Underground Oasis

I never imagined that these words would ever come out of my mouth but, “I wish that I spent more of my vacation underground.” Not just under any ground, but in a cenote which is an underground river with stalactites coming down from the ceiling and stalagmites coming up from the floor.

Twenty one of us from our trip went snorkeling today which was fun, but not anything I had not done before. After snorkeling we got back in our transports and went to a private place where someone had dug a hole in the earth and put a ladder down the hole to the limestone underground cave filled with pristinely clean water. Before we descended the ladder I asked the obvious question, “How are we going to see underground?” Only to be told they had added lighting to the whole underground world. Gorgeous.

We spent time swimming in the river and walking between the caves on small passageways. I am not sure how long we were down there, probably about an hour, but it felt like a blink of an eye. This is how much I liked it, we went down at noon about the time I was getting hungry after my yoghurt breakfast at 7:30, I totally forgot about food and was not hungry when I ascended back to the surface of the earth. Perhaps there is a new diet fad there, the underground diet.

The taller members of the group also got a bigger workout because we had to crouch down as we traversed the caves trying not to bump our heads on the pointy rock formations. All the squats my trainer Tom has had me do paid off in my crouching cave explorer positions.

Tonight our group of 52 is off to explore Playa del Carmen and visit three different spots for drinks, dinner and dessert. Nothing Mexican civilization has to offer can match what God made underground in Mexico.