Swimming Cenotes

Otherworldly pools, some in dark caves with bats flying above, big, slow motion fish in another, some with the long, hanging vines trickling streams of water down on my head.  Each unique, each like nothing I've ever seen.

The first one we swam in was Ik Kil, near Chichen Itza. It has a life guard, locker rooms, a restaurant, courtyard, the works.  Apparently, this cenote used to be underground but the roof collapsed some years ago and killed a couple of swimmers.

X'keken Cenotes, outside of Valladolid on the road to Coba.  There were two different pools here. The first was super dark, spooky and full of fish. Yes, I swam with the fish. A large colony of bats flew in the dark recesses above my head. There was also a gardener up there, working in the skylight-like opening in the roof with no safety harness. Ah, Mexico..

The other pool at X'Keken had very few fish, better light and was a perfect crystal clear blue. There must be minerals in the water because it dissolved some of the dead skin on my feet. They were quite soft when I was done swimming.

Finally, Gran Cenote near Tulum.  It reminded me of a lazy river at a water park. It meandered through passages. At one point, I swam through a completely dark tunnel to get from one large pool to the next.  Perfectly blue, perfectly clear with white sand along the bottom, it was home to turtles, bats, but no big fish (at least none I saw.)