Chichen Itza to Paa Mal

November 7, 2009
Chichen Itza to Paa Mul

This will certainly go down as one of the more interesting days in the annals of out trip.
We left Chichen Itza and the Mayan Ruins and went by way of the Libra road 180 toward Cancun. This was a fairly good to so-so road passing as they do thru the small towns and some were very colonial in makeup. Other smaller pueblos had that distinctive Mayan look with the thatched roofs and small homes with no walls often. Even the churches would have only roofs and a bell tower with no walls.
We stopped at a cenote X-Kekan along the way. Cenotes are pools of fresh water fed by underground springs or rivers that pass thru the limestone in the ground. Limestone being porous the water often forms caves. At X-Kekan the cenote is in inside of a cave. The entrance is narrow and you walk down stone steps for about 40-50 feet and enter the huge main cavern. This is about 200 feet round and the ceiling is all stalactites and is about 40 feet from the water. The pool though is the real attraction, the water is crystal clear and about 40 feet deep at the deepest point. Small fish swim in it and the color is an aqua blue when deeper.
Bev and I were the only ones there for about 45 minutes other than a guide who was watching the place. Swimming in a cave in crystal clear warm water is an experience not to be forgotten. And the water is so soft that when you get out your skin just feels so refreshed afterwards.
After our swim the guide showed us some of the rest of the cave not seen when we first entered. There were other smaller caverns that you had to climb and bend over to get into with rock formations that resembled animals or faces.
Well after that refreshing stop we continued on towards Cancun. Now it started to rain. As always a little rain turned into a lot of rain and that turned into a monsoon down pore.
It was so bad that when we were in Cancun we did not drive out onto the reef surrounding the lagoon where all of the hotels are. There was so much rain that roads were literally swimming pools of water and at one point a bus and I were the only vehicles either brave enough or foolish enough to go thru one section of road. Well he went first and sort of pushed the water aside and I followed in his wake. Lots of stranded cars and trucks that the engines got wet because they could not clear the flooded areas.
Along the highway the police were caravanning vehicles so that they would not drive too fast.
We finally made it to Paa Mul which is a campground resort mostly with permanent residents on the beach south of Cancun about 40 miles. I must say that the people here have really expanded on their RV’s with huge 2 story pallapas enclosing the whole lot. Then they add outdoor kitchens and bathrooms and sleeping quarters in the upper levels.
Well tomorrow we shall get the laundry done, have the RV serviced and if the weather at all accommodates a trip to Cozumel. That does not look promising as we are supposed to have rain for the next three days. Tonight however, the rain has again stopped. It seems to come up in the afternoon and dissipate at night