Mangrove swamps at Sayachaltun, an easy outing on the Gulf

 

Alex and I went on an outing, to the Reserva Ecologica Sayachaltun near Telchec Puerto on the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan close to Merida. I heard about it from a post that popped up on my feed on Instagram, no doubt a paid promotion, but it worked. Seductive photos of people in kayaks going into the mangrove swamps. There is a large area of them on the coast, just in from the beach, almost all along the coast around Progreso. One passes over them when driving to the beaches there, but I have not really seen them. Thus this idea of a tour appealed. 

Alex on the boardwalk to the boats

One passes through the restaurant, which is a typical beach place with thatched palapa roofing, and plastic chairs, but in the end, very good food. However that was after our tour. We opted for a gondola tour, which turned out to be wise. Under the thatched roof above is the dock, and there was a fiberglass boat with guide waiting. One good thing, no motors, the water is very shallow, and mostly clear when you get to the mangroves, and the guide stands in the stern of the boat, poling the boat forward. Thus, it was a nearly silent mode of transporting one through the reserve, and while birds and fish still were disturbed by our approach, we still got to see a lot of them. For me, most interesting, were the many puffer fish which I saw, of different sizes. Recognizable by their distinctive patterning and box like body when not inflated, I knew what they were from above but had never seen them in nature, only in books and films, or aquariums. 

not my photo, I could not capture a photo myself, they were too quick

Above is a google images photo, as I could not take a photo myself, the fish were too quick for my iphone. It is not exactly the type I saw, but gives you an idea of how distinctive a pufferfish is, even not blown up. And of course, there were many other fish, of types I didn't know, and different sizes as one would expect. No big ones though, these shallow waters are mostly home to smaller fish.

Going into the mangrove swamps

Going from the lagoon into the swamp itself is to go into another world. With the help of the guide we saw small crabs which lurk in the trees themselves and colorful larger crabs on the edges. And of course lots of small fishes. The highlight was the Ojo de Agua, where we docked and walked along a short boardwalk to a clear pool with a strong upwelling of fresh water, the key to the Yucatan and the mangrove swamps. The geography of the Yucatan does not permit for rivers, all the water is underground and here in these cenotes and ojos de aqua, the water runs into the swamps, keeping them brackish. In fact, the abundance of fresh water allows some mangrove trees to grow taller, and one can see from a distance where a likely source of fresh water is by finding what appears to be a hill, but is rather a clump of tall trees in the midst of otherwise very low mangroves. From the guide I learned to identify the three types of mangroves, there are red mangrove, black mangrove and white mangrove. Each can be identified by their root structure. Otherwise, they appear the same, all have glossy green leaves, and look much alike. The white mangroves appear to be the ones capable of growing the tallest, but I only deduce that because they were tall around the Ojo de Agua that we visited. 

My feet dangling in the Ojo de Agua with the fish

A very worthwhile and instructive outing about an hour outside of Merida.  I was impressed by the guide's interest and commitment to the preservation and protection of the mangroves, as he spoke about it during the tour. 

In the photo above you see two types of mangroves, on the right the red, which has root buttresses going down into the swamp around it, and on the left the black, whose auxiliary roots rise up out of the ground around the main plant. These auxiliary roots are the key's to the mangroves ability to survive in the salty water along the oceans edges. And they provide the structure that protects the fish, birds and animals that are abundant there, and protect the coast from storm surges and erosion.