66.04 million +/- 32.000 years ago the chicxulub meteroit hit the yucatan peninsula (near the present village chicxulub puerto) and caused a crater in the diameter of 180km (inner circle) and 300km (outer circle), and it reached 20km into the earth. The meteroid had a diameter of 10km, was 20 to 40km / sec fast and exploded with the power of at least 200 million hiroshima bombs. Today the impact crater is not recognizable in the landscape, however, due to the shockwave many cenotes owe therfore their existence . The chicxulub meteroid was probably the last thing the dinosaurs had seen and with them nearly 75% of the biodiversity became extincted.

here is a short video about our canoe-trip trough the mangroves to the flamingos.

Not all cenotes are easy to reach by car, these are a bit out of the way and can be reached by trolleys towed by horses and bike-taxis. Exciting how different these water holes are!

Today I would like to present some cenotes. On the yucatan peninsula is the world’s highest density of these dolina-like limestone pits, created by the collapse of the cave ceilings and filled with fresh water. Some thousands are known and most of them follow the rim of the chicuxlub crater. (i will try to introduce the chicxulub krater in an upcoming blog contribution!) Unfortunately, the often spectacular collapsed caves were made accessible for tourists with unnecessarily much concrete, however, these underworlds are always impresssive and they played an importand role in the maya culture.

just some impressions from the caribbean coast in méxico