Puerto Morelos is the main coastal port and harbor in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is located in the northern half of the state, at about 36 km south of Cancun. It has the infrastructure for the industrialization of marine products, with an Industrial Park currently in development. Touristic services and facilities, such as cottages and hotels, are being built both seaside and in the area named Ruta de los Cenotes, an attraction in itself for the unsuspected beauty of natural sinkholes hidden in the jungle.
Its coral reef (declared Puerto Morelos Reef National Park on February 2nd, 1998) is part of the second largest barrier reef in the world. Located only 500 meters from the beach, it is ideal for scuba diving, windsurfing, and snorkeling, among other marine activities.
South of the highway exit to Puerto Morelos is a 65 ha botanical garden (sanctuary of the Maya rainforest), housing a great variety of endemic flora and fauna (Spider Monkey, Coati). North of Puerto Morelos is a small zoo named Croco-cun, housing boas, ocelots and, its main attraction, crocodiles.
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Along the old truck railtrack (a transport system developed in the Yucatan Peninsula for the distribution of henequen -- a local fiber obtained from a plant similar to the agave -- and other goods) from Hacienda Santa María (today, the city of Leona Vicario) to Punta Corcho (today, Puerto Morelos), several camps and distribution centers were established: El Remula, La Tuxpeña, Santa Matilde, and Central Vallarta. This last one is inhabited to this day, and in the first years of the Twentieth Century used to be an encampment for the extraction of chewing-gum from the local zapote trees.
Presently, this route from Leona Vicario to Puerto Morelos via Central Vallarta is paved, and gives access to extraordinary natural sinkholes, which is why it has been named la Ruta de los Cenotes, Spanish for “the Sinkhole Route”. These cenotes are fed from underground rivers, and most of them can be visited for swimming, surrounded by an exuberant rainforest. This is a unique and unforgettable experience you cannot miss during your vacations at Puerto Morelos.