Los Rapidos - Why this is the Most Recommended Spot in Bacalar, Mexico

When asking around what the best thing to do in Bacalar was, one thing came up over and over again. Los Rapidos! Or, The Rapids, in English. This may be a slightly misleading name, these are not exactly white water rapids but more of a lazy river.

I could see why this place is so popular. It’s absolutely stunning! Surrounded by lush green palm trees, the turquoise water sparkles in the sunshine and feels like some sort of tropical garden of Eden.

Floating on your back is perfection, bathed in shimmering greenery. Allowing yourself to be pulled along, face down with a snorkel marveling at the swirling cauliflower-like formations on either side of you is magical, it reminds me a little of the dream landscape of the BFG.

But my favourite activity of the day came in the form of schadenfreude (pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune). Interrupting the serenity, a strange tour group came floating down the river.

A herd of bright pink inflatable armchairs, each sporting an equally pink, inflatable American tourist. They all shared a look of daft confusion, as not a single one seemed the understand how a paddle works! Every person had one paddle, which they only seemed capable of paddling on a single side. This only resulted in us watching them in giggling delight as they spun around and around in endless circles, rather befuddled at why they weren’t getting anywhere until their frustrated guide wadded over to rescue them and give them a push.

Joe said that the scene was reminiscent of the future predicted in the film Wall.e. It was so ridiculous and just the memory of it kept us amused for the rest of the day.

On a more series note, those beautiful formations along the banks I mentioned aren’t just any old rocks. They are stromatolites, which are also known as living fossils.

They are the oldest known fossils and represent the beginning of life on earth as some of the earliest life forms on the planet. These are microbial reefs created by cyanobacteria, responsible for the first photosynthesis and for creating the oxygenated atmosphere that allowed life on Earth to flourish. In some places, if you look closely you can see them slightly “fizzing” under the water, releasing oxygen.

They are only found living in a select few places in the world, particularly the Bahamas, Mexico, and Australia. So, as you can imagine, they’re pretty damn important.

I have seen stromatolites once before at Hamelin Pool in Western Australia and there they were extremely protected because much like modern-day coral, they are sensitive and can be damaged when touched. In Australia you could not have touched them if you wanted to, visitation is limited to a boardwalk. It reminds me of a phrase commonly said to children “Look with your eyes and not with your hands”.

So, you might be surprised that seeing these was not the reason people recommended this place to me. In fact, I didn’t even know that they were there until we arrived and watched a short educational video whilst waiting for a ticket. If we’d missed the video (easily done), I would have had no idea that this was an incredible site of living fossils that date back 3.5 billion years!

Something that baffled me about Los Rapidos, is that even though the video states not to step on the stromatolites because it damages them, in order to access the lazy river, they have installed steps that lead down directly onto them. You actually have to step across them to get into the water.

You could argue that this is one very small section of the formations and that they continue all the way down the river but I saw people walking on them, all the way along where it wasn’t necessary and this wasn’t policed in any way, and I’m sure the vast majority of people had no idea what they were standing on.

Because of this, I morally struggled with being here and being part of the environmental damage of tourism. I hope that a better balance can be achieved in the future of allowing people to experience this beautiful, special place, whilst still protecting the nature they are here to enjoy.

Thank you for reading! Hearts and tips are always welcome and your support is very much appreciated.

This story was originally published on Medium

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