June 2009

[Dan-0]

The beaches have very little development in the way of hotels and restaurants





Public palapas on the beach





We were the only people on the beach Saturday



Beach house



Posts from an old pier used by pelicans for fishing





RV palapa on the beach



For breakfast on Sunday morning, I had my favorite Yucatan breakfast at La Conchita: huevos motulenos. A great place to eat!



Driving back across the causeway, we spotted two groups of flamingos. This is the first:



And this was the second group of flamingos, they were just standing by the road:

[susango]

Gorgeous! Sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

[Ginger]

Wow, this is just gorgeous:



I enjoyed your bird pics. Keep it coming!!

Your kids are both so cute. Very opposite, tho, eh? One looks like mom, one very much like Dad. Same thing happened with mine.

[Yucatanner]

Dan-O, loving your report. It is so nice to see other places besides PDC. I am loving this little Isla Holbox. Are there any party stores, places to buy beer and food?

[Dan-0]

Originally Posted by Yucatanner

Dan-O, loving your report. It is so nice to see other places besides PDC. I am loving this little Isla Holbox. Are there any party stores, places to buy beer and food?

Thanks! El Cuyo has plenty of places to buy food, beer, & liquor and several restaurants as well. There aren't really any party bars or anything like that, though.

[Dan-0]

This past Sunday, after we left El Cuyo, we made a side trip to the salt deposits of Las Coloradas, Yucatan. These are natural salt deposits formed by streams leading from the Gulf and salt has been harvested from this place since the time of the Maya. Today, there is a large salt-mining opeatation there where sea salt is refined and loaded on ships for export. It was truly an amazing place with mounains of white salt surrounded by pink lakes of heavily salinated water surrounded by salt-encrusted shores. It really felt like being on another planet.

Las Coloradas is a tiny pueblo right next to the salt deposits. It’s located in the Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. I wish we had more time to explore the Reserve, but we had to get back to Cancun by Sunday evening. There are wildlife tours through the Reserve that I really want to do in the future.

When you get to Las Coloradas, you turn right down a dirt road to go to the salt lakes and you will come to a very long, narrow causeway made of soil that’s barely wide enough to drive across in your vehicle. The further back we went on the causeway, the more flamingos we saw. It was an incredible sight seeing those pink flamingos in the pink lakes.

Having said that, Las Coloradas is in a very remote, out-of-the-way place and getting there is challenging. We took one of FIL’s famous “shortcuts” and ended up on a narrow road dodging potholes for almost two hours before we finally got there. Still, it was worth it to see the flamingos and the salt deposits.

Crossing the river in the Biosphere you have to use a narrow, rickety wood bridge



The river



Entering Las Coloradas



Streams like this one flow inland to form the salt lakes



This dock is used to load salt on to container ships



The salt lakes are bright pink due to the concentration of salt





Mountains of salt that will be loaded on to the dock via conveyor belts





The salt lakes reminded me of a lake from another planet









My FIL checking out the salt

[Dan-0]

Flamingos!

Here are photos of the many flamingos we saw. All of these were taken as we drove through a dirt causeway that runs through the salt lakes:

[Beth&Scott]

3 amazing things:
-really salty waters
-pink water / lake
-flamingos!!
Very entertaining and educational Dan-o!

[Ginger]

Wow, that salt lake is something else! Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[lovbuds]

Loving your trip report Dan-0...thanks for sharing. Must have been amazing seeing all those flamingos in one place...way cool! Love your picture of the river and the old rickety bridge too. Looking forward to more....

[Libby]

Wow, you've done so many cool things on this trip, Dan! I've been wanting to see the flamingos at El Cuyo and Rio Lagartos for some time now. Have you been to Celestun Dan? If so, how do they compare?

Thanks for sharing all your cool experiences!

[Dan-0]

Originally Posted by Libby

Wow, you've done so many cool things on this trip, Dan! I've been wanting to see the flamingos at El Cuyo and Rio Lagartos for some time now. Have you been to Celestun Dan? If so, how do they compare?

Thanks for sharing all your cool experiences!

I have not been to Celustun, so I can't compare. My gut instinct is that seeing flamingos around the causeway at El Cuyo may be a crap shoot; we only saw a few as we were leaving. But, the pueblo is walking distance from the causeway and I'm not sure if you can walk to see the flamingos at Celestun, I don't think you can. I heard the peak months to see the flamingos in El Cuyo are July & August. Also, I heard that the guys who rent golf carts & four-wheelers in the town square will do personalized tours of some cool places in the area. I would have liked to have done that but we didn't have time.

