Cenote Diving and Cave Tubing

Hey Everyone. Well once we got to Tulum we did a couple of fairly average dives off the coast which would have been very dull except for a huge 2m wide Spotted Eagle ray which swan alongside me for 5mins or so. majestic creatures flying through the water. Stayed a good away from it as didnt want to have any Steve Erwin incidents. That might have been a sting ray but they are very similiar. There were also some massivo crabs which we played with for a bit.

The wind had changed from the usual onshore direction to offshore due to Ike and as a result Tulum had turned into a mosquito infested hellhole...pretty place but dont think i have seen so many of the little bastards in one place before! I faired betrter than the rest due to liberal use of psuedo skin melting 55% deet!

We headed off to dive the Cenotes in the morning. Cenotes are submerged cave systems which you can explore and even emerge into the ocean. Those are quite dangerous and you are meant to be a qualified cave diver for that. So we just explored two of the caves. The first was well lit by natural sunlight and very beautiful. The sun playing off the various stalectites and stalectmites. We all had torches and it was quite an eerie experience. The second had no natural light and was quite a bit colder than the first. Gives you a good understanding of cave diving. Still prefer ocean diving as there is much more life to look at, but the rock formations were amazing. Definatly a worthwhile experience and quite unique as this is apparently the only place you can find them. Said our good byes to the others and headed off to Belieze. Managed to get all the way to san Ignacio which was unexpected. Arrived at dark o clock and managed to get sorted with accomondation and also book a cave tubing tour for the next day.

Cave tubing was a little shambolic as meant to start at 8, finally left at 9ish and then had to wait beside the river for 2 hours. Not the worst place to have to hang about as was a pretty little place. Cool, crystal clear water with rocks and rope swings to jump off. Eventually the locals had removed their thumb from their anus and we got issued tubes and torches and hiked for an hour through the jungle to the start of the cave system. Apparently Indiana Jones 2 Temple of Doom was part filmed here. The end part in the cave system. Looked vaugely familiar but will have to rewatch when i get home to confirm. Internet does back this statement up though! Started with some more rock jumping into a ridiculously clear water. One of the yanks was very good spin jumps and while i matched him on the frontflip, the backflip and twist flip were not going to be attempted. We then jumped into our rings and floated/paddled downstream. caves were huge and lots to look at. Quite surrial experience but a good thing to round off the cave diving from the previous day. 2 hours later we popped out where we started. An excellent way to while away a day. The jungle is so beautifull here with monkeys and exotic birds everywhere and not even any nasty biting insects to detract from it.

We then got our local fixer, Kenny G to sort us for a taxi to the border then managed to blag a taxi to take us all the way to Flores as we had just missed the last collectivo mini bus. Now in Flores wondering what to do with the last 9 days of the trip. I had planned on doing the El Mirador trek through the jungle to see some more Mayan ruins but you need 2 people and its $300. Still might happen or might head to the beach for some last min rays. Thing is not sure i can spend a week on the beach as A - I will be bored shitless and B - will have no skin left due to massivo sun burn. So at a bit of a loss at the moment. But hey ho we will struggle on. 9 days left till i'll be back in blighty.
Right you are all now thourally bored so i'm off.

C