MUSA Sculpture Park

This is the main reason I decided to come to Isla Mujeres after reading about them years ago. Today...we were GOING DIVING!

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Short story is...we went to Grenada in 2018 and went diving at the sculpture park. It was absolutely amazing (even though I had wished that we could have slowed down some during that dive and not rush past everything) and after returning home, I immediately looked up other dive sites with sculptures and would discover there was actually one located in the Cancun area. Well lucky me, since our airline flys to Cancun, I knew that this had to be the place we went to on vacation so that we could dive where the sculptures are (now there are 3 places they have sculptures in the Cancun/Isla Mujeres area, but we would only be going to 1 of them SADLY!). Either way, I was super excited to go.

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Once we were ready, Jesus put everything on a 2 wheeled cart, including our bags, and strapped them down. We walked to the beach/dock area. 

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When we arrived at the dock, the boat was waiting for us and off we went. Along the way Jesus did a quick review of all the diving rules, hand signals...and of course "don't hold your breath". If there's one thing that is etched in my brain, it's that phrase from back in Sakari's scuba classes years ago. 

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We were then told that we would be going to a shallow 9' deep location to do our skills in and then we would head to MUSA for the sculpture dive. We geared up and everyone back rolled off the boat...except me. :/  I had explained my foot situation prior to going and Andres said I would be able to sit on the side and back roll however, they were having me jump off and then putting my dive gear on in the water. I really wanted to back roll!

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Sakari was the first to go in and I was busy getting my fins on and missed her...but caught the hubby on his turn.

When it was my turn, I jumped in and it was really hard to swim. I was sinking and Jesus told me to hold the rope on the side of the boat. He said "you still have weights in your belt". Oops, I didn't think about that. Weights with no inflated bcd =no bueno! I think Sakari is the only one that brought a camera for this event.  We did all of our skills and I guess we passed with flying colors. It wasn't very comfortable done there. We were kneeling on sea grass with large rocks in them and my knee kept hitting them. Hubby got the Elvis Presley look going on and I wanted to bust out in song "uh huh, I'm all shook up" 

After we did our skills, we climbed back on the boat and we were on our way to the first dive site. Yes, we were diving 2 sites today. One would be the MUSA underwater museum and the other would be the Manchones Reef. We were getting a two for one today! 

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It was a short boat ride out to our first dive spot and that was going to be MUSA. 

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Just a little information about MUSA (Museo Subacuatico de Arte) so that you know what you are looking at. 

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MUSA's underwater museum was designed in 2009 to counteract the effects of climate change on our oceans and reef systems. It is located just off the coast of Isla Mujeres and was formally opened to the public on November 26, 2010. It is one of the largest underwater art attractions in the world. The statues are made up of pH neutral concrete and placed on the ocean floor as an artificial reef. They have become a major diving and snorkeling attraction in Cancun and Isla Mujeres. There are over 500 sculptures from several artists and draws over 750,000 visitors per year. The area is around 4500 square feet. It has a fairly shallow depth of around 29 feet and is a perfect place for new divers. 

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They hooked the boat up to the floating buoy and it was time to get in. Sakari and the hubby did their water gymnastics off the side of the boat and again...I was told to jump in and they'd put my bcd on even after I ask if I could sit where we go off the boat and them put my bcd on and me back roll. Ugh. I really wanted to do acrobatics off the side of the boat too! (stomping foot like a child...only not my bad foot). 

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Once we were in, we were told to descend down the rope. I start to descend and after awhile, I look around and see that I'm the only one using the rope and the hubby and daughter are just going down like they are pros. Only I was having some problems. Eventually Jesus put some more weights in my belt and I was finally able to get down. Whew!

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So off we went...Sakari was armed with my camera, I had the GoPro 10 and the hubby had the GoPro 7.

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It wasn't long before we came to our first sculpture. This piece is called the Time Bomb and the Mine and was designed by Jason de Cairnes Taylor. It represents a statement of the earth's environment. 

