To read previous part click here - Mexico, vacation... Valladolid and Chemax, part 6
Next morning we woke up early and decided we wanted to go to the
jungle. Just to see how it feels being inside, because we have never seen
jungles before.
We crossed a narrow bridge and
followed the trail running between the trees. And first we found a small
cenote, hidden in the deep shadow under the tree crown. We really liked
this one, it looked like a small pool, filled with crystal clear water
and there were two big fishes slowly circling around. As I said it
already, all 5 cenotes on site are connected and fishes can freely move
from one to another as they wish. Usually we saw two or three in this
small cenote, but there were eight of them. Somehow we weren't
lucky enough to see them in others. I don't remember what kind of fish
they are, but this fish moved to the fresh water from the ocean and
adapted to live in either salt or freshwater. Kinda unique one :) They
grow up to about three feet long in a freshwater and about three times
bigger in an open ocean. The fishes in "our" cenote were smaller, I
guess maybe about one and a half foot long. Or, probably, they are just
young...
In a
couple of minutes we left the thick jungle and stopped at the big
(relatively big) open space. Later we always referred to this square as
"Iguana plaza", because every morning one can find many iguanas here.
They are lying down and catching the sun's heat. You know, the iguanas
have a cold blood and don't have enough energy in the morning, so they
spend time in the sun and warm themselves up, accumulate the energy and
become more active in the afternoon. We were told, if you want to catch iguanas,
the morning is the best time for this hunt. One has a better chance
than late afternoon when they recharge the battery and become really
fast. The iguanas definitely weren't happy to see the photographer who
tried to get into their personal space and interrupted them during such an important time of warming the muscles :)
But
no iguana was hurt this morning and we left them alone and crossed
the open space to dive into the jungle again and walk to the Mayan
ruins. There are a few walls and foundations on the site, and
we have no idea how they were used five hundred (or more) years ago.
But we felt how old they were and some old ghosts were walking around and
trying to tell their stories. Mystic time...
Next
stop we made to see the sacred Mayan tree. This tree can always be
found at any Mayan village. This is interesting, the young tree has a green
bark and a lot of sharp thorns, protecting the trunk. And... the trunk
is hollow, like a bamboo tree. Growing older the tree changes. It lost
the thorns, became solid and the bark swapped the color to dark grey. The
tree became a real giant, and I can understand why Maya thought about it
as a sacred one.
Looking
at the photos you can imagine how the Yucatan jungle looks like. As I
said, we never really have seen this kind of forest before and were
surprised how thick and tangled it is. I am not sure if one can easily
walk through, I guess the machete or ax is a must have tool to move
through the jungle. And this is dark under the roof of palm trees,
unknown trees, liana and flowers covering the jungle as a big umbrella.
And we were thinking the forests we used to know, even the thickest
spots are much easier to come through. There can be bigger trees, more
bushes and grass is
taller, but it is usually not as thick and tangled as a jungle. That was a very interesting experience I would say.
PS
for those who are attentive and curious. You can find strange barrel shaped rocks on
the edge of the trail in some pictures. They are lamps and bring
some light to the trail during the dark hours. They are hollow so the
bulbs are placed inside and have multiple slots to let the light out.
They don't really light up an environment, but give enough light to see
the trail and don't get lost. They help you to remember you are in the
wild forest and not walking along Broadway. Most of the trails and roads
around the resort are equipped with similar lamps. Just the central part is
well illuminated and gives you a feeling you are not lost somewhere in
the middle of nowhere :)
To read the next part click here - Mexico, vacation... Coba pyramid, part 8
Pictures were taken in March 2018.
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