Isla Pájaros

Isla Pájaros is one of the five small sandy islands of Arrecife Alacranes, the coral reef that rises from the Gulf of Mexico some 130 to 140 kilometers north of the port of Progreso. The others are Isla Pérez, Isla Chica, Isla Muertos (or Desertora) and Isla Desterrada. Administratively the reef belongs to the municipality of Progreso. Alacranes is the largest coral structure in the Gulf of Mexico and the only reef complex in Yucatán state: a platform about 300 square kilometers across, shaped like a half-moon around an inner lagoon.

The whole reef is protected. It was declared a national park on 6 June 1994, joined UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2006 and became a Ramsar wetland site in 2008. It is run by Mexico's protected-areas commission, CONANP, which keeps a field station there, and the Navy keeps a small detachment on the reef. The islands are covered in dune and mangrove vegetation, and about 116 bird species have been recorded on them, from nesting seabirds such as the masked booby to migrants like the peregrine falcon and the piping plover. Sea turtles nest on the beaches between June and October.

Isla Pájaros itself is off limits to tourists. Of the five islets only Isla Pérez is open to visitors, with a cap of 111 people a day; access to the rest is restricted to researchers, certified guides and CONANP staff, and only for short periods. What a visitor can do is join a trip from Progreso run by an operator authorized by CONANP, camp or snorkel at Isla Pérez, and see the other islets from the water. The crossing takes three to five hours each way by fast boat, so trips are usually planned as two- or three-day outings.