Rio Lagartos Discovery — Attraction in Yucatán

We found Rio Lagartos Discovery on Google maps. After sending a message on Whatsapp, José replied promptly, so we arranged a tour for the next day. His son Isaid took us inside the Ria (not Rio) Lagartos for 3 hours. At the time we had already visited Celestun, Sian Khan and other ecotourism sites in Mexico. The Ria Lagartos tour was probably the best we had in our 40+ days in Mexico. Birds, crocodiles, Maya clay baths, pink salinas were of course the highlight, but what made the whole thing special was the training and expertise of the guide, who gave us lots of detailed and scientific-based explanations about the delicate ecosystem of the Ria, and its flora and fauna. We also discovered that, unfortunately, many tours are organised by unlicensed and untrained guides, who in fact are just fishermen acting as guides. Our guide explained us what it really means to organize a sustainable form of touring through the Ria, what can be done and what cannot, and the negative impact that these improvised fishermen guides have on this paradise. Fauna can't be fed by tourists, and in some places you can't get off the boat. But Isaid had some tricks that allowed us to get very close to the animals without interfering by feeding them. Unfortunately we saw others doing exactly what can't be done, and we felt lucky because touring through a delicate ecosystem must be done in a serious and sustainable way. With our guide expertise we could really understand much more than we expected. Highly recommended for so...

Tldr: amazing tour through the mangroves, with some great animal encounters (🐊🦩🦅) and a helpful and informative guide!

We took a scooter all the way from Valladolid to get in touch with Jose, which I contacted the day before. I already felt comfortable picking this tour, since he was replying fast with lots of information and all in english - perfect!

The boat was comfy and the tour started right away. He told us about the different types of mangroves until we already found the first of three crocodiles - and we still have no clue how he found them! Great spotter!

At the Flamingo point we were a bit underwhelmed, since they were quiet far away - but Jose had his binoculars and we could still see them - but thats how nature is.

The salt lakes were also quiet interesting and after a mayan bath we were driving back to refresh our selfes at the beach and finishing up the tour with really great seafood at the restaurant nearby!

Jose was really great and would recommend the...

We found Rio Lagartos Discovery on google maps and sent Josè a message via WhatsApp. Our guide, Carlos, took us out on the following day. We had an amazing trip with lots of crocodiles, flamingos and other different types of birds! Besides this, we stopped by the famous pink salt lakes for a bit and even performed a Mayan clay bath before returning to the city. Carlos was very helpful to explain everything about the different animals and answered all our questions. All in all we were on the water for about 2,5 hours and it was a great afternoon with Carlos on the water. I would recommend going with Rio Lagartos Discovery if you happen to come to town and want to experience a wonderful guided tour...