From the surface, Mexico’s cenotes look like an Instagrammer’s paradise. Sun hits the turquoise hued-water that fills these steep, jungle-like caverns.
However, there is a hidden world beneath.
- "The first thing to go are the eyes. Eyes, apparently, cook very quickly. Flesh follows soon after, and as the animal becomes overwhelmed, water enters its mouth."
- It’s the size of the Serengeti, hotter than Hades with deadly acid-filed lakes – and is called the Gateway to Hell. This is the closest to another planet you can get
Cenotes are sinkholes that have formed over millions of years from collapsed limestone bedrock.
Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, in the south east of the country, has thousands of them. The Maya believed that they were the gateway to the underworld (Xibalba) and considered them to be sacred sites.
But since the 1980s, an international community of cave divers have been exploring the cenotes.
Once thought to be individual sinkholes, they discovered that the cenotes are actually a complex system of caves and waterways. The divers uncovered over 350 caves and over 1,000 miles of tunnels – including the two longest underwater cave systems on Earth.
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According to the 2017 BBC TV series Mexico: Earth’s Festival of Life, “many of these caverns have seen fewer visitors than the moon. The great majority remain uncharted.”
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Despite the challenging conditions, some animals can be found in these unusual environments.
Many species of fish have been observed there – but even the odd manatee, turtle or crocodile are seen swimming through the waters.
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And as the cenotes are the region’s only natural source of freshwater, terrestrial mammals also frequent them.
A 2022 study using camera traps documented lowland paca, opossums, white-nosed coati, grey foxes, tayra, grey four-eyed opossums, jaguars and pumas.
While the cenotes are growing in popularity among divers, it is also possible to visit them without diving.
