RIO LAGARTOS TOUR IN YUCATAN

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Day 31: Río Lagartos Tour in Yucatán - Ek Balam - Valladolid

Today is the day we plan to do on Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan, but as we told you yesterday, when we went to bed after visiting Izamal, the day did not appear as clear as we did under a storm that seemed to want to unload as it was not long ago.
Seeing what was to come, we received a call from Jose, who will be our guide in the Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan, when it is 11:30 at night to propose to delay the departure of the tour tomorrow at 10, since we had initially stayed at 7 in the morning, but as it is the night, the forecast is that until mid-morning I didn't just open the day.

So with that idea, we get up a little later to have breakfast at Posada el Perico Marinero, our accommodation in R. Lagartos tonight and when a few minutes past 9 in the morning,

Río Lagartos in Yucatán

Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

The Río Lagartos Tour in Yucatan is one of the things you cannot miss in this town and that includes a boat trip of approximately 2 hours that will take you through the estuary lined with mangroves and different birds, among which you can see tiger herons and flamingos, in addition to crocodiles.
In addition to this tour, the tour includes a stop in Las Coloradas, where depending on the time of departure and if the sun is high, you can see the characteristic pink color of this place.

Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

- As we are informed, the best time to do the Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan is first thing in the morning, about 6: 30-7 in the morning, as there is little of the year, since at this time, in addition to seeing the Dawn you can see a large concentration of birds and flamingos, as the tourist boats have not yet begun to arrive.
The problem of leaving at this time is that in Las Coloradas at that time the pink color still does not look good, since the sunlight is very low and it needs to be higher to see the characteristic pink color.
Taking this into account, we believe that the best thing is if you have a full morning, do the Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan first thing in the morning and then take the car and go back to Las Coloradas, the area that can be accessed by car and that is about 20 kilometers from Río Lagartos to see the area with the best light.
- The price of the Rio Lagartos tour is 1200 pesos per boat. If you want to make it private, as has been our case, you decide the time. In case you want to share it, it happens as in Celestún, that you have to wait for the boat to be filled to get out.
The tour lasts approximately two hours and you can hire it directly with your accommodation, as we have done or directly on the same pier, from where the boats leave and where there is a small office from where you can hire.
- If you do not want to hire it in advance, as we told you, you can book it at the port or someone who offers it to you on the street. To take into account that many people offer you both guide and boat service much cheaper than in accommodation or agencies. Although it is necessary to take into account that they may not have the obligatory insurance to carry out this type of activities, so it is a bit to the personal decision of each one of if you want to save a few pesos or prefer to do this tour safely.

Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

As we mentioned earlier, yesterday when we spoke with Jose we decided to start the Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan at 10 am in front of the Perico Marinero Restaurant, so on time we met to get on the boat, under a still cloudy sky, but we hope it will open throughout the morning.

Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

Although the weather does not accompany, we have the great luck of being able to see enough birds, a small crocodile and a walk through the mangroves for about an hour and a quarter, which give us unforgettable moments, although the day is still quite cloudy.

Rio Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

Crocodile in the Río Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

After passing the mangroves you reach an area where you can disembark and put on the body a mud they say, it has very beneficial effects on the skin. Seeing it from afar we decided to miss the opportunity and go directly to the flamingos area, a few meters ahead and right next to the point from where you can see Las Coloradas on this tour.

Flamingos on the Río Lagartos Tour in Yucatan

We have to say that we expected to see many more flamingos, something similar or even greater than what we live in Celestún, but when we arrived we were surprised that although there are many, they are very dispersed, in addition to looking very far, so we do not reach to enjoy it as much as the previous occasion.
While it is true that this is something that cannot be foreseen and depends solely on nature, something that also makes us think if this is not the response of the flamingos themselves to the invasion that tourists are making to their House.

Las Coloradas and flamingos in Río Lagartos

The area of Las Coloradas that is visited in the Rio Lagartos Tour is the opposite that we were yesterday afternoon and that is the one that is visited by car, although as we said before, since the sun is still very low, you can not fully appreciate the pink hue of the salt flats.

Las Coloradas

After being here about 30 minutes we return again in the boat to Rio Lagartos, ending this excursion when we arrive at the area where we have embarked, just in front of the Perico Marinero restaurant, where we arrive when it is 12 noon.

Yucatan Lizard River Tour

Being the time it is, we have a couple of options: the first is to return now to Las Coloradas by car to try to see the color better, with the highest sun, although today it is quite cloudy and we cannot predict with certainty that See well or go directly to Ek Balam, the next stop of the day, eating before in Rio Lagartos.

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We decided to opt for this second option, staying at the Perico Marinero restaurant where we ordered a ceviche, pickled octopus plus a lemonade, a beer and two espresso for 460 pesos that make us feel great.

