The reason for being behind the Cancun Underwater Museum? To refocus tourist attention from the area’s fragile undersea habitats and boost tourism too. So far, the effort seems to have succeeded on both levels. Some three-quarters-of-a-million visitors see the sub-sea sculptures each year. Some of them are stunning – and the collection just keeps getting bigger.
The underwater enclave tries to portray the cycle of life, the human condition, in it multiple manifestations. So far, there are more than 400 sculptures submerged in the waters off Isla Mujeres, and there are about to be more of them.
Artist Jason de Caires Taylor’s newest additions include Urban Reef, a collection of sub-surface architecture specially designed for reef systems residents. It’s going to be assembled underwater with the aim of creating a street-like complex.
Other new sculpture includes Phoenix, a kinetic affair meant to depict a female form, one whose wings are populated with living purple gorgonian fan coral. Works for the coral, and the visitors alike. Finally, The Listener – an edgy, outlandish piece of sculpture assembled exclusively from casts of human ears. Perhaps humankind listens better underwater than above it.
Certainly humans have been flying to Cancun in record numbers of late. The evidence is all those new tails out on the tarmac. Every month or so it seems somebody’s opening a new air route to Cancun. AirTran just launched nonstop Denver – Cancun, and Chicago Midway – Cancun flights. Despite security problems in some other parts of Mexico, the tourist business in Cancun seems to thrive. Last year Cancun International Airport handled some 13 million flyers – a record.
To keep the beach fresh and squeaky-clean for all those folks Cancun’s beaches just got a $71 million refurbishment. The Hotel Zone’s seashore was the focus, and some 1.3 billion gallons of sand the instrument. Enjoy.
(Image: cancun.travel)
