Diving Isla Mujeres’ Underwater Art Museum

Some things about Isla are definitely a little weird. For example we took to calling it ‘gringo go-cart island.’ But it is an unquestionably beautiful place. Seriously magical with Listerine-hued water, soft fluffy white sand, out of this world coconut french toast*** and even the occasional Mermaid mansion!


***I would go so far as to say that if you go to Isla Mujeres without trying the french toast from Mango Cafe you are doing yourself a grave disservice. It was not anything like traditional french toast and it was as good as everyone says it is – and then some!

We rented an apartment through Airbnb** and it reaffirmed what we love about renting apartments in new places. The little neighborhood of Colonoia La Gloria was just a short motorbike ride away from the main tourist drag, but felt like worlds apart. It was amazing to see how quickly it changed from feeling like we were in an adult Disneyland to feeling like we were back in Mexico. We whizzed by people calling out to one another in Spanish while sitting on the backs of idling motorbikes and ordering drinks to-go from the impromptu Michelada stands set up on the side of the street and dodged around children playing in front of the watchful eyes of parents or neighbors fanning themselves on their front stoops.


** Sign up for Airbnb using this link and we both get $20 in Airbnb bucks!

All in all we loved our week in Isla Mujeres and spent most of it just driving around the island on the motorbike we rented, swimming in the crystal clear waters, and walking along the beautiful coastline wildlife-spotting.

Diving Isla Mujeres

Though we do love the lazy island life, the absolute highlight of our trip there was the day we spent scuba diving MUSA, El Museo subaquàtico de Arte. This underwater art museum was a collaboration between the head of Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources office and a British sculptor.

It combines environmental goals of decreasing the impact that climate change and tourism has brought to the reefs surrounding the Island with some incredible sculptures. Many of the sculptures are purposely pitted with holes, or other nooks and crannies to encourage wildlife and coral to make their homes there.

Fish Among the Sculptures Diving Isla Mujeres

The initiative seems to have worked and besides the sculptures there are tons of fish, eels, rays, turtles, lobster, coral and other wildlife I am sure I left out.

Blues and Yellows Diving Isla Mujeres

Some of the sculptures also have secret surprises, like the little house that will spew bubbles from it’s chimney if you feed it oxygen with your regulator.

Do You Want To Do it Too?

Nearly all the dive shops offer the same trip for the same price; a two dive trip to MUSA and one of the nearby reefs. We visited MUSA and Manchones reef for about $85 per diver, including all entrance fees and equipment. The shop we went with was fine, and we found them by e-mailing a few to see who had availability on the day we were looking to go.

Diving Isla Mujeres MUSA

Though MUSA is also offered as a snorkeling tour, I don’t think that it would have been as good of an experience. One person on our boat did snorkel the museum and said that she didn’t see anything except for some blurry gray statues in the distance. Nothing can compare to getting up close to the abundant wildlife and art of this magnificent exhibit.

If you are not a certified diver, many shops also offer “assisted dives” to the site. There was someone on our boat doing an assisted first dive to the museum and I could only imagine what an experience that would be for your first time underwater! I had to hold back from warning him that it was going to be all downhill from there!

Diving Isla Mujeres Till the Money Runs Out

Assisted dives are sometimes called resort dives or tagalong dives, and since the max depth of these dives are about 30 feet and the visibility is so good this would really be an easy way to try it out if you have ever been tempted. Even if you are a certified diver, it is never a bad a idea to hold hands and look both ways while crossing the sea! #DadJoke

Jenny

I think of California as officially "home" but can usually be found a lot closer to the equatorial belt. After finishing a Masters program in 2011 I found myself trying to decide between a couple of different high-powered career options. I decided I wasn't quite ready to "grow up" and went with an entirely different plan which involved selling off everything I owned with my partner Tom and buying a one-way ticket to Colombia. Our plan was to travel "Till The Money Ran Out" and then go home to start our grown-up lives. Instead, we started our own app development company on the road and have been criss-crossing the globe, traveling, working, eating spicy food and refusing to "grow up" ever since. You can find me on Twitter, , Facebook or send me a message using our About Us page.

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10 Responses

  1. Wayne Seto says:

    I wish I knew how to dive to experience this! Looks incredible. Also, love the name of your blog. I took a year sabbatical from my work to live abroad and your blog’s name basically describes the spirit of my travel year so far 🙂 Cheers and great post!

    • Jenny says:

      Thanks! Truthfully ever since we started a business online the name does not totally fit, but it is still the spirit of how we started our travels 🙂

  2. Wow, this is stunning!!! Haha my diving experience is limited to a pool in Cancun (practice run, we’ll call it!), but would LOVE to experience an underwater museum like this!!

  3. Dang this looks awesome! I just got back from Cancun yesterday and we never ended up making it over to Isla Mujeres, but I would love to check it out next time I’m there!

  4. Stefan says:

    An underwater art museum? Who knew! As divers this is just awesome and unique to experience. We’re planning a Latin America trip next year so couldn’t have found this at a better moment in time.

  5. Stefan says:

    I’ve been a decade ago backpacking alone so this will be more of a trip for Seb and to fill in gaps of places I couldn’t visit back then like Colombia. Not planned anywhere yet – but short answer everywhere (except Venezuala!!)

  6. Fernando says:

    The Isla looks gorgeous, and that underwater museum is amazing. I don’t think I’d ever heard of such a thing.
    It’s made me want to learn to dive even more.

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