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This area is called "Urban Reef" or "Las Casitas" if you are on the island. This section is made up of two houses designedl by Jason de Cairnes Taylor. One of the houses comes with a bubbling chimney. :)

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Taylor worked with local marine biologists and designed the rooms in the house with a variety of spaces, hideaways and textures that are tailored for different reef inhabitants. It was situated in an open area and would also serve as a shelter from reef predators like Barracudas and Lion Fish. For example, the chimney offers a tubular area for moray eels. The living room has a mesh entrance for juvenile fish to escape predators. Another room offers large, dark cavities for squirrelfish and puffers. There's also a flat, dark retreat area to attract crabs and lobsters. The roof of the houses are textured to encourage the settlement of coral polyps. 

Since Sakari was the only one armed with an actual camera this time around, I made sure to give a little "overview" of switching between the macro function and regular pictures. She said she had it under control this time and that she did. 

It ws about this time that I notice the hubby struggling with his GoPro. He was giving the vibe that something was wrong....already. This darn thing I swear. Every time we dive there's something going wrong with it. He showed me it eventually and it wouldn't even turn on. We tried everything and it was useless. I feel like once it gets UNDER water (not snorkeling) then it just stops working a lot. I've had nothing but issues with it from day one of purchasing it. I know it's the "bottom of the line" GoPro and I got it for super cheap on a Black Friday Sale one year....and now I know why. They are crap. I've had issues from keeping it charged, not working when I need it to, and then all the diving issues. I'm not even sure if I should keep it in my camera bag at this point. Maybe we will only use it for back up. Of course the other issue is that it has an internal battery (meaning you can't keep back up batteries and replace them when one dies.) So, once it's dead, you have to go somewhere to charge it. So if you are in the market for a GoPro and looking for something older and that won't break the bank...DO NOT go with the Hero 7 silver (or white).

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The hubby only managed to get a few video's at the beginning of the dive.

In order to see how this chimney operates and get the full effect, you'll have to watch my scuba diving video at the end.

There are also two circular sculptures in the area, called Seascape 1 & 2, created by Karen Salinas Martinez. You can swim through one of them. The other had fallen over. There was also supposed to be a square one that sat parallel to the ocean floor and appears as a bench but I did not see that one. 

Sakari was off busy doing her micro/macro photography that she loves so much when we dive and I was busy trying to learn the functions of the new GoPro. Since I really messed up the other day while swimming with the whale sharks, I was paying a bit more attention to switching back and forth between the setting and being aware of what I was doing this time around. It sucks that I took such a once in a lifetime experience I had been waiting so many years to do, to take this opportunity to "learn" my new camera.

It was about a 5 minute swim to the next section of sculptures. Sakari was getting in everything she could on the way.

And then before our very eyes...it was The Silent Evolution!!! What a beautiful site! I couldn't believe it...we had made it. We were finally going to get to see this after so many years. My heart was filled with joy. My mind was filled with amazement. 

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The Silent Evolution was created by Jason Taylor and he used REAL models to create images of people depicted in various situations for a very dramatic and stunning effect. The individual sculptures represent 450 life sized sculptures of people from various cultures around the world that blend nature and art in one elaborate fusion. A community of people standing in defense of their oceans. Some of the statues show smiles and looking up to the surface and some are hiding their faces.

Some of the statues include:

* A statue of singer names Juanita that the divers can interact with. When you put your regulator in her mouth, she bubbles as she "sings".

*A statue of a little girl, named Valeria, who clutched her small bag and smiled for 50 minutes while her mold was being made.

*A statue of a man with his hands over his head, named Paz.

* An 85 year old nun, that was a Spanish teacher, that he molded her clothed as a nun.

*A woman, named Lily, who was pregnant, gave birth to her daughter the same month that the nun above passed away. They were placed together in the water to show respect to the life cycle.

*There was a reporter that came to Cancun to report on the Swine Flu outbreak in 2009. However, it was a ghost town and nothing to see. So it was suggested that she change her story to cover to the sculpture park. She agreed, but only if they could make a sculpture of her. She was told the casting was done naked...which she did. 

*Victoria Secret models were used on the first round but since so many of them had "too much silicone", they were too top-heavy and couldn't keep still for the hour it took to do their mold. New models were found with a more natural look. 

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A lot of the people are replicated because they change so dramatically underwater. Each statue is anchored to the ocean floor and is supposed to withstand a category 4 hurricane. The sculptures were placed in the shape of an eye. It is said that the direction of the eye was important because it faces the pathway of hurricanes and reduces the hurricanes energy. They were also positioned downstream from the Manchones Reef so that after coral spawning, they were in the optimal position to intercept the larvae flow. The Manchones Reef also shelters the sculptures from tropical storms and hurricanes. The reef is now home to over 2000 juvenile corals.

As we approached...

The most beautiful schools of Porkfish were in this area and the reef. I'm honestly not sure if I've seen these before. 

It looked like this sculpture was holding a bouquet of flowers. 

This is Paz with his hands above his head. See below to see what he looked like before the growth. Obviously the "before" picture is not mine and I take no credit for it and was found online to compare. 

One of my absolute favorites was the pregnant lady. She was so recognizable and I had remembered seeing pictures of her before going.  (Again, see the before picture with no growth...not my picture). I think maybe it was because no matter how much coral growth, I could still easily pick her out. LOL

A picture of Lily the pregnant lady and the old man with the broom

Juanita the singer was easy to distinguish too with her mouth opened.

Now remember we said she could sing bubbles?

Hubby thought she could sing really good however, even when you are a singer you sometimes run out of air and he was willing to share his with her. LOL

This is the old man and I was really looking forward to seeing him. He is one of the sculptures that seem to be in a lot of pictures around the internet about MUSA. He has a broom in front of him. However, he was barely recognizable when we were there and it would take me awhile to figure out which one was him. (Again, see pictures to show what he looked like in person and the sculpture...not my pictures but what I found on the internet). 

Asian lady with the before picture below it (not my picture)

Picture of the young girl that held onto her bag for so long mentioned above. (Original below that...not my picture)

Would you look at the "dress" in the previous picture above to the left? Green coral has taken over  and gave her a beautiful green dress. How cool is that???

Ok, it was time to move on from this area and Sakari was busy taking close up shots. 

Look at this very large Queen Angelfish below. It's too bad Sakari was unable to catch her entire majesty in the picture. They are such beautiful creatures. They can get up to around 1 1/2 feet long.

A very large French Angelfish. Now something I had seen in videos and read online was there were hundreds of these fish in the sculptures as they had made a home around them. You will find schools of these in sculpture pictures, but we only seen the one today. At least it was a large one. They can get up to around 2 feet long. 

Next up was the "Beetle Reef" with 2 Volkswagen Beetles. The first one is called "Anthropocene" and has a mourning child laying on the windshield, which asks "what are we leaving to future generations". It is a replica  of an older VW Beetle. It has holes in the windows specifically designed to house lobsters and a hatchery while other spaces provide nurseries for juvenile fish. It was designed by Jason deCaires Taylor. 

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The second VW Beetle was designed by Rodrigo Quinones Reyes, which also serves the purpose of housing sea animals and was part of the Think Blue initiative, which seeks a healthier environment. It is the newer style VW Beetle.

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For some reason, our dive instructor only took us to one of the VW Bugs. Kinda upsetting since they are in the same area. 

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Here's a drawing of the purpose of the VW:

A real interesting article from AquaWorld shows how they lowered it into the ocean. 

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Located Here https://aquaworld.com.mx/en/blog/meet-rodrigo-quinones-reyes-and-his-work-at-musa/

"The Bankers" is a symbol of "how little we look to the future and how we are focused on short-term gain." Each sculpture is in prayer position to show that monetary items have replaced his god. Each banker has a cavity between his buttocks for marine life to inhabit. Six businessmen, in business suits, headless and 3 of the 5 figures have briefcases beside them and 2 of the cases have cell phones lying on top. This was created by Jason deCaires Taylor. 

I have seen many pictures of these bankers and it really does look like they have their heads "buried" in the sand with sand all around them. Of course,  everything changes with the ocean at any given time and today it would expose the base they are attached to unfortunately. 

Also in this area is supposed to be some sculptures by Rodrigo Quinones Reyes called Bio Mapa. They look like tiny little pagoda houses but when they were originally placed they looked like a world map from above.

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Just a little further you will find a sculpture of a turtle shape called Bacab by Salvador Quiroz Ennis. It is placed as a 3 dimensional piece. From the top it appears to be a turtle and from a different angle, it looks like a pile of bricks. 

