Day 20: Rio Lagartos

January 23, 2018

New: flamingos video

When travelling as a guest in foreign lands and cultures you can not expect all your own standards and practices to be maintained. That is pretty obvious. But on the other hand you have certain rights as an individual which should not have to be sacrificed. There are lots of examples. If someone decides they are sharing your hotel room, or meal, or bicycle, or maybe even restaurant table, you would no doubt give them the boot, in any country. Or there is the classic one - you get offered two camels for your wife, when you know for sure she is worth three!

We have already seen that Mexicans have a high tolerance for noise. And they seem to own a lot of actually quite high quality high volume speakers. But how about last night, when at midnight six young people moved onto the street in front of their house, under our window, and cranked up one of those speakers to top volume? Should the cranky old Canadian appear in his pyjamas and bare feet and tell them to put a sock in it? Or are they just culturally being themselves and if I don't like it, then go back to the hushed rainforests of the Canadian coast, where I must belong?

Dunno. I put up with it. What do you think?

At 6:30 a.m. we walked over to Rio Largartos Adventures, which operates from the Rio Maya Restaurant, by the water. We had been very impressed with the owner, Diego Nunez, yesterday, and today we found he is Diego III, and that although he had started the tour boat business, both his father (Diego II!) and grandfather (Diego I) had also worked in tourism to some extent. Our guide for today would be his son, yes, Diego IV. Diego V is in the wings, but being only 4 years old is not quite ready yet!

There are other tour operators, possibly cheaper, operating from the main dock in town, but we really felt that these were the people for us. They are seriously into doing a quality job.

In fact, flamingos suffuse their lives. Have a look at the company van in the first picture below. That's normal, but in the next shot you can see the tattoo on Diego IV's leg!

Diego is part of a line that has run this family business. He obviously has a great knowledge of these surroundings.

We had arranged to share the boat with Goran and Stephanie, the couple from Paris. This was a great thing. We instantly liked both of them, who just exude intelligence and curiosity and also knowledge in many areas. We hope to get back together with them when we are in Paris, not too many weeks from now.

Goran is a tour guide with his boat on the Seine! And Stephanie is a Paris graphic and fabric designer!

For us, being at a tropical waterfront is a rare experience. The boats, the birds, the fish beneath the dock, it's all special. As we cruised out, we could immediately see the skill and knowledge of Diego IV. He took time to slowly cruise by everything, and to name every one of the many birds which were all around.

Pelicans in flight. They often look like jet fighters. In this shot, they were too fast for me! Edit by Dodie - I think these are actually spoonbills

The estuary that we were to follow for the next three hours is very long - three times as long as the distance we covered. We went east, through the green on the map, which in fact has a mangrove channel up to half a km wide, to around where "Parcque Natural" is written. It is shallow, brackish water, where wading birds can often stand, and of course it is a wildlife bonanza.

Aside from guiding, fishing is naturally big here

Aside from pelicans, and the flamingos - who we will get to - perhaps herons are the most plentiful or at least easiest to spot of the birds. But there are three species: green, blue, and tiger. The green is something we have never seen or heard of before, and the blue are the most fascinating to watch. They stand very still until, zap, they have a long silver fish in their bills. But for wow value, it is the stripey tiger for me. The one pictured sure seemed to be giving me the evil eye!

Diego IV was amazing in his ability to spot birds at a distance and then to cruise over to give us a look. There were ospreys, kingfishers, ahingas, cormorants, frigate birds, parakeets, parrots, ...

Here are a few of them:

Crocodiles ("cocodrilos") are also part of the system here, and Diego was able to sneak up on one. Actually, he paid no attention to us (the crocodile, that is). In Florida, in fresh water, there were thousands of alligators when we cycled in the Everglades, but crocodiles must prefer brackish water and we only saw a few. Here there are no alligators, but crocodiles, yes.

Look Joe, slobbery teeth 'cause he doesn't brush them!

Normally, though we live by the sea, we are landlubbers. But look, Dodie seems to be quite the sailor here. The shot was taken as we landed on a sand spit, on the other side of which were the flamingos. We could hear them before we could see them. And we could see the pink water and its reflection in the clouds. This is caused by some sort of microorganism and contributes to the pink colour of the flamingos. The water is extremely shallow and salty here, and boulders of salt can be seen lying about. In fact there is a salt works, visible in the background. It clearly all contributes to a habitat that is good for flamingos.

This stop was the highlight of the boat cruise, probably the highlight of the entire trip. Stephanie found a souvenir for us. What a beauty. And as she pointed out, it is feather light and easy for cyclists to carry!

The water here is naturally pinkish. Closer to the salt works there is another pink, from chemicals used to hasten evaporation.

Horsehoe crab shell. There are a lot on the sand bar - because they shed their shells as they grow.

As we walked back to our room, we stopped in the tortilla bakery. The dough comes from a mixer and is formed into a sheet, then cut into rounds and baked in a matter of seconds in a gas fired oven chamber. The hot tortillas are sold by weight and deftly wrapped in paper. We got some hot ones - hot enough that our packet was hard to hold. How cool is that!

We return to the seaside toward sunset. Water and sun always call to mind for us the song by Canadian poet musician Bruce Cockburn. So here it is again:

All the diamonds in this world
That mean anything to me
Are conjured up by wind and sunlight
Sparkling on the sea

I ran aground in a harbor town
Lost the taste for being free
Thank God He sent some gull-chased ship
To carry me to sea

Two thousand years and half a world away
Dying trees still grow greener when you pray

Silver scales flash bright and fade
In reeds along the shore
Like a pearl in sea of liquid jade
His ship comes shining

Like a crystal swan in a sky of suns
His ship comes shining

Thank God He sent some gull chased ship to carry me to sea.

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