MUSA Underwater Museum

MUSA began as conservation by decoy: in 2009 the marine park, drowning in visitor pressure on its natural reefs, commissioned sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor to build an alternative attraction on barren sand - and the result became one of the world's largest underwater art installations, some five hundred pH-neutral concrete figures seeded across the shallows between Cancun and Isla Mujeres. The signature work, The Silent Evolution, stands in the Manchones gallery at eight metres: hundreds of life-cast villagers, fishermen and schoolchildren in a silent crowd, now colonized past recognition of their first faces - coral crusts for hats, sponges for coats, angelfish threading the assembly. Other galleries add the Volkswagen with a lobster den inside, Inertia's slumped figure, the buried heads of The Bankers, and the ring of figures holding hands. Snorkelers float over the shallower Nizuc galleries; divers walk among Manchones' crowd; glass-bottom boats serve the dry. The museum's point compounds annually: art surrendering to reef, on schedule, in public.

What you actually see

• The Silent Evolution - the sculpted crowd greening into reef.
• The colonization - coral, sponge and fish reworking every face.
• The gallery variety - cars, bankers and circled hands on sand.
• The reef traffic - angelfish and rays adopting the exhibits.

When to go

Calm mornings, December to August, for the clearest viewing; the shallow galleries chop up in wind. Divers get Manchones' depth and detail; snorkelers should confirm which gallery their tour visits.

Honest expectations

Visibility varies with weather - sculptures at eight metres reward divers most, and snorkel views run more impressionistic. Boat traffic is constant in high season. Touching is banned; the art is now habitat.

Nearby

Isla Mujeres' beaches and Punta Sur cliffs, and Cancun's hotel-zone playas, bracket the galleries.