Tankah Bay and Cenote Manatee

Tankah Bay, What a cool place, Casa Cenote is a laid back restaurant at the beach (try the fish tacos). Across the dirt road is Cenote Manatee (scroll down on the page behind the link, fee was 20 pesos, a river vanishing underground with quite a current. On the other side of Casa Cenote it emerges a few steps from the beach from a gaping hole. When we were there, a massive school of fish (sardines? I'll have to wait and see if my photos are good enough for identification) kept right in front of the river outlet. Diving into the school gives you an eery sense of loss of orientation. Mac, Colin and James got a little scared at one point. Also, the current from the river is quite strong. But if you drift and paddle north along the beach you will soon come to the edge of the dropoff. I dove to the sandy bottom and followed the swarm when I suddenly saw several good sized tuna dash off. I tried and tried but was unable to see them again. James and I also observed a houndfish (Tylosurus crocodilus) skip on the surface with its catch, almost like a flying fish. I was able to get a picture later while swimming in Cenote Manatee. And I just have to get this fish in somehow, in the shallows we saw quite a few of the omnipresent slippery dicks (Halichoeres bivittatus).


View Tan Kah Bay and Casa Cenote in a larger map

On the way out we saw a turkey vulture, the first one, it seems that black vultures are more common.

Sian Kaan Biosphere Day Trip

Our ride was there at 7:50 sharp, with Antonio our guide from Sian Ka'an Community Tours for the day and the driver. Loaded three sleepy boys, Lynn, myself and snorkling gear. Then off to Tulum for financials and to pick up two other clients, a German couple from Garmisch. A quick Chili Relenos taco from a roadside stand and then off to start the activities of the day. We started at the Muyil archeological site. Hot and stuffy in the jungle, just off Mex 307, a few miles south of Tulum. Saw a trogon but not much other wildlife, probably too hot already. The Muyil ruins are nice and almost deserted. Antonio, a local Mayan did a great job mixing natural and local history. Brought the perspective of the natives, too, who have a hard time eking out a living in spite of all the tourist development. Shared a lot of stories about his dad and from the time prior to the road passing by Muyil. He pointed out some poisonous and medicinal plants, most notably the chechen tree (also black poisonwood. looks like it is a good furniture wood, which Antonio mentioned too.) and was quite knowledgeable about the local fauna in general and bird life specifically.

Some landmarks we visited can be found here. We took a boardwalk trail from the archeological site to a lagoon, stopping on the way to climb a rickety looking fire tower. After a snack, we boarded a motor boat and headed across Laguna Muyil for a canal dug by the Mayans which we took to cross to Laguna Chunyaxche. From here we haded to the river outlet towards Laguna Boc Paila and stopped at a Mayan ruin, a customs post or toll house, according to Antonio. We changed in to swim gear and floated down the river. I have to say that I am not a big fan of floating inactively like that, but the mangrove thickets on the side gave some interesting observations, primarily various epiphytic plants. The boys moved ahead, like a bunch of otters, making sure that we would not see too much bird life.

After about a couple of kilometers we boarded the boat again and headed back to Laguna Muyil for a nice sit-down lunch of tamales, tacos and empanadas. There was a film crew working on a promotional video to advertse tours. The actors, all employees at hotels in the Playa del Carmen area somehow did not seem real.

On the way back to Akumal, we stopped at Cenote Escondido, a beautiful swimming hole with a nice cliff to jump from. Quite a variety of fish, too, and a big iguana in a tree.

A few hundred meters before arriving back ome I noticed some people looking and pointing intently at something at the roadside. There was an aguti, a rodent that takes the place of a rabbit or hare in Central and South America.