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Lost in the jungle, what a way to spend a Sunday!
Every Sunday we try to find a new cenote to enjoy or a secret beach to explore. And this Sunday was no different.
Four of us piled into our car with snacks and beer in the cooler, and we headed out into the great blue yonder. A friend had told us of the “road with 30 cenotes” that was just outside of Playa del Carmen about 30 minutes or so. So that was our destination, to cenote hop all Sunday afternoon, what a way to spend the day huh?
 So we cruised on down the road and found the road to cenote heaven, and yes, there are so many cenotes one more beautiful then the next. We finally set our sites on the king of the road, so to speak, a beautiful set of 3 cenotes about 15 miles from the freeway. We pulled in and were greeted by the proprietor, Lalo , who welcomed us with open arms. He had not seen anyone in awhile so he was grateful for a bit of a visit. He sat down with us and drew a map of the 3 cenotes in the dirt, and laughed as he said he would start yelling for us after it got dark. (it was 3:30 in the afternoon at this point).
We packed our backpacks, grabbed the snorkel gear, and we headed straight into the jungle, just like Michel Peissel, to discover the lost world of Quintana Roo. We cruised along the path for about 10 minutes and came to a clearing with a beautiful palapa, a temezcal, and one exquisite cenote. We stripped off our clothes, and grabbed the rope swing and hollered and yelled as we swung over and splashed into a 120 foot deep crystal clear cenote. We splashed about and reveled at our good fortune at finding such a secret jewel, but we pulled ourselves away as we wanted to make sure to see the other 2 cenotes that were buried deep in the jungle.
So off we trekked, happy, refreshed, and ready for the next. The next cenote was about another 10 minutes or so further and we found it with no problem. This was beautiful, but definitely more raw then the first one. It had an island in the middle, and caves surrounding it, a sure benefit and a must for future exploration. We snapped some photos, and continued on. We were determined to see all 3 and still have time to turn back before it got dark. The last one was quite a bit further, probably about 20 minutes from the second. But we happily ate some sandwiches, and sipped a cerveza as we looked on in amazement at our surroundings. Birds were singing over head, the thick jungle foliage was filled with amazing plants, and creatures. There were monkeys swinging, and a fox that ran across our path, this was cool!
We arrived at the third and final cenote and climbed down into it. It was like a place where hobbits or fairies might live, damp, and cool, with the beautiful water surrounding it. You could smell the earth and hear the buzz of the crickets, now this is what I call an incredible experience. But alas we were running with the sun so we headed out, it was time to get back to the van, and go back home for dinner. Lalo had drawn this great map in the dirt that laid out a path that made a big circle so we would not have to back track. The IDEA was that we would make the circle complete by arriving back at the first cenote.
So we started to hustle down the path only stopping for serious necessities such as bathroom breaks or photo ops. We continued on the path for almost 45 minutes as the sun was closing in on us, and then just like that it ended. No more path, just dense thick jungle glowing in the pending twilight. No off shoots, no continuance, nothing. Well, %$#@ we all said in unison, what are we going to do? Bush whack through? Create our own path? Or high tail it on out of there the way we came? We decided the high tail it option was the best, and we put on our runners (yea, right we were all in shoddy flip flops that continually broke as we tripped over rocks).
 We were literally running back over rocks, sticks, and sink holes, because we gauged at least a 30 minute run just to get to the 3rd cenote we had visited. We were screwed! The darkness crept over the jungle, and slowly but surely we could not see the hand in front of our face. We stopped and took stock of our back pack contents. A roll of toilet paper, a packet of crackers, 1 beer, 2 bottles of water, a couple of pareos, 1 cell phone with no signal, 1 digital camera, and that was about it. NO Flash Light! Hmmm, we were 4 intelligent adults, but what are we going to do here? So we gathered up some dried palm frond and made a torch, brilliant, it will be like survivor!
We are really going to cruise now…..not so much, as we soon found out, the palms were damp, they burnt your hand, they were certainly not time efficient, but we trudged on, having to relight our torch every 10 feet, feet scraped and bleeding. In the interim we would use the LCD light from the camera to forage for dry palms on the jungle floor. After over an hour we started to panic a bit. We were really lost in the jungle! It was pitch black, we had no idea where we were, we hooted and hollered and yelled for Lalo, but there was no response. We wondered if we should just stop and build a fire or keep going through the darkness until we found something or someone. We vowed for the latter and continued on.
 Finally we came to a clearing, where a palapa stood, we were saved! We were at the palapa of the first cenote, we hopped about, gleeful in our abilities, and then we stopped to look around. We were no where near the first cenote. We were at a workmen’s’ palapa in Timbuktu! There was not a soul to be found, but we took a quick inventory of the palapa, and we found a candle, now affectionately called Wilson. We took the candle vowing to return with a replacement if we ever emerged from the jungle! Now we had wax, and our torch making abilities had increased in the past couple of hours so we were on fire, ready to go! So instead of having to stop every 10 feet to relight the torch we now only had to stop every 20 feet, now we were going to really go through the jungle at mock speed. But which way was out? We had no idea which way to go, but we scoured the perimeter and found a cleared pathway, or at least what seemed like a pathway. Right next to the path was a barbed wire fence that ran parallel to it. We took this as a good sign, follow the path, follow the barbed wire, and we would surely get out of there.
So we stumbled on, tired, frustrated, and by this time dreaming of Chinese take out. Several times one of us tripped and fell adding a new bruise or bloody scrape, but the worst was when 2 of our party walked through a fire ant’s nest and were covered in ants as they yelled and hopped about to get them off by torch light. It was at this time that we contemplated whether we should just stop right then and there. We thought, screw it! We can just sit down and maybe someone will find us or the light of day will eventually arrive. But you have to understand, we are a stubborn bunch, no jungle was going to stop us!
 Then the barbed wire fence stopped, and we felt like we were heading further and further away from civilization, not toward it. We all paused trying to figure out what to do next, and then we heard it! A conch shell horn blowing in the distance! Lalo was looking for us! We yelled and screamed, but we did not hear him respond again. But this gave us new hope so we buckled down and knew we were closing in on something. Then we heard it again and we yelled as loud as we could, and he yelled back! We finally came out of the jungle onto a main road, and we flagged down a car that was going by. He must have had quite a shock, 4 crazy gringos emerging from the jungle with a torch, giddy with delight. He told us we were a mile north of where our car was. Holy Cow! We had quite the detour, lost in the jungle for 4 hours! Ends up Lalo had been blowing that horn for hours but we were in the thick of it so we couldn’t even hear him. So we had traversed rocky ravines, fire ant hills, sink holes, and pitch black jungle, but finally emerged after 4 hours of being lost, a little battered and bruised but safe and sound heading for the first Chinese food we could find.
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