January 13, 2026
Day 15: Rio Lagartos (Day 1)
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This was the most anticipated day of the trip so far. We got up at 5 a.m. to be ready for the 6 a.m. planned start of our boat tour of the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. It's a UNESCO-protected area covering over 227,000 hectares of wetlands, mangroves, lagoons, and coastal ecosystems. It is world-famous for its flamingo colonies, diverse birdlife, and critical role in conserving endangered species, including jaguars.
Of course you start any day with toilet functions, and it turned out our toilet had no water. I am quite expert with these things, but nothing I tried worked. So we had the idea of drawing water from the spigot in the shower into the waste basket - but no water there! In fact, no water at the sink either! I went out and up into the restaurant - no water there! I was beginning to see a pattern!
Eventually I found Diego, and it seems that while the building receives water from the town, it accumulates it in a tank and pumps from there. The problem was the pump. Diego fixed that, but when I still reported no water at our place, he quipped that it was coming on Mexican time. But water usually "runs", I offered. Of course it did finally arrive - so let's start the day.
Diego's uber cute daughter Andrea was also on deck, and I was a little worried that she would be our guide. She is no doubt good, but Diego is the master. In fact Andrea had a party of people from France - from between Lyon and Geneva. We had fun talking French at them, burbling about how great this was going to be.
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Photos by Andrea adorn the front of the guide shop:
Diego thoughtfully maneuvered the boat to a spot where us old timers could easily board. Following new regulations, we needed life vests and also a wrist band showing that admission to the Reserve had been paid. And then we were off!
Very quickly it became apparent that even more than we had seen before, this place was overflowing with birds. Diego said something about a cold front out in the Gulf, but for whatever reason we pulled up to shallow water just off Rio Lagartos town, where dozens of Flamingos were standing around. There were pink adults and white babies, but not just that - scads of white and brown pelicans, gulls, cormorants, egrets, and little waders like dunlins, willets, dowitchers. We floated there quite a long time, taking it all in.
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Some of our shots had so many birds that individuals could not be singled out. These show how abundant birds were around us:
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One of the things was an Osprey, sitting on a pole and eating a fish. He sat there for the whole time we were there - slow eater - big fish?
Diego then took us east in the lagoon and into a relatively narrow area of mangroves. There we ran into Wood Storks, Anhinga, White Ibis, and the much prized by us Roseate Spoonbill. In all, we saw 25 species. Of these 16 were new for this year, and two were "lifers": A pile of Black Skimmers and the Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
Diego really did not skimp as he took us around. We went to an area where we saw the Bare-throated Tiger Heron, but just for a few seconds. So Diego hung around, calling it with Merlin, but also with his own vocalization. And it did come back out for him!
Diego found us three crocodiles, two swimming and one resting in the mud by the mangroves. The resting one was totally still, and of course unblinking. So it was hard to know if it knew we were there. It knew! In a sudden movement too quick to follow it disappeared with a splash. Had that movement been a try for your arm, it would have been too fast to dodge.
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Diego had begun by asking how long of a tour we were looking for. I replied "long enough to see every bird you've got", which made him laugh. But now I know the real reason he asked was that he was thinking of taking us to Isla Cerritos. This is a small island actually constructed by the Maya, in shallow water offshore. It served as a port, linking Chichen Itza with contacts across the Gulf or along the coast here. Today the island is a bird nesting site, shared by cormorants, frigate birds, and others.
When Diego confirmed whether we wanted to go there, I instinctively said yes!, forgetting in the moment that Dodie is not that good in boats. But she was fine, despite the fact that Diego took us out to open water beyond the lagoon and "floored it".
Just before leaving the protected inner lagoon, we passed two larger fishing boats, which were resting at anchor. Diego explained that these were normally out in the deep water of the Gulf, fishing for the likes of grouper, but that they had come to shelter from expected bad weather associated with the cold front. In really bad weather, he said, 20 or more could be seen hunkered down here.
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It was about 20 minutes of bouncing over waves and protecting the camera from spray. We arrived to find the island with a beach covered in birds. We didn't approach too close, maybe because of a protected status, but also the water here was just inches deep. Diego moved us along by poling.
Diego predicted more spray on the way back, so he broke out some nice quality heavy raincoats. The camera really appreciated hiding under this.
We arrived back at our room, and realized that we had hundreds of photos to sort through, so we cancelled our planned ride to San Felipe - essentially the same trip, on land, that we had just done by boat. We also used some time to rejig our itinerary to land us back at Coba a little earlier, to check back in with the dentist. Pain in the tooth had been a lot less today, but there must be something "afoot" with the "tooth". If necessary, we also could detour to Merida, but I hope not.
One other activity from our room was watching workers install a new palapa type roof at the front of our building. Rather than going to Home Depot (ha!) they had thick poles, no doubt cut in the jungle.
The poles were getting dressed by hand, but dovetails in the ends were cut with a Stihl chainsaw. Watching from the window, and being something of a chainsaw afficionado, I was put out by the extent to which their chain needed tightening, not to mention sharpening. Dodie advised me not to go out and fix it for them, lest someone lose face. But when it failed to start and the man just pulled and pulled, I was out the door. When a bloody Stihl does this, it is most likely flooded and only a specific technique gives any hope for it starting. I was pleased that they allowed me to grab the saw and to begin artificial respiration. But actually the darn thing was low on gas, and that is what brought it back to life.
Here are a few more of our favourite shots from today.
Trick quiz, can you identify the two birds below:
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1 week ago
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What a privilege it was to be out in this Reserve. And how "cool" it was to sit back and breath the clean salt air as the boat skimmed along.
After spending quite some hours going through the photos, we set off back to the centre of town. I had been begging for some kind of sweets, and Dodie had some taffy style candies, but she was not giving them out for fear they would stick to and disrupt that temporary crown repair. So the mission was really to find some of that rare and expensive "real" chocolate.
As usual, Dodie recommended bringing the big camera, and also as usual I balked. So of course we quickly came upon some hummingbirds. The little camera tried its best with them:
In its tumble down Mexican way, Rio Lagartos is a cute town, featuring fairly adorable little houses.
There are also quite a few wall murals that are very attractive.
I was quite chilly as we walked, and appreciated what Diego was talking about with that cold front. When we got back, we found Diego outside, but wearing a down jacket. We stopped to chat for a bit, and Diego told of how he had started off as a fisherman. Actually he was a diver for lobsters. He told of how the diving was done at about 30 meters, with air supplied from a compressor on the surface through a hose. One day the hose kinked and he got one last gulp of air before trying to ascend. But you can not go too fast, because of the bends. That experience put Diego off diving and kick started him toward guiding.
His career got a big boost when a family arrived to dine at the restaurant, which was then run by Diego's parents. The family head was asking about the possibility of going out in a boat, and Diego took him the next day. It turned out the man was writing the Lonely Planet guide for Mexico, and he wrote up the tour, naming Diego specifically. So in that way Diego became famous, and people came asking for him by name.
Today's ride: 2 km (1 miles)
Total: 431 km (268 miles)
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1 week ago
Hope your tooth gets better; no setbacks for you, as Scott has that covered..🫣
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1 week ago
As for the fishing boat, I wouldn't want to be on it in open water during a storm, either.
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