David and I have been talking about doing this excursion for a while. We had a whole group of people lined up to go, but everyone else cancelled at the last minute - either too expensive or too tired or whatever. So it ended up just being the two of us.
We booked through the ship, because it requires a ferry ride to get there and we didn't want to miss the ferry back to the ship. That wouldn't be good! The ferry ride was about 40 mines, then a 1/2 hour bus ride to the Rio Secreto Natural Reserve.
You cannot take anything with you into the caves. No camera's, no jewelry, no sunscreen, no body oil etc. So the first stop is the change rooms and then an outdoor shower to rinse off. You can choose to wear a wetsuit or not, it's included in the price. Our guide assured us the water wasn't that cold so our group all chose to not wear the wetsuits. You are also given water shoes, life jacket and helmet with headlamp. If I were doing it again, I'd bring my own water shoes.
From the base it's a 10 minute or so walk through the jungle to the Rio Secreto.
Inside the caves you travel nearly 11 miles either walking or floating and it takes about 90 minutes, I think. I lost track of the time. I've been into quite a few caves over the years, but I have never swam in any. The cave system is huge, it's pretty much under all of the state of Quintana Roo (the Yucatan peninsula) but much of it is unexplored. The area where our tour went is called Pool Tunich. It's seriously a labryinth of waterways and amphitheaters filled with stalactites and stalagmites formed from limestone and quartz crystals.
The water is cool, and crystal clear. At some points it was only ankle deep but in other places it was over my head. Yeah I know, I'm short but David is taller than me and it was over his head too. The bottom is either rocks or sand. my favourite parts where when we just floated along, looking up at the stalactites. It was stunning.
It was really awesome. I can't really put in to words how I felt. But I wanted to spend more time just exploring, listening to the silence. Even in a group of 8 it was so peaceful.
One of my favourite parts was when the guide had us all float on our backs, close our eyes, turn off our head lamps and then open our eyes. It was dark. Really dark. My eyes never adjusted to the darkness, and I couldn't see my hand in front of me. Every one was absolutely quiet and we just floated there for 5 minutes. You could hear water dripping from the stalactites. Amazing.
Seriously if you are ever vacationing in Cancun or Playa del Carmen or Cozumel you should go to the Secret River. It was well worth it. I would go again. The tour I went on was to the Secret River or Rio Secreto. But you can also do an underground river tour at Xcaret. It's all part of the same cave system.
(all photos are from Rio Secreto CD and you can't take your own camera)