Cenotes and my first ctenosaur

I thought the cenote trip today would be a bust because the other two cenotes we saw were so fantastic, but it wasn’t at all.  We were at the ancient Mayan city Dzibilchaltun, and got our first look at some ruins.  The biggest building we saw was an observatory for the stars, and built around 300 B.C.  Mayans used math and astronomy to predict eclipses all the way to 2012. 

After running around on the ruins we walked over to the cenote.  This one wasn’t underground, but it was just as clear and beautiful, and had lily pads growing all over.  There were little fish all around and I could see straight down to the plants and rocks on the bottom that looked blue like the kind you can buy at a pet store.  It made me feel like I was swimming in a fishbowl.

At the cenote I saw my first ctenosaur (family Iguanidae, suborder Iguania, order Squamata, subclass Lepidosauria, class Reptilia… thank you bio 220) and it was huge!  It was at least a foot long from head to tail.  They like to live in dry places and so they’ll be at a lot of the ruins we go to.  I wish I could have gotten a picture but he was quick to run away under a rock.