Day trip from Merida

We heard that we should go visit these awesome Cenotes...so we decided okay lets go!

In Merida there were two other teachers hanging out as well (they stayed in a different place than me though) and they met up with a girl from Germany (Sabrina) and a girl from Britian (Lisa) who ended up going too!
Arriving there was a process. We walked 25 minutes to the colectivo (a big van) "stop". Took an hour van ride, ended up in the middle of nowhere, where there were men standing on the side of the road with their bike carts. We got on their carts for a 20 minute ride up and down some hills where we arrived at the horse spot. We then boarded a horse cart to start our 3 hour "trip" to the 3 cenotes. Cenotes are giant sink holes where you can swim in freshwater. There were bats and a few fish there as well. They put a little railroad like thing along the way and made these very skinny horses pull us along. It was only a one way path so when you ran into someone you had to get off the cart, pull it off the path, let them pass and then get on again. It was crazy rediculous, but it was a very fun ride all the same!

The cenotes were really cool. There were steep steps down into them and you could jump in from up above (not all the way up), we tried to swim down to the bottom and we could never reach it. There were roots hanging down that we swung on as well. While we were inside one of them, we heard someone screaming. It was a little girl who fell down the steps on her way out and ended up in her daddy's arm. Scary! But there is no railing, and when your feet are wet, it is slippery, very scary. We ended up tipping our guide an extra 70 pesos and when he realized it he screamed he was so happy. It makes me realize once again how little people are paid for how much work they do! Then it was back on the bike taxi, waiting for the colectivo, and 30 minute walk home!