Cancun Underwater Museum: Visiting MUSA in Cancun

History, Artists and Purpose

MUSA was commissioned in 2008 by CONANP, the national parks commission, and the Cancun Nautical Association. The founders credited alongside British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor are Roberto Diaz Abraham and Jaime Gonzalez Cano. Taylor moved to Mexico in 2009 to build the collection, and the first four sculptures went into the water in November 2009. The museum officially opened in November 2010. In its first year Forbes named MUSA one of the world's most unusual places to visit.

The purpose was practical. The museum was designed to draw visitors away from natural reefs so those reefs can recover. The park it sits in protects part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which stretches over 1,126 km along four countries and is the second-longest reef system in the world. The park itself holds over 1,120 plant and animal species, including 35 stony coral species and 108 fish species.

The sculptures are made from pH-neutral marine cement, stainless steel and basalt so coral can settle on them, and they cover over 420 square meters of previously barren seabed. Taylor's project page counts more than 2,000 juvenile corals on the artificial reef. The permit is unusually broad: an October 2009 environmental impact assessment lasting 50 years covers 1,412 artificial habitats across 10 sites of the national marine park, but the sources describe two galleries. The MUSA operator site also lists Punta Sam among its sculpture sites, alongside Punta Nizuc and Manchones.

The signature work is The Silent Evolution, added in 2011. It has more than 400 individual statues weighing 120 tonnes, modeled on about 90 real people from the fishing village of Puerto Morelos. Building it took 18 months and 120 hours of underwater work, using 120 tons of concrete, sand and gravel, 3,800 m of fiberglass and 400 kg of silicone. A forty-ton crane lowered the sculptures. The piece earned a 2012 Guinness World Record for the largest group of life-size statues underwater. Other named works include Man on Fire, The Gardener, The Dream Collector, and Anthropocene, a nine-tonne piece. Mexican artists appear too: Elier Amado Gil's Understanding and Blessings, and Diego Roberto Diaz Abraham's child sculpture at Nizuc, whose Musa del Oceano is among the works there. A 'Chitales' gallery for Gil's Blessings is planned, and the onshore Plaza Kukulcan visitor center displays 26 replicas and one original ceramic piece.

The Galleries, Depths and Sculpture Counts

The sources do not fully agree on the numbers, so here they are side by side. On the count, Wikipedia states about 500 sculptures in total, with 477 at Manchones and 23 at Nizuc. Taylor's own site says over 500 permanent life-size works, and the Spanish Wikipedia page for Isla Mujeres says 440 or more. A safe reading is around 500.

Depth quotes also differ. Wikipedia puts the MUSA galleries 3 to 6 m deep. Taylor's site describes Salon Manchones at 8 m deep, open to divers and snorkelers, and Salon Nizuc at 4 m deep, snorkeling only. One snorkel guide describes Punta Nizuc at 4 to 8 m deep and treats Manchones as diver territory, while a dive center on Isla Mujeres says the Manchones reef averages about 10 m and extends over 800 m. Visibility at Manchones is quoted at 20 to 30 m with water at 26 to 28 C. The table sets out what each source says.

Snorkeling Against Diving

The Nizuc gallery is the snorkeler's gallery. The MUSA operator's own Nizuc snorkel product runs at least 2 hours 30 minutes from Marina Aquaworld at Blvd Kukulcan km 15.3 in the Hotel Zone, requires a life vest, sets age limits of 4 to 65, excludes pregnant women, and asks guests to arrive 30 minutes early. Sculpture visibility varies with ocean currents, so a clear day is not guaranteed at any gallery.

Manchones is the deeper gallery and suits certified divers, though Taylor's site opens it to snorkelers as well. Only guides certified by the national park authorities may lead tours at Manchones, per a POCNA dive center page. Divers there see the biggest concentration, 477 sculptures per Wikipedia, including The Silent Evolution.

CONANP's park page lists access by authorized vessels, and hiring authorized service providers is one of its five visitor requirements. That matters, because the Asociados Nauticos de Quintana Roo told local press that between 250 and 300 unauthorized boats operate in Cancun's tourist zones, and that unregistered operators exploit a loophole by calling trips private. Book with an operator that holds permits and authorized docking locations.

