Wow! Instead of going for a bike ride today in Merida, we went with our friends Mario & Ivonne and their children to explore some caves and cenotes in the Yucatan. It was to be our first ‘spelunking’ adventure in Mexico and a first for Evan & Noah. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and didn’t dress properly to be crawling around underground. Note to anyone going spelunking in Yucatan, DO NOT WEAR FLIP-FLOPS

The kids!

The swimsuits were not the best idea either as we were crawling and climbing over rocks and many spots had us lying on our stomachs as we army crawled our way through.

We were part of a larger group which consisted of friends of Mario & Ivonne who all had kids the same ages and were very nice people. They called their “guy” who met us in the town and then led us to the cave, the  cenote, and then the restaurant. Jose Juan gave us a guided tour of the caves, then helped with the swinging rope at the cenote, and finally helped set up our table and deliver our food at the restaurant. He was fabulous! I would definitely recommend getting a “guy” to help set up these tours. Although this was our first time there, the other families had all been on a couple of tours with Jose Juan and will be using him for more excursions.Both Evan & Noah were right into adventure! Of course they were first to get in the caves and go into the holes, Jose Juan had to keep up with them all the time while us slower, more large people carefully crawled through the caves. The Grutas de Che-Che-Bak cost 15 pesos per person and we were in them for what seemed like forever before we popped our heads back out! The bats were very few and far between… really!

The kids had a lot of fun climbing up and down the rocks with the ropes, and some of the adults climbed into some areas as well in the outer cave. Inside the cave, everybody went the same places, except sometimes I found a ‘shortcut’ which enabled me to walk almost upright, while the others crawled in the tunnel beside me:)

The cenote Yaxbacaltun cost 15 pesos a person as well and are located near the town of Homun, Yucatan. Next time we go we would certainly bring our snorkeling equipment. There was a steep staircase/ladder going the 15 metres down to a large platform in the centre of the cenote. A fantastic swinging rope hung off one side and kept everybody entertained for quite awhile. Evan did some fantastic swings with twisting dives and almost completed a flip off the rope.

Something you should note, it is DARK in the caves!! The flash makes it look not so bad but take a look at the video for a little more perspective!

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