Xcaret Underground River

So I’ve managed to avoid making any blog posts that revolved around theme parks, or major structures built simply for tourist attractions, and I guess it was inevitable. And this particular inevitability comes in the form of the Xcaret Underground River.

While the rivers were originally naturally formed underground rivers leading to the ocean off the coast of Mexico, they were purchased in the eighties to be transformed into a tourist attraction that exceeded expectations. The park itself has many other attractions, including aquariums and bat caves, bird and butterfly pavilions, green houses and animal sanctuaries. But of course what I’m most interested in, is snorkeling in the rivers.

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There are three rivers that can be chosen, each about 600 meters long and going no deeper than 1.60 meters. The rivers pass by Mayan cenotes, rock formations, and marine fossils. At the end of the rivers as they flow into the ocean, there is mangroves inhabited by pink flamingos. The history behind the tunnels and springs is fantastic, and even though it may be a tourist attraction with very little substance left, the idea of it is just so cool.

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Not to mention beautiful.

At the end of the rivers you can snorkel coral reefs off of the beach, or swim with the dolphins. You can go scuba diving, and farther along the beach there is a manatee sanctuary. Essentially, it’s a very well stocked very exciting theme park, and honestly I would be completely up for visiting, even if it has been called a ‘Disneyfied ecopark’, because who doesn’t love a little bit of commercial tourism. There’s a reason things like these get popular, and it was about time this blog featured something a little more commercial.

Anyways, here’s a video if you’ve got an interest in seeing what this is all about. I know I sure did.

 

Sources:

http://www.xcaret.com/underground-rivers.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcaret_Park

Comments

  1. Maeve Scott Rooney says:

    This looks so dope! After seeing this I’m definitely putting the Xcaret Underground River on my bucket list. It’s so beautiful I just hope it’s not too commercialized because that would really take away from the experience.

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