Cancun Mexico 2025 Day 4 Part 2 - Tsukan Cenote

Part of our Chichen Itza excursion was a cooling dip in the absolutely breathtaking Tsukan Cenote which is described as where the "world of the living meets the Xibalbá: the underworld" . Basically a cenote is a natural sink hole usually formed in limestone that is filled with fresh water over time. The limestone cavern is drizzled with picturesque stalactites and the water is a beautiful turquoise colour that is illuminated by the sun beaming through openings in the cave. The fresh water is certainly a bit chilly due to being down in a sinkhole and as such made for a lovely cold plunge experience.

The water depth in the Tsukan Cenote is a whopping 58m and thus it was mandatory for everyone to wear a life jacket in the water. Prior to heading down there we stored all of our belongings in two lockers, one in the ladies changing room and one in the men's changing rooms. We strapped the keys around our wrist and guess what? Yes Tina dropped hers all the way to the bottom of the 58m cenote (lost forever). This resulted in us having to pay a charge to get Tina and Holly's locker opened.

The real story behind this is that to get to the Cenote you have to go down 106 steps. On the way up the heat, humidity and physical exertion triggered an asthma attack with Tina - and guess were her asthma meds were? Yes in the locker which had the key sitting 58m at the bottom of the cenote. Have you ever tried explaining to a Mexican who speaks barely any English the urgency to prize open a locker due to a lost key because your wife is having a bad asthma attack????

Anyway all is well that ended well. We got in to the locker, got her meds and ended up going for a nice lunch at Tsukan before heading back to resort.

 

Stop 2 of the day at the Tsukan Cenote.

My this swing tree we had a little Mayan ceremony to ward off any evil spirits before entering the Cenote.

Starting the 106 stair descent down to the Cenote.

Good job none of us have a fear of heights.

First impression before getting in the water and it is absolutely breathtaking.

Limestone stalactites.

Josh and Brandon wasting no time to get into the cold turquoise waters.

Hard to believe how far underground you are.

I loved swimming behind some of the cavernous features to explore the cenote.

Peekaboo.

Holly was scared there might be fish in the Cenote so I told her there wasn't any. Next ting you know I saw loads of these! Woops.

Selfie in the Cenote.

Holly jumping in the Cenote from a floating platform.

It looks like there are lights in the water or cave, but this is purely natural sunlight beaming through.

What an experience.

Holly dive bombing in to natural beauty.

The face you pull when you find out there are fish in the Cenote.

Brandon enjoying a swim in the Cenote.

Gives some proportion to the scale of some of the stalactites.

Holly's face glowing in the beaming sunlight from above.

More of the inside of the sinkhole.

Action shot of me going in. Can't trust the others to take a good picture with the "Dad-cam".

Holly dive bombing again.

Just bobbing around in natural beauty.

More of H on the floating platform.

This was some experience never to be forgotten.

Back at resort and toasting a fantastic day out with a round of tequila's.