Cancun Underwater Museum
Diving the Cancun Underwater Museum was one of the most life changing experiences that I have ever had.
Booking:
When you are booking your diving excursion, you will have a few opinions.
You can book a dive leaving from Cancun (me) or Isla Mujeres. There is an option for booking with certificate or without certificate. If you are not a certified diver, you will book the option without certificate.
After that, you choose if you would like to do one tank of air or two. I chose to do two tanks. This gives you a stop at the actual underwater museum, with the statues you see in the photos and a coral reef.
If you do not want to dive, or cannot dive, there are still ways for you to see this wonderful site. You can book a snorkeling excursion, a clear bottom boat tour or a combo of the two. These options are also a bit cheaper.
The website can be a little confusing, so take your time while booking.
Be aware that there may be certain dives that happen on certain days of the week. Plan accordingly.
We ended up staying a whole extra day in Cancun in order to go on the dive. I want you to lean from my mistakes!
On a monetary side of things, I booked my tour through the Cancun Underwater Museum website which is liked here. https://musamexico.org/
For the two tanks of air & two dive sites (museum and natural reef) leaving from Cancun with no certifications it was $135 USD per person. This does not include a $5.00 fee that is required when you check in. This fee also does not include the wet suit rental, which you will want to do.
Look out for a few separate emails that include all the information that you will need for your dive. You will receive a receipt that will look something like this.
Day Of:
On the day of the dive, leave yourself plenty of time to get where you need to go.
My dad and I decided that we should plan on getting there at 8am, instead of 9am. Thank goodness that we did, because it took us an entire hour of being lost, speaking broken Spanish to locals and a very helpful group of ladies to get us where we needed to go. We ended up being on time, but we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Block out a whole day for this, since it is a time consuming event.
Once you get checked in, pay your dock fees and rent your wet suit, the day really begins. You will go over the dive signals, gear and rules with your instructor before you board the boat.
Once your instructor is satisfied with everyones knowledge, you grab your tanks and board. Before you head off to the open ocean, they take you right off shore where the water is about 15 feet deep. This is where you practice falling backwards off the boat and into the water, regulating your breathing and using your equipment.
After everyone has completed their checks with the instructor, you board the boat and head out to the first dive location.
Our first stop was the Underwater Museum, which was absolutely incredible. The statues were unbelievable. You get to be so up close and personal with them, which I absolutely loved. I felt totally calm and at ease once I was down there.
The second stop was the coral reef, which was also amazing. It really made me want to do more to protect the ocean and everything in it.
With that being said, make sure to support companies like Sand Cloud and the Coral Gardeners, that are doing their part to help the ocean.
If you order from sand cloud, use code POSTCARDSTOCA500 for a discount!
Scuba Diving the Cancun Underwater Museum & second dive site:
Scuba diving was one of the most terrifying and rewarding experiences of my life. I have always been uncomfortable in the water, even if it is just in pools or lakes. I have never been the strongest swimmer and the ocean scares me. So basically all the cards were stacked against me when it came to scuba diving. The one thing stronger than my fear, was my determination. It was not easy to do, and I almost backed out once we were geared up and in the water. I felt like I could not regulate my breathing enough to stay underwater. I felt so overwhelmed, but the instructor worked with me one on one and gave me enough confidence to at least try out in the open water. Once I was down at the Underwater Museum, I loved it. With that being said, I did not take the GoPro down on the first dive, since I didn't know how I would react. However, here are some photos that got taken down there. This was my very first time diving and a huge accomplishment for me. After this I really reflected and took the time to be proud of myself and recognize this as a moment of huge personal growth.
