An Absolutely Sensational Bucket List Item
If you’re looking for a sensational Bucket List item not too many people can say they checked off their Bucket List, you’ve come to the right place! My Reclaiming My Spirit Blog and even my CupofMood Blog are both full of tales of some of our travel adventures. Some of those are even Bucket List items.
As an example, on my I recently posted a blog called The Insanely Fun Jamaican Christmas Tradition You Never Heard Of! That was another one of my Bucket List items.
So, I’m excited to share a Bucket List item, I didn’t really even know I had until my most recent trip to Cancun. In fact, it probably wouldn’t have even happened were it not for the colossal Southwest Airlines Christmas holiday meltdown. Since our flight got cancelled and we initially were waiting for Southwest to tell us what to expect, we decided to make make lemonade out of the lemons we were given.
Making Lemonade
Another Sensational Bucket List Adventure Already Accomplished
We had a wonderful time revisiting Chichén Itzá. I talk about it in this blog post, The Wonderful Reason You Need to Visit Chichén Itzá! It was our second visit and what made that visit even more special is we had a chance to experience another cenote. This was I believe my 4th cenote and I couldn’t wait to dive right in. You can check me out in this YouTube Short.
A Brand New Sensational Bucket List Item
Before coming to Cancun, I was looking at activities we hadn’t done before in our prior 2 visits. I saw something about exploring a pink salt lake but for some reason Michael just wasn’t that interested. Thought it seemed like an amazing experience to me, I didn’t want to push the issue if he wasn’t interested.
Part of the reason is because it’s not an easy place to get to. The pink lake in question was the The Pink Lakes of Los Colorados, Mexico. Not everyone is familiar with them. If you are familiar with them, you likely saw them in a social media video or Pinterest post. Honestly, I wasn’t even aware of them prior to this trip.
However, thanks to the delayed departure caused by the Great Southwest Meltdown, we had a whole day to kill before we flew back to Tampa. For the record, by Tuesday evening, we realized Southwest wasn’t going to be any help so we booked a Jet Blue flight home for Thursday.
Though we stayed an absolutely stunning Airbnb at the Oleo Resort, I didn’t want to pass up this chance to see the Pink Lakes. So, off we went!
Touring Our Way Through Mexico
Since we rented a car, we had the luxury of driving and exploring our way down to see The Pink Lakes. We had a chance to see cute little towns like Temazon.
Sampling Local Cuisine Along The Way
If you do decide to make the trip, let me highly suggest you make sure to eat or bring something with you before you leave. AND make sure to bring Mexican pesos to pay for things. The further away you get from tourist areas, the less likely you are to find an ATM, a business that takes credit cards or American dollars.
As we drove through Temazon, we found this cute little restaurant La Terraza Ahumados . I’ll do a separate post on this unique little spot that likely serves as the local town hotspot.
Another Little Cute Mexican Town
We continued along our way and ran into another quaint Mexican town. This one is called, Calotmul. Stay tuned for more pics and images from here. This was the last little town we passed through before we finally got to our sensational Bucket List Item!
We Made It!
After driving for almost 4 hours, we finally made it to our sensational Bucket List Item, to see the Pink Lakes of Las Coloradas!
Here’s Where This Sensational Bucket List Item Is Located
Las Coloradas is on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, in the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. It’s a protected wetland with rich local habitat like coastal dunes, mangroves grasslands and reedbeds.
This magnificent natural paradise is homes to exotic creatures like flamingos, sea turtles, crocodiles and more! The tour of the reserve can be included with your tour or you can visit the pink lakes only.
The Main Attraction
Yes, this is one of the Pink Lakes of Las Colorados. It’s actually pink. It’s due to the concentration of microorganisms called halobacteria that, together with high amounts of salt, achieve this spectacular effect.
Things To Do When Visiting The Pink Salt Lakes
To tour this sensational Bucket List Item place, we decided to do a bike tour. You could do a half an hour or an hour tour. With the tour you can select from an English or Spanish speaking tour guide. Our guide spoke little English but was very effective and helpful. He gave us information about and history of the pink lakes. For what he lacked in English, he more than made up for with his photography skills. He took unbelievable images like some of the ones in this post.
Ancient Mayan Salt Mine
The Pink Salt Lakes are actually the source of a sizeable portion of salt provided to the United States and other parts of the world. They date back to Mayan times. You can see the foam from the salt on the unprocessed side. This is the foam the salt workers start with in their day of salt processing.
The first thing they do is remove the salt foam, which itself reaches the edge of ponds and it doesn’t need be refined. My guide encouraged to me to taste the foam just to get a sense of what it is. After he assured me it wasn’t toxic, I tried it.
Now, I have to ask. Would you have tried it?
A Towering View
Make sure to climb the tower to get a spectacular view of this amazing place!
Another Sensational Bucket List Item Accomplished!
Thanks to my wonderful husband, Michael and his willingness to drive close to 4 hours each way through remote parts of Mexico, I was able to check this sensational Bucket List Item off my list.
A Spectacular Finish To The Day
As we were driving back, we were treated to this spectacular sunset view. We seemed to be in the perfect location to see the sun set on the horizon. Though, that was truly an enjoyable site, I wouldn’t recommend you stay that late.
If you leave from Cancun, I would encourage you to get an early start to your day. It’s likely your best chance to see and do everything and to avoid driving back in the dark. Navigating some of the back roads in Mexico was a little more challenging at night.
So Much More To Tell
I had so many amazing experiences while in Cancun for Christmas. Stay tuned as I prepare to share more from this and some of my other sensational Bucket List items and more of my other travel adventures.
Until next time,
Namaste,
Khadeeja
