There is a cenote, or freshwater sink hole, in a small village in Yucatan with a long and sordid past. It is across the street from the ruins of a Catholic church built at the time of the Spanish invasion in Mexico. The church was built using stones from nearby Chichen Itza and some of the stones particularly the corner stones and stones around the archways, still bear the carvings of the mysterious abandoned city. To read the story about the strange fog that led me to the church ruins go here...
The story goes like this. . .
After centuries of domination by the Spanish, the Maya people on the Yucatan Peninsula decided to revolt. For about 50 years, beginning in the mid 1800’s they tried to overthrow their conquerors, often quite successfully. They tore down anything built by the Spanish and ran their descendants out of town. The church was torn down because it was a symbol of Spanish domination and the loss of the old ways. And in the process two things happened.
1. The gold in the church was thrown into the nearby cenote to protect it from theft.
2. 85 children were also thrown into the cenote.
There are many stories about gold here. In this one, the gold was thrown in the cenote and a spell was cast over it so the gold could never be retrieved. Many years later people tried to swim down into the hundred-foot depths and find the gold. They were drawn forward deeper and deeper, seeing something shiny in the distance, but never being able to reach it. At least one person drowned.
Years later, with the invention of scuba, a small group dove into the cenote to try and find the gold. Again, they seemed drawn deeper and deeper by something that shone, but could never be reached, and again, at least one member of the party didn’t survive.
To this day, the gold has never been recovered. One person asked a local if there was a spell that could undo the original spell and was disappointed with a very strong negative answer. NO, there is no spell, or no one will do one, to undo the original. The gold must stay hidden in the depths.
And what of the children?
I don’t know the story details yet, but I will be returning to see the cenote again very soon and plan to see what I can discover. Stay tuned to find out more!
More details about the gold here! We DID go back again!
Curiouser and curiouser,
laura