[Dan-0]

Yesterday, we spent the day in Mahuhual. We drove up from Chetumal and we took our bags planning to spend the night, but after looking around Mahuhual for a while and checking out a few hotels we didn’t find anything that reached out and grabbed us and we decided to just spend the day at the beach and head back to Chetumal in the afternoon. It’s only about a 1 ½ hour drive from Chetumal and there really didn’t seem to be that much to do or see in Mahuhual apart from the hanging out at the beach. There weren’t many tourists there at all, I only saw one small group of them. The hotels we looked at were small, right on the beach, and had very reasonable rates- about 600 pesos and up. The beaches are nice and the water is crystal clear, very good for snorkeling, and the reef's only about 100 yards or so from shore. I wanted to come up for the big fishing tournament they had a few weeks ago, but we were busy that weekend.

I've been to Mahuhaul numerous times over the years. The last time I was here, it was shortly after Hurricane Dean, and Mahuhual was still a mess. It’s amazing how fast things have turned around in those two years or so since I was last here. The malecon is finished and the area is growing like crazy with new hotels, restaurants, and houses being built all over. I suspect Mahuhual is probably starting to look like Playa was 20 years or so ago, it's amazing how it has changed over the years and how fast it's growing. However, the Swine Flu scare hit Mahuhual hard because the cruise ships stopped coming. But we heard they’ll be coming back soon and things should be getting back on track shortly.

Coming into town- the lighthouse with the turn off for the cruise port to the left



The new malecon



The north end of the beach has some public palapas



Pier on the north end



Mahuhual has lots of funky palapas like these





The Italians have come to Mahuhual



The main road through town







This guy was spearfishing



There are fishing, diving, and snorkeling tours available



Backpacker hotel on the south end



View of town from the south end

[Dan-0]

Carribean-colored houses: lots of these in town





Some fishermen heading out



View of the malecon from the south end



We settled at a little restaurant on the beach, here are some views of the beach









The restaurant had fresh boquinete (snapper)



My wife and I had ceviche and Sols for lunch



The kids had nachos and limonada



Me and my boy doing some snorkeling- lots of little fish in the water



The kids playing in the surf



Another view of the beach

[John]

Wow, I finally had time to read this all the way through... you really know how to make the most of a vacation!

I never knew about El Cuyo or the salt lakes - they're creepy looking. We'll have to put that place on our list for a future trip up that way. Do you happen to know the sand flea situation there? I got attacked on Isla Holbox and itched for 2 weeks. Sand fleas and I don't get along...

Looks like you and the family are having a great time.

Thanks for sharing with us!

[Beth&Scott]

Manuhaul looks so nice, I plan to visit one of these trips!

Love the Bahamian / Caribbean colors!

[Dan-0]

Originally Posted by John

Wow, I finally had time to read this all the way through... you really know how to make the most of a vacation!

I never knew about El Cuyo or the salt lakes - they're creepy looking. We'll have to put that place on our list for a future trip up that way. Do you happen to know the sand flea situation there? I got attacked on Isla Holbox and itched for 2 weeks. Sand fleas and I don't get along...

Looks like you and the family are having a great time.

Thanks for sharing with us!

John, I had heard of neither El Cuyo or the salt lakes before this trip. I have been travelliing to the Yucatan for about 10 years now and every time we're here we discover something different, it's such an amazing area. Sometimes, we even go to Playa!

I think I like El Cuyo better than Holbox. It's a probably on the primitive side and definitely not to everyone's tastes, but it still has all the modern conveniences and plenty of little stores to buy supplies and beverages. No sand fleas or mosquito problems when we were there, or at least none were biting that day.

The salt deposits are not worth making a trip per se, but I think it's a good side trip to do if you're in the Ria Lagartos area, especially if you like salt and flamingos.

[Beth&Scott]

Ive heard of El Cuyo, we've researched it online before, found very little info, nice to hear you liked it. I liked Holbox, but have to say when we went I needed sandles to walk the beach, which I didnt like.

I never had issues with sand fleas in Holbox, only in Cozumel...annoying little buggers!

Dan-o, are you still in Mexico? If so, Im jealous.

[Ginger]

Dan, what a gorgeous beach that is. Love the pink houses too. Great photos!

[Dan-0]

Well, the trip's over, we got back home this week. Back to work and the routine for now. We had a great trip but we ended up driving a lot- we drove roundtrip between Cancun-Chetumal at least four times. Man, I hate that drive! Hwy. 307 south of Carrillo Puerto is under heavy construction and very stressful to drive, at least to me. Unfortunately, spending so much time on the road, combined with a limited budget, meant we didn't get to spend time in a lot of places that we have liked to, like Playa. Still, it was a great trip overall and a relaxing time spent with my wonderful family. It was good to be back in the Yucatan, as always.

Before we left, my wife insisted on spending a night at the Hilton on the beach in Cancun. She found a good rate online: $85/night. Not really our kind of place but the pool and the beach were nice.



View from our balcony





The kids enjoyed the pool





The beach



The lagoon



Night shot of Cancun



Downtown Cancun- this is typical