Seeing pink: Flamingos have made themselves at home of the Yucatan coast

Celestun's dining opportunities are more plentiful. Several excellent restaurants specializing in locally-caught seafood operate on or adjacent to the beach near the center of town. The La Palapa restaurant comes highly recommended by several travel guide books, while Chiviricos is a mainstay with area residents.

Menus typically include snapper, clams, crab, conch, lobster and octopus. Also, be sure to try the popular regional appetizer called ceviche, which is a tasty blend of several types of chopped seafood mixed in a tangy salsa fresca and served with corn chips.

For those seeking trinkets, there are a few makeshift tables several steps removed from the beach where vendors hawk a variety of inexpensive flamingo-themed items destined for drawer duty when finally scrutinized back home by the trinket hunter.

Celestun is best reached from Merida by rental car, although bus service is also available to intrepid types willing to deal with inconvenience. Rental cars are easily obtained from all major chains as well as several smaller Yucatan- and Mexican-based companies in Merida.

The 52-mile route from Merida to Celestun is a delight unto itself and takes travelers through the small Yucatan towns of Uman and Kinchil, where life proceeds at its own pace and tourism barely seems an afterthought.

Nearer Celestun there's an opportunity for a short side trip on a paved road to the charming tiny village of Tedzidz, which is the last significant habitation before miles of jungle stretching to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Time nearly stands still here and provides a wonderful living snapshot of what life was like in Yucatan villages decades earlier.

Upon entering Celestun, you will pass the Flamingo Information Center and its adjoining co-op docks. From here reasonably-priced excursions to the flamingo feeding areas depart regularly. These tours, which are sanctioned by Mexican tourism authorities, last between 75 minutes and two hours in length. Skippers usually wait for a full load of eight passengers and then split the cost of the boat rental equally. Typically, it works out to around 80 pesos (about $8) per person for shorter duration trips.

Besides flamingo viewing, these boat tours often include a brief swing through interesting mangrove swamps and a stopover at a refreshing freshwater spring and swimming hole. Hosts of other birds are also likely to been spotted along the way, including sandpipers, pelicans, egrets. Boat operators also suggest early morning departures hold the best promise for sighting crocodiles or glimpsing monkeys in the dense jungle-type forest bordering the lagoon.