*Cenote*....Well

In my last post, I shared our trip to Chichen Itza.  I seem to be doing things backwards, here.  We stopped here for lunch, on the way.

The Yucatan peninsula is a limestone plain.  There are no rivers or streams.  Water is pretty precious.  All around the region, though, are Cenotes.  Cenote is the spanish word for well.  These are sinkholes, natural wells.  Some, such as those around Chichen Itza, were considered sacred.  This one, is not.

The opening leads you down into the ground.  There are a couple landings along the way, for those, such as I was, who don't want to go all the way to the bottom. 

The stairs at the top are built of stone.

The rest of the way, they're chiseled out of stone.

The stairs are steep....

....and, wind their way down to here.

Quite a few people, in our group and other groups, decided to swim.  We were content to just watch.  The water was very cold.

Water dripped down from the edges, above....and along the roots of plants growing on the rim.  And, yes...the water was that blue.

Roots of lush plants, growing around the rim.

Beautiful, lush plants....a lovely lunch...and back on the bus, for the rest of the tour.

We had a wonderful, interesting day.