Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres - Wanna go?

Who knew that if I made MUST READ part of the title for a blog posting on a regular run of the meal day in February that I would get more readers than I have ever gotten?  I must say that it is making me feel pretty powerful!  It kinda makes me wonder what other phrases I could put in my titles to get readers....  Here's one....  I'M GIVING AWAY GOLD BARS!  Catchy?  I know some people for sure who would open that blog posting.  My parents to name just a few would open it.  You know, to see where the hell I got the gold bars and why they hadn't heard about it yet.  But other people would open it as well.  Of course, I'LL GIVE YOU A REFRIGERATOR apparently wouldn't get the attention of my nephews or niece.  At least not unless the subtitle is AND I'LL DELIVER IT TO YOUR HOUSE FREE OF CHARGE...  But you didn't open this blog today to read about that.  Nope you are here to learn about some travel topic that I chose at random this morning.  So I hope this satisfies your need for travel knowledge today.  If it doesn't and it will make you feel better, there's a free refrigerator sitting in my garage that you can have if you'll just come and get it.

So today let's talk about Isla Contoy and Isla Muejeres.  I've never been to either of these islands.  But I have a lot of clients who are slated to go to Cancun in the coming months and I am going to make it my personal mission to get some of them to visit one or both of these places while they are there. Isla Contoy is a small island a little over an hour away from Cancun by boat.  It's a national park.  People don't live on the island.  It is a wildlife reserve at the very northern point of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and home or a nesting place to more than 150 species of birds and more than 500 species of fish.  So if you are into bird watching or you like snorkeling this is your kind of place.

The island is only 4 miles long and 1/2 a mile wide. So it is a tiny little spot that birds literally flock to. Since it's a protected area you really have to plan ahead.  They limit visits to only 200 tourists a day to help preserve the area. But the website says that they actually only get about 100 people a day.  So, it's not going to be one of those over crowded touristy places. Tour boats leave from both Isla Mujeres and Cancun to visit Isla Contoy.  They do allow private boats to visit, but they require a pass that must be applied for in advance.  So the best way to visit is on one of those tour boats.  The tours run anywhere from $55 to $95 per person US for adults and it's pretty much an all day trip.  Some pick you up from various Cancun hotels or Isla Mujeres hotels in the morning while others require that you meet them at a designated place.  The boats can range from a small fishing boat with an outboard motor to a replica of a pirate ship.  On many of  the boat rides over to the island, they will stop on the reef for a short snorkel if the weather permits.  Then once you arrive on the island there are informative lectures that you can attend given by the resident biologists or you can just enjoy the beaches, the walking paths, the water, the snorkeling and the birds.  Here are a few things you might see during your visit.

Now I mentioned stopping on the reef for a snorkel earlier.  I suppose I should explain, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the second largest barrier reef in the world. It begins at about Isla Contoy which is the confluence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean and goes south for several hundred miles all the way down to Honduras. With a barrier reef you get a great variety of fish to see. In fact, very near Isla Mujeres (30 kilometers south of Isla Contoy) is a feeding ground for whale sharks. So, while there are no guarantees, Isla Mujeres is one of the few places in the world where you get a pretty good chance of swimming with the biggest fish in the world.  But we'll get back to that shortly.

Isla Contoy is also a nesting area for sea turtles.  So, if you love these little cuties like the one in the picture above, it's a pretty good place to go. Sting rays some with 5 foot wingspans regularly come up to the beach area to be hand fed by the tourists.  I've learned that rays are apparently moochers.  It would seem that they are worse than my cats when I open the bag of treats.  They know how to beg for food and they have no shame.

I love taking pictures of birds.  So, I think I might like the bird aspect of the island almost as much as the sea life that I could see.  While I've seen flamingos many times on the Texas gulf coast, I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing them.  They are just so darn pretty especially against the unbelievably blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. I know they smell bad.  But the trick is not to be downwind when you are taking photos of them. The photo below is a little hazy but what can I say, I didn't take it.... :-)

Getting back to the whale sharks, these fish amaze me!  How can a creature that big live off of plankton??? Seriously!!!!  They are apparently gulping massive amounts of plankton. So as I said earlier, Isla Mujeres is a feeding ground for whale sharks.  Whale shark season goes from June to September and they usually have about 400 of the endangered sharks there at any given time during those months. So the chances of seeing one or more are really great.  There are lots of different tours and companies that you can go with.  Many tours originate from Cancun and will only take 6 hours or so while others require that you stay in Isla Mujeres with your whale shark group.  (These are the more serious whale shark tours which are apparently designed for professional underwater photographers and videographers.) Prices on whale shark tours can range anywhere from $100 to $350 a day if you go with the pros.  If you go with the cheaper groups, they only allow 2 people in the water at a time with the sharks and the time that you are out is very limited to about 10 minutes per person. Once everybody has had a turn in the water, they are done.  The $350 a day group is a package and with them you do 5 days.  Which means your price for going out on the boat each day turns out to be $1,750.  In addition, you pay for your hotel with the group, meals, transfers, ferries, tips etc.  So this package is going to run you around $3k without airfare. But you go out in the mornings very early before the other tour boats coming from Cancun get there.  This allows more people to get in the water with nobody else around and more shifts of people to get in the water.  So you do rotations and get a lot more time with the fish.

Here's another consideration.....  If you don't have a wide angle lens for your underwater camera rig, then don't waste the time going.  Whale sharks are BIG!  The ocean is dark and no strobes are allowed.  After all, you don't want to frighten a 30 foot long, 20,000 pound fish so that he feels the need to escape and inadvertently swishes you with his tail.  So, I'm thinking the no strobe light rule is a good one.  With all that in mind, you aren't going to get any pictures in which you can tell anything without a good wide angle lens.  The shark will have to be very close for a good shot with visibility underwater being what it is and once it gets close, without a wide angle lens, all you are going to see is a few dots on something dark in the water.  With a wide angle lens, you might see something like this.

And now you see why I want to go to Isla Mujeres.  So there you have it.  Two places that you really kind of need to visit during your next trip to Playa or Cancun.  Call me so that we can plan your trip!