Bakalar, Quintana Roo

We were up and out of the Four Hundred Peso Restaurant by 10am and kept the A/C during the entire drive. Our backpacker/hitchiker friends, Anabel and Marcos (Anabel is from Panama and Marcos is Austrian) kept the kids amazingly entertained and engaged during the drive. It was a rather short day; only 3 hours of driving and the "grassy field" we expected to find at Cenote Azul is apparently dry brown leaves in the summer. No matter; immediately after parking we were in swim suits and headed for the cenote.

Oh MY GOODNESS! I just remembered! Yesterday, on our drive to the restaurant (El Centenario for those following Church's book), we passed from Chiapas to Tabasco to Campeche states. On the last border, all our fowl and pig product were CONFISCATED!!! All eggs, all bacon, ground turkey, sausages - I was beside myself. They must have walked off with at least 300 pesos of meat. Ugh! So, BEWARE!!!

Cenotes are formed when the limestone that makes up the ground in the pennisula (Yucatan) caves into the ground water. A large or small lake/pond/pool is then formed and is blissfully warm with cold currents. This cenote is abnormally large and supposed to be 90m or 175ft (I didn't calculate; just reported the numbers I've heard) deep. It is deep blue and looks like Lake Tahoe. It is very surprising to find it so warm; you're expecting a cold shock. After a while, you're hoping for a cold shock. :)

This cenote has a restaurant beside it and thrills the customers with a jump off the roof of the restaurant. Pike, Jesse, Jamie and myself jumped and it was rather scary for everyone. It was a LONG LONG LONG way down from the roof to the water. We spent most of the afternoon at the cenote, cooling off and enjoying the water. The camping area charges 100 pesos to park and an extra 50 pesos for electricity, so we're using the generator. They will not allow us to run the A/C. Jamie is really affected by the heat, so instead of popping over to Belize tomorrow, we'll probably head up to Paa Mul so Jamie can have A/C (they'll probably charge us P250 or more a night). Course, up there, we might not need it as the breeze off the sea is supposed to be quite fierce. I hope to pop back down to Tulum from Paa Mul or camp at one of the "X" beaches.

There is an amazing laguna next to the cenote here; it looks like a Carribean beach. The water is tourquoise and blue and the land is white. There is an amazing breeze coming off the laguna that doesn't seem to make it up here to the Cenote (at least in the trailer park). The kids and I took a walk to the laguna tonight and they are DYING to swim in it. It seems to be surrounded by private property so we'll see what we can find tomorrow. Kind of up to what Jamie can deal with (heat wise).

10pm. Sweat trickling down our necks and brows. Tomorrow to the sea or Paa Mul. It is simply too hot for words... I think I fried my brain...