Yep, they are real flamingos! In the wild! Today we found our way to a place called Celestun. This town is on the coast and is home to a small fishing village. We caught a boat that took us around the inlet and through some mangroves - all of which feeds into the Gulf of Mexico! We saw lots of bird life out on the water. And then out of no where we came across paradise! There were about 1000 flamingos all just doing what flamingos do... Standing around not doing much apart from looking beautiful!! We spent quite a bit of time there just observing them.... And taking photos!!
On our way back to the dock we made a detour into a mangrove forest. We parked the boat and walked along the oldest and most rickety boardwalk! I was walking along the beams, as the planks going across looked like they were one person off collapsing!! In fact half of the planks had already collapsed... I wasn't going to tempt fate! We came across this beautiful spring, where the water was so clear!! A lot of people jumped in for a swim... However I don't think they were listening when the guide told us that there were alligators in the water!! I was so tempted to yell out alligator and point just to see what they did... However most of them didn't speak English so they wouldn't have understood me anyway!!
Anyway, back on the boat we made it back to the dock and drove the short distance into town. Here we had the most delicious seafood lunch! Ceviche seafood and then grilled fish for lunch!! And all of this on the beach!! You can't get any better than that.... But let me just tell you 'you can'. After lunch we had a quick dip in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was so green and warm!! I have never felt water this warm before!
After a couple of hours just frolicking around at the beach, we headed back to Merida!
I then took to the town with Joyce!! Joyce is our tour grandmother (close to 80 years). We went and had a look at the main plaza, the palace and finally had some dinner where we brushed up on our Spanish skills!! The waiter was very sweet and helped us with pronunciation!! As always we provide them with much entertainment... They are sure to get a good laugh as we try to speak Spanish!!