Hacienda and Cenote

Ok so I accidentally deleted this at the bottom so it got moved to the top. This picture is just to show you how clear the water is. The dark blue water is where the cenote drops off...kind of scary!!!
The Courtyard of the living quarters. Absolutely beautiful!!

Me in the kitchen of the living quarters secretly wishing I was Julia Childs.... :)

Liz, Myself, and Danielle...it basically explains the relationship we have between the 3 of us... :)

The cenote. You can see how far underground we were and how clear the water is!

On Friday (yesterday) the whole group went on a little field trip to an Hacienda and Cenote about 45 min. from Merida. The Hacienda that we toured is called Yaxcopoil (Yah-x-coe-poe-eel). I did not know what an hacienda was before yesterday. An hacienda is pretty much equivalent to our southern plantations in the past. The hacienda holds the owners living quarters, a chapel area, living quarters for the 1500 laborers, the machine room that takes a plant called Heneken and makes its fibers into rope. The hacienda is no longer running but it still is open for tours. The grounds are kept up very well by workers and the buildings all have a beautiful charm and antique look. I absolutely loved the architecture of the buildings and house. There are pictures above. This hacienda was founded in the 17th Century and Yaxcopoil means "place of green poplars" or otherwise known as heneken.

After we toured the grounds, we moved onto a cenote which is basically an underground sink hole that holds fresh water from rain that flows through the ground and is deposited into underground rivers which are what feed into the cenote. There are beautiful pictures above as well that will maybe help explain what a cenote is. We were able to swim in it which was a lot of fun! The water is so clear that you can see to the very bottom of it which was about 15-18ft. deep (approximately). There was an area where we could stand on rocks and sand and then it dropped off. It was kind of scary for me swimming over the deep part because I was afraid something was going to come and get me. :) I am also very fearful of heights and I felt very high above the bottom of the cenote, so it was a mix of everything! But when we swam over the deep part, there were rocks that we jumped off and tree roots that the guys swung from. I only jumped off the rocks once (the ones closest to the water!!) which was a lot for me! The rest of the time I spent standing on the rocks and sand. The nice thing about the cenote was that it was so clear, cool, and out of the sun! It was great to get a long break from the hot, humid, makes-you-very-sweaty sun!

On the way home we all fell asleep in the van after climbing on rocks and such which made us tired! We are all hoping to make it to another cenote when family is here, but we probably won't make it to that cenote again because we followed an old beaten path for about 10-15min. We all had no clue how our tour guide got us there! I'm just so thankful for not being car sick or motion sick because it was not fun for those that are that way! Dramamine was not doing enough to keep them awake and feeling ok. Thanks for reading! I hope it wasn't too long or boring!! :)