Los Rapidos Bacalar is actually about 20mins south of Bacalar’s main town. It’s naturally formed lazy river. The warm crystal clear waters flow through a canel of Stromtralites, which are the white coral like rocks you can see along the edges.

Stromalites are actually formed by microscopic photosynthetic organisms, primarily cyanobacteria. They are essentially "living fossils" and represent one of the earliest forms of life on Earth! So it was very important not to touch them or walk on them.

We had so much fun here! We were only anticipating staying for an hour or two but we ended up staying all day, from around 10:30am to 4pm!

To access the lazy river, you have to enter via the Los Rapidos ‘Lake’ Club where they provide tables, chairs, lifejackets, lockers and toilet facilities for the admission price of $200 Mexican pesos for an adult / $150 pesos for per child. You can buy food and drinks here too ( it’s prohibited to bring your own ). The facilities of the restaurant / lake club were what made it so confortable to stay there for a whole day. We are able to nab a shady table and chairs, where we relaxed between floating down the river.

The girls also loved swimming around, chasing the fish in the little lagoons that there were off to the side of the river area.

One thing to note: because of the stromatolites and the delicate ecosystem of Bacalar Lagoon it’s prohibited to wear sunscreen - same with cenotes. Our long sleeve swimwear was the main reason we could stay out so long. But we still got a little bit sunburnt on our faces.

Is it safe for kids? It’s mandatory to wear the lifejackets provided but you can bring your own for kids. Which would be our main tip as we found it was hard to find lifejackets small enough for our girls. Plus the lifejackets are a little mouldy. Initially we had to hunt around and wait for the XS sized ones. The current isn’t extremely fast, the girls were able to swim out of it at the end point but we were always there to help them.