Layout of Bacalar
The town stands on a low ridge above the western shore of the Laguna de Bacalar, with Highway 307 running past it a few hundred metres inland and the shore road, the Costera, below. The centre is small and walkable: the main square, the church and the Fuerte de San Felipe sit together on the bluff, and the public dock and swimming platform are directly beneath them. Most of the lodging is strung south along the Costera towards Cenote Azul, or scattered along the shore road with no through route the full length of the lagoon. The bus terminal is by the highway, and the Maya Train station lies west of town on the same side.
Bacalar was founded by the Spanish in 1544 as Salamanca de Bacalar on the site of a Maya settlement, and for two centuries it was the frontier post facing the logwood camps of what became Belize. The fort was built in 1729 after repeated raids. Maya forces took the town in 1858 during the Caste War and held it until 1901, which left it small and remote for most of the twentieth century. It was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2006 and became the ninth municipality of Quintana Roo in 2011, when it was separated from Othón P. Blanco; the municipal population at the 2020 census was 41,754, of whom about 12,000 live in the town.
Distances from Bacalar
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cenote Azul | 4 | 10 min | Costera or Hwy 307 |
| Chetumal (state capital) | 40 | 35 min | Hwy 307, ADO bus, Tren Maya |
| Chetumal airport (CTM) | 42 | 40 min | Hwy 307 |
| Belize border, Subteniente López | 55 | 50 min | Hwy 186 |
| Kohunlich ruins | 100 | 1 h 20 | Hwy 186 west |
| Mahahual | 110 | 1 h 30 | Hwy 307 and the Mahahual road |
| Tulum airport (TQO) | 170 | 2 h | Hwy 307 |
| Tulum | 190 | 2 h 15 | Hwy 307, ADO bus, Tren Maya |
| Playa del Carmen | 250 | 3 h | Hwy 307 |
| Cancún | 320 | 4 h | Hwy 307, ADO bus |
| Mérida | 410 | 5 h | Hwy 186 and 184 |
The lagoon, the cenotes and the surroundings
The Laguna de Bacalar runs about 42 km north to south and up to 2 km wide, fed by rainfall and by groundwater rising through the limestone. It is fresh water, not a sea inlet, and it drains south through a channel system into the Río Hondo and Chetumal Bay. The name Laguna de los Siete Colores describes what depth does to the light: over the pale gypsum and limestone floor the shallows read as near-white and turquoise, and where cenotes drop through the bed the water goes dark blue. Cenote Azul, at the southern edge of town, is about 90 m deep and the largest of them; Cenote Negro, Cenote Esmeralda and Cenote Cocalitos lie along the same shore. The Canal de los Piratas at the north end is the shallow cut that raiders used to reach the town from the bay.
The shallow margins hold colonies of stromatolites — layered mounds built by cyanobacteria, the same kind of structure that dominated shallow seas billions of years ago and one of the few living freshwater examples anywhere. They are fragile, and swimming and sunscreen are restricted where they grow. Water clarity depends on rainfall and on run-off from the growing town, and the lagoon has been the subject of conservation restrictions since the 2010s. Boats on the lagoon are limited in the same spirit; sailing and paddling are the usual way to see it.
Inland to the west, Highway 186 crosses the base of the peninsula towards Escárcega and passes the Río Bec-region Maya sites of Kohunlich and Dzibanché. East, the Costa Maya coast at Mahahual has the reef and a cruise pier. At about 18.7° N, Bacalar is nearly 2.5 degrees of latitude south of Cancún, and it is far enough inland that hurricanes reach it weakened, though the season is the same 1 June to 30 November. Bacalar sits at the southern end of the Quintana Roo highway corridor described on the road map, and is the last stop of note before the Chetumal border crossing into Belize.
Questions about Bacalar
Where is Bacalar on the map of Mexico?
In the south of Quintana Roo, on Highway 307 about 40 km north of the state capital Chetumal and 320 km south of Cancún. It sits on the west shore of a freshwater lagoon, roughly 15 km inland from the Caribbean.
Why is the lagoon called the Lake of Seven Colours?
The bed is white limestone and gypsum sand, and the water shifts from pale turquoise over the shallows to deep blue over the cenotes that pierce the floor, so the surface reads as bands of different colours.
What is the fort in Bacalar?
The Fuerte de San Felipe, a stone bastion fort with a moat, built in 1729 to defend the town against pirates and English logwood cutters coming up from Chetumal Bay. It now houses the town museum, above the lagoon shore.
Does sargassum affect Bacalar?
No. Sargassum lands on the open Caribbean beaches, and Bacalar is a freshwater lagoon separated from the sea; the nearest affected coast is around Mahahual, about 110 km east.