Mayan Zip Lines

Time: n/a
Distance: n/a

Today Whit, Emily and I woke up early for Mexico (7:00 am) and headed out to catch a tour van that would take us to some zip lines. We weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into considering that the girls had to return to the hotel to get their bathing suits because there were more activities planned than just zip lines. Upon arriving at the site we saw some Mayan dogs that were noteworthy because while they were about the size of a typical family pet in the U.S., these dogs had huge balls. I don't think the dog population control is of much concern here in Mexico.

After storing our belongings we headed off to the first sétono to be blessed by a Mayan shaman. We were told that he was asking the gods for permission to enter the pools and to keep us safe while we were visiting in Mexico. The shaman used some sort of tree resin to make his bowl of embers incredibly smokey and the cave ridiculously hot. One member from our group was a rotund dude from North Carolina who worked for BofA and he sweated like a beast, but so did the shaman. Now that we were blessed by the Mayan shaman and would receive total consciousness upon entering the sétonos, we were off along the path, which was nice and we had that going for us.

The first water pool was cold, dark and full of stalagtites. It reminded the group of the Batman's cave mainly because there were a few bats in there. We swam around and marveled at the experience before heading on to the second pool that was similar. In contrast the second pool was a bit deeper and the cave wasn't as high, but it was just as spectacular. Later it was on back towards the village to climb down into one last pool and then ride bikes out to the zip lines. I thought that the fixed gear mountain bike was an interesting choice to put guests on but they were fine. The ride was about 2k long and the terrain gently rolled. I'm afraid to admit that the short bike ride to and from the zip lines might have been the best part, but a guy in our group on the way back to the hotel agreed with me.

The zip lines were all relatively short but sweet. We had a fun time flying over the jungles and mangroves, but were tired and ready to call it a day. There was one more activity planned and that was a Mayan lunch back at the village. There were 4 or 5 women in an open kitchen preparing a meal of fresh fruit, chicken, vegetable soup, rice, beans and, my favorite, empanadas. They were filled with shredded chicken or beef and weren't too greasy, as some can be.

It was a long but fun day that was mostly unexpected. Whit, Emily and I were thinking that the tour was mainly going to be zip lines and discovered that we were to be swimming in caves. Pretty cool regardless.