A word of caution about fishing-type boats for tour

Make sure your flamingo sightseeing is done aboard one of the special flat-bottomed boats departing from the Flamingo Information Center located just off the main highway entering Celestun.

Do not — repeat, DO NOT — hire one of the deeper-profiled fishing-type boats moored in the beachfront surf about a block from the town's center.

Many of the beachfront skippers will aggressively pitch unsuspecting tourists with promises of longer boat trips, including stops at additional points of interest not visited by co-op tour boats. Don't listen! Most of the promised additional boat time is actually wasted traveling across open water from the beach to the entrance of the Ria Celestun lagoon and back again.

Nor is it uncommon for these beachfront boat operators to withhold information or even outright lie to get your business. If asked, they may pretend not to know about the visitors center and cooperative. When in an especially creative mood, they'll fib that the visitors center recently burned down or has been damaged by storm.

Something else that often goes unsaid during beach-side sales pitches is that the excursion rates negotiated can run as much as double those being charged by co-op skippers.

Freelance boat operators will also neglect to tell would-be passengers that return trips on their boats are often made into some very stiff ocean breezes. The result is a jarring experience that feels like your body and internal organs are being repeatedly hit by a tackling linebacker. The return trip can be so rough that some boatmen will volunteer to leave you off at the visitors center dock — yes, the same visitors center that had burned down only 90 minutes earlier — suggesting a return back to town via inexpensive pedal cab to avoid being jostled about.

And should you still need another reason to select a flat-bottomed boat for your viewing, be aware that the propellers of the deeper-profiled fishing boats, although providing considerably more speed, also damage the ecosystem by stirring up more mud when entering the shallow estuary.