As part of our road trip in the Yucatan Peninsula, adding 5 sites to my count, we have visited the biosphere reserve of Sian Ka An. I was not too sure of the way I should do the visit, sailing among the tour operators and the variety of local guides. Thanks god, the reviews on this website allowed me to clarify the visit.

We started by going to the Maya site of Muyil and followed the path indicated by Els. Everything was exactly as described. After a stormy night, the area was quite wet. Walking in the forest among the marshland allowed us to see few birds. Climbing on the mirador turned to be a bit risky due to the wet, but was a good thing to do considering the nice view we had on the nearby laguna. Moreover, it puts people above the trees which is a good thing for birds observation. We finished the walk arriving to the laguna where few guides were proposing tours by boat (700 pesos for 1,5 hour). Due to the prices and also to the foggy weather, we have decided to stop there and to come back through the same path until the entry. In spite of being a nice walk in the forest, I was not fully satisfied of my morning visit. We thus went, for the afternoon, to the second entrance to the reserve.

This entrance is through a road starting North of Tulum, leading to Punta Allen and Boca Paila. Punta Allen lies within the reserve and the 2-hour sand road leading to this fishing village crosses the WHS property. The road was quite bad, especially due to the big rain of the past days. We were doubting of our ability to reach Punta Allen considering our small car and what the locals told us regarding the road. After turning in Tulum towards Punta Allen and Boca Paila, the road crosses a long hotel area followed by a nice view on the sea, before arriving to the entrance of the reserve. This entrance is materialised by a Maya-style modern arch, on which is the official world heritage board. After paying the entrance fee, the sand road took us through the forest. We saw many different birds while driving. The road was becoming more and more tricky with many holes full of water.

After one hour driving, we reached an old bridge where a Mexican family was calmly fishing. This bridge crosses one of the Sian Ka An rivers that goes from the Laguna to the sea. We thus stopped there for few pictures. While walking on the bridge, with the laguna on one side and the sea on the other side, we saw few common birds as well as some fishes. But the peak of the day was when I was staring few seconds at what I was thinking to be rocks and that turned to be a crocodile. This was a tremendous moment. The animal stayed almost one minute floating on the water before being disturbed by a tour boat coming to see it. It vanished in the herbs and appeared again 15 minutes later.

The weather started to get worse and we decided not to continue. However, with the crocodile, we were fully satisfied of our visit.

To me, both ways through Boca Paila/Punta Allen and through Muyil offered a complementary view on this WHS.