447 - Cenote Ik Kil
And with the holidays officially over, we were off. Three people, one van- driving straight into the heart of the Yukaton. Today’s adventure was at one of the biggest cenotes in Mexico- Cenote Ik Kil.
It was about a two and a half hour drive from Cancun to get here, but this whole area surrounding the small town Valladolid was authentically Mexico. It was nice to be back into the heart of it- away from the glamorous, yet largely American, resorts of Cancun and Tulum.
Don’t get me wrong- this place is still fairly touristy, but I think the Mexican flair overrides it just a tad out here. Especially if you take a pit stop for some street tortas in the city ;).
We had big plans this week- namely Chichen Itza and the pink Colorados. But first, we had this massive cenote. In our past two experiences visiting cenotes, we learned the key is to be there early, before the crowds. Shocker, eh?
But it was seriously tue here. Since swimming was the main feature of these places, it wasn’t easy to Photoshop out dozens of bobbing people in bright red life vests. The water ripples ruin it all.
So we showed up bright and early to Centoe Ik Kil, which just so happened to be the location of the Red Bull Cliff Diving Competition in 2018. The top of the centoe was approximately 85 feet tall, which was quite the lengthy drop.
Luckily they conveniently lead you to the bottom with stairs, after a earth-shatteringly cold pre-shower. Since the cenotes have such fragile ecosystems, they make you wash up before entering to remove excess body oils and lotions. It woke me up good.
After our decent down the Indiana Jones style staircase, we took in our environment- and discovered we were the first of the day. YES.
However I knew more people were coming, fast. They had arrived a few minutes after us, but were much slower to face the cold shower and big staircase.
The first shot I got was of the entire thing, because I knew it’d be my only chance. Ain’t no time to warm up today:
“Cavern of the Gods”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 320 ~ 17mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
And I’m not going to lie, that shot was ridicously difficult to get without blowing out the sky. Even though it was overcast out, the dynamic range between the cave and the sky was atrocious. Couple that with the fact that there were strangly trees IN the blown out sky, and it was a reciepe for Photoshop hardship.
But this wasn’t my first rodeo.
I’d dealt with this situation a few times now, and had some tricks up my sleeve. Namely, to do an exposure blend of the sky (way) less blown out. The only problem was this created an extremely dark enviroment for the trees in the sky, making them look shaded and unnatural. Thus, I had to ensure I masked out ONLY THE SKY (not the trees) to preserve their detail. Then I had to pull out the saturation and detail of the trees like none other, to give them character against the cloudy sky. It took about two hours to perfect that scene, but is well worth it.
From now on I knew the technique is possible, it just takes time, trial, and error to perfect. I almost gave up at one point, but I knew I could muster SOMETHING.
After I got that shot, I knew it was game over because the hordes of people had arrived. I commented to Tyler how photography is essentially a race- even arriving a few seconds earlier than everyone else can make a huge difference.
Now it was time for fun. Since the cenote had an aura of diving professionalism about it, the pool included two jumps- one 15 feet high and one 18 feet high. Haley challenged me to do a swan dive off the 15 footer, which got my adrenaline boiling for a couple seconds.
I’d never dived off anything that high, but I knew that if I just broke the water with my hands my head would be fine. Everything else can sustain a beating- not my noggin.
I ran up to the top and jumped before I could even begin to think twice about it. That’s the key folks- make bad decisions before you can think about the consequences. Those couple seconds in the air was one of the most freeing feelings in the world- then I hit the water.
My form was nearly perfect, minus the fact that my hands were a bit too high and my jaw slammed into the back of my throat like I just got decked in the face. It took me a few seconds to process what happened, and then pain kicked in. Luckily my excitement canceled out the pain, and within an hour I felt good as new.
We left the bottom after a few more jumps, because swimming in those things never lasts long. You’re essentially swimming in a cave, and since I’m skinnier than a weiner dog, I freeze quick.
I took one more glance into the cenote from the top on our way out, and landed on this composition:
"Vines to Hell”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 50 ~ 53mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/80s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
A nice addition to my minimalist black plant backdrop collection. I made sure to black out everything in the backdrop to add to the mystery of the unknown depths.
Whew. Two solid shots!
But I still have one more up-close plant shot to show off:
"Blood-Stained”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 50 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/125s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Damn those patterns always get me good.
And with that, with left the cenote and settled into our van. We found a nice hotel across the street to park in for the night, and Tyler setup a tent ourside our van. Everything was going just dandy in the three person #vanlife tour…
But the future was bleak. We were all still a little beat from our drunken adventure at Coco Bongo, but we didn’t realize we’d been infected with COVID just yet.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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