Ceviche at the Perico Marinero restaurant

It didn't take us more than an hour to eat and when we are about to make our way to Ek Balam, we see that the sky is very clear, especially in the area of Las Coloradas, so we decided to get close again, for the third time in two days, to try our luck again and see if we can finally take that much-seen image of this place in Mexico.
We get there in less than 20 minutes and although the sun is higher and the color can be seen much better, the truth is that the guards allow access to few places, something also understandable, so we go around the area to do some photos and we say goodbye to this place, which we have to say, at least for us, owes more its great fame to social networks, than to what it really is.

Las Coloradas

It's about 2 in the afternoon when we decided to end our day in Rio Lizards returning on our steps and making way to Ek Balam, an archaeological site that we have on the way to Valladolid and which is about an hour from Rio Lagartos.

We arrived at Ek Balam at 3:30 pm and after leaving the car in the free parking lot, although there are always children asking for a tip for “save the car”, We went through the ticket offices where we paid 202 pesos per person, in two different tickets, just as we did the day we went to visit Uxmal in Yucatan.

This is where we want to make a small paragraph and it is that it attracts us a lot of attention how prices vary since we have entered the Yucatan area compared to the different places that we have been visiting in the rest of the trip to Mexico for free that we take .
This also happened to us in Uxmal the other day, where we had to pay two tickets, one for the state government and one for the local government, although that of the state government is still between 45-70 pesos, as in the other places that We have visited, some of them considered as essential places to visit in Mexico.
Seeing this, we understand that it is the price paid to the Yucatan government that really increases the price. That said, we also have to say that the total price we find is very correct, since we are going to doubt that we are visiting very important archaeological sites, which are very careful, incredibly clean and in most of them with services for tourists.
That is why we believe that the problem is not that prices increase, the problem is that only those of Yucatan tourist attractions are increased, since we believe that all archaeological sites should have more unified prices.

Visit Ek Balam in Yucatán

With a schedule from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and a price of 202 pesos per person, this incredible archaeological site is another of the visits that you cannot miss in this area of the country.
Part of its great attraction is also given by several of its structures for its incredible location, surrounded by jungle, something that can be seen perfectly from the highest area of the main pyramid, one of the most spectacular structures of the site.

Ek Balam in Yucatán

Ek Balam Ball Game in Yucatan

In the area of the acropolis is where the main pyramid is located, with more than 30 meters high, which can be climbed through its uneven steps and from which you have incredible views that expose the splendid location of the site.

Main pyramid of Ek Balam

Views from the main pyramid of Ek Balam

The visit to Ek Balam, taking it easy, will not take you more than a couple of hours, although if you have already visited some other archaeological site, you will probably go through some structures faster, since there are some that are not very remarkable, compared to other sites in the area.

Ek Balam

And so when it is 4:30 in the afternoon we return to the car heading to Valladolid 30 kilometers from Ek Balam and about 20 minutes away that we do again surrounded by vegetation and in a quiet way, since we continue to circulate practically alone on the road, as it is happening to us since we got into the rental car in Mexico.

We arrive at the Hotel Mesón del Marqués, our accommodation in Valladolid the next three nights when a few minutes past 5 p.m., leaving the car directly in the parking lot and approaching us to the reception to make a quick check-in, which gives us a shower and a few minutes of rest before going out to the streets of Valladolid, this new destination in the trip to Mexico in 45 days.

As we are going to be in Valladolid for three days, we decided to take only one tour of the most central area of the city, losing ourselves through the main square and its parallel streets, observing something that really does not attract much attention and is that the few shops that we see souvenirs and crafts, they have prices really excessive, compared to those we have seen in the rest of the places we have visited before, some of them being truly excessive. As an example we put one of the most striking: a tree of life that we had seen in San Miguel de Allende that cost 2000 pesos here we want to sell for 12,000 pesos, a difference that we believe is a true barbarity.
This also happens to us with other items that we see that have risen 5-6 times at the prices we had seen before, something that makes us think and reconfirm that the best thing when you like a piece is to buy it at the moment. If you do not, you will probably find it or not, or when you find it it will be much more expensive.
In this case, according to our experience we recommend you to shop in cities such as Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Zacatecas or Guadalajara, or in Chiapas, in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

And so when there are a few minutes to 8 in the afternoon we go to the restaurant El Mesón del Marqués, the most recommended restaurant in Valladolid and that is precisely the one we have in our hotel where we enjoy an incredible dinner with a guacamole at the table, a Caribbean steak, cooked in front of us and some papadzules plus two melon waters, dessert and coffees for 630 pesos that make us feel great.