By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
darling nobody, the homesickness eventually wanes away, clearing the way for what will be one of the best weekends of my life. it begins with my weekend host mom taking me to a beach- my first beach in cancun. it’s infested with tourists, crowded and commercial- a huge rubber parrot with mexico written all over it, jolly roger cruise ship for kids, rows of shops full of souvenirs- but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful in my eyes. the water is clear, blue, the sand is white, and the sea is everywhere. i don’t own a swimsuit yet, so i cannot go deep into the water, but i’m still happy, unable to hold back a smile. i haven’t seen any places in the past two weeks, and for now, anything will do. i roll up my jeans and step into the water, loving the coolness of it on a hot, hot day. i try to forget everything around me- i’m practising the art of living in the moment- and i do, for some time. for some time, it’s just me and the feel of cold water against my skin. i don’t stay in the sea for long- we have other places to be- but it’s still the highlight of my day. until then. what i don’t know is that even this beautiful moment will be nothing compared to the weekend i’m about to have. cenotes. the sacred house of god. the mayans called them ts’onot, and the word was tweaked by the spanish when they colonized mexico. the cenotes have been on the top of my list of places to visit since i arrived in mexico. they are small, natural, still water bodies- sinkholes- often inside caves, with clear blue water that reflects the sun’s light. the water is usually freezing cold in contrast to the heat of the sun. there are four types of cenotes: open cenotes, semi-open cenotes, cavern cenotes and underground cenotes. the cenotes were the main reason i was in mexico, the place i cared about the most. and i was finally in one. it did not disappoint. i swam for the first time in years in cenote cristalino and realized that this was all the peace i’d been missing in my life. it’s hard getting into the cold water and my brain kept warning me not to, but i had to take the leap- take a deep breath and jump into the cold water until it doesn’t feel as cold. tiny fish are everywhere, and if you stay in one place for too long, they gather around your feet to eat your dead cells. you have to pay for this in the spa, my host dad says, it’s completely free here. i mostly float around the cenote on my back, trying not to think and letting my senses take me over. at one point, i can’t move backwards for some reason and am confused before i realized i’ve crashed into a man. it’s funny, and we both laugh it away. we stay in the cenote for almost two hours, and i miss it as soon as i’m outside. in the next few days, i will crave swimming, and the prospect of swimming again will be the only thought that keeps me going- but i don’t know this yet. for now, all i know is that i’m exhausted- but it’s a happy, content kind of exhausted, something i haven’t felt in years. + we drive for about an hour after this, and i try my best to stay awake: staring out of the window for any new sights. i have missed my long drives. we pass tons of grand hotels, and a huge bluish-grey lagoon- i gasp when i read that it is full of crocodiles. eventually though, i cannot fight my closing eyelids for any longer, and i drift off to sleep. + i wake up to my host mom taking a picture of me sleeping, and we both burst out laughing. we decide to take a walk by the sea and she asks me about india. well, there’s no elephants on the streets, i say, grinning. she chuckles, it’s like how everyone thinks that the people in mexico all live in big farms, wear sombreros and ride their horses everywhere. i laugh, nodding. someone gets it.