Mexico
Cenotes of Cuzamá
Horse-drawn rail carts rattling through bush to underground pools lit by single light shafts.
The horse starts moving and the rail cart rattles forward through low scrub on narrow-gauge tracks. No engine, no motor — just a horse, a flat cart, and old henequen plantation rails cutting through the bush. The first cenote appears as a hole in the ground. The ladder goes down. The light shaft pierces the darkness. You jump.
The cenotes of Cuzamá are accessed via horse-drawn rail carts (trucks) that run on narrow-gauge tracks from the abandoned henequen haciendas of the mid-Yucatán. The plantation infrastructure — built to transport sisal fibre — has been repurposed by the local community into one of Mexico's most distinctive cenote experiences. Three cenotes along the route become progressively more dramatic: the first is open-air, the second partially enclosed, and the third requires a ladder descent into a cathedral-like cavern lit by a single shaft of light piercing the limestone ceiling. The underground pools are cool, clear, and fed by the same vast aquifer that underlies the entire Yucatán Peninsula. Stalactites and tree roots extend from the cavern ceilings to the water's surface. The community of Cuzamá manages the operation, with local families driving the carts and maintaining the tracks. The experience sits roughly 50 kilometres southeast of Mérida.
Friends
The horse-drawn cart, the ladder descent, and the jump into an underground pool lit by a single light shaft — Cuzamá turns cenote swimming into an adventure that groups will retell for years.
Family
The horse cart alone is an adventure for children. Each cenote is progressively more dramatic, building anticipation, and the swimming is safe in the sheltered underground pools.
Couple
The rattling rail cart through the bush, the descending light, and a swim in an underground cathedral — Cuzamá transforms a cenote visit into a journey that starts above ground and ends in another world.
- Horse-drawn rail carts run on old henequen plantation tracks — the transport IS the experience.
- Three cenotes along the route, each progressively more dramatic — the last requires a ladder descent.
- The underground pools are lit by single shafts of light penetrating the limestone ceiling.
Longaniza de Valladolid — cured pork sausage — grilled at the cenote entrance with fresh tortillas.
Sopa de lima — chicken and lime soup with crispy tortilla strips — at the hacienda near the rail tracks.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.
St Ives
England
Light so luminous it lured a century of painters to this harbour of turquoise shallows.
Tulpar-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Alpine pools at 3,500 metres that mirror a 7,000-metre peak at dawn like shattered glass.
Philae Temple
Egypt
A temple rescued from rising waters, reassembled stone by stone on an island in the Nile.
San Miguel de Allende
Mexico
Colonial light turning pink at dusk, every doorway hiding an artist's courtyard.
San Cristóbal de las Casas
Mexico
Highland mist curling through colonial arcades where Tzotzil women weave galaxies into cloth.
Oaxaca City
Mexico
Seven varieties of mole simmering in a city where every wall is an altar to colour.
Guanajuato
Mexico
A city poured into a canyon, its houses stacked like a tumbled box of pastels.