Ek´ Balam and Rio Lagartos

In Valladolid we booked a day tour to Ek´Balam and Rio Lagartos. The first spot are Mayan ruins which you can climb and Rio Lagartos has a natural reserve which is ideal for birdwatching, especially Flamingos. We were the only once booking the tour so we enjoyed our private trip.

Early morning we arrived at Ek´ Balam which means black jaguar. There was no one else except two other tourists, so we enjoyed the remote ruins and took our time to explore the different buildings.

The Mayan ruins are settled in the middle of the jungle and you get an incredible view from top of El Trono (The Throne). On top we met Tony and Thomas, two crazy travelers which are on the road since 5 years. We arranged to meet up with them for dinner in Valladolid to share some stories.

We left Ek´Balam when the tourist buses arrived and had some massive rain on our 2 hours ride up to Rio Lagartos. When we arrived at the harbor it was overcast so we hopped on the boat and went off.

But suddenly we saw this massive rain coming towards us and boats chasing out of the lagoon so our boatman turned around to bring us back. We had first lunch and wanted to try it afterwards.

This was a good decision. We met some German tourists which weren’t so lucky and came back soaked, without seeing the flamingos. They were really disappointed and blamed the guide for not predicting the rain.

The sky just opened up when we jumped into the boat to give it another try and it was nice and sunny. I am telling you, the sun is travelling with us. The flamingos are awesome, they have a funny orangy colour and are really shy. What a great opportunity to see them and we were totally alone.