A pinch of salt

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After a couple of days in Chichen Itza region, it was time to move up North. Road East to Valladolid is forested and little villages are seen here and there. Moving up North after Valladolid, the vegetation gets scarce and especially after Tizimin, vegetation is of type of tropical savanna and ranches are abundant.

We arrived at Rio Lagartos. It's a small fishing village at the end of the road, on the side of a lagoon. It's part of the Ria Lagartos natural reserve: A mix of lagoons, shrub forests, beaches and mangroves. The day after we took a boat tour to explore mangroves. It's a renowned place to see flamingos...but season was not perfect and we saw only a handful from afar. 13 years ago, we were in Celestun on the West coast of Yucatan, where we saw thousands of them. Nature is unpredictable! We saw, many water birds like herons, pelicans, frigates, etc.... At some point we reached the las coloradas. It's a place where they keep sea water in small reservoirs until all water evaporates. They then collect the salt. In these reservoirs the algae, plankton and some shrimps live and they give beautiful colors to the water. The pink color is the nicest and most striking. But the place where the boat stopped, it was more pea green,, so not that wonderful.

The next day, we took the road that goes in the reserve, to sea the salt lakes from an other point of view. When we arrived at start of the coloradas, finally we saw a pink lake!! It was not the ideal conditions as it rained the day before, and sky was partly cloudy, but the pink hue was clearly visible!

During travels you are never sure if conditions will be perfect for sight seeing or not, (bad weather, road blocks, lost reservation....), but it's part of the adventure!

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Photos

Rio Lagartos
View from the hotel window

Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

We are not interested in birds usually...
But flamingos are adorable and we love them. /Ake