Kids' take on the Cenotes

Chloe:

Today we swam in a beautiful cenote in a cave.  Cenotes are deep natural pools used by the ancient Mayans for two purposes: to make sacrifices to the gods, and for fresh water.  The cenote we visited was about the size of the Davidson gym, and the water was bright blue.  It once was used for fresh water, but now there are lots of fish, big and small, and people swimming in it.  The tiny fish like to nibble at your feet.  It feels almost like getting a million tiny kisses.  There were also tiny bats in the cave flying amongst the stalactites.  Occasionally one would make a screeching noise and it would echo through the whole cave.  There was a small natural skylight which was our only source of light other than the lights that the Mexicans put in the water.  It was so nice to be swimming again.  I am so glad we got to go to the cenote.

Josh:

Today we went to a cenote. A cenote is a cave with water that sometimes has bats and fish in it. When we were there we thought the water was going to be freezing because it said that the water was 76 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.  At least when I got in it did not feel cold at all, like a heated swimming pool. I said, "c'mon mom, it is not cold at all!" and I swam all the way to a ton of stalactites stuck together. It felt so good to be swimming again. I looked up and that's when I saw the bats.  I also saw a hole that gave off a little bit of light. Once we were done with taking pictures, we went back to the rocks.  A bunch of fish started nipping at our feet. It felt like one million tiny kisses and I can tell you something: it tickled. Chloe and I sat like that for a really, really, really long time. Eventually you could barely even see the color of our feet. Then we thought about doing one last swim, and I did jump in one last time, but then I got out. In the end, I thought that it was definitely a great choice to do one of the coolest things in Mexico.