El Manatí

So at about 2 am last night, I woke up and started swiping Tinder to find a friend to go back to Casa Cenote with me because I am more confident swimming with a crocodile if I am not on my own. I matched with a few guys who seemed really arrogant and then one that was just really easy to talk to, so I invited him. He met me at my hotel and I drove us to Casa just up the road. His name is Mark, and he is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He owns a cafe there that serves Kava and has not swam in 6 years or ever snorkeled in his life. Oh! Well, it's a good thing that I am a divemaster because I knew how to communicate with him on how to work his snorkel gear. It was a struggle at first and held us up, so we missed Panchito actually being in the water but saw him resting on his favorite rock. I love that little crocodile! Mark and I took turns recording each other swimming underwater with the gopro. He was so cute and couldn't hold his breath for more than about 10-15 seconds, but I was impressed with his will to keep trying! He's a good guy, vegan, body builder, and a boss! Sweet! We had a lot of things in common and I enjoyed our time together so I invited him to come to Yal-Ku Lagoon with me after we got out of Casa. He accepted my invite but needed food. We headed back towards Tulum because there wasn't much to choose from going north and stopped at a little vegan taqueria. He ate a normal amount of food. I was still scared shit-less (pun intended) of eating since every time I ate, my bowels would act up, and my tummy hurt. So I had one soy-rizo and potato taco that was the perfect amount for my comfort level.
The drive to Akumal was nice, and we chatted about various things . I learned he also likes to micro dose mushrooms and smoke weed, and we talked about Ayahuasca and ceremonial things. It was nice. I was surprised he was knowledgeable about those things, being a meat head and all. 😊 Never judge a book...
Yal-Ku was cool, a little murky as it was low tide and later in the day. We rented Mark some more snorkeling gear and headed down the path to the Cenote entrance to the Lagoon. The water was really quite cold for being an open cenote, but that feeling went away pretty quickly. There were a decent amount of fish in the water, including tons of Sergent Majors, some parrot fish, Blue Tang, Triggerfish, and various Vutterfly Fish. It was a little difficult to see them all sometimes, as there was what looked like camo glass patches all throughout the water. It was so strange, I had never seen anything like it before. It was warm in those spots too and felt a little slimy.. I was getting kind of freaked out at how much of the visibility it diminished and the other things it was doing. We swam back to our point of entry and asked the fellas at the check in what it was and they said it's where the salt water meets the fresh water. Aaah ok. So we felt better that we weren't just splashing around in some kind of toxic pollution and got back out there! We were not allowed to swim out to the ocean because the current was bad but had plenty of fun filming each other again with the gopro. I was super cold after a while and it looked like rain was coming right in for us, so we got out and headed back to the car, exhausted from a fun day of adventuring. I took him back to his car at my hotel and we parted ways. He flies out tomorrow. I wonder if I'll ever see him again, only time will tell!Read more