Homún

I just spent an really adventurous day in Homún, a small village southwest of Mérida. I was told  I should go to calle 67 between calle 50 and 52 (all the streets from north to south are named in even numbers and the others in uneven numbers in Mérida) for a collectivo taxi, which is like a shuttle bus, so I just thought I will go to calle 67 and follow it until i reach the collectivo taxis. I should have had a look at a map of Mérida, because calle 67 suddenly ended in some huge market where they sold everything you can imagine and everyone was doing their saturday shopping there. I should have taken a photo of it. After I made it to the other side of the market, calle 67 was gone, there was just calle 54 to my left and right. I did find calle 67 afterwards again, but it did a good job in hiding from me.

So I found the taxis and my hostel adviced me to go to Cuzamá because there are three cenotes over there. Therefore I asked the guy standing in front of a collectivo van if this was the taxi to the cenotes and Cuzamá. He told me that it won't go to Cuzamá but I can see five cenotes and a gruta, so I decided to take this one, even if I had no idea where it would take me.

It turned out that there was a village shortly behind Cuzamá called Homún, and I even remembered a girl at the hostel telling me about a great place to see cenotes called "umun" or something - I think I found the place. Over there the bus driver let me out at some place where lots of "bicycles" were waiting to carry me to the cenotes and the collectivo just went on with all the other people in the bus. It was quite terrifying since I had no idea where exactly I was, where all the other people in the van were going and how I am going to get back to Mérida.

This guy took me to all the cenotes (and the cave) and it was amazing. Sometimes there were just small holes in the ground with a ladder to go down, sometimes you could even see people swimming down there.

The water was always cool and refreshing and clear as crystal. The only reason why you could not see the ground sometimes was that it was just too deep and therefore too dark to see anything. Also it was fresh water, therefore no water of the ocean - but floating did work well there, better than in some swimming pools.

Some of the cenotes had adapted some extras to have more fun, one even gave me the feeling of an underground public swimming bath (which is quite a nice idea), only some slide was missing.

But the most fantastic experience was the cave - I explored it while only wearing my bikini, because the way was leading through the water most of the time. I had to be careful not to hurt my feet by stepping on some sharp stones or stumbling over some big rocks underwater, and in the end I was standing in water up to my upper arms - therefore they told me not to take my camera with me and that's the reason why I don't have photos of this experience - but it was totally worth it. At the end of the path there was another cenote with water clear as crystal (the water on the path was a little bit more dirty) and even some drawings on the walls which might be pretty old. Now I also want a cave with a cenote in it for my dream home.

I did get back to Mérida, the "bicycle" or whatever you call that kind of transportation, just dropped me off at some taxi station, and a collectivo back to Mérida arrived shortly afterwards. So If you ever get to Mexico and want to see some cenotes, go to Homún, it's not as touristic as Cuzamá and you can see a gruta too!