Isla Mujeres is not known for shipwrecks, yet there are many waiting to be explored ! From the two large ships just north of the ferrys that hardly anyone knows about, to the many along the mangroves of Isla Tiburon. Isla Tiburon is that long thin island that you pass on the way to the Isla Mujeres harbor and ferrys. Isla Tibuon has an awesome life filled reef on the side facing Cancun. On the inner side, facing the larger Isla Mujeres island, is a shallow mangrove also thriving with life and littered with ship and boat wrecks of all sizes.

Getting to Isla Tiburon to explore this area is not easy. That’s probably a good thing and the reason why this area is thriving and in nature’s healing hands. I’ve gotten there by swimming across the channel at the southern end. I’ve also rented a kayak and paddled across the harbor. There are also snorkeling tours that drop you off at one of the northern boatwrecks and briefly on the reef side. I don’t like short, limited time to explore so the snorkeling tours don’t work for me. But swimming across the channel and kayaking across the harbor come with their own dangers and I don’t recommend it.

There was so much to see along the mangroves, I went back a time, just to explore this area which took all day. I also spent a entire day exploring the reef side. Immediately, you see from large ships to smaller boats sticking out off the mangroves, overcome by nature. Some wrecks are recent and some have been sitting for many years, rusted and beat down by the ocean. The inner mangrove side of Isla TIburon is very shallow and carpeted with sea grass. Most of this area is only a few feet deep and very hard to move around it.

Here are the first couple of ships and boats stuck in the mangroves. Some I could explore a bit inside and some were too rusted and jagged to access. In the third video of the sequence, I was able to enter the sunken hull of a larger ship which was filled with hundreds of fish and Upside Down Jellyfish. The view was amazing and being there, I got stuck in my mind watching. I stayed in the corner for a while, just watching the surreal scene which was peacefully beautiful. I then began to explore around. More coming in Part 2.