After our first day chilling at the lagoon of Bacalar, we decided to do one of the best things you can do at this beautiful lake: A boat trip discovering the most beautiful corners.
Almost every hotel and many independent tour operators are offering this particular tour, mostly on a catamaran or private boat. It includes a visit at Cenote Cocalitos with its extraordinary stromatolites, Cenote Esmeralda, the Black Cenote, and as big highlight you can enjoy a swim in the crystalline waters of the lagoon right at the “Pirate’s Channel”.
But first things first! To do this tour we woke up very early in the morning, drove to our meeting point at the hotel Rancho Encantado and watched a beautiful sunrise at the peer.
Once everybody arrived, we jumped on a very comfortable boat, put sunscreen on, and were more than ready for this awesome day on the water! I just love to be on a boat! - It is one of my favorite things to do, watching the scenery, nature, water, sun, and of course the outstanding colors of this lagoon while feeling the wind blowing in my face.
Our first stop of the day was Cenote Cocalitos, the home of the extraordinary stromatolites!
Stromatolites are rocks formed by thousands of bacteria and represent the oldest life form on earth. Since 3500 million years ago they produce oxygen that we breathe and capture CO2 through photosynthesis.
They grow near the shore, in the cenotes, and on the mangrove's roots. In Bacalar, they are up to 10 000 years old. The first 5 centimeters are the living part.
In Mexico, they can only be found in the Cuatrociénagas Reserve in the state of Coahuila, and Bacalar, located in the state of Quintana Roo.
Apart from this place, you can only find them at “Shark Bay” in Australia; Andros Island (part of the Bahamas); and the Persian Gulf, where the oldest stromatolites are.
So you can imagine how interesting and special it was to see them ourselves!
They are very fragile, easily damaged due to contact and their recovery takes hundreds of years. So just as reefs, they have to be preserved and of course, this was not the place to jump into the water!
After that, we passed by Cenote Esmeralda and did our next stop at Cenote Negro. As you can see all the 3 Cenotes are lined up next to each other. As I told you before the lake is fed by the water of the cenote. This means they are connected under the ground and part of one of the biggest underground rivers on earth, that goes through the Yucatan Peninsula.
The black cenote is the deepest of the three. Some say it is even the deepest of all cenotes with 90m depth. You can watch how the water color changes to dark blue once you enter it, that is also why it is called "black cenote".
Last time I visited that place, we could also swim there and even feel a difference in the temperature of the water because of the depth. But this time it was forbidden. A few weeks earlier a little child had died there and no one knew why... also I heard there was a crocodile sighted not far from this place 😅
Maybe not a mystery after all.. anyways.
From there we went a little bit further. Now the sun was coming a little bit more up and it started to get hot. Perfect for a swim!
About only 20 minutes after we arrived at my favorite place at this lagoon: The Pirate's Channel!
Already arriving there I instantly wanted to jump in! As we started the tour very early, we were the first ones there.
The channel is an artificial site that connects the northern Mayans to the Mayans of Central America.
Thanks to this, they established a great commercial exchange, through which, the main products like foodstuffs, exotic bird feathers, and of course, precious woods, which were the great wealth of the area, were traded.
Later, during the colony, this was called Canal de Salamanca, which served as a point of connection between Europe and America, being the focus of attention for famous pirates and corsairs like Henry Morgan (1635 - 1688) and Francis Drake (1543). - 1596). They took advantage of this commercial point to exploit the wooden wealth for the repair of their boats and constructions of new ships.
Now, this is an almost mandatory visit point in Bacalar, due to its beauty and also because of its high content of minerals, ideal to exfoliate the skin.
The water at the channel is not deep at all, so you can walk almost everywhere, floating around in the crystal clear water or put a mud mask on.
I don't know how or why, but there is even a boat, made out of rocks right at the entrance of the channel. Once we saw that, we just had to swim/go there and check it out!
It looked like once it was all painted. Maybe an art project? Well now it was destroyed and only rocks were left. In one of the wholes, fish had found their home.
From up there, the view was awesome! I love the Caribbean blue water of the lagoon! I walked to the front to see what is there.
But apart from signs telling not to climb and jump because of high risk, there was nothing else to discover.
I decided to jump and swim back to our boat. On my way, I was a little bit scared after spotting a water snake. I saw it just before I jumped into the water, and then it was gone! How scary is that! haha, when you know its there but can't see it anymore!
So you can imagine, that on my way back I was a little bit faster haha. After so much time on the open water, swimming, jumping, and floating around, we started to get hungry. From the Pirates Channel, it was not very far to go back to Hotel Rancho Encantado and after a while, it started to get crowded.
We decided to leave and in 15 minutes we arrived back at the peer. As the hotel has an excelent restaurant, we stayed there for the afternoon.
Elena ordered a salat and I had the steak with Guacamole! So tasty!
On our way back to our Airbnb we bought some wine and chips for the perfect evening watching the sunset from our terrace.
What a perfect ending to a perfect day!
It was also our last day at the lagoon, but more about that soon! - Until then enjoy the video of the day:
Cheers,
Liz