Cenote Kankirixche

From above it looks like nothing is there

We went to another amazing cenote today. This one was in the middle of nowhere.

The path down

First you go to a little town called Abala, which is too small to be on most maps. And then you go straight where the sign points to the left to go to the town center. Eventually, you will be on a road heading out of town. You follow this for several miles to an unmarked dirt road. Take this for several more miles. Then there is a side path on the left with some rocks with white paint. Take this for a few hundred feet and you arrive. If you get lost, ask the man with the shotgun or the boy with the machete.

But boy is it worth it. Kankirixche is beautiful. You pay a dollar to get in and descent down a well built staircase. Inside it opens up to a cave. Most of the roof was covered with stalactites or swallow nests, but maybe 1/5 of it was open letting in brilliant beams of light that turned the water bright blue.

Aside from the whole concept of swimming in a partially submerged cave being amazing, the areas where the light shined in were amazing. We had a snorkling mask so we could see under water, and the sunlight made these amazing underwater sunbeams, pillars of shimmering light, illuminating all the way to the 40 foot deep bottom, which was filled with submerged stalactites.

Also really cool, there appeared to be other rooms to the cave that you could only get to with scuba equipment. I held my breath and dove and looked in and it went further and further back, all underwater as far as I could see, I could only go as far as one breath would take me, which was pretty much down and up, but it looked like an entire other world down there.

That, little fish, the cool swallows doing their dance and warm water made it amazing.

It felt like a nature documentary, where you can't believe any place could be so beautiful, so you conclude they used trick photography, or that they found that one angle that was pretty and right outside the camera's eye is a telephone line, or something. But there it was, in real life. Stunningly beautiful.