Justin is visiting and also Elana and her family are visiting. Elana's family is Noah, Shira, and Chaya (husband, 6 year old, 4 year old) Josh did a ton of maneuvering to get a rental car (or two of them, actually) and a beach house and a place to stay in Merida. In fact, we went to Merida in order to rent a car. There were no cars to rent when we were in Campeche. It's far, so they got an Airbnb house in Merida.
Josh and Noah spent time on the phone and online and went to the bus station and talked to a zillion people and after 2.5 days, finally arranged it. Couldn't get a rental car in Campeche, so took a bus to Merida. To get to the bus station of Campeche, we walked a few blocks to the mercado to get two taxis. We were 9 people, carrying frame packs and 3 car seats and 4 kids and a scooter and a guitar and everyone had their hands full as we walked. We were the last ones on the bus but we made it. We didn't have dinner but had random things like trail mix and an orange.
At Merida we took two taxis - one to the house we stayed at, and one to the airport to pick up the two rental cars. I got a ride to the little 7 eleven down the street and bought dinner and breakfast: two boxes of Kraft mac cheese and milk and a box of cereal and some cheese. Finally got to bed with cars gotten and stuff where it should be and kids undressed but not teeth brushed - it was probably after 11. We were sleeping on a fake velvet tucked in blanket on a bed with no sheets or anything. Josh found a blanket and a spare sheet to use as a towel.
We're finally there. We walk 100 feet away from the trail and there is another trail leading to a hole in the ground. There's a couple people leaving, wearing wet swimsuits and backpacks. There is no water in sight. We go over to the hole and look down. Way way down, there's water! And light is shining into it and it looks blue and mysterious and there was a wooden ladder going down. With the people who were on other wagons we were probably about 25 people. I wore Aviva in my ergo and we all went down the ladder. It was probably 50 feet down the ladder and there it opened up into a cavern with giant roots of a banyan tree or something, that were suspending down from the top. There were some jumping-off places and a piece of wood you could walk on to get to a bunch of rocks where you could climb down and get in the water. Most people were jumping. It was a 15 foot jump or so. Josh held Aviva while I jumped in. I forgot to pack swimsuits so we just wore our clothes. There was a rope you could use to get out. The water was so nice and not too cold and so beautiful. The whole thing was kind of too beautiful and amazing and it didn't seem real.
Google images of cenotes and you'll see pictures.http://vagabond3.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/yucatan-cenote_1362052c-pinterest.jpg
Josh and Noah spent time on the phone and online and went to the bus station and talked to a zillion people and after 2.5 days, finally arranged it. Couldn't get a rental car in Campeche, so took a bus to Merida. To get to the bus station of Campeche, we walked a few blocks to the mercado to get two taxis. We were 9 people, carrying frame packs and 3 car seats and 4 kids and a scooter and a guitar and everyone had their hands full as we walked. We were the last ones on the bus but we made it. We didn't have dinner but had random things like trail mix and an orange.
At Merida we took two taxis - one to the house we stayed at, and one to the airport to pick up the two rental cars. I got a ride to the little 7 eleven down the street and bought dinner and breakfast: two boxes of Kraft mac cheese and milk and a box of cereal and some cheese. Finally got to bed with cars gotten and stuff where it should be and kids undressed but not teeth brushed - it was probably after 11. We were sleeping on a fake velvet tucked in blanket on a bed with no sheets or anything. Josh found a blanket and a spare sheet to use as a towel.
The next day we went to see some cenotes. We drove and got a little lost and turned around but passed a bunch of guys trying to hand us pamphlets and entice us to their own cenote. We finally found the parking lot we were looking for, and got our names on a list. We ate some random things we had like hard boiled eggs and bananas while we tried to stay cool in the shade of a tree but we were sitting on the ground, a little surrounded by trash. After a couple hours, it was our turn. It was intermittently raining randomly and hot. When it was our turn, we got to sit on a wagon, all 9 of us filling the seats, while a horse was attached to pull the wagon on a track into the trees. We rode this wagon for 20 minutes or a half hour, and then the tracks ended. We got off and waited awhile for a motorcycle that was attached to a wagon and we squeezed into that even though it was supposed to seat 6. The trail continued and the motorcycle pulled us and we went another 20 minutes. Then we got off and waited for another horse and trailer. The tracks started again. We rode that for a few kilometers and looked at the old stone walls around us. We were riding a wagon on tracks pulled by a horse going in the trees and brush. It seemed pretty random and unorganized and we didn't know where we were on a map except that it wasn't too far from Merida, in the Yucatan state of Mexico.
We're finally there. We walk 100 feet away from the trail and there is another trail leading to a hole in the ground. There's a couple people leaving, wearing wet swimsuits and backpacks. There is no water in sight. We go over to the hole and look down. Way way down, there's water! And light is shining into it and it looks blue and mysterious and there was a wooden ladder going down. With the people who were on other wagons we were probably about 25 people. I wore Aviva in my ergo and we all went down the ladder. It was probably 50 feet down the ladder and there it opened up into a cavern with giant roots of a banyan tree or something, that were suspending down from the top. There were some jumping-off places and a piece of wood you could walk on to get to a bunch of rocks where you could climb down and get in the water. Most people were jumping. It was a 15 foot jump or so. Josh held Aviva while I jumped in. I forgot to pack swimsuits so we just wore our clothes. There was a rope you could use to get out. The water was so nice and not too cold and so beautiful. The whole thing was kind of too beautiful and amazing and it didn't seem real.
Google images of cenotes and you'll see pictures.http://vagabond3.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/yucatan-cenote_1362052c-pinterest.jpg
Everyone was diving in or climbing out or swimming and it was pretty crazy. We went to two others, transported by horses. They looked like nothing from the tops, but down inside it was totally different. I went into the next one, but not the last one. It started getting dark and we rode horses, motorcycle-wagons and another horse to go back to the parking lot. It was totally dark when we got there and we were looking at the stars at all the stops when we were waiting for our horse or motorcycle. We saw lots and lots and the Milky Way. It was 6 or 7:00 and we stopped at a mini-restaurant/someone's house to pick up some food. We ate empanadas and things and went home, dirty and tired.
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