Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Review of the EcoPark, Kantun-Chi in Riviera Maya, Mexico Cenotes in Kantun-Chi, Are They Worth Coming to See?

When booking our vacation to Riviera Maya, we wanted to go on excursions that would be nearby our resort, the Barcelo Maya. We knew we wanted to swim in some cenotes, but at the same time we wanted to avoid large crowds at amusement park type cenotes. After some research we learned that directly across the highway from the Barcelo, was an array of cenote parks we could simply walk to.

I decided to go with Kantun-Chi considering the fact that it featured more than 1 cenote on the property. In fact this one has 4 cenotes ranging in sizes, and environment.

The most luxurious cenote in the park of course is the underground caverns where you can swim in colorful lit up cenotes as you wind your way down paths in the cool, cool waters. This is beautiful, but will cost a lot more money to take this tour. If you want to just swim around the cenotes that are located above ground its pricing is far less.

We sort of regret not doing the underground cavern swim, but we saved a ton of money and had a lot of fun even with skipping out on the underground caves.

The cenotes above ground here are all scattered about the property, and the unfortunate thing about it, is not necessarily the distance, but the mosquitoes here are just awful, and we found ourselves running to the next cenotes just to escape them, as they tend to leave you alone once you hit the water. No amount of bug spray seemed to deter these monsters.

That aside, the 4 cenotes we visited, only 2 were really worth of swimming, the other 2 are much smaller and not really worth trekking to. For instance, the last cenote, farther back, I would recommend skipping.

The first cenote we hit was a nice large one, however no lights so seeing was semi difficult considering that it is half open and exposed to air, and half concealed by a cave wall. Its still gorgeous, and the depth is amazing. Clarity of the water is superb.

Snorkeling in these cenotes do not offer much though, but the largest one offers some neat fallen stones which look really cool while you snorkel over them.

The open cenote is mostly a mix of green algae but they leave kayaks in the water for you to paddle around, which is very beautiful and fun all the same. As far as fish go, you won't see many as far as variety is concerned; you will however see flocks of large catfish and other small fish. If you bring bread they will all come out of their hiding places, so if you go bring bread with you to really enjoy the fish.
The Grounds:
 
The grounds here are very well kept, and the walking we did throughout the park was nice, but not too much as far as flowers go. Everything was just well maintained and paths were clear of fallen trees, branches and so on.

We saw no wildlife besides iguanas and some other lizards. I heard a rumor hey had monkeys, but saw none on the premises.

Downside:
 
There were a few issues with the park we had. The first of course the mosquitoes, and then the fact that the small trolley that the horses pull were not in service, or at least no one was there to man them. We had to walk the tracks to the farthest cenotes, which was a distance away. Being able to use the horse pulley would have been nice.

Overall:
 
We spent the duration of the entire day here just enjoying the 2 larger cenotes, and it was worth the price as it was a new experience for us, and one we will always remember. It would be neat though to see them lower that admission into the underground cavern, because I am sure they lose out when people opt out due to the high pricing of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment