The sleepy fishing village of Celestún has more than sleepy fishermen; it also has nice beaches and, more importantly to my mind, is the regional center of a biosphere reserve and protected estuary which hosts waterfowl aplenty, including, during the winter months, the largest flamingo colony in North America. Small boats skim over the shallow water and take you to the pungent, cackling throng of skinny, pink, not-plastic-that-you-stick-in-your-lawn birds. Something like 35,000 of them. They're gorging on shrimp until summer when they'll head to their nesting grounds in the north of the Yucatan peninsula. The lagoons are also home to pelicans, herons, egrets, kingfishers and, supposedly, crocodiles. I was more worried about mosquitoes but they and their equally annoying cousins the horse flies don't really make an appearance until the summer months – the rainy season.
Flamingos for as far as the eye can see.
Down a channel through the mangrove.
Reflection on a freshwater spring.
Celestun fishing boats.
White Pelicans.
Well camouflaged Tiger Heron.
Egret.
Snowbird.
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