Mexico - Part Two - Diving refresher and Rio Secreto

Hello and welcome to day 2 and 3 of our time in Mexico.

If you're just joining us now Kyran and I are down in Mexico on the east coast in the Yucatan peninsula, near the city of Cancun for a week at an all-inclusive resort and these are the adventures that we have embarked upon so far. Lets get straight into it! 

Below: A photo first thing in the morning (before everyone was out of bed) of the area leading to the swimming pools.

First off on Monday morning we had to do our SCUBA dive refresher course as it has been 4 years since we last went diving (in Fiji, Feb 2014). We had two hours in the pool where we re-learned how to clear our mask and take off our BCD (Buoyancy Control Device - the jacket that makes you float), drop weights etc.

Below: Kyran and I and our friends James and Laura all doing our refresher quiz/test before heading out to the pool. 

It was good to do the refresher as we had forgotten some of the hand signals and even this new teacher had some extra stuff that she taught me that I don’t think I had been shown before. Kyran reckoned we had learned it before but I must have completely blanked it from my brain… and that is why it is good we did a refresher course.

Below: All kitted up and ready to head out to the pool! Extra dude on the right was learning for the first time.

After our two hour course we headed off to get an early lunch as we had booked a tour that would be departing at 12 pm. We managed to locate one of the many lunch buffets that are scattered all over this resort and we ate pretty quickly and got moving as we only had 15 mins till the bus was leaving.

What was the tour that we went on, I hear you ask? Well it is a secret!

Yep a secret river!! The tour was call ‘Rio Secreto’ (translated from Spanish means secret river).

Below: Us at the beginning of the tour at the entry sign.

If you want to find out more information about the Rio Secreto I have added a link below to their website.

www.riosecretomexico.com.mx

Below is some photos that I stole off their web site just so that you can get an idea of what we went to see. I had to steal from the internet as there was no photography or videography allowed. There was a dedicated photographer that tags along with your tour and takes photos of everyone and then at the end you get to review them and buy them if you like.
But we didn't buy any so enjoy these stolen photos!

So let me give you a quick run down of the "river" and how it works.
The "secret river" is an underground water system of caves and pools running a total of 35km, which have a slight gradient (1cm deeper per metre of distance) ending up feeding into the ocean. Water is collected through filtration by porous rocks comprising of limestone, which forms calcium carbonate stalactites and stalagmites and many other interesting formations in the caves. The fresh water is clear and a cool ~24 degrees (but feels colder!). The calcium carbonate powder and dust is everywhere, and makes for an interesting ambiance. We saw some bats, and small stunted catfish while doing the tour. 

So I guess I should summarize the tour:

Cost: $109 USD per person – Through our agent at the resort - prices may differ

Time: less then 5 hours (12pm pick up at resort 30 min drive and back before by 5)

Experience: Water was cold but it was a cave so… The tour guide Adriano was fantastic if there was a question that he didn’t know the answer to he found it out as soon as we got out the cave, and told us the answer while we were eating.

Side note: The Caves themselves had various rock formations and it was interesting to see and walk through. Compared to other cave tours that we have done it was good to actually be able to get into the water as other tours usually have the cave very restricted to maintain environmental equilibrium. I have been to other caves that had a wider variety of rock formations but this one was not disappointing it just did not have a "fried egg" or anything rare.

Photography: I must add this one here I usually make a point not to say anything negative in my blogs, but.... the photographer was fantastic and happy and friendly but once you see your photos he was asking $25 USD per photo. I felt that this was a bit expensive. As with most things in Mexico I tried to make a counter offer, but he would not budge so unfortunately no photos of us inside the cave. But you can see what the cave was like from the photos above. We still managed to grab a few selfies before and after in the staging area!

Overall: I think it was a fantastic thing to see. The caves were a good experience. The cost of the experience for the time that we spent there was perhaps a bit excessive. On the other hand I wouldn’t want the tour to go any longer, as the water was cold and you really start getting cold! also the rock formations all start to look the same.

Glad we did it, but would I do it again? Probably not, because we had mostly exhausted what was there to see.

Some additional pictures and commentary about our trip to Rio Secreto;
The drive there and back 7km into the jungle from the main road was a wild and bumpy road .See photo below.

We saw this spiky tree while in the staging area, it was intriguing! We later found out that this is a young sacred Ceiba tree. The Ceiba tree is important in the Mayan religious/spiritual world but we will cover that on a later blog entry. 

Below is the walking path towards the Rio Secreto entrance, and the Mayan purification ceremony we do before entering the underworld.

The picture on the left shows two trees in the foreground - the left tree called Chechen or the "Black sap poisonwood"(Black outline) it has a sap which burns your skin and gives you rashes with the same chemical as poison ivy, and is quite horrible. The tree on the right is called Chaca (White outline) and is the 'cure' to Chechen's poison, its bark has the healing sap which counteracts the other tree's sap. These trees are almost always found together, and it's not a coincidence! One theory I heard from the guide was that the left tree makes the ground around it difficult for others to grow nearby, except the cure tree, who as we know has a chemical agent which neutralises the other's defences. So they are found together because it is one of the only trees which can grow next to it!
The other theory is they have a similar fruit/flower and the same pollinators always end up visiting both trees and depositing in the same place, which causes them to grow commonly in close proximity like this.

There is also Mayan mythology about these trees: 

The Mayan legend tells of two great warrior princes who were brothers of enormous strength and skill but of completely different nature. The younger brother, named Kinich, was kind and merciful and loved by all, while the elder brother, named Tizic, was sullen, and drew strength from the hate and anger nursed in his heart. As legend has it, they both tragically fell in love with the beautiful Nicte-Ha.  The brothers declared a battle to the death to see who she would choose.

The battle was longer and more hideous than the world had ever seen.  The Earth was torn and the Heavens went into hiding.  Eventually both brothers died in each other’s arms. In the afterlife, they begged the gods for forgiveness, and a chance to return to the world of the living and see their beloved Nicte-Ha once more.

The gods granted their wish and Tizic was reborn as the Chechen tree, which seeps black poison from its branches and burns anyone who touches it, and Kinich was reborn as the Chacah tree, whose soothing nectar neutralises Chechen’s venom. They solemnly watch over Nicte-Ha, who having died of grief, was mercifully restored to life as a beautiful white flower.

Above story stolen from cancuntravel.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/the-mayan-legend-of-the-chechen-and-chaca-tree 

We had some food at the Rio Secreto little buffet area after the adventure in the caves and you can see some of it in the picture below, but there was also a vegetable/tomato based soup with limes in it, which is a local dish. "Sopa de Lima".

Below shows the common building style we see around here, which is a 'mud and straw' style walls and/or roofs. Pretty cool!

Hanging around on the beach after we got back to the resort

Well that bring us to the end of another blog. I hope you are enjoying our visit to Mexico as much as we are!

The next blog will be: Mexico - Part Thee - Chichen-Itza and a swim in a Cenote. Promises to be full of history and stories so stay tuned for that next!

Below: A local Iguana sunning itself!

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