This time on Jonathan Bird’s Blue World,
Jonathan visits a submerged Mayan burial ground! Hi, I’m Jonathan Bird and welcome to my
world! 66 million years ago, an enormous asteroid
tumbled through space. Travelling ten times the speed of a rifle
bullet, this celestial missile was on a direct collision course with Earth. It smashed into Earth with such force that
it triggered powerful earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The impact threw a cloud of dust into the
atmosphere, cooling the planet and killing the dinosaurs. The impact crater is located just north of
the Yucatan peninsula, in what is now Mexico. Around the outer ring of the crater, cracks
formed in the limestone, allowing groundwater to flow through, eroding into caves. When a cave ceiling gets too thin and falls
in, you get what is known as a cenote. The word cenote was derived from the Mayan
word ts’onot meaning “sacred well”--A source of water, and an entrance to the caves. Fast forward to 2,000 years ago, the Maya
civilization dominated central America. They built their cities near the cenotes so
they had access to fresh water from what are essentially super clean underground rivers. Thanks to that asteroid, there are more cenotes
in this area than anyplace else in the world--thousands of them running along the rim of the ancient
crater. It’s an incredible place for some underwater
exploration! To begin our adventure, Cameraman Todd and
I fly down to Merida, Mexico—a city surrounded by thousands of mostly unexplored cenotes. Our first stop, Freedom Divers, where I meet
owner Jeff Shaw, my host for underwater exploration. Jeff? Jonathan! Hey, nice to meet you man! Nice to meet you! Welcome to Merida! Thanks, ready to do some diving? Let’s go hit some cenotes! All right, let’s go! We pile all our gear into Jeff’s pickup
truck and drive south. We stop along the way, to pick up his friend
Aaron Diaz, a local cave diving expert, and a few of his local guides—Elmer, Felipe
and Carlos. We drive out into the bush and the road slowly
turns into barely more than a path. Eventually the guides get out and use machetes
to clear the brush for the truck. At last we reach cenote Sha-An and the guides
start setting up. Looking inside the cenote, I can tell you
this, I would not want to fall in there by accident. The surface of the water is 50 feet down and
the only way out would be climbing a tree root! But it’s absolutely breathtaking. This is going to be an adventure! Elmer, Felipe and Carlos are rigging some
ropes so that we can rappel down to the water. Meanwhile, the dive team is getting ready. This is a full cave dive, with all the gear
that requires, plus something extra. This is one of the unique pieces of gear we
are using today—something you don’t normally see scuba diving—a climbing harness. Ready to go! With the ropes all set up, it’s time for
our team to rappel down into the cenote. Jeff goes first to demonstrate. Next it’s my turn. While I have never started a dive with a rappel,
I did learn to rappel in high school. So I can’t resist the urge to show off a
little. The trees that we are rappelling down are
actually roots. They don’t go down into the bottom. Once they reach the water, they stop, with
gap underneath that makes them look like anti-gravity trees! It takes a while to get everyone and their
gear down into the water. The divers can rappel, but all the tanks and
cameras have to be lowered carefully to us. Elmer, Felipe and Carlos are working hard! At last with all of our gear, we can follow
the beams of sunlight down into the cenote. In the middle of the cenote is a debris pile,
principally made of the rock that fell when the ceiling collapsed, opening this cave to
sunlight. But towards the edges of the cenote, it gets
deeper. Aaron leads the way to a permanent guideline
into the cave. Soon we have passed into the cave, out of
sight of sunlight. We swim into a massive chamber, larger than
a basketball court. The water is crystal clear. At the back of the chamber, a passageway leads
into the wall. As I approach, Aaron suggests I go first to
get some great shots without anyone kicking up the silt. I slowly head inside, not sure what to expect. This is what I love about cave diving—so
much adventure exploring the unknown. And there is something cool about swimming
through a crack in the rock. I lead the way into a gorgeous passageway
that almost looks like a miniature riverbed, with pebbles paving the floor. The white limestone walls reflect my video
lights, making beautiful illumination. In a few minutes, we reach an intersection and
I’m not sure which way to go, so I stop and wait for Jeff and Aaron. Jeff gives us the “turn around” sign—this
is as far as we go today. Heading back out I hang back a ways to get
some shots of Jeff and Todd ahead of me. Working our way back towards the cavern, Aaron
removes a section of line he laid on the way in. Then we make our way back up into the sunlit
waters of the cavern. Jeff has found a cow bone in the debris pile. It’s not hard to image an animal wandering
through the woods and accidentally falling into this deep pit. Near the bone, the skull, complete with a
few remaining teeth. Finally we surface, and now the hard work
is about to begin. Woo hoo! To get us back out of the cenote, the guides
lower a rope ladder. We’re not sure this is going to work, but
hopefully it will because we’re not very good at climbing trees! It looks like it will be easy to climb, but
I assure you, it’s not. First Jeff heads up while Aaron tries to keep
it tensioned so it won’t flip around sideways. Next it’s my turn. By halfway up my arms are burning from the
effort. Then it’s Cameraman Todd’s turn. Having fun yet? Fifty feet from the surface of the water to
the top of this cenote seemed like an eternity when I was climbing up and my arms were burning,
but it was so worth it! That was the most amazing dive! Not all cenotes are small holes with water
