Cenotes & Mayas

A little spirituality…

You should know that the Maya still live in the Yucatan. Seven hundred thousand people still speak this language. The term cenote comes directly from the Mayan word “tzonot”, which means “sacred hole”.

For the ancient Mayans, in addition to providing them with water for drinking, cooking and bathing, the cenotes were a sacred place. They had observed these tunnels leading to darker areas and thought they were a gateway to Xibalba, the realm of the Dead and the Underworld.

Ritual funeral ceremonies were therefore organized in certain cenotes, where today we find skulls, bones, funeral pottery, totems and shells.

For the ancient Mayans, the cenotes are also the living place of the Alux, the spirits of the forest. Even today, the Mayans ask them for permission to enter the cenotes and offer them fruit and flowers, mainly in the west of the peninsula.

All this adds to the strength of this type of diving, tinged with spirituality ...