Day 13 Santa Rosa

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Today we are picking up a car and driving from Mérida to the Hacienda Santa Rosa. As always the price of the rent a car ends up being double the online price because they won’t accept that insurance is provided via my Amex card, I ring Jacquie McAleer but she doesn’t answer!

The car fits us in perfectly and we find our way out of Mérida even though Wilko is navigating (at least he’s not driving). The population of Mexico is about 130 million, but we can’t figure out where they all are. Sure they are small but it still doesn’t make sense.

The drive to Santa Rosa is an easy one. Becs and I decide to drop Catherine and Wilko of at the hacienda and head to Celestún to see the flamingos. Wilko is exhausted after all the navigating.

It’s an interesting drive where we go through a few small villages with traditional Mayan cottages with thatched robes and a derelict hacienda. Basically the Spanish stole all their land, hey that sounds familiar, except the Government took it all back again after Independence.

When we arrive at Celestún the streets are flooded. I’m hoping it’s rain and not a result of global warming otherwise I might vote labor. The lady at the hacienda recommended a beachfront restaurant which looks like something out of the Corona commercial but with more dogs. There are dogs lounging around everywhere. Clearly they’ve been told not to hassle the paying customers. As an aside there are digs everywhere in Mexico. Strays and owned. They love them.

Lunch is good I have the house speciality which is a crumbled fish fillet stuffed with crab and prawn. Surprisingly it is quite filling.

After lunch, and tipping the guy who showed me how to park, we head to get a boat for the flamingos. When we arrive a Mexican couple ask if we can split the boat cost which is a great idea as we save 800 pesos and they speak English whereas the guide doesn’t.

We go out into a sort of wetlands area with mangroves and thousands of flamingoes. Apparently they are pink because the water is red from the discharge from the mangroves (not the sewerage works) and all the shrimp etc are red. I haven’t researched this. We get some great shots of flamingos.

On the way back to the Hacienda it pisses down rain.

We have dinner at the hacienda (the village didn’t have many options). Despite them telling us the hacienda is full we see no other guests. For a change of pace a hamburger.

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