Day 16: Rio Lagartos (Day 2)

January 14, 2026

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It's a special experience for us to wake up and look directly out at a water scene. This morning was calm, and the scene was especially calming as well.

No one was about in the guide office, as we extracted our bikes for today's planned ride. I am not sure if the office is even locked overnight, though it contains all sorts of gear in addition to our bikes. Our experience here at Rio Lagartos has built our confidence in the people. Every single person along our way has greeted us sweetly, and in stores and restaurants it is always the same - patience and kindness.

We had two riding options for today. We could go west along the coast to the fishing village of San Felipe, or we could go east to the salt extraction area of Las Coloradas. Overnight, though, Dodie came up with a super option. On the website birdingplaces.eu she found two birding trails, detours off the way to Las Coloradas. The website described these in glowing terms, with the one: "Sendero Peten Mac" offering a trail through mangroves to an elevated walkway around a pond with birds and crocodiles. It offered a long list of super birds to see, and a cool forest walk. So we fixed on that one.

We began by making our way through town and then south to the junction where that east-west choice is made. Immediately, from a birding point of view, we were lucky. We passed the restaurant (run by Diego III's mother-in-law) where we planned to eat in the evening, and where they have several hummingbird feeders. The restaurant was closed but the feeders were of course open, and birds were generally hanging around. There are three species here, the Cinnamon, the Ruby Throated, and the Mexican Sheartail. Here are a couple of shots:

Next, we encountered a Motmot, just sitting on a wire over the road:

and then quickly, a Gray Hawk on a post:

and oh, a Golden-fronted Woodpecker!

The road to Las Coloradas is smooth, and while there are some big trucks on it, it is wide enough and used little enough to be no problem.

The road to Las Coloradas. That tunnel-like greenery is simply trees overgrowing the road.

We found the start of the trail, easily, because we had flagged it in Osmand. Right off the road there was a giant puddle with no dry way around, so we accepted one wet foot each, just to start. A sign about the biosphere preserve was faded and overgrown, something that portended the rest of the trail. By the sign was the closed gate, locked with a rusty chain. Grampies of course see red, or rather "route barrée" in such cases, and are usually not detered by it. So we locked our bikes in front of the gate, and snuck around it.

The trail started out in very good condition, and we were tickled to think that we were trekking through the jungle.

We heard a few bird sounds, but it was difficult to see through the dense foliage. There were lots of arboreal termite nests to look at, but that was mostly it.

However we did manage to locate some Yucatan Jays, the cutest birds in the forest!

After the Jays, the trail began to show a few problems.

and good thing we were not around for this coming down!

The much advertised walkway needed work!

Breaking a leg here would be most inconvenient!

Ok look, this is ridiculous. So, in a rare moment of sensible behaviour, we turned back and took the jungle floor trail.

This blowup from the GPS track seems a little wacky, but it does show how much we failed to follow the track to and around the pond. But we did somehow reach the pond!

The pond was hard to see through the jungle.

I climbed this viewing tower a ways, but never got above the canopŷ.

During all this, the forest was almost completely silent. Even Merlin listening hard came up with little. But wait, we did make one giant score:

We beat our way back out and arrived at the waiting bikes. We had to push the bikes rapidly back through the big puddle, which caused us to burst out onto the limited sight line road. But we were glad to have made it out of the jungle.

Back toward town a ways was another lake, one we could actually mostly see:

As usual, any bird life clustered on the far side, challenging the camera zoom and the steadiness of my hands. Even so, we snapped one very large flamingo, a little blue heron, and some blue winged Teals.

The birding places website had one further suggestion for us, a crocodile pond just beyond the east side of the malecon. So we re-entered Rio Legartos and headed east.

A logical sight in Rio, mending of nets.

Along the malecon, black skimmers. Their eyes are hard to see, in the black part of their heads, and they have special bills for flying really low over the water. The lower bill is longer than the upper. As they fly just above the water, the lower mandible drags through the surface. When it touches a fish, the bill snaps shut instantly. Those Terns have their backs to us. And look at the Pelican babysitting everyone.

The crocodile pond did not turn up any crocs, but it did have a Snowy Egret. Mostly we enjoyed the very tropical looking surroundings:

We returned to the luxury of the A/C back at Diego's, and sorted through our bird finds, while resting up to go out to the restaurant.

Dodie notes that this was the first real food for me in about a week. It has been basically oatmeal and instant noodles while the tooth has been giving the most problems. But at last I could order what was essentially fried chicken. It was great, having been marinated in or doused with lime juice. And those pink onions! They are mild and lightly pickled. I love them.

The only thing I couldn't handle yet was the cucumber - too crunchy.

In a twist, Dodie had voted against bringing the big camera. But I was carrying the Lumix, which after a week in solitary confinement at the bottom of the sock pannier has decided to work for a while. Here is its "take" on a Mexican Sheartail:

Tomorrow before dawn - back to Tizimin!

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 461 km (286 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	3

Scott AndersonThis looks like an amazing place to hang out. Maybe next time just catch a bus and stay here for a few weeks.
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1 week ago

Kathleen ClassenSolid food means the tooth must be improving. Good news!
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1 week ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonNow there's a thought!
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1 week ago