Travel article: A la recherche des flamants rose à Rio Lagartos- Looking for Flamingos in Rio Lagartos

If for a lot of people the Yucatan Peninsula is limited to amazing beaches and relaxing time, we discovered that it has a lot more to offer!

For the next 5 days we’ve rented a car to be able to discover what we didn’t do in 2009. Until the last minute I thought the offer we found online wouldn’t work as it was cheaper to rent the car per day than going to the restaurant! $6 AUD per day! (with carigami.fr). After trying to speak my best Spanish, no bad surprise, we had our car for $30 AUD for 5 days: DEAL!

We headed North to Rio Lagartos, a little fishermen village known for its colony of flamingos and many birds living here. 3 hours later (with many Topes: the Mexican words for stupid Bumps!) we arrived in a cloudy little town harassed by the boats who wanted to offer a tour. The idea of sight-seeing many birds, flamingos and crocs on a cruise was tempting but it was a bit pricey for us so we’ve decided to follow a dirt road towards the Coloradas and El Cuyo to see if we could find some by ourselves.

Well after 15 kilometres we found the most gracious animal we ever saw! The pink of the flamingo was contrasting with the blue/grey water of the sea. In the next 2 hours we easily spotted hundreds of flamingo just a few metres from us. Apparently when they were white when they were just born and then turned pink due to the type and quantity of prawns they have everyday. (Cedric doesn't really believe in that theory and suggested we could try to see if that happens on humans as well; someone volunteering to try?)

We then went back to Rio Lagartos by stopping to Las Coloradas what is supposed to be a perfect pink lake. Well it was cloudy and raining for us so it was more grey than pink !  

Around 2pm we headed to Valladolid under torrential rain- our spot for the next 2 nights- a short 1h30 from Rio Lagartos.

Some recommandations:

# the cruise in the natural reserve seemed quite good but at 300 pesos per person ($20 AUD)  it seemed a bit expensive for us.

# it’s easy to spot flamingo by yourself. Just head to las Coloradas (15 min from Rio Lagartos) and from there go to the end of the village where a dirt/sand road starts. Follow it and you will find Flamingos. We didn’t have a 4x4 and didn’t have any issue! Some guide will stop you and try to guide you, you don’t need them to enter the natural reserve.

# If you want to see the Pink Lake pick a day where it’s sunny!

# There is not much to do in Rio Lagartos so I wouldn’t spend a night there but head to Valladolid, a perfect base to explore the Cenotes & Temples.