What It Costs

CONANP, the authority, lists the marine park entrance fee at 125 pesos per person per day. Children under 12, seniors, retirees and people with disabilities are exempt, and students and teachers with valid credentials pay half. Snorkelers and divers at Manchones receive a bracelet as proof of paying the entry fee. On top of the park fee, operators add dock or marina fees, and the quotes conflict: one snorkel guide puts marine park fees at 5 to 15 USD on most Cancun reef trips, getmyboat puts dock and park fees at 10 to 20 USD per person on Cancun charters, Cancun Trip Insider says the cash dock fee is about 14 USD per person and not in the boat price, and Sailo says government dock fees run 14 to 25 USD per person, usually paid separately in cash. The MUSA operator page for the Nizuc snorkel shows the combined dock and marine park fee as both 22 USD and 15 USD on the same page, and states it is not included in the operator price.

The private boats on this site price the boat, not the park. The 46ft private yacht starts at $250 per group for the lowest-priced option, up to 15 guests, with a dock fee for Cancun Bay paid on top, and the listing leaves the amount blank while the booking platform API lists extra charges of $14. The 55ft luxury yacht charter runs from $357.44 per group for the lowest-priced option, up to 20 guests, with the dock fee paid in cash at the marina and the amount left blank in the listing. The private catamaran charter at $899 per group, with a title that says up to 13 guests and a description that says 9, carries a $15 USD per person fee at check-in required by the local supplier, and lists the dock and reef fee as excluded. None of these listings says the boat stops at MUSA, so treat any sculpture visit as something to confirm with the operator before you pay.

Boats Near Isla Mujeres

MUSA sits in the marine park off Cancun and the west coast of Isla Mujeres. What the listings actually state is narrower. One shared Isla Mujeres catamaran listed on an external site includes snorkeling at MUSA and the Manchones reef during the crossing. Among the boats on this site, the private yacht rental 2 to 6 hours at $314 per group for up to 8 guests states that the 4-hour option goes to Isla Mujeres for snorkeling and the 6-hour option can anchor at Playa Norte. The 52ft yacht rental at $1,339 per group for up to 12 says the route can include the El Meco reef and Playa Norte. The half-day catamaran for 35 at $2,450 per group includes a snorkel at El Meco reef. The private sailing tour from $549.34 per group on a 40 or 50-foot monohull includes snorkeling on trips of 4 to 8 hours.

A private yacht from the Cancun lagoon marinas takes 30 to 40 minutes to reach Isla Mujeres per Cancun Trip Insider, while Nauty360 quotes 20 to 30 minutes by speedboat and Mexico Divers says about 25 minutes. A Playa Yachting guest reported about 45 minutes from the Cancun marina to the Isla Mujeres anchorage. If the museums and the sculptures are the priority, ask before booking which reef or gallery the snorkel stop covers, because the listings name El Meco and the Manchones crossing, not always MUSA itself. For the island side of the day, the Isla Mujeres private yacht at $720 per group for up to 6, rising by $50 each for 7 to 15 guests, starts at Marina Bartolome near the ferry terminal or Punta Sam in Cancun, and includes snacks, soda, water and an open bar for adults 18 and over, with hotel pickup in Cancun. Dock fees for both Isla Mujeres and Cancun are excluded, and the booking platform API lists extra charges of $10.

The Five CONANP Requirements

CONANP lists five visitor requirements for the park: wear the mandatory vest, touch no species, feed no fish, hire authorized providers, and do not anchor in seagrass. Life vests are mandatory in the Cancun and Isla Mujeres marine park, and one snorkel guide adds that float vests are required for non-strong swimmers on reef trips.

On sunscreen, one snorkel guide states that only biodegradable sunscreen is allowed and that oxybenzone sunscreen is banned in the area. The same guide states that standing on or touching coral is prohibited and that swimming outside marked zones is a violation. Legitimate operators need proper permits and authorized docking locations, and per Sailo the captain handles navigation through the protected reef systems.

The park covers 8,673.06 hectares in three polygons: 2,795.48 ha along the Isla Mujeres west coast, 3,301.29 ha at Punta Cancun and 2,576.29 ha at Punta Nizuc, across the municipalities of Isla Mujeres and Benito Juarez. It permits snorkeling, diving, and motorized and non-motorized vessels. CONANP's office hours for the park are Monday to Friday 8:00 to 17:00.