achena.

The market in Achena.

Circling the big city of Merida are many small towns and villages. Tuk-tuks are the mode of public transportation in these surrounding towns.

The yellow Achena church along the way to the Cuzama cenotes.

The colectivo dropped us off at a desolate spot in nowheresville. I wasn’t sure we were in the right place, but three other people, a sweet Mexican mother, her teenage daughter, and a pretty young medical intern from Campeche doing her residency at Merida, got out with us. The intern spoke enough English to reassure us that it was the right place. Just over a little hill, we came across the railhead for the tour. For being so heavily advertised, I was surprised to see that the five of us were the only patrons. 

About a dozen narrow gauge railroad carts lined up in the dirt next to the start of a set of tiny rails that had to have been laid down by the drunkest rail crew ever to lay down track. A couple of young guys lifted one of the carts onto the tracks while a squat, friendly old guy led a small horse, not a donkey as advertised, over to the front of the cart. The cart held six people and costs 450 pesos. Divided by the 5 of us it cost each of us 90 pesos. ($5 US). We jumped in, and soon we were on our way. 

The cart wildly swayed, bumped, jumped, and screeched as the horse galloped along. I don’t know how the cart stayed on the tracks, but the ride was better than any carnival ride I was ever on. The five of us quickly bonded with laughter and 'yahoos' on our way to the first cenote, a good kilometer away. The entire circuit was 3 kilometers long and worth the 90 pesos each.

A network of horse-drawn narrow-gauge RR carts delivered us to the four cenotes.

The crew that laid out this track had too much tequila.

Horse-drawn Uber tuk-tuk..

I had read that this tour originally had three cenotes, but one had been shut down. To my delight, we were taken to four cenotes, although one was pretty difficult to swim in. The access was so poor that we just climbed down into the cave and marveled at the colorful stalactites and stalagmites plunging into the clear blue water. All the cenotes were of the underground variety with all but one sporting steep stairways or ladders reaching down 30 or 40 feet through tiny holes in the ground. A few bare bulbs powered by a little topside generator or a car battery provided lighting.

Standing at the tops of these tall steep ladders and squinting through the darkness to see where these steps were leading gave us pause at first. The mother took a few moments to gather her courage, but she was a pro by the end of the tour. Wanda and I, being cenote pros already, went right down. 

The first cenote, X’tohil, was a 75-foot-in-diameter circle of water with an island in the middle set deep in a cave. The water was the typical crystal clear blue. Along the outside circumference were numerous deep caves going off to who-knows-where. It was a fairly plain cenote with few rock formations – nice but not spectacular.

Our first cenote was X'tohil.

Reaching the water at Cenote X'tohil required descending a steep stairway.

The second cenote, Ayuso, just blew us away. It was deep underground and on the smallish side, but it was gorgeous, with beautiful formations and the darkest blue water I have ever seen. To top it off, there was a swing rope that was a blast.

Next was our favorite, Cenote Ayuso. This sign actually points out two different cenotes. Ayuso, the top cenote is where we went next.

The entrance to Ayuso.

The swing rope was a nice added touch.

The third cenote, Saak Pakai (or Sak Paka), had poor access. There weren't any stairs, and getting in and out of the water was nearly impossible. Consequently, we just climbed down to gawk at the gorgeous cave.

Next was Saak Pakai (Also spelled Sak Paka), the bottom cenote on this sign.

There weren't any stairs, just a flimsy railing to hang on to as we picked our way down.

Getting in and out of the water would have been difficult at Sak Paka. There wasn't a flat landing or platform at the bottom. There was just a sheer wall. We decided not to swim here.

The fourth cenote, San Felipe, had the most extraordinary entrance and was the most beautiful of the bunch. The entrance opening was large, so a nice sturdy staircase was provided. Once in the cave, you followed a long shaft, including a long wooden bridge, through stunningly colorful formations to reach the tiny but beautiful cenote.

The whole tour took about 4 hours. The total cost, including round trip bus ride, colectivo ride, and horse cart, was 304 pesos for both of us. That works out to less than $17 US for another terrific day.

San Felipe was our final cenote. The pool of water was very tiny; however, the underground trail to the cenote was magnificent.

The walk through the cave was fun.

The pool of water was small.

The return trip to Merida was uneventful. Our colectivo dropped us off near Merida's downtown.

We stopped at the excellent tamale cart next to Walmart on our way back to the Airbnb. We discovered that they sold three different varieties of tamales. We got two of each flavor for a total of six.

There was a bakery nearby that I had read good things about, so we gave Mexico one more shot at pastries. Lastly, we stopped at Walmart to pick up some good hot sauces, plastic utensils, and napkins for the tamales. We took everything back to the Airbnb and pigged out. The tamales were terrific, especially with the hot sauces. The empanada we got from the bakery was delicious. The other pastries were good but not quite up to the Spanish standard. Spanish pastries spoiled us.

The streets were busy in Merida when the colectivo dropped us off.

Dave and Wanda

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