way down inside. We take a walk through the woods to a cenote
so large that it looks more like a lake. And in a small town outside Merida we check
out the town well—which is just a cenote with a tiny opening. I would love to dive in there, but they probably
don’t want a scuba diver in their water supply. Even today, the cenotes allow access to clean,
fresh water. But to the Mayans, cenotes were not just sources
of water. Cenotes were also believed to be entrances
to the underworld--and therefore pathways to the Gods. In pre-Columbian times, the Maya people ruled
Central America. They built staggering cities, which included
massive step-pyramids as temples to the Maya gods. They performed rituals that they believed
would keep the gods happy--to insure their good fortune. The Mayans would often throw offerings into
the cenotes to please Cha’ac, the rain God. Sometimes those offerings included human sacrifices. Would it be possible to dive in a cenote used
by the Mayans for human sacrifices? That’s where we are going. Don’t go away! Jonathan’s about to explore a spooky underwater
burial ground. Our team is piling into the truck and driving
back out into the bush to visit a very special cenote used by the Mayans for human sacrifices. We arrive at Cenote San Antonio. The opening was enlarged and reinforced at
some point to be rectangular. But this tiny opening was once an important
place to the Mayans. So important that we had to get a special
permit to dive here. Once again our guides set up some pulleys
and rope to get us and our gear in and out of the cenote. It might be hard to believe, but this dive
is even more difficult than the last one. There is no room for error, we will only get
one shot at this. Our team suits up with only a vague idea of
what we are going to see on the other side of that tiny hole in the ground. We start with a meeting to discuss our plan. Because of the way this cenote was formed,
it is safer to be lowered into it rather than rappel. Aaron goes first. Once he gets down there, I can see just how
far down that is. I really don’t want to climb a rope ladder
out of this. As they lower me into the opening and through
to the other side, I am swinging in free space as I descend, spinning with the rope! I’m rock climbing! From down on the water, Aaron turns on a light
so I can see. The room in here is massive! The ceiling is like a dome. You could never climb out. This cenote is a deadly trap for anything
that falls, or is thrown inside. Once I’m in the water, I can see bats and
stalactites. Soon, the guides lower the rest of the team,
tanks, and cameras--one at a time. It’s a very slow process. By the time we start our dive, I have been
floating in the water more than half an hour. I’m curious though, exactly how they are
going to get me out of here! But for the time being, I am ready with a
camera, lots of lights and my natural curiosity. Aaron and Jeff lead us below. The sides of the cenote are covered in ancient
dripstone formations—formed probably during the last ice age when sea levels were lower
and this cenote was at least partially dry. The walls are made of sedimentary rock formed
from an ancient seabed. All kinds of shells are stuck in it, including
this perfectly-formed sea urchin skeleton. As we drop further, I focus my camera on a
jawbone. It’s the jaw of a horse, which probably
fell in here by accident and drowned. Nothing can escape this watery trap. Near the jaw, I find my first trace of a human
presence—a broken piece of pottery. I have to get my head around the fact that
this is a pre-Columbian artifact more than a thousand years old. Moving away from the walls and out into the
middle of the cenote, I find a bone. This is no horse bone—it’s a human tibia,
the lower leg bone. And near it, the femur. Humans are buried here. Not far away, a ghostly sight—a human skull
resting peacefully next to a perfectly intact earthen bowl. At this depth in fact there are human remains
almost everywhere I turn. Aaron directs me to a field of human remains
laying out on the sand on the sand in plain view. This skull has its jaw sitting nearby. Of course we don’t touch or disturb anything. Not only is this a gravesite, it’s part
of an ongoing archaeological study. We can look but we definitely cannot touch. There are easily dozens of bodies at the bottom
of this cenote, and I have to wonder what was happening here. Were these people sacrificed to the Gods? Or were they simply people who died and were
buried here? What amazes me about this place is the preservation
of the bones, which are at least 1,000 years old. If only these bones could talk, what would
they tell us about life in the pre-Columbian Maya culture? Jeff and Aaron direct me to a shelf on the
wall at 90 feet. There, resting peacefully, the remains of
two people. Did they know each other? Is their proximity a coincidence? How did they get on this shelf? All questions that will likely never be answered. Nearby, a jaw with molars that have cavities. What can be learned of the ancient Mayans
from clues like this? But not everything down here is about death. This cenote has some of the most prolific
cave fauna I have ever seen, including many blind cavefish and a species of cave isopod
I have never seen before. With the dive coming to an end, we slowly
ascend and finally surface into the pitch darkness of the cenote. That was the spookiest dive of my life and
I’m definitely ready to get back to the sunlit world above. Elmer, Felipe and Carlos have to lift each
of us, and all of our gear, out with a block and tackle. It’s hard work and these guys are stronger
than they look! Hi guys! Thanks for hoisting me up! Merida Mexico is not particularly close to
the ocean, but the vast network of unexplored cenotes nearby and the rich Mayan history
of the area makes it one of the most fascinating dive destinations I have ever visited. Without question, I’ll be back to explore
more cenotes. Who knows what secrets they hold in their
deep blue depths.
