THE MESOAMERICAN BARIER REEF

With 900 km in lenght, this coral reef is the biggest of the Atlantic Ocean and the second biggest in the world, just behind the great barrier reef of eastern Autralia. The name comes from its ubication which starts at the Holbox island in the Mexican golf, runs along all the coast of Quintana Roo, continues along Belize and Guatemala and ends among Rotan and other islands of the bay of Honduras

More than a simple coral reef it is an interconnected coral system. In the last ice age the level of the Carribean Sea was 120m below the present level. With the melting of the glaciers the sea level increased drastically. The corals, needing shallow waters, colonized this area 6.000 years ago. At that time, on the coast the mangroves begin to populate shallow straits of beaches and together with the water of the nearby lagoons created the magnificent biodiversity wich is the jewl of the Carribeans. Human presence in this region has endangered many species in the last decades, and some, including the famous carribean monk seal are extinted. Nevertheless this barrier reef remains home of many interesting animals. If you chose to visit the reef, be very carefull not to damage it. Also be sure to contact a licensed agent.

Banco Chinchorro

It is a huge corall reef 30km from the shores of Mahahual and Xcalak. It has an elliptic form; 45km long and 18km at its widest part. On this perimeter we find the highest parts of the reef. 4 of them take the form of sandy islands. There is another sandy area inside the lagoon.

 The coral reef had been formed through the centuries from fragments of dead scelethons of corals, sea shells and other material dispersed by these creatures. The athol was a trap for navigators and is therefore full of wrecks of ship sunken in the last 500 years (amongst them 18 spanish galleons from the XVI, XVII and XVIII century).

 The Chinchorro reef is one of the most famous diving spots in the world. From 1966, 144.000 hecteres of the athol are part of the Biosfere. In the 2006 only one company was authorized to organize trips to the Banco Chinchorro.