Tunkás

In the end, or rather, almost at the very beginning, victory was mine. The main road in town was closed for some sort of elementary school mathematics competition (!), so the combi driver just flagged down a mototaxi driver for me, we negotiated a price, and away we went.*

The path was jagged and rocky and the ride was extremely rough. We visited three cenotes, the first two of which were viewing only. No pics, because we were assailed by fire ants at the first one and I suggested that we hightail it out of there, not needing to get any better acquainted with the buggers. The first two both nice to look at, but the third, cenote Chan Lukun X’azul, was amazing.

To get down into the cenote, you have to scramble down a teeny cliff, then duck through a rough cave, and then you emerge on the other side as though you have entered another world. It was spectacular. I hadn't bothered to carry my swim gear down with me, but I immediately realized how silly it would be not to go for a dip and ran up to change. 

I'm so glad I wasn't fool enough to skip the swim. It was spectacular. We were the only people for miles around. This is no commercial cenote. Just a remote, fathomless pit in the earth, with tree roots trailing all the way down from high above. Lukun X'azul is magical and weird and gorgeous, like something out of a twisted fantasy.

*The only sour note to the day was that when I got back to the mototaxi after changing, he said that his boss didn't agree with the price and wanted to hike it by 80 pesos. I three-quarters believe him. He was a great guide, very solicitous (but not overly), making sure I always had sure footing and didn't hit my head when we were crawling through the cave to get to the cenote. So if you want to go and want him for a guide, just have him call his boss (or possibly "call his boss") to confirm the price before you set out. 

Alternatively, if the old bait and switch is pulled on you, you could certainly walk back to town. It's probably 8 or 10k. Doable. Not pleasant, I wouldn't think, but doable. It didn't occur to me as an option until we were halfway back to town.