48 hours in the Lesser Known Kantemo, Mexico

Kantemo, most people have never even heard of it.

Kantemo is a small unassuming village in Quintana Roo, Mexico……that hides an amazing secret…..a cave…with bats….and snakes…..snakes that eat bats!!!!!

The Cueva de Las Serpientes is home to at least six species of bats but also to the yellow – red snake that hangs from the cave ceilings and catches the bats as they leave for the night.

How did I find it? Along with my partner I’m currently touring the Americas for two years. At the onset of each different country I like to ‘trawl’ the net looking for interesting and often obscure things to see and do. So, this is just one of them. It took me hours to work out how to get to Kantemo and visit the cave, there just wasn’t that much information out there. The first sniff of a trip to it was with a travel company that wanted over $500. I don’t think so. Finally, I found how to book directly with the Mayan people for 630 pesos each, that’s approximately $32. Sold…..and they had little cabinas to rent as well for 500 pesos per night….excellent…we’re in!

So, two nights booked and a trip to the cave. We arrived in Kantemo on the 9th January 2018, a blistering hot day and were met by Edgar who we then followed up a gravel/dirt road to the cabinas.

The cabina was great, only small but with a bedroom and bathroom, adequate for the length of time being spent there. There’s no kitchen or food available so if you do decide to visit, ensure you’ve brought provisions. This didn’t affect us as we had all our camping equipment with us and cooked outside on our petrol stove.

Edgar gave us all our instructions for the next day. We cannot visit the cave until dusk. No worries. We got a good night’s sleep and the following morning just pottered around the little site. There was a newly built pool for cooling off in, lots of different species of birds to watch. In general, it was a pleasant place to be. Later that day Edgar popped up to see us, bringing us a gift of oranges picked from his sister’s garden and to remind us what time to walk back down into the village. We were meeting his brother Adrian at their office on the main road where Edgar had originally met us.

As dusk began to approach we walked down to the office. Here we met Adrian and Edgar sorted us out with a couple of mountain bikes. Adrian gave us a ‘pep’ talk on what to expect and we were ready.

Off we go, 10 minutes cycling into the jungle and we arrive at a point where we dismount and walk to the entrance of the cave. The light is fading fast and the bats are already starting to leave to hunt for the night. Both Edgar and Adrian talk to us about the bats, their habits, what they eat and how to behave around them.

At this point we’re now instructed that we’re going to enter the cave and to put our masks, helmets and gloves on. These are provided to protect you from guano…’bat poo’ for the uninitiated.

As we enter the cave the bats are flying all around us and you can hear the rush of their wings as they sweep past. It’s all fascinating and very exciting. The initial cave is large but then we follow on to a smaller cave, sometimes crawling as the space reduces. Chris my partner has a harder time than me, being 6ft 5”, he has to crawl much more. If you’re in any way claustrophobic this is not a suitable trip for you. We have the lights on our helmets on and you can feel the sticky guano through your gloves. It didn’t smell as bad as I thought it would do, though of course there’s a distinct aroma. Bats are still flying past and despite the fact they have ‘echo location’ to avoid bumping into things in the dark, the occasional one flies right into you. I had my hair tied back to avoid them getting caught up. Finally, we arrive in a small but wider, higher space and there right in front of us, a snake with a bat in its mouth….amazing!!!!

We watched completely fixated as the snake slowly devoured the bat trying as best we could to get some decent shots of it without causing too much of a disturbance but the snake seemed completely oblivious to our presence. After a while Edgar prompted us to move to another small cave where we were treated to another snake feasting.

After this we returned to the main cave and were able to see several species of troglofauna and stygofauna….yes, I did have to look that up…. they’re the small white animals/fish you often find lurking underground. Unfortunately our pictures didn’t come out of these but I did manage to catch them clearly on my video (details to follow). To end the viewing of the cave we were shown some fossils.

And so to return to the cabina. It’s now pitch black and we stumble out of the cave back to the bikes and cycle slowly back to the office to return them and walk back up the track to our humble abode. I have no idea what time it is, only that we’ve had ‘a blast’ and will definitely sleep well.

Ha….famous last words. On our second night I awoke to the bed shaking, cows ‘mooing’, dogs barking, people shouting. What the heck was going on? Chris had his earplugs in and was in a deep slumber. I got up and peeked out of the door….nothing, so went back to bed. I wonder if that was a quake, I thought to myself. Having never experienced a tremor I didn’t really know. I lay there for a while and the noise dissipated.

The next morning as we were packing up Edgar came to say goodbye. I asked him about the noise and shaking in the night. Sure enough, I’d felt my first tremor. There had been a 7.6 earthquake off the coast of Honduras that night which had been felt as far North as Quintana Roo, here, where we are. Thankfully the quake had been at sea and nobody had been hurt, though tsunami warnings had been issued for the coast of Belize and Honduras.

Jill is a well-traveled, motorcycle adventurer, animal lover, extreme tourist. You can follow her adventures on her blog or youtube! Check out a full video of this experience. Fancy a visit? …..You can book the same trip.