Cenotes …… an Oasis in the middle of the MAYA Jungle

Hello everyone, today, first dives in cenotes….

Cenotes? cenotes? But what are we talking about ?????

Cenotes (maya dz'onot via spanish cenote) are sinkholes or sinkholes or sinkholes, filled with a surface layer of fresh water and sometimes with a lower layer of seawater if they communicate with the ocean through faults[]. They are found mainly in North and Central America, and more particularly in the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico where I am. They act as natural wells which can reach several tens of meters deep.

The cenote Zacaton, in central Mexico, is the deepest known in the world. An autonomous diving robot, DepthX[, explored and mapped it[. It reached its bottom at 318 meters deep in May 2007[]. Mine was not as deep as I dived Chac Mool superb cenotes where my dives did not exceed 14 meters.

The cenotes are produced by a phenomenon of dissolution and collapse of limestone soils located above an underground network of caves and rivers. They are found both in picturesque places in the jungle (Celestún, Yucatán) and in cities (Valladolid, Yucatán).

In Yucatán, a ring of cenotes is found concentrically around the Chicxulub crater, so its formation is attributed to the meteorite that fell about 65 million years ago - the one that is believed to have caused (indirectly) the extinction of the dinosaurs. The cenotes in the Yucatán area are mostly linked together by a system of aquatic caves, created during the impact of the meteorite.

When the orifice of a cenote is located below the surface of a body of water (lagoon, lake, sea), it appears as a darker spot; we are talking about blue-hole (blue hole) or black hole (black hole) depending on the perceived color.

The Mayans saw these wells as a means of communication with the gods of the underworld, the chasm representing a mouth. They were used as a reserve of fresh water, but also as a place of worship in which offerings or sacrificial victims were thrown.

Thanks to Julien from PHOCEA MEXICO at PLaya Del carmen for guiding me… .. it's a pure moment of pleasure