ABODE TO THE GODS: Yucatan’s Secret Underworld

I descended the rain-slicked stone steps cautiously, allowing my eyes to adjust in the semi-darkness. Halfway down the narrow staircase, I paused on a natural rock ledge and perused the guano-streaked circular cavern.

Marveling that I was the sole visitor, I absorbed the reverent atmosphere at Samula Cenote, a popular tourist attraction near Valladolid, Mexico. Tangled tree roots and sunbeams tumbled through a pinprick in the ceiling, seeking the shallow pool of turquoise of water at the bottom. Birds twittered from ceiling perches and bats darted through the pillars of light.

The cenotes, or sinkholes, that riddle the Yucatan Peninsula were formed when the ocean level dropped after the last ice age, exposing a mile-thick layer of limestone reef. Over eons, rain dissolved the strata, forming a swiss-cheese network of caves and underground rivers. Where the limestone was thin it collapsed, exposing underlying caves like the one that spread before me.

In a nod to the Mayans, who believe cenotes are an abode of the gods, I closed my eyes and scattered flower petals I had brought as an offering. Suddenly, a giggle reverberated through the air. I opened my eyes and scanned the cavern, but I was still alone.

A second chuckle raised goosebumps and sent me scurrying for the exit. At the top I looked quizzically down through the tree roots, listening, until a Mayan gentlemen approached. “You have discovered our secret,” he said when I told him what I had heard. “The two young girls are spirits of the cenote. They laugh and play and guard the site at night after everyone has left.”

Later that same week I visited Dos Ojos, a flooded cave system north of Tulum where side-by-side cenotes resemble two giant eyes peering into the underworld. I slipped into the warm water and snorkeled far back into the cavern, marveling at the otherworldly underwater formations. Those who know the secret of Dos Ojos insist that a passageway leads between the two cenotes but when the way became too narrow claustrophobia won out and I retreated to open water, happy to have explored a tiny portion of this 50+ mile long system. Little did I know that the biggest secret of all was yet to be discovered.

During my most recent visit to the Riviera Maya I was invited to Rio Secreto (Secret River), the longest partially flooded cave in the Yucatan. Clad in wetsuit, booties, life jacket and helmet with headlamp, I hooked my forearm through the straps on my guide’s life jacket and followed him down into the bowels. There are no colored lights, improved walkways, or handrails at Rio Secreto; everything has been left in its natural state.

For more than an hour we inched around immense stalactites and stalagmites, being careful not to touch anything. When solid ground ended, we strode into the underground river and let the gentle current carry us through the rest of the cavern. Though more than 7.5 miles of semi-sunken cave and 15 natural outlets have been mapped out since its discovery in 1997, Rio Secreto is still being explored and many more secrets are sure to be revealed in the coming years.

NOTE: Today, estimates of the number of cenotes in the Yucatan range from 7,000 to 30,000. While the exact number may never be known for sure, it is certain that many more are still to be discovered.