Rio Lagartos and San Felipe

A view of the river, from the park at the end of town.

Rio Lagartos is the area mostly known for the flamingo tours offered by the local boaters.  We took a drive out in late January to see the area, but did not plan to take a boat trip.  When we arrived it was an incredibly windy day anyway, much too blustery for touring by boat, but we enjoyed looking around the area.

The malecon across the street from the restaurant we had lunch at......it was so windy, and it was an open-air restaurant.......our chips were blowing off the table!  We chatted with our server (he spoke excellent English) and found out the best time for flamingo tours is early in the morning and during the summer, so we will have to come back to Rio Lagartos later.  We did see hotels right on the malecon.

Next we drove 10 KM to the port town of San Felipe.  This is a major fishing port for the Yucatan, which had fish packing houses and many fishing boats.  Their malecon had beautiful lamp posts, and an observation tower.


Driving around town we were surprised to see that most of the homes here were constructed of wood, brightly painted in colors that reminded us of the Caribbean Islands.  Most of the construction in Telchac Puerto is concrete block.

 My neighbor Gaby has a brother and sister-in-law who live here in San Felipe.  We tried to find their house but were not successful.  We did see a very nice hotel here though, so perhaps another trip is in the future!

Hungry shorebirds await handouts from these fishermen who are cleaning their catch.

A trip to Ticul, the pottery town

We'd heard that for the best pottery, one must make a trip to Ticul, which is located about an hour south of Merida.  We enjoy seeing the local crafts areas, so we decided to head on down there to see what we would see.

Our first stop was at Arte Maya, which was a factory and shop located in a home.  The art here included fantastic, museum quality pieces that were beyond our budget for this trip. 

A wonderful copy of Chichen Itza's Chac Mool.

Inside the Arte Maya shop, a beautiful selection of plates, statues and figurines to choose from.

Next, lunch was on our minds.  It was a Sunday and the downtown area was blocked off, so we chose a Cocina Economica called Loncheria El Tope.  (Topes are the speed bumps so common in Mexican towns, necessary to be sure drivers slow down!) There are usually several choices for lunch depending on what the cook felt like whipping up that day...... I had a chili rellano, which came in a bowl of creamy sauce.  Lowell chose the mixed meat stew, which was a bowl with pork, beef, chicken, and noodles, and a side dish of freshly steamed assorted vegetables to add into the broth as you wished.

Now that our stomachs were happy, it was on to more shopping!  There were a couple more recommended shops that we wanted to see, and also many more shops in people's homes up and down the main road.

This turned out to be our favorite shop, where we bought a few trinkets and a large colorful pot for the living room.

Lowell looks over a nice selection of pots.

The kiln, located in the back of this store.  We were given a tour of the back area but no workers were here on Sunday.

Carnival in tiny Telchac Puerto

Carnival is a very big celebration in most Latin American countries, and there is one in almost every town here in the Yucatan.  It lasts for a full week in the big city of Merida, with many parades and celebrations.  We were not able to attend Merida's Carnival this year, so we opted to just walk down to the center of Telchac Puerto to see what was happening on Saturday night.

There was a large elevated bandstand set up, and the band started playing around 10:30 PM.  Shortly thereafter the King and Queen and their escorts paraded into the arena.  They walked the circumference and threw candy toward the crowds in the stands.

Next came the dancing troupe, with the lead female and male dance couple, and all of the rest of the colorfully dressed ladies.  The ladies were in pairs, dressed in bright dresses of orange, blue, purple, green and red.  Each had a fruit basket perched on her head.  The dance troupe also walked the circumference throwing out candies and confetti.  After this they continued to perform a very long dance routine, which was very entertaining.  Most of these women were older, so I imagine they've been doing this routine for a number of years!

Now we didn't have the beautiful girls on colorful floats sponsored by Sol Beer or Coca Cola, but I think just about everyone who lived in Telchac Puerto was in attendance!

The last and most humorous entry for the evening was the troupe of young men dressed as ladies, including tight, short dresses and tons of makeup.  The crowd really got a kick out of this act!

Telchac Puerto residents enjoyed their Carnival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier in the week we had seen a big platform being built for the Carnival in Progreso, and after the big Saturday night extravaganza we saw the parade floats parked out near the main road, so we know we missed a bigger Carnival by not at least going to Progreso. Next year Lowell will try to take some vacation time so we may attend the Merida Carnival.