An underground paradise under threat
Two trees are located at the entrance of a tourist complex as decoration in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Thursday, March 7, 2024. 
Tourists dives in the cenote Car Wash in Rancho Viejo, Mexico, Wednesday, March 1, 2024. 
Biologist Roberto Rojo, left, collects garbage during the cleaning of a cenote by the group of volunteers “Cenotes Urbanos”, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Saturday, March 2, 2024. 
Biologist Roberto Rojo, left, observes the stalactites near a steel pillar located to support part of the structure built for the Mayan Train inside Oppenheimer, part of the Aktun Tuyul cave system on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Friday, March 8, 2024. 
A fish swims inside the cenote Car Wash in Rancho Viejo, Mexico, Wednesday, March 1, 2024. 
Tourists jump in the cenote Car Wash in Rancho Viejo, Mexico, Wednesday, March 1, 2024. 
A passenger’s hat is seen on the seats of the Mayan Train on the route from Cancun to Valladolid, Mexico, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. 
An aerial view of the construction of the Mayan Train near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Friday, March 1, 2024. 
Tourists enjoy a party inside a cenote in Tulum, Mexico, Saturday, March 2, 2024. 
The hole produced so that the steel pillar can enter the cavern to support part of the structure built for the Mayan Train inside Oppenheimer, part of the Aktun Tuyul cave system on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Friday, March 1, 2024.
Cenotes are part of one of Mexico’s natural wonders: a system of approximately 10,000 caves, rivers, and underground lakes that wind beneath the Yucatan Peninsula in the southeast of the country.
The construction of the Maya Train—the flagship project of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—is destroying much of this hidden underground world, which has already been threatened for decades by urban development and mass tourism. Stretching nearly 1,600 kilometers, the Maya Train will travel across the Yucatan Peninsula to connect tourist cities such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen with remote communities and archaeological sites nestled in the jungle, promising to bring economic development.
Scientists and environmentalists warn that the train will spell environmental disaster in the long term.
