Río Lagartos is a working fishing village on the north coast of Yucatán, at the edge of a biosphere reserve that covers sixty thousand hectares of shallow lagoon, mangrove and low dry forest.
Flamingos are the reason people come. They are present all year and concentrate between roughly April and September, when thousands nest along the ría. Boats go out from the village waterfront in the early morning, when the light is best and the birds are feeding; midday trips find them further off and more easily disturbed. Approach distances are set by the reserve.
The same trip usually covers crocodiles in the mangrove channels, the baño maya — a mud bath from the lagoon bed that visitors are invited to apply to themselves — and the salt ponds at Las Coloradas, where the water runs pink. Entering the pink water is prohibited and fined; it is an industrial salt works, not a lagoon.
Birders should know this is one of the best sites in Mexico: more than three hundred species recorded, and the full Gulf shorebird passage in winter. Bring binoculars and ask for a guide who birds rather than one who drives.
San Felipe, ten minutes west, and El Cuyo, an hour east, are the quieter villages on the same coast.