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It is unclear if this piece is in the area, but photos online show it is located here. It is a boy (Diego), which signifies the innocence and childhood as well as fragility that evokes childhood, which is represented by the ceramic necklaces planted on the base of the piece and designed by Roberto Diaz. This piece was inspired by his grandson Diego and is standing holding a basketball.

We were not shown these. Again, a little upsetting that we missed several pieces. 

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As we were coming up from our dive, we noticed a spotted stingray.

In the video as we were getting ready to come up to the boat and head to our second dive, it appears that Sakari and I were talking to each other under water so she plays along and after the dive she said "I thought you were recording a video under there like we were having a conversation or doing an interview so I played along" LOL So we both came up with an idea on a "skit" in the video.

The boat was there waiting on us and we swam over to get on. Next up, we were heading to a reef called Manchones. 

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Now I do want to comment that we were only down on that dive around 1/2 hour. Kinda disappointing as well since most dives are usually 45 minutes each. Sakari said she felt really rushed during the dives. Although the hubby and I didn't necessarily feel "rushed" we did feel like more time could have been spent down there and especially since we weren't shown everything there was to see. We could have definitely had another 15 minutes or so to see the other sculptures. 

Once on board we basically moved over to another spot in the area and went to anchor to the buoy only they had some issues trying to snag the buoy. They tried several times and missed each time. Finally one of the guys decided he was just going to jump in and swim to it and grab it, anchor it, and be done with it. 

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Finally it was time to head back in to the beautiful ocean and check out the reef. Once again I told them I wanted to put my bcd on while I was on the boat and back roll. Why can't I do this at the edge? Andres said that I could. FINALLY they said ok and I was putting my gear on and ready to do my own water aerobics off the boat. Woo Hoo! Fun fun as Kendra always says. I finally got to do it! 

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We started to descend down the rope. Wait, I started to descend down the rope. The hubby and hija wasn't even holding on. They are such pro's at this. 

Sakari spotted a sea cucumber as we got down to the bottom.

What I immediately spotted was another sculpture and I was absolutely thrilled!

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This is known as the "Man on Fire" sculpture and was designed by Jason deCaires Taylor. It has 75 drilled holes and was filled with fire coral, which is fast growing and yellow, amber and brown in color. When touched, it leaves a painful stinging sensation. With time, the man would appear to be on fire underwater. There was fire coral placed on the Man on Fire by using fire coral that was damaged by humans or violent storms. 

This is what he looked like when the project started and they placed the fire coral on him. This is not my picture, but a picture from the internet. 

Then off we went to see the reef. It was absolutely stunning! So much coral and colors and tons of fish! Like I couldn't believe the amounts of schools of fish there were down there. I'm going to say it probably had more schools of fish than any other place we have ever dove at. Simply amazing!

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I do have to say I was struggling with swimming this time around. I kept sinking to the bottom. I know how to regulate my buoyancy by breathing but come on, this was getting a little ridiculous. The instructor finally noticed after I did a few push ups off the ocean floor and came over and removed some of my weights. Ahhh, all better now.

Look at all the fish!

Sakari was off doing her thing of course...

Then all of a sudden we came across another sculpture. 

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This is the "Dream Collector" and the archive of lost dreams. A man and his dog guard a collection of messages in bottles. The messages in the bottles are being preserved and are real messages from various communities of different ethic, religious and cultural backgrounds for future generations to discover. Looking tired and uninvolved in the environment the man in a collared shirt and pants leans against an L shaped cabinet and looks down where he is writing notes on a pad of paper and appears to be thinking due to the position of his left hand under his chin. On top of the shelves there are some books, a coffee cup and a sphere. Within the shelves there are rows of various shaped bottles standing upright and held by the bars on the shelves. There is a sleeping dog on the ground. This sculpture was done by Jason deCaires Taylor.

 Bluestriped Grunts

French Grunts

Smooth Trunkfish

Caribbean sharpnose puffer fish

Another Queen Angelfish hiding in the rocks---->

I kid you not, it was seriously like swimming in a fish tank. There were so many fish and it was so pretty.

Large schools of Gray Snappers

I think this is such a cool picture and very unique. It kinda reminds me of a dragon.

