The second tour we booked from the hotel was to Celestun a seaport and nature reserve 92 km west of Merida. Mother slipped and gashed her leg as she attempted to board the minibus, which did not start us off very well, but it was a very worthwhile trip. A boat whisked us out into a mangrove lined lagoon where eventually we stopped short of several hundred flamingos. They were too far away to make a good quality photo for this record, but there were many other sights that were also worth seeing such as the stork in the left photo. Later the boat manoeuvred right into the mangrove so that we were able to view at close hand the complex, but delicate habitat created by this exotic plant. In the middle picture you can see mother photographing the tight knot of trees. On our way back we stopped several times to view genuine modern day Mayan houses, simple windowless structures of adobe and thatch (see right photo.)

It was Easter Sunday. We were travelling in a taxi to the bus station, but the taxi driver kept referring to how busy it was. I only partially understood his meaning. When we arrived at the bus station there was a long queue
curling outside the station and down the street. We had a prompt change of plan and we got the taxi driver to take us all the way to the port. It was noisy and very busy, but for all that it was a very pretty place with a very
Beautiful stretch of beach. It was fiercely hot so it was

  Two views of the beach at
the port of Progreso. In the
right photo you can also see
       the 6km long jetty.

nice to paddle along the edge of the shore and view the frigate birds and pelicans. A little while later we took another taxi to one of the outlying coastal villages called Chicxulub and pronounced - chick-shoe-loob. This was interesting but rather ramshackle with fairly difficult access to the beach.