In the coastal town of El Cuyo the activity of flamenco rings is organized to obtain data that allow us to know more about this species. The activity is open to volunteers, a pleasant experience for nature lovers.

For a few years now, organization Children and Cries CA next to Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve organize a flamingos ringing.

Where and when are flamingos ringing?

The ringing is done on a weekend in September in the nice and quiet population of El Cuyo, which belongs to the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. Here we find accommodation or we have the opportunity to camp in the El Cuyo field station or on the beach.

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 What is the use of dancing flamenco?

With the flamingos ringing you get data that allow to know more about this bird and its migratory movements in the Yucatan Peninsula and outside of Mexican territory, as in nearby Cuba. In this way the population of flamingos is studied and can be controlled for better conservation.

We often forget the predators that we are human beings, even if it is unintentional.

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Volunteer training for flamenco dancers:

The activity is divided a weekend in two days of volunteering. For everyone who wants to sign up, they must pay the estimated fee of 845 pesos adults and 445 pesos niños. The money is invested in the activity of the Reserve and they give you a cap and a commemorative shirt.

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La first day it's on Saturday afternoon and it's about train us to be able to rinse the flamingos the next day. After a long eloquence in presentations and thanks to those involved in the project, they give you a talk and a practice on how to treat the animal correctly. In addition, the equipment is planned and made for the hard and exciting day that awaits you at dawn.

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 Flamenco dancers activity:

We leave from El Cuyo 3: 30 early Sunday morning in a bus hired by the organization, to the area where they had installed all the shed: two pens, protection fences, veterinary clinic, recovery pen, 8 points distributed around the pens with his equipment for ringing and weighing, the organizers, the volunteers ... only the flamingos were missing.

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When arriving at the lagoon we placed ourselves in two parallel rows forming a human chain grasped of the hands. These two human rows form a funnel to which they are attracted the juvenile flamingos. The detail is important that juvenile flamingos are not able to fly yet.

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While the professionals are driving the flamingos from behind without letting them escape in the back, our human funnel takes them to the shore. Here there are protective fences in the form of an inverted funnel that drive to the corrals, continuing with the same technique of whipping them. 

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Once the flamingos are in the corrals, you wait for your turn until one of the professionals gives you a flamenco: while you load it with its fragile little legs, you put it in spite, you take it to get blood and return it to the shore to return it to its natural habitat.

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flamencos in El Cuyo, Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, Yucatán
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Quite stunned and stressed they return to the lagoon; more than one must go through the recovery clinic due to some mishap occurred during the transfer.

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In the middle of that incredible place, with the flocks of adult flamingos watching over their offspring from the lagoon, you live a magical experience. When they give you your first flamenco, the indescribable feeling of emotion that runs through you is unique. And when you release it back to its habitat it is the most, that is the momentazo.

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Anillamiento flamencos at El Cuyo, Reserva Biosfera Ría Lagartos, Yucatán

The day ends at 9 in the morning with some cochinita pibil tacos and coffee shared with the adventure companions. If you sign up for the next one you will not regret it.

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With these local activities you nourish yourself in many ways. For nature lovers it will surely be something very special. Get to know the town of El Cuyo It was a pleasant surprise, a good place to live these lands in a much more local way and in the middle of an enviable nature, a real paradise 🙂

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El Cuyo ringing of flamingos, nature

LOCATION: El Cuyo belongs to the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, located east of it. The Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve It is located in the north of the Yucatan Peninsula, at 54 km from Tizimin. You can visit from different coastal towns: Rio Lagartos, San Felipe, Las Coloradas and El Cuyo.
HOW TO GET IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION? The Cuyo arrives collective transport from the city of Tizimin. Public transportation arrives from Tizimin from Mérida, Cancún, Valladolid.
ACCOMMODATION: In El Cuyo you find accommodation, some more basic than others. During the activity you can camp in the field of the El Cuyo field station or on the beach.
WHAT REQUIREMENTS DO YOU NEED? For this activity you must register beforehand in the Niños y Crías organization CA, which is in charge of promoting this activity. It is usually at the beginning of September, do it in advance, as well as booking accommodation, as it fills up.

Good way,

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Sandra Salvadó Training photographer, traveler by vocation and certified tourism guide by the Government of Mexico. We promote natural wonders and contemporary Mayan culture. Great fan of pre-Hispanic history. Author of the blog and co-founder of The Shortest Path Travel, agency that guides you through alternative paths in Mayan lands. Social and sustainable tourism in the Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas.
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