Mike in the Wild

Visiting cenotes while traveling through the Yucatán Peninsula was never high on my priority list.  Birdwatching, exploring Mayan archaeological sites, snorkeling, beachcombing, and cervezas at sunset were the activities that most excited me as I planned my six-day road trip in Mexico.  But on the route from Playa del Carmen to Chichen Itza, there were more than a dozen cenotes on the map, all advertised with prominent signs on the road as I soon discovered.  So before setting out in the car, my husband and I picked two cenotes to check out: Chichikan and Ik Kil.   Ik Kil cenote near Chichen Itza. Cenotes are sinkholes in the limestone earth that have filled with fresh water from rain and the region's natural aquifer.  Rivers on the Yucatán Peninsula only flow underground, and the cenotes are often glimpses at, and entrances to, these waterways.  The idea of swimming or tubing in this cold water had never appealed to me, especially in a dark, creepy ca...

It wasn't long ago that I wrote about olive-throated parakeets on my visit to Belize.  There wasn't actually much to report except that while on a visit to a Mayan pyramid, I watched several fly overhead, failing miserably to capture any photographs of them.  Well, I'm happy to write that on my return to the Yucatán Peninsula two months later, I had much better luck.   The two trips to the region were markedly different.  The first, in February, was merely a short stop on a cruise where I booked an excursion that comprised a bus trip to the Altun Ha archaeological complex and a return by boat down the Belize River.  It was a fantastic journey filled with lots of spectacular wildlife sightings, but no parrot pictures during my short shoreside stay.  The second visit in April  was an actual six-day land vacation where I flew in and out of Cancun and rented a car to explore a wide swath of Mexico's Yucatán. This latest trip began with two nights at t...