Rustling in the shrubbery drew our attention, as our guide Pulma urged everyone to be quiet. “Easy, I think there’s a Spoonbill,” he whispered.
WHOOSH! An explosion of pink burst out of the trees, outstretching its wings and gliding effortlessly across the water.
It was a roseate spoonbill, a gregarious wading bird that owes its bright colouring to the crustaceans it eats with its distinctive spoon-shaped bill, which contains pigments called carotenoids that turn their feathers pink.
Like us humans, roseate spoonbills experience hair loss as they get older, with feathers falling from the top of their head. But unlike us, they live in mangroves and when mating the male and female first interact aggressively, then perch close together to present sticks to each other, cross and clasp bills. Okay, unlike most of us.
And this one was showing off its full flight mode on San Juan island in the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve in Tulum, Mexico.
Ignoring the pelicans rummaging below and the vultures circling above, the roseate spoonbill rejoined the rest of its family building houses with branches.
Sian Ka’an – which roughly means “gate of heaven” – was established in 1986 and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site a year later.
On our day’s marine safari we also spotted Morelet’s crocodiles, a giant sea turtle, manatees, dolphins and iguanas. Booking through Mexico Kan Tours for MX$3,000 (£120), I thought it was expensive beforehand but afterwards I definitely felt satisfied.
Starting off the boat in the shallow mangroves, we went crocodile hunting. Cleverly camouflaged by the water, we were able to spot these crocs lurking with their eyes out of the water.
Morelet’s crocodiles are only found in fresh waters on the Atlantic side of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. They are generally shy and timid, but the bigger ones can pose a threat to humans. Pulma told us how a tourist and local fisherman were eaten here by crocodiles. Yikes.
They nearly became extinct in the 1940s and 1950s because of widespread hunting for their valuable hide. But thanks to laws making that illegal, the species have recovered and there are now an estimated 20,000 adults in the wild.
As we made our way out of the wetlands, we saw a great blue heron looking for its morning snack. They slowly wade or stand statuesque whilst stalking fish and other prey in the shallow waters, using a rapid thrust of the neck to grab whatever they like the look of.
A set of canals thread together the biosphere reserve right out to the Caribbean Sea, where our guides tracked down a giant green sea turtle popping its head out of the water.
All sea turtles are now endangered worldwide, although in Mexico it’s illegal to disrupt or hunt them or their eggs. And at Sian Ka’an their turtle conservation campaign includes patrolling beaches at night to help the mothers protect their egg nests from poachers and predators like crabs, dogs, racoons and seabirds.
Green sea turtles are so named for the greenish colour of their cartilage and fat, not their shells. Scientists reckon these unusual green guys just eat marine plants like seaweed and seagrass.
Some canny communication between the boats saw us pick up the trail of a pair of bottlenose dolphins, with a group of them living permanently in Sian Ka’an.
These athletic swimmers can reach speeds of over 18mph and revealed themselves to us by surfacing to breathe, which they do two or three times a minute.
Their intelligence is well known and perhaps unsurprising given their absolute brain mass is between 1,500-1,700 grams. Humans are about 1,300-1,400 grams while chimpanzees are just 400 grams.
You’d need weeks to scour the whole of Sian Ka’an, with the entire area topping 500,000 hectares and covering 120km of coastline.
We only cover a fraction of all the wildlife that live here, with jaguars, pumas, ocelots and Central American tapir found in the tropical forests.
After stopping for lunch in the remote fishing village of Punta Allen, we came across a bunch of iguanas sunbathing on a house of rocks.
Like other reptiles, iguanas need UV light to make vitamin D in their skin, which enables them to absorb calcium from their food.
Magical sights are all around at Sian Ka’an, which neatly reflects the real magic conservationists are doing across the biosphere reserve.
Tours like this one help fund the protection and management of areas with high biodiversity along the Riviera Maya and maintenance of all the endangered or threatened species that call it home.
Mayan communities are given training and technical assistance to ensure they benefit from the ecotourism here, so you know your money will be put to good use. And it’s a deeply beautiful place too.
