SISTEMA VANILLA FARM

I found Cenote Vanilla Farm on 21 November 2024, a nice reward for walking hundreds of kilometers through the jungles around Tulum from 2021-2024 in search of new cenotes and not finding much.

A shallow muddy pool leads down a slope choked with rotting leaves and tree branches to a narrow restriction, originally less than 6” high from floor to ceiling. On the first dives we had drag ourselves through thick mud to carve out a passage.

The cenote opens up to a major system with multiple connected cenotes, dark sediment dunes, white barren tunnels, extremely decorated passages, paleo-reefs containing extremely well preserved marine fossils, animal bones, Mayan pottery and rooms full of tree roots.