Celestun - Flamingos

Thursday April 5^th

We were scheduled to be picked up at 8. The person who sold us the tickets and a driver show up closer to 9. The had a smallish Toyota something. This is not going to be a 90 minute drive for 5 of us in that car. The tour seller tells us that he is going to be dropped of at his office. Good. The trip to Celustun is not very interesting. Not much traffic but very straight roads and smooth. No pot holes like at home this time of the year.

Yes we deliver

this is the end of the shoulder. And it will get to be over 30 degree later.

We get to Celustun and our driver, can't really call him a guide, as he spoke very little English and did not speak much during the drive, takes us to a meeting point where people gather to take the boats to see the flamingos. What they do is wait until there is 8 people and then they load up 1 boat. We joined a Mexican family of 5 and headed out.

The more you drink the more you save

Wake me up when it is my turn

Our first stop was to get gasoline. Most of the time this was be oh no but it turned out good as there were things to see as you needed to drive into a long inlet to get there. We saw some cormorants at the entrance of the inlet and then many fishing boats parked on the shores. Where we got gas there were larger fishing boats as well. Only took about 20 minutes for this detour.

Pelican taking off

Cormorants

Noahs Arc

Back on open water we sailed about to the tip of the peninsula which is about 10 km from where we started and then went up on the river at least 15 km. We got to where the flamingos were and spent about 5 minutes taking pictures. Regulation specifies that your boats are to stay 100 meters away. So not close up pictures of the birds here. Could have used a larger lens but it would have been the only time I would have used it on this vacation, so the lens stayed home. There was about 50-60 flamingos in the group.

The flamingos then decided it was time to move to another spot. We asked the guide to follow them but he said the water was to shallow where they flew to. Not sure if that was true of not or if he just wanted to return back quicker to hope to get another boat load?

We then drove by some small islands with frigate birds.

Vulture

Frigate bird

We sailed into the mangrove for a little bit but the 3 of us were sitting at the back of the boat, so no great pictures here but that is ok for me as we had a great mangrove boat ride in Honduras.

We ended up at a cenote where you could go for a dip. None of us had our bathing suits on, so we did not go in. Lisa spotted a baby kingfisher which was beautiful but none of us managed to get a picture before he flew off. Another bird was perched in the top of a tree and stayed there the whole time we were there. An alligator or crocodile was in one spot. We spent about 20 minutes there.

Termite mound

We then sailed back to the end of the river which was not as rough as wee were going with the wind. I knew from experience that once we got back on open water it would be rougher. The first part was not so bad as we were still protected a bit from the wind by the shoreline. The second part was not and the driver asked the skinny Mexican teenagers to switch seats with us Canadians. The front of the boat was too light with them in the first 2 rows and would ride up in the air when we hit waves. The Mexican mother would scream every time we hit a wave hard. It was quite funny. I expect she was happy to be back on sand. It was rough getting out of the boat when we arrived back at the beach as the waves were now breaking on shore.

We went to lunch at a nice restaurant where we all had grilled fish and margaritas. We then spent a few minutes on the beach while the driver finished his lunch.

Not as calm as when we left

Leaning lighthouse just like Puerto Morelos

We then walked in town to a stop where a carnival was set up. We ordered a marquesitas where the man burned the first 3 he made because his cast iron maker was so hot. The fourth time was time charm. Maybe this is normal as I may have been his first customer of the day, not sure.

Only 3 on this one, seen up to 5

Isla Mujures memories with Lima and Gladys

We then stopped at the bridge of the river where the flamingos are up river. Looked around for a while but not much there except for a few tour boats and a few fishing boats.

The drive home was again not too exciting. We asked him to stop at a grocery store as we were earlier than expected which included getting an ice cream. All in all it was a great day.

Heneken 

New beer brewery. 

Not sure what we did tonight, but most likely had supper at home and stayed home for the evening.