He then started climbing up a steeply angled tree devoid of branches. He found purchase in the small knobs that appeared to be knots in the tree. Up he went into the upper reaches of the tree and when the tree thinned out to the diameter of a baseball bat, he rechecked his footing and leapt headfirst. I knew then we had reached our first cenote. A cenote is what Mexicans call a sinkhole leading to an underwater world of caverns and passages.
Steep cliffs protect most cenotes and there is only one way in jump.
As soon as I was in, a colorful cloud of fish immediately surrounded me. I put my mask on and ducked under. The world seemed to erupt with color and great depth. This cenote dropped about 80 to a 100 feet below and in others it was just a dark abyss that seemed to breathe cool water. Next, Emilio took us a few miles away to the Grand Cenote, and underwater cave system so large that after ten years of exploration cave divers are still searching for its source.