Cabo Pulmo
Parque Nacional (CONANP) / Patrimonio Mundial · Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur
Cabo Pulmo is the most important marine recovery story on earth, in a village with no bank and no paved road in. It holds the only hard coral reef in the Gulf of California, around twenty thousand years old, and by the early 1990s the local families had fished it flat - there was nothing left to catch. So in 1995 they asked for it to be made a national park and stopped fishing it themselves. Within fourteen years total fish biomass had risen by more than four hundred per cent, the largest recovery ever measured in a marine reserve anywhere. Today there are tornadoes of jacks, bull sharks, grouper the size of people and mobula rays in their thousands, and the same families run the dive shops. The village is a few dirt streets on the East Cape, 250 kilometres from La Paz and about 100 from the Los Cabos airport. There are no ATMs, services are basic, and fuel and cash must be brought in. Come for snorkelling at Los Arbolitos and Los Frailes, diving at El Cantil, and a quiet beach.
Cabo Pulmo, Los Cabos, Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, 23570, Mexico
The village and beaches are open access. ⚠ A CONANP NATIONAL PARK FEE IS CHARGED PER PERSON PER DAY for diving and snorkelling, separate from the operator's price. Dive shops run morning two-tank trips and afternoon single dives, weather permitting; ⚠ WINTER NORTH WINDS CANCEL BOAT DAYS. ⚠ NO GLOVES, NO TOUCHING, NO STANDING ON CORAL, MOORING BUOYS ONLY - the rules are enforced by the community as well as by CONANP. ⚠ THERE IS NO BANK, NO ATM AND UNRELIABLE CARD ACCEPTANCE - bring all cash from San José del Cabo, 2.5 hours away. ⚠ POWER IS SOLAR WITH LIMITED HOURS AND PHONE SIGNAL IS PATCHY. ⚠ THE LAST STRETCH OF ROAD IS UNPAVED AND WORSE AFTER RAIN; most rental insurance excludes it. ⚠ NO MEDICAL FACILITIES WITHIN HOURS. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.