Yucatec: Tulu'um.

I have to admit that I was more excited about swimming than visiting Mayan ruins (shameful), but we did visit them nonetheless. We went at around 8 in the morning (yes, we were vacation ambitious) and I liked that all of the visitors seemed to be Mexicans and not tourists. Chris and I were oddballs.



The placards explaining the ruins and their historical context were hilarious because they were translated pretty literally. For example, "...The boats couldn't resist the turbulence on the open sea..." I think the boats must have fallen hopelessly in love.

Caves.

We also went cave swimming. Apparently (see?), there are caves in this part of Mexico, filled with fresh (freezing), mineral blue water. We swam deep into the caves, where you can barely lift your head because the stalactites hang so low, but when you plunge your face below the surface - a vast new sphere opens up. I didn't know this sphere at all - it is dark and endless - every stopping point confessed a new perforation with more and more, more. There were scuba divers who saw the other worlds. All the places we only saw openings to - the scuba divers went.

This water cave is called Grand Cenote (cenote = sinkhole or well).