Cenotes and Charrería

Mix of cultures: mayan pyramid and hispanic church

One thing that you can find widely throughout in the state of Yucatan are cenotes (natural sinkholes resulting from a collapse of limestone bedrocks that expose groundwater underneath). Some very nice ones are located just 50 km in the south east from Merida, so we organized a trip to visit them with some of our students. Leaving Merida early in the morning, we first stopped for the city of Acancéh where we visited a mayan pyramid from the early classic period (founded between 200 and 300 AD). The view of the prehispanic monument and the spanish colonial architecture of the church right beside the pyramid was impressive. I guess this is one of the only places where you can find the heritage of both cultures that close.

Mototaxis

Hispanic church 

After a quick guided tour around the pyramids we continued our journey to the city of Cuzama. There were already some guides waiting on the road offering us tours to some cenotes but we decided to go straight to the cenotes of Chelentún. We started our tour to 3 cenotes on little train waggons drawn by horses. The cenotes were all surrounded by jungle so the only way to access them was via the narrow railway. The first one was more a cave (gruta) then a cenote. Its entrance was beneath a tree and to access we had to climb down a narrow stair beside the roots of the tree. Down there it was very dark - without the help of our guides we couldn't hardly see anything. The second one was the biggest and most beautiful one. This place had some kind of magic atmosphere: the crystal clear water with the sun entering through to holes and all the roots hanging down like lianas. The water was pretty cold but it was a great refreshment though. The third one was the largest one with a water depth of 27m and 10m height until the ceiling of 10 m.

Horse Railway

Cenotes of Chelentún

Watching Mexican national sports

Once we had done all the three cenotes we headed back with the horse railway and made it, after a short detour due to miserable road signs, to our second and last destination for that day: the Charrería event just in the small town of Baca. We went to the stadium/ranch named "El coraje" (the courage). Charrería is one of the national sports of Mexico. It is a competitive event, similar to rodeo, where the teams have to simulate the animal husbandry practices used on the haciendas of old Mexico. There are different disciplines with cattle and horse. The goal basically is to get control over the animal (horse or cattle) through catching it with a lasso, depending on time and the used techniques. The "charros" - participants in Charería events - wear traditional clothes with big hats (sombreros). We spent the rest of the afternoon there watching it and trying to get into the rules - which however at first wasn't that easy.

I would really recommend visit at least some of the hundreds of cenotes close to Merida and if you're interested in horse-riding and are keen about to learn more about the Mexican's national sport you should definitely invest some time and visit one of the Charreria events.