Chasing flamingos

I have heard that seeing flamingos in the north of the Yucatan peninsula is one of the most stunning things that you can see there. That is how Rio Lagartos ended up on my 'to do list' when traveling in that region.

I do travel alone, but when I am on my way I always hope to join somebody interesting and travel with them. It is always nice to meet another fellow explorer and exchange experiences and hear where they have been. When I was in Valladolid I met Guadalupe, an Argentinian writer traveling in Mexico. She told me about her work; she recently published a book and a soundtrack in Canada and was traveling there to promote it. She was like me born in a small village, and been here and there. That is why, I thought that she would be a perfect travel companion. I told her about Rio Lagartos, flamingos, pink lakes and other fairly-tale like things that you can see there. Finally, I convinced her to join me. 

We left Valladolid early midday, and expected to reach the place soon, spend two hours watching flamingos and catch the last bus to Cancun. Nevertheless, the village is a bit of the beaten path and it took us four hours to get there. That was not a problem though, we just had more time for storytelling. When we arrived, the troubles began.

Luis, a fisherman from the village of Rio Lagartos 

At the spot, it turned out that the flamingo tour was approx. 10 times higher than we were told in Valladolid. Moreover we would have to wait 2 hours until it would begin, and it would last for couple of hours. We thought that probably the locals seeing two foreign girls were giving us "tourist" prices and we decided to ask around for other options. Unfortunately, all the other 20 tour guides we met on our way told us the same price or even higher.

As you can imagine, we were not happy with what we heard. We spent couple of hours just to end up in the middle of nowhere and there was a risk that we would not even see one single bird. We were short on cash and nobody was accepting credit cards in the small fisherman village. We could not pay for an expensive boat rental with what we had and it looked like the only choice was to either go back to Valladolid or to find a kind-hearted guide.

After an long while of asking around how we could get out of this situation we found Luis, who offered to give is a boat ride for the little cash we have left. We took the chance and soon we were on the boat.

Chasing flamingos 

Flamingos get scared easily. That is why at some point we had to leave the boat and walk in the shallow water to get as close as it was possible. Nevertheless, as we were coming closer the birds were moving away. That is why watching flamingos resembles a chase, one could spent hours running after them but the distance would always remain the same.

Flamingos. As close as it gets. 

This is Guadalupe. Pretending that she is a flamingo.

Once we manged to see the birds, we felt that we succeeded. Now we could "tick" this point on our 'to do list'. Nevertheless, this is not a happy ending that you were waiting for.

Once we finished our flamingo trip we asked around how to get to the nearest big city. It was 7 pm and the last bus was gone. We had two options - an expensive taxi or hitchhiking. We chose hitchhiking. When we were walking through the village center somebody asked us where we were heading. When we answered "Tizimin / towards Cancun" they said "wait, a friend of us is going there and he will pick you up". We thought that we were lucky and we accepted the offer. Couple of minutes later, we were sitting at the back of a pick up truck, strongly convinced that we were heading to Tizimin. You can just imagine how surprised we were when after five minutes the truck stopped in front of a bar. "Let's stop at my bar for a bit" the driver said. We explained politely that we just wanted to get a ride to the nearest city to catch the last bus to Cancun and we were told that he was going there and that he could take us with him. "Ah, no, I just got back from Tizimin. But do not worry girls, let's have a beer and tamales and you can stay at my place tonight!". When we heard that, we left the place and the staggered gentleman at lightning speed. 

Another hour lost, and we were again on the street looking for a ride. Luckily, we found a taxi that was heading this direction and we shared it with a local fisherman. While we were driving, the taxi driver and the fisherman spoke Mayan, an old Indian language, still used in Yucatan. When you listen to it, it may sound like English, at least that is what many say. Guadalupe took her chance to take a "Maya crash course" and learned the basics such as: "You are very beautiful", "I like you" and "Do you want to marry me" as the most important sentences in any language in this world, very handy and useful, especially when you are travelling. 

Finally we got to Tizimin and then to Valladolid. 8 hours on buses and taxis just to go there and return. 2 hours on a boat. All that to see couple of pink birds. Worth it? Well, as R. L. Stevenson said, “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.” 

Till next time, 

Cheers, 

Marcela

P.S. If you want to check out on Guadalupe's work (which is really cool), you should have a look at Songs For Runaway Girls, the first recording of the original soundtrack composed for her novel Air Carnation and “Las cartas de Guadalupe” (Guadalupe’s Letters) a collaborative literary project which she runs.