{"id":51483,"date":"2010-04-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/royalresorts.com\/blog\/angels-flamingos-in-the-yucatan\/"},"modified":"2021-11-29T21:04:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T21:04:46","slug":"angels-flamingos-in-the-yucatan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/blog\/cancun\/angels-flamingos-in-the-yucatan\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels &#038; Flamingos in the Yucat\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Where in the world can you journey back in time and witness one of nature\u2019s greatest spectacles, all in one day? In the Yucat\u00e1n you can combine a dash of history with wildlife watching and here\u2019s one trip that will take you to the ancient Mayan city of Ek Balam and the R\u00eda Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, home of the flamingo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ek Balam<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First stop is the archaeological site of Ek Balam, 20 minutes north of the colonial city of Valladolid. Inhabited from around 600 B.C. and reaching its peak between A.D. 600 and 900, this ancient city is still something of a puzzle for archaeologists. Intricate stucco carvings and the name \u201cEk Balam\u201d or \u201cblack star jaguar\u201d in Maya (star\/black = <em>ek<\/em>, jaguar = <em>balam<\/em>) only add to the mystery. Is this lyrical name a reference to a long-lost ruler or the ancient jaguar deity?<br \/>\nEk Balam was first excavated at the end of the 1980s by American archaeologists William Ringle and George Bey and more recently by Leticia Vargas de la Pe\u00f1a, a Mexican archaeologist working for the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). She and her team have studied many of the structures at the site, particularly the tallest building (31 meters high) called the Acropolis, now known to have been a palace, and have made important discoveries, including over 50 hieroglyphic inscriptions and a royal tomb with offerings of jade, pottery and copal incense.<br \/>\nThe city covers an area of 12 square kilometers and has five sacbes or ceremonial causeways, three defensive walls, a ball court, steam baths, <em>chultunes<\/em> or Mayan wells, several stelae and over 60 structures ranging from temples and palaces to tiny shrines. The largest buildings are clustered around two plazas at the center of the city. This was the ceremonial heart of the city where the rulers and priests lived.<br \/>\nEk Balam is known to have had links with powerful city-states in the Maya World and its temples and palaces reflect a mix of artistic and architectural influences from the Puuc Hills in southern Yucat\u00e1n to the Mexican Caribbean coast and the Pet\u00e9n in northern Guatemala. Another clue to the city\u2019s importance is its emblem glyph (a symbol identifying individual cities or their ruling families), the only one recorded to date so far north in the Yucat\u00e1n.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Angels in the Yucat\u00e1n?<br \/>\nEk Balam\u2019s crowning glory is the fa\u00e7ade of the Acropolis which features hieroglyphic inscriptions, stucco serpents, masks carved in the likeness of the gaping jaws of the earth monster and the statues of richly attired nobles, including a seated figure now thought to be one of the rulers. The huge building was built in several phases and is a warren of rooms and terraces.<br \/>\nLocal guides refer to the statues at the top of the Acropolis as \u201c<em>los angeles<\/em>,\u201d the angels, because they appear to have wings. The \u201cwings\u201d are actually splendid feather headdresses but even as one mystery is solved, another one takes its place. Who were these men? Archaeologists have deciphered hieroglyphic inscriptions at the site and others in the area to discover that Ek Balam was ruled by a powerful dynasty and have identified the city\u2019s founding father. Ukit Kan Le\u2019k Tok came to power in 770 A.D. and ushered in an extraordinary building and artistic boom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Rio Lagartos<\/strong><br \/>\nFrom Ek Balam you\u2019ll drive north through a chain of villages and small towns such as Tizimin to the R\u00eda Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, 60,348 hectares of mangroves, salt marshes, dunes and tropical forest.<br \/>\nThe reserve\u2019s biological diversity is incredible. Scientists have identified 365 bird species, 58 mammals, including the rare jaguar and spider monkey, 95 reptiles and amphibians, including four species of sea turtles and the crocodiles or lagartos that gave the reserve its name.<br \/>\nDespite such riches, R\u00eda Lagartos is famous for one bird \u2026the flamingo. The reserve harbors a nesting colony of Caribbean flamingos (<em>Phoenicopterus ruber ruber<\/em>), a population of around 30,000 birds. So many of them gather in the shallow lagoons that they literally dye the horizon pink! To see them searching for food, preening their bright plumage or in flight formation is to witness one of the natural wonders of the Yucat\u00e1n.<br \/>\nFishermen from the waterfront village of R\u00edo Lagartos offer boat trips along the ria or estuary and through the mangroves to the flamingo feeding grounds. A M\u00e9rida-based conservation group has trained some of them as eco-guides and they carry checklists to help you identify the birds you see. Keep a lookout for osprey, ibis, roseate spoonbills, white pelicans, kingfishers and herons and make sure you have plenty of film or memory sticks for your camera!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Getting there<\/strong><br \/>\nTrips to Ek Balam and Rio Lagartos are available through Thomas More Travel, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thomasmoretravel.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.thomasmoretravel.com<\/a> or email <a href=\"mailto:tourdesk@royalresorts.com\">tourdesk@royalresorts.com<\/a> for reservations. If you plan to go on your own, take the toll road or Highway 180 to Valladolid and then head north towards the Gulf coast, along Highway 295; the turnoff to Ek Balam is clearly marked. Visit the nearby X\u2019canche cenote; there is a small admission fee and for an additional charge you can rent mountain bikes or even try your hand at rappel.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,99,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancun","category-news","category-yucatan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Angels &amp; Flamingos in the Yucat\u00e1n - Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/blog\/cancun\/angels-flamingos-in-the-yucatan\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Angels &amp; 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