Estero El Chupadero

Estero El Chupadero is a brackish lagoon ringed by mangroves on the coast of Tecomán municipality, in southeastern Colima. Four mangrove species grow around it: red, white, buttonwood and the one locals call caballero. Because the forest is so little disturbed, the estuary has been put forward as a protected natural area, and it lies within the Cuyutlán-Chupadero priority marine region. Older residents say the name comes from the custom of bringing cattle here to drink.

The mangroves shelter herons, pelicans, diving ducks, ospreys, wood storks and the bare-throated tiger heron, along with American crocodiles, green and black iguanas, armadillos, raccoons, coatis and white-tailed deer. Mojarra, tarpon and carp fill the water, and a boat ride is the usual way to see it.

The beach in front, together with Boca de Apiza and El Tecuanillo, makes up the Ramsar site Santuario Playa Boca de Apiza-El Chupadero-El Tecuanillo, listed on 2 February 2008. These are Colima's main sea turtle nesting beaches, used by olive ridley, leatherback and black turtles. As late as the 1970s egg collectors staked out stretches of sand with poles, and some 300 turtles were said to come ashore in a single night. The El Chupadero turtle camp opened in 1987 and is now a sea turtle conservation centre; in its first fifteen years it released 710,817 hatchlings, almost all olive ridleys, and it has hosted school groups and families at releases.