Video Post: C-58 & The Cancun Underwater Museum

In August of 2011, Scuba Diver Life ventured off to Mexico to meet up with Dive Cooperative for our “Dream Extreme” trip and explore some of the best Diving that Mexico has to offer.

On the third day of our trip we had planned on doing two boat dives at the Cancun Underwater Museum. Some of the divers on our trip had expressed interest in diving the C-58 ship wreck off of Cancun as well. The group decided to dive both destinations, and it ended up working beautifully. We first explored C-58 and then ventured off to the Underwater Museum for some wonderful photo opportunities.

Check out the video below to see what these dives are like!

The C58, also known as General Anaya, is a shipwreck popular with scuba divers. The vessel is located off the coast of Quintana Roo. The ship is a former US navy vessel used as a minesweeper during World War II, and was originally named the USS Harlequin. The Mexican Navy deliberately sunk it in the 1980s to create an artificial reef.

Use two hands! The current is very strong near C-58!

The current at C-58 is can be quite strong, so all divers usually have to enter the water at the same time. We descended to the bottom of the ocean floor which was around 80ft. Thanks to Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the vessel is now split in two, all the ship’s rooms are accessible to divers, making this a very interesting dive.  This is also a very popular spot to see groups of Eagle Rays during the winter times.  What was even more thrilling was our ascent and decompression stop. The current was very very strong, making the decompression stop a very memorable experience!

After a quick gas fill up we were on our way to the Cancun Underwater Museum! The Museum sits at around 35ft,  allowing for a much longer and casual dive. The crystal clear waters allowed great light in for our underwater photo shoot as well. We followed our guide around for at least 15 minutes till we saw our first sunken statue of an Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle is a life-size, 8-ton cement replica of the classic Volkswagen Beetle and sits at around 26ft underwater.

Blue Print of the VW Beetle

Jason deCaires Taylor is the artist behind the museum and now has over 400 different statues at the site, which are also artificial reefs.

A photo of me with the Beetle!

After seeing the Beetle we then headed out in the direction of the other statues, which seemed like a good 10-15 minute swim away. Upon arrival we could see that half of the statues already had coral and algae growth, while the other half were so much newer that we could see the actual faces of the statues. We spent some time taking photos, video and checking out the installment.

In the photo below you can see the older and more covered statues behind the diver, and the less covered up ones closer to the bottom left of the diver.

Statues at the Cancun Underwater Museum

The Cancun Underwater Museum’s aim is to create an artificial habitat for the marine life to grow and be protected.
Overall, it's definitely worth the treck to check out the museum, especially for the photo opportunities.

See other posts from this trip:
1- Exploring Cozumel
2- Discovering Cave Diving in Cenote, Mexico

Here are some photos from this Trip. You can see the full album here on Facebook.