Travels with Hayley

Ceynote day! Which started with me whacking on the bite cream as mosquitoes have entered the fray in this new humid weather – and I changed insect repellant brand as it was slightly cheaper – rookie error. Took my slightly nibbled self off to join our tour guides for the day – Jorge, Carlitos and Raúl – and we set off towards the ceynotes.

Firstly we headed off down the avenue we’d abandoned last night so I did in fact get to see the rest of it – the only thing I had really missed was this monument below. I feel like I could have still slept easy at night if I hadn’t seen it to be honest, but it was a little added bonus.

The main guide for the tour was Jorge who seemed ok at first and then turned out to be…not so ok. He had a go at Lynsey when she mentioned she had ordered a vegetarian lunch – apparently all she needed was to take some peyote (a psychedelic plant) and speak to the souls of the animals and she’d be fine eating meat. He went on and on – I politely stepped in at one point and got him to stop for a bit but he kept going back and worrying at it and really trying to make her feel stupid and embarrassed. When we briefly stopped for them to jump out and get some fruit I spoke to Lynsey who was actually really upset and almost in tears which made me so mad on her behalf – there’s been a bit of machismo male bulls**t already along the way of this trip and I just hit my limit. When we got out of the bus I pulled him to one side and very slowly, coldly and calmly laid out my exact thoughts on the matter and how the rest of the day was going to go…When we got back at the end of the tour they recounted to JJ what had happened – long story short the guy is now likely to be banned from working with Intrepid again. I’m really proud of myself for speaking up, it’s 2024 everywhere in the world and it was an expensive trip so it’s not unreasonable to expect professionalism – and no one should be made to feel like that. Anyway, that was a minor blip so on with the good stuff!

So ceynotes are natural sinkholes, only found in this part of Mexico and there’s estimated to be around 10,000 of them. Deciding that was a bit too many to try doing all in one day, we visited two instead, both very different to each other.

The first was a covered one, you’re basically inside a sunken cave, only the small opening above ground that now has wooden steps leading down gives you any indication of the secret underneath. The water is cool and shady with the small parts getting the sunlight from the entrance hole sparkling like a turquoise jewel in the sunlight.

Stalagtites hung from the dark ceiling and tiny fish brushed against our legs as we swam around the cavern. It was as otherworldly an experience as you can imagine, sounds from the outside were muffled and it felt like the rest of the world just disappeared.

When we all had fingers and toes like prunes we hopped back in the bus to the next one. This was totally open – think of a small lake/large pond (what’s the tipping point…?) sunk 30 feet underground so it has really high walls.

This was also beautiful but in a totally different way – you were bathed in sunlight and the vines and tree roots grew all the way down the sides, adding to the whole enchanted jungle feel. Electric blue dragonflies flitted around our heads while we swam and once again enjoyed the peace and solitude of being the only people there.

I only saw a picture of a ceynote for the first time a few years ago, and from that moment I knew I wanted to swim in one – it was one of the reasons I booked this trip. It was everything I wanted and more. At times on these tours I have to physically pause and remind myself I’m actually doing this, it’s not a movie or a book – I’m actually living it. Even writing this makes me feel really emotional about it – I am ridiculously lucky and grateful in equal measure.

Once we’d finished our second swim, we headed to the included lunch which was chicken tacos except the tortilla was stuffed with black bean paste and fried (I’m sure there’s another specific name for them and I’m also sure it would begin with a T…). However, everyone has been so ill we all automatically tipped the chicken and salad off of them when they were served and just ate the bread part with some avocado (freshly peeled and therefore not in contact with the tap water). It was only later that night when I was reflecting on the day that I realised we’d left a huge pile of discarded meat in the middle of the table right in front of the guide that I’d dressed down – like we were forming some kind of pre-agreed pro-vegetarian protest in support of Lynsey! We totally weren’t but in hindsight it was an excellent way of ramming the point home that little bit more…

Back to the hotel and we lay by the pool for a few hours enjoying the shade before heading out for dinner at the trendy ‘food court’ style place we’d been to the first night (we tried our best to go somewhere else but every other restaurant was totally dead which is never normally a good sign…)

Dinner was hilariously chaotic with the wrong drinks brought (because the waiter didn’t write down the order – why have they started doing this everywhere? Wait staff of the world, no-one is judging your memory skills if you use a paper and pen I swear, we are however judging you for being an idiot when the order goes wrong..!) and a protracted episode where I tried to get a takeaway container for the other half of my vegan quesadilla (which contained cheese which was assuredly not vegan but was very tasty) and was told by the waiter he was unable to assist so go back and queue at the counter. At the counter, you’ve guessed it, directed back to the waiter again! The head waiter spotted what was going on and apologised profusely ‘your waiter is Luis and he is the worst waiter in the world I am sorry’ with Luis nodding and smiling along, apparently aware and unconcerned by his waiterly shortcomings…

We eventually paid the bill – which was another production in itself but by this point just so predictable to be hilarious – we headed around the corner to a Cuban bar to listen to some live music, timing it perfectly as it started ten minutes after we arrived and was done and dusted 40 minutes later.

All of the waiters were Cuban and just like in Cuba itself, they are like bees to honey with anyone with blonde hair. The girls were killing themselves laughing, I couldn’t get rid of one of them. He kept having a go that 3 of the 4 of us weren’t drinking, telling us we were boring and offering free shots of rum. Totally all in jest but after a day of judgement from Mexican men we decided to leave after an hour or so as our sense of humour started to wane ever so slightly!

Home to bed as we’re leaving at 6am tomorrow (if you’d told me ten years ago I’d be on a holiday that involved hiking and 6am starts I would have laughed in your face!) to visit the famous Mayan temple of Chichén Itzá and onto Playa de Carmen. Stay tuned!

Lots of love always xxx