Mayan Ceremonial Night: Temazcal, Cenote Swim and Dinner from Playa del Carmen

In a nutshell, our experience was wonderful. I’ve left out much of the details as you MUST experience this incredible evening for yourself! Our guide was Louisa and she’s knowledgeable and very personable. My boyfriend and I went during the end of August 2020 (so the order of some events may change in the future) but we started off the evening by meeting the locals and exploring the land and the Dos Palmas cenote for photos. You can make your own tortilla with a Mayan local which is pretty fun and you get to eat your creation afterwards! The Mayan ceremony then followed where either together as a couple or solo, everyone receives a purification by one of the two shamans and afterwards you’re ready to enter the Temazcal (Mayan sauna). What an AWESOME experience this part of the journey was. Just a note for heat sensitive folks out there - inside the Temazcal, temperatures reach from 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit (50-60 Celsius). The cloth door is closed making things pitch black inside and you literally feel like your baking in an oven; it’s intense heat which makes it difficult to breath the first few minutes but the entire experience is so worth it if you’re able to endure. While soaking up the cleansing herbs amid the heat, you can participate in beautiful songs sung by the shaman. After about 20 or so minutes, the curtain door opens and the refreshing night air greets you where the shaman cools you off with a splash of ceremonial water. Then you head to Dos Palmas for a lovely night dip in the cenote. After a while enjoying the cold water, everyone drys off for a traditional humble Mayan dinner of chicken, rice and tortillas with Jamaica (hibiscus) water. You end the night with a stop at the little onsite shop with a mix of Mayan crafted items and other fun souvenirs with the opportunity to chat with the local Mayan family. Overall the entire experience was a beautiful and meaningful one and you even learn a few Mayan words along the way. We loved absolutely every single aspect of this ceremony! The only unfortunate downside is that later in the night after returning to our hotel several hours later, my boyfriend and I had a bout of food poisoning which left us fairly ill, especially me. I’m not sure if it’s the quality of the food/water or if it’s a food cleanliness/preparation matter or if it was just a bad batch of chicken (we are very healthy eaters with who live an active lifestyle so I’m not sure what caused it) but just a heads up to others out there to eat at your own risk. While we would definitely do this ceremony again, we won’t be partaking in dinner afterwards in the future. As I said, everything else was wonderful!

It was excellent! From the guide to the Shaman to the food. I’m going to do it every time I come back to Cancun.