Off to Río…Río Lagartos that is

This is a guest post by my good friend Kathe Kirkbride

There are so many places worth visiting in the Yucatan Peninsula, how does one get to them all? Well, just pick one and go there…make a point of it. I knew that I wanted to see some flamingoes and had never been to Río Lagartos nor Celestún, so I chose Río Lagartos and set off from my house near Chetumal, Quintana Roo not having a set number of days for the trip.

Great Blue Heron

Makes it sound like a simple thing, but I also decided that I didn’t want to go alone and there weren’t any humans who wanted to accompany me. Josh, my one year old Doberman, was elected to join me on the trip…not that he had a vote. Now I had to pack for me and for Josh…food dish, dog food, leash, dog bed…you get the picture. The back seat of the truck was quite full with Josh and his accoutrements and my duffle.
The route took me 400 kilometers from Chetumal north to Felipe Carrillo Puerto, northwest to Tiohsuco, northeast to Tepich, north to Vallodolid, through Tizimín to Río Lagartos. On arriving in Río Lagartos at the waterfront all I had to do was hesitate at the T intersection and I was immediately approached by a member of the local guide co-op to see if I wanted to go on a boat trip. I said that I wanted to go see birds, specifically flamingoes, but not until the next day. I asked for a recommendation for a hotel and was given a couple of suggestions.

I aimed for the most promising sounding one, the Hotel Punta Ponto, and drove down the waterfront to the south to the hotel. The owner, Roger, told me the price of the room per night and agreed that I could have the dog in the room with me. The room had two double beds, a TV with a few channels (none in English), a functional bathroom, wireless internet, continental breakfast included and a nice garden area in front for 500 pesos a night. Roger was a very friendly and interesting host and I enjoyed the times we just sat and talked. Once I arranged for the room and put my things in it, I went back down the street to the tour guide co-op.

I was originally quoted 750 pesos for a two hour trip; they negotiated down to 600 pesos then I asked to make it a three hour trip and we came back up to the 750 pesos. Birds are early risers and I knew that I would have to get up early if I wanted to see as many as I could; we agreed on a time of 6:00 am and I was told that José would be my guide.

Based on information from Roger at the hotel, Josh and I went looking for a taco stand for dinner. Josh sat patiently, tied to a faucet, while I ate some really great tacos. Each time Josh and I had to walk somewhere we had to deal with all the people, dogs and other animals and traffic. Josh had been a homebody for his entire life to this point and had never been off the home property except to go to the vet. It was all pretty overwhelming and exciting for him, but he dealt with it really well. A chicken that crossed the street (to get to the other side, our side, not sure why) caused him to almost have a heart attack and it was quite funny to see an 80# Doberman bristle up to what he considered a major attack.

The next morning, after feeding Josh and putting my camera and sandwich purchased the night before plus some water into my daypack, we headed down the street for our rendezvous with the boat. José was right on time and we headed off through the lagoon in a light rain toward the mangrove areas. Fortunately José had two yellow slickers with him and we only got slightly damp. As the sun rose we started to see the birds on the mangroves, in the water and flying around us. José was very good, after some explanation about how pictures turn out better if the sun were behind the camera, at slowly drifting up on the birds. I had my tripod with me, but decided that the photos would turn out better without the vibration of the boat being transmitted up through the tripod and instead hand held the camera.

Flamingoes

José was very generous and the trip actually ended up lasting for 5 hours…not a bit too long…and I got some great photos. The sun had eventually come out, the drizzle stopped and it was a perfect day. Josh did really well on the boat…we did have one beach landing on the trip which Josh took immediate advantage of and after 10 minutes or so we were back in the boat. I tipped José 250 pesos and headed back to the hotel where Roger put out my late continental breakfast and Josh was content to lie at my feet.

After resting for an hour or so, we jumped in the truck to go visit Las Coloradas and San Felipe, nearby towns. Las Coloradas is a town dominated by mountains of salt and a salt processing plant. There are dikes and lagoons for evaporating off salt water pumped in from the Gulf of Mexico to harvest salt; the lagoons extend for miles beyond the town. Some of them are quite pink! I went straight on through Las Coloradas, following the rudimentary map that Roger had given me, to see if I could find some more birds.

Eventually, after wandering around for miles alongside and on top of the levees, I did come to an area where there were some flamingoes but not nearly as close as the ones I had seen in the boat that morning. Josh at least got some off-leash time and it was a fun adventure. I do not recommend doing this little side jaunt if it has been raining recently as the roads bore dry evidence of vehicles that had struggled to get through.

From Las Coloradas I headed back toward the road to Río Lagartos but kept going to the town of San Felipe. It was getting late and finding an early dinner somewhere was my goal. I ate in the restaurant that was the most highly recommended by those to whom I talked. Incredibly, the name of it was Vaseline….I didn’t ask why. The food was mediocre, slid down my throat easily and was sufficient to get me through the night and we headed home.

Beep Beep…Oh…whoops…that's a different bird.

The next morning Roger served me a full breakfast with coffee, eggs, ham and toast and then I packed up and headed off not knowing where I was going next but I wasn’t ready to end my adventure. On the way south I decided on Sian Ka’an, but that is for another time.

Jonna, thanks for letting me share my trip with your readers…I had such a great time that I wanted to write about it. Río Lagartos has a resident population of flamingoes but July and August are the times when there are many thousands of them there. I imagine that there are plenty of tourists then too but I only saw one boat with other tourists when I was there. It felt like I had the place to myself.

Go here Rio Lagartos to see the rest of Kathe’s pictures from this trip.