Mangroves of Dzinitun

The Celestun protected biosphere and the ria are full of thick vegetation called mangroves (manglares).  This is thick jungle growth across the swampy land and along the ria and right out over the water, forming tunnel-like channels and large areas of thick, twisted growth shading the water for fish and crocodiles to hide in.

Last week, eight of us decided to go on a night-time canoe adventure through the mangroves and along the ria.  Our pilates instructor Sandra made the arrangements with Thomas and we all met up after dark at 8:30PM in a parking area near the beginning of a boardwalk into the Manglares de Dzinitun.

The boardwalk over swampy land to the mangrove channel

The boardwalk takes you across the swamp, twisting and turning as you make your way deeper into the jungle.  The boardwalk is apparently several km long and is a nice walk during the day but at night we had to walk slowly and carefully to avoid the odd broken board or change in elevation of each board.  After about 1km we arrived at a group of canoes waiting for us to begin our tour.

The cost was 450mxp per canoe and each canoe held two people, but had room for three, plus our guide standing at the back to pole us through the shallow waters.  We only used three canoes as our tour was delayed a few days due to windy conditions on our original night and unfortunately Sandra and Peter were unable to join us when we finally went.  It was pitch black as we moved quietly through tight channels and tunnels with the only light coming from head lamps on each guide.  Chris and I also each had a flashlight to shine around the shoreline, looking for wildlife.

It was an eerie feeling, moving through the water with our total view being a small spotlighted area from our guide's headlamp, moving around across the huge tree roots, across the water, then across one of the other canoes.  I found myself getting dizzy, almost unsure of which was was up and what direction we were going.

Marie-Francois and her brother Pierre

Nicole and Marie-France

The mangrove channel at night

We shone our flashlights along the shoreline, looking for birds, racoons, possums, crocodiles or any other wildlife that might appear.  The naturally formed tunnel-like channels were so low at times that we had to duck to get beneath branches and roots coming down from the manglares with branches scraping across the sides of the canoe and brushing against us in the dark.

Poling canoes through the mangrove channel

It was a beautiful trip out across the ria in calm waters with clear skies and millions of stars.  Our progress through the water kept disturbing herons, roosting for the night in the branches.  Their strange human-like "laughing" was startling at first then became commonplace as we made our way along the ria.

Hundreds of fish were jumping all around us in the shallowest parts of the ria, even hitting the side of the boat and three landed right in the boat; breakfast for our guides tomorrow!

Trees putting down roots into the mangrove

Our main goal was to spot crocodiles and all the headlamps played along the water by the shoreline as we poled our way along, hoping to spot their eyes glowing which is usually the only part you see above the water.  Unfortunately, after three hours and sore butts from the hard wooden seats, all we saw was fish and herons.  We made our way back along the ria then through the manglares channels again and arrived back where we started at about 11:00pm.  Even though we did not spot any crocodiles we all agreed that it was a great experience and we would highly recommend it.

Canoeing in the ria at night