It’s Aways the Cenotes

We rented bikes, for 150 pesos, from the cute Spanglish Bicirent. They were perfectly helpful with insights on centotes and a useful map, which I promptly lost unfortunately.  We intended to bike to Tekom and Chichimila, maybe 15-20 km round trip.  There’s lovely bike paths for most of the route, although some of the paths are on open highway on the baking Yucatán asphalt.

The bike place said Tekom was small and local and that since it is a closed cenote disco lights have been installed. We decided to skip that one, keep Chichimila and add Oxman. I’ve been to Oxman many times and absolutely love love love that cenote. I had read recent reviews that since the pandemic they had expanded immensely and were on the large tour bus route.  She said that tourist season hadn't really started yet, and that if we get there early we would beat the crowd. She was right, because as we were riding out of Oxman the tour buses were rolling in.  The price has gone up quite a bit, it’s now 150 pesos which is a lot. And also life jackets are obligatory. They do have a swing though, which is not common. Still a beautiful place for the most part, although so many hordes of tourists have come there that all of the beautiful tree roots that used to go into the water are rotten and no longer reach the water anymore they’ve been ruined.

Back on the road to Chichimila, it was long and hot but the reward was a completely empty cenote Xlakaj waiting for us. There was a more reasonable admission price for tourists, 50 pesos and no life jacket required. That place is also gearing up for the masses, huge expansion projects were underway. There were two enormous swimming holes and a restaurant but I had read those were severely affected by the pandemic lack of tourism and they were closed. Sometime very soon this place will also be ruined.

Getting pretty hungry by now, we figured we could easily find a place in Chichimila to eat but found everything was closed. We thought Chicken of the Divine Baby Jesus was a taqueria but turns out the only sell whole or half raw chickens.

It’s a very sleepy town but still we thought tacos were a sure bet. We sat in the zocalo to think when we saw a little family and decided to ask them if they knew of a restaurant. They did, and they were giving us directions in Spanish which seemed complicated to me. They sensed our confusion so the dad offered to get on his bicycle and take us there. It was hilarious, riding through the town following this guy as all his friends shouted to him that he has a new job as a town guide. 

He took us to El Capitan, a slightly pricey but lovely seafood place where we gorged on wonderful ceviche.

Hot days always made better by a mango gelato from Wabi. By the way all photo credits go to my travel partner Victoria Spagnoli!