Exploring new depths in the Yucatan

Not everyone goes to the Yucatan Peninsula for fun in the sun, or even to gawk at freshly burnt, underdressed wild girls on spring break. Not far away from the all-expenses-paid debauchery of Cancun, more adventurous travellers can experience the awesome natural grandeur of underwater caverns - the cenotes of the Mayan Coast.

These underwater rivers once served as an important source of fresh water for the Mayan civilization. The cenotes (a corruption of the Mayan word "dzonot", meaning "sacred well") also served a spiritual function. At least one cenote in Chichén Itzá was a place of worship and sacrifice, including human sacrifice.

Formed over the ages by acidic groundwater seeping through the soft limestone and eating away cavities in the even softer rock beneath, cenotes have weathered rises and declines in sea levels which have left them intermittently dry and flooded. As a result, visitors can see many beautiful formations of stalactites and stalagmites - protrusions in rocks that look like icicles hanging down from the cave top or pushing up from the floor - in the dry parts of the cavern systems. ..[Canada.com]