Location: Xtampú, Yucatán MX

07/16/22

Meet Don Guadalupe he is 45 years old and has been working at the salt lakes located in Xtampú, Dzemul Yucatán for 30 years. I was in Mexico for the month of July and stopped by the salt lakes on my way back from Telchac. There, I met Don Guadalupe and he was very happy to show us around the lakes and explain how the salt is extracted to us.

According to Don Guadalupe, there used to be hundreds of lakes but now they’ve been reduced to just a few. This is due to rising sea water levels engulfing the lakes and hotel construction nearby. 

Don Guadalupe is also Mayan and he told us that this manner of extracting salt was used by the Maya hundreds of years ago and the salt extracted was used for trading. 

I asked Don Guadalupe if he thinks that the lakes will still exist in the upcoming years and unfortunately he doesn’t think so due to the rising sea water levels. 

I also asked Don Guadalupe if the lakes are owned by anyone. He responded that no. It’s owned by the community. You come and extract what you can from the lake and make money that way.