[Shootingstar]

After the show we piled into the van and headed for “Grande Cenote” to do a little snorkelling. This was our first time in a cenote. We entered the area via a large wooden staircase that took us thirty or so feet down into a large crater in the ground. There was a wooden dock set up to allow access to the water and wooden ladders to get out of the water. To me it seemed like snorkelling in a huge fresh water aquarium. There were small fish everywhere and I recognized a few of them from my days of keeping tropical fish as a hobby. The water was crystal clear and pleasantly cool. Snorkelling in the caverns was really excellent. The flat light and absolutely clear water gave the place an eerie feel. James gave us a lot of information on this cenote. He has done a lot of cave diving and is quite passionate about the exploration of these underground water systems. After we were done snorkelling we went back up the staircase and to a concrete building that had a large map of the explored areas of this cenote system. James gave us a detailed description of how the underground water systems are mapped and explored. During the lecture we noticed that on the wall about 20 feet to our right was a big hairy tarantula about the size of my hand. I asked James about it and was told that it was one of the smaller ones he has seen. Cathy however is not fond of creatures with more than four legs and decided that it needed constant supervision. She missed most of James’s talk.

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We left Grande Cenote and made a short pit stop for beers at a store along the way. It was lunch time and beer was essential since the day was getting warm and we were heading to the beach. I made the discovery that Mexican beer bottles are kinda small cause it tends to disappear really fast.

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We went towards the ocean and down a sand road to a place called Playa Selva. A short trek through the bush totin’ coolers and stuff and lunch was on. After a morning of touring ruins and snorkelling the lunch went down really well. James provided some really excellent roast chicken, potatoes, spicy beans, rice, pasta and lots of fruit for desert. It was a superb place to be. After eating we all spent quite a while just lazing around, swimming (and drinking) in the ocean and playing on the beach. I really don’t think any of us really wanted to leave but we still had one more place to visit.

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We packed up and headed for Crystallino Cenote (I probably spelled that wrong). It is a smaller cenote a couple of hundred meters back in the bush. As we walked the trail towards the cenote I was thinking how pleasantly cool it was under the shade of the trees. It sort of reminded me of walking in the bush back home but way warmer with different trees and no blackflies.

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The trail opened up onto an area of flat rocks at the edge of the water. It was truly a beautiful scene as the trees opened up onto the open area bordering the water. Across the pond from the flat rocks there was a rock cliff about 15 or so feet high with a ladder to access the top way off to one side. Some of our group spent some time jumping off the cliff into the water. Here again the water was crystal clear and teeming with fish but a little cooler than Grande Cenote. The fish were slightly larger than the ones at Grande Cenote with a little more variety. I recognized a few of them but there were many I couldn’t recognize. I wished that I had a housing for the digital camera to photograph them and look them up later.

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After the swim at Crystallino Cenote everyone seemed quite tired and the drive back to Playa was significantly quieter than the drive out. We got back to Playa and dropped Victor and Katie off at their resort. The rest of us got dropped off down town close to the pick-up spot and thanked James and our driver (Noel?) for the wonderful day. We walked back to 5<SUP>th</SUP> and Cathy and I said goodbye to our new friends (Lulu & Flash) and went looking for a taxi back to the El Dorado Royal.

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We arrived back at the resort and got ready for supper. Both of us were quite tired after a very busy day of playing in the sun. We had supper at the Mexican restaurant at the resort. It was a really superb meal and we both decided that this was our favourite restaurant so far. It had been a very long but excellent day.

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