Sakari managed to capture the prettiest orange  Sea Squirts (tunicate) on our way back. This is what happens when you get close to everything...you see more.

These two are always being goofy together. Here they are swimming backwards like frogs. Legs out, arms in, push, repeat (you'll see in the video)

As we were going up, I look over at Sakari and she has a weird look on her face and she's snapping pictures of...well nothing. Hmmm, I'm left wondering what was going on. When we got back on the boat, she would tell me she was stung by something (name a time we haven't been diving or on vacation and she hasn't been stung, she is the queen of the "sting me" club.

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When we get home, I find these pictures and ask her what the heck they are supposed to be and she reminds me that she was stung diving and she was trying to capture a picture of what was around her. 

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I have absolutely no idea what this might be. Does anyone know? Some type of jelly fish tentacles that broke off? Some type of sting worm we don't know about yet? I'm baffled. 

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This kid needs a full body wetsuit when diving!

So the second dive I was happy to see that there were more statues. However, this dive was a little short too. Still around 30 minutes instead of the normal 45 minutes. I'm not sure why they were not doing longer dives. That aspect of it was a little disappointing as well. I also didn't feel that the instructor did much as far as showing us things. He just kinda led the way and had us follow. He did show us the bubbling house and the bubbling singer but other than that, he wasn't pointing at things that we might be missing, he didn't show us all of the sculptures and he just kinda floated along and watched us.

One other thing that I wanted to mention that even though there were just us 3 diving, they had 4 people from Squalo with us. The captain of the boat, Jesus our instructor, some lady that did nothing and another guy that got the equipment ready and helped us off the boat. The lady was constantly staring at me. I'm not sure why. Every time I would look over she had a fixed stare at me. I did catch her in one of my videos and pointed it to her and she waved...but the constant stare just made me feel uneasy at times. I'm not sure what her role was in this operation.

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At the end of the week, I ask Sakari was her favorite day was and she said swimming with the Whale Sharks. I ask why the sculpture dive wasn't and she said she didn't like going in and out of the boat the way we did 3x. I told her that's how it is when you do multiple dives and if you were certified, you'd do the same. She said she just didn't like that and why couldn't we just stay down there instead of up and down and taking everything off and then putting it back on. She didn't like that it wasn't a long dive and that she felt rushed. However, she loved the sculptures and it "blew her mind" and she had absolutely no idea there were going to be so many. She figured just a few like in Grenada. In the video you will see at the end of "The Silent Evolution" she gives me the "mind blown" signal and I knew she liked it. 

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On the way back they gave us some sliced cantaloupe. We were starving by now so anything was better than nothing and it sure was good!

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We walked back to the dive shop in the hot blazing sun and the walk back felt longer than going there. Oops. Once we arrived to the dive shop we had them fill out Sakari's dive book (for some reason they didn't have any for us that the dive shops usually hand out with your certificate) but I guess something was better than nothing. 

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Lastly, here's a video from Our day scuba diving. There are statues up until the end of the video. They were just everywhere and so beautiful. The reef was so amazing and so many fish. Please like, comment and subscribe. Hopefully you'll find it informative. It takes a full day to create these videos and put it all together...but I'm learning. 

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Recap of today of the MUSA sculpture park: Our scuba diving went well and we all did a good job. If you are coming to Isla Mujeres (or even Cancun) this is a do-not-miss thing to do. If you've never tried diving, this is an easy place to try it out and isn't very deep. If you don't want to try diving, plenty of tour operators offer snorkeling as well. However, since they are a little deeper, you might be better off going to Punta Nizuc by Cancun. They have a sculpture water park area that is less than 16' deep and easier to get closer to the sculptures. Punta Sam (just a little ways down from Nizuc in Cancun) also offers an even shallower place to snorkel more sculptures (but they do not have as many). Still worth checking out. 

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Recap of Manchones Reef: WOW is all I can say. This reef is thriving with plenty of coral and sea life. I just couldn't believe how many schools of fish there were. It was just like swimming in an aquarium. This is what I think of when I think of scuba diving. We didn't see any amazing or unique things like a puffer, eel or shark, but the amount of fish and the beautiful reef definitely made up for it. We were very pleased and would do it all again in a heartbeat!