{"id":14006,"date":"2025-09-02T10:03:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T17:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=14006"},"modified":"2025-10-11T10:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T17:07:22","slug":"zumpango-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2025\/09\/02\/zumpango-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"Zumpango Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/article\/saving-mexico-cenotes-tren-maya?rid=AF14D696E6310E00948D67C8C3A3B488&amp;cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=INTI_20250827_Prospectings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from National Geographic <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The fight to preserve Mexico\u2019s portals to the underworld<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Can the Yucatan Peninsula\u2019s enchanting cenotes be saved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ByIngrid Rojas Contreras \/ Photographs byRobbie Shone<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yucatan Peninsula  Diving  stunning underwater Senotes\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p88iVzDq9bA?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>On a sweltering day in April 2025<\/strong>, a small group of cave researchers led by Jos\u00e9 \u201cPepe\u201d Urbina, a veteran cave diver, and Roberto Rojo, a biologist and speleologist, trudged single file through the dense, tropical forest of Mexico\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/travel\/article\/visit-the-most-intriguing-cenotes-in-the-yucatan-peninsula\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yucatan Peninsula<\/a>. They were about 15 miles inland from the Caribbean coast. Moving slowly, they parted the brush with a machete as they searched for signs of their destination: a remote stretch of the flooded Zumpango Cave that probably no one had set foot in for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly, the vegetation thinned, revealing the jagged entrance of a gaping limestone tunnel heading underground. The air chilled as the team descended, navigating carefully around large stalactites. Then someone shouted \u201cUy!\u201d and everyone saw it: There was an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/maya-civilization-rural-collapse-controversy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ancient Maya<\/a>&nbsp;pot sitting on a recessed shelf of rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such discoveries are not uncommon in the Yucatan, which contains a vast subterranean network of limestone caves with rivers running through them. When part of a chamber collapses, it forms a natural sinkhole that is called a cenote, a term that originates from the Maya word&nbsp;<em>ts\u2019onot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/article\/saving-mexico-cenotes-tren-maya?rid=AF14D696E6310E00948D67C8C3A3B488&amp;cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=INTI_20250827_Prospectings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click to continue reading at Nat Geo<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from National Geographic The fight to preserve Mexico\u2019s portals to the underworld Can the Yucatan Peninsula\u2019s enchanting cenotes be saved? ByIngrid Rojas Contreras \/ Photographs byRobbie Shone On a sweltering day in April 2025, a small group of cave researchers led by Jos\u00e9 \u201cPepe\u201d Urbina, a veteran cave diver, and Roberto Rojo, a biologist and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}