[ENG] MEXICO - where to go to see pink flamingos - Rio Lagartos vs. Celestun 🇲🇽

🇵🇱POLISH VERSION ➡ click here

Let me start with a briefly introduction “why” Mexico ... 🇲🇽

Together with my boyfriend (@successwarrior1) we work 100% online and we decided to avoid snow this year. Radek has spent most of his life in Canada, and because of work, the American time zone works best for him - so we decided to go to Mexico. 💨From the beginning of December 2017 until the end of February 2018 we had lived on the Yucatan Peninsula - working + in the meantime sightseeing.
As an animal and nature lover (I graduated an animal science), I could’t miss a visit of two very unique towns, famous for places especially to bird watching, including those beloved by all pink 🌸FLAMINGOS🌸

And it's all about:

1. Rio Lagartos - located approx. 230 km from the famous tourist city of Cancun, approx. 1.5 hours. driving from Valladolid,
2. Celestun - about 1.5 hours away from the capital of Yucatan - Merida (120 km), much further from Cancun - about 5 hours. driving.

Both cities you can also visit by bus (e.g. ADO)

We visited both of the places at the turn of January and February - it turned out to be an important thing when you go there. But let me explain it later...

RIO LAGARTOS

A very unique fishing town, surrounded by lagoons, in the Biosphere Reserve Rio Lagartos. 5 minutes after entering the city, you will realize that you have already seen the entire city. 😅It’s a nice break from the hustle and bustle of Cancun and Playa del Carmen.😌 A few hotels (I would recommend Hotel Rio Lagartos), restaurants, a very few home shops and basically that's it... Locals live very modestly, I would say that poorly, they mainly keep up from fishing and boat trips organized for tourists.

We also took advantage of one of the trips. Nature lovers from all over the world come to Rio Lagartos, because of the wetlands that are located here, great habitat for around 340 species of birds, 50 species of mammals and over 90 species of reptiles - including many endangered species.

Below I’ll show you some of the "specimens" we saw during a fast boat trip:

Photo: on the left - black eagle (unfortunately terrible quality), on the right - cormorans

Photo: on the left - jabiru stork, on the right - grey heron

Photo: A crocodile while sunbathing

During the stay in Rio Lagartos it's necessary to go to the Pink Lagoon, where the water (depending on the sun) is really pink (in the next post I will try to explain why!). 💞💞💞

Unfortunately, during our stay at Rio Lagartos, we were able to see only a few flamingos (those "defective", weaker, unable to fly long distance). And that's because, in January, the majority of them were in:

CELESTUN

The same as Rio Lagartos, it’s a small fishing town (about 10,000 residents). In Celestun, in opposition to Rio Lagartos, you can swim in the Gulf of Mexico without leaving the city. The town is extended in the Biosphere Reserve Celestún, which is also a habitat for many species of animals and the place of convention of nature lovers. The local beaches are also a nesting place for sea turtles (laying eggs takes place from April to July, and hatching - two months later).

Returning to the flamingos, it was in Celestun where we were able to see thousands of them (yoowooo)! 😎😆
Pink Flamingo is a migratory bird, that is why it's very important that when you're planning a trip in search of Mexican flamingos, check out where exactly they are staying during this period.

In the Mexican part of the Yucatan, we have two places where we can see wild flamingos. And it looks like this:

• From April to around mid-September - Rio Lagartos - breeding season,
• From mid-September to the end of March - Celestun.

![Zrzut ekranu 2018-04-09 o 16.37.02.png]![rl1.jpg]

While being in Celestun we also went for a boat trip, but here, evidently our focus was on watching flamingos. As you can see on the video, we were able to see thousands of them. This experience is really incomparable with any others...💓

PS. I know the quality of the photos and video is not the best (when I was replacing the equipment for a new one, I lost irretrievably most of my Mexican materials 😭) but I’m trying to get out of it, the best I can.
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Photo: Sunset in Rio Lagartos