Yokdzonot Eco-Touristic Cenote

While cenotes date back to the formation of the earth or the impact of a meteorite 65 million years ago, when a path is cleared to a cenote, gardens are cleaned up and safety measures are taken, it is said that there is a new cenote.

The new cenote on the block, or better said, the newest cenote to be prepared for visitors, is Cenote Yokdzonot, located 18 kilometers (11 miles) west of Piste/Chichen Itza.

View from the top of the
Yokdzonot cenote.

Yucatan Today went on a reconnaissance trip to the orient of the state, visited the cenote and found it to be wonderful. Being so new, it is not yet inundated with tourists, buses and all that. So, now is the time to visit before it is put on the map touristically speaking.

The endeavor to work on this cenote began two years ago when the people of the village of Yokdzonot (population 750) realized they needed to find new ways to make a living as working in the fields and being farmers was not enough to make ends meet. Being so close to Chichen Itza and also seeing that other cenotes have been cleaned up, manicured and opened to visitors, gave them the idea to do the same with the cenote in their village.

Fifty Mayan ladies got together at a village assembly and very intelligently went about forming a coop and getting a 50 year concession on the cenote and the land around it. They then went about getting help and information from an architect to help build the bathrooms, kitchen, palapa restaurant and wooden pathways and stairs down to the water. This was a titanic effort.

Everyday for two years, at 3 PM, after they had done all their housework of cleaning and cooking and getting their children home from school, they went to their land to move rocks, both small and huge, to form the many pathways, remove dead trees and vegetation, prune live trees and vegetation, clean up years of trash and build a cute wooden fence around the area.

This was hard, arduous work. During the course of the two years, many ladies got discouraged and quit. The work was physically hard and they didn’t share the dream of the other ladies.

When the cenote was inaugurated in January 2007, 17 ladies were in the coop. Membership in the coop is inheritable thus ensuring that each lady’s space will be passed on to one of her children.

Paths in the Eco Park.

Entrance to Yokdzonot cenote near Chichen Itza in the Yucatan.

Open seven days a week from 9 AM – 5 PM (8 AM – 6 PM during vacation times), the entrance cost is $20 pesos (less than two US dollars). Life jackets can be rented for $10 pesos and snorkel gear for $25 pesos. For those of you who are adventurous you can rent a mountain bike ($50 pesos/hour) and go see the other cenotes and springs. A guide will take you and the trip lasts about 2 hours.

The kitchen is very clean and offers wonderful Yucatecan cuisine. An order of four salbutes or panuchos costs $25 pesos, chicken or cheese empanadas cost $30 pesos, sopes (like salubutes but with a thicker corn dough base) cost $30 pesos. Heavier dishes of poc-chuc or breaded pork steaks cost $40 pesos. They offer lime soup daily.

Nearby future plans include building some palapas so that families can hang up their hammocks and have picnics and spend a tranquil family day with nature.

Above: Wooden staircase to the water.

Swimming in a cenote is refreshing, invigorating, rejuvenating and a spiritually wonderful way to cool off from the Yucatecan heat. Either plan to spend the day here or combine a visit to the cenote with your trip to Chichen Itza, one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. A swim after visiting the pyramids will make you feel like new!

The cenote is just 300 meters off the free road that goes from Merida to Chichen Itza.

For more information on this wonderful cenote please visit the following link:
www.yucatanadventure.com.mx

For first hand accounts of adventures in these cenotes, check out our Day Trips page.

More interesting articles
 Cenotes
 The sacred Mayan Caves.
 Day Trips.
 Transportation in the Yucatan.

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