Well we arrived in Valladolid (pronounced Vhy - ath -o -leeth or something like that) on Tuesday which is one on the earliest colonial towns in the Yucatan. Its nice, small, bustling and we have a pool in our hotel! From here we are busy busy busy as its well situated to see Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, another flamingo breeding ground, lovely cenotes blah blah blah. So Thursday we went to see the local cenotes ... and now back to the lesson. We got all the usual pics of the cenotes as you'll see on flikr, but just as we were about to leave I noticed a dark stairwell carved into the cave. We venture up as the explorers we are and there we found a man sitting in the shadows. We asked him about what was up there and he pointed us towards a small, mangled cave. We asked if we were allowed to go venture up; he looked us up and down and then spotted Adams big camera. his face lit up, softened as he had obviously decided we were worthy for a bit of an expedition.
He whipped out a small spotlight and took up scrabling up and in to the nooks and crannys of the cave. It turned out that he was a keen photographer (of cenotes at least) and we discovered that this was all in aid of us getting the best possible photographs of the cenote from hidden ledges in the cave above the pool. This was just an incredible experience, and it seemed like we were the only people he was willing to show it to (as a group trapsed about being us looking for something of intrest at the top of these stairs). Anyhoo, we got some great pics and this bit really made the trip for us. We are constantly being suprised at the kindness of the Yucatan people. Despite having to put up with so many tourists, some of which seem to be quite hostile towards the locals, they are ever patient, friendly and seem to genuinely want you to adore their home as much as they do. Its very cool. And so ends todays lesson, if we hadn't have asked, we would not have seen the secrets of cenote Dtiznup.
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