Banco Chinchorro is a coral barrier reef, part of the reserve reefs of Mexico

Banco Chinchorro

It is located in the Mexican Caribbean off the coast of the municipality Othon P.White state of Quintana Roo has four sandy areas emerged Cayo Norte, consisting of two small bodies with an area of ​​0.9 square kilometers, Cayo Centro, the largest extension to 5.6 square kilometers with 0.2 Cayo Lobos, the latter located in the southern end.


30 miles is separated from the mainland. Access is only by sea from Majahual and Xcalak.

Banco Chinchorro is a coral barrier reef, part of the reserve reefs of Mexico, the second largest reef chain in the world, the biosphere reserve of Banco Chinchorro is in the state of Quintana Roo, the municipality of Othon P. White is part of the natural attractions of the Caribbean, particularly those found in the Yucatan Peninsula, and the great Mesoamerican reef system, reef or reserve in Belize, is the reservation of Xcalak, just off Rio's beaches and Majahual Huach, the Banco Chinchorro atoll is Mexico's largest and second largest in the world.


With its tropical climate, which allows for multiple ecosystems, the Mexican government has provided large areas of forests and reefs are declared as ecological reserves. One of them, little visited by tourists, who prefer to spend their vacations in places like Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen and Punta Allen, is the Biosphere Reserve Banco Chinchorro.

This ecosystem is considered an isolated coral atoll, and its name derives from the resemblance to a semicircular Caribbean network used for finfish fisheries in coastal waters. It has an area of ​​nearly 800 km2, consisting of a sandy outcrop of 46 km long and 15 wide. In its eastern perimeter has a long barrier reef with sections of white water trails where they break, and the west they are discontinuous and fail to emerge to the surface. The waters of the reef lagoon, connected to the open sea, have an average depth of 5 m, but the most interesting place is the presence of land that is scarce but allows visitors to stay in one of four islands distributed in the center and the north and south.