Present Day
The causeway linking the cay to the mainland is 27 km long. The construction caused concern among environmentalists as it disturbed the tidal flow and thus life-cycle of waterlife. Despite fears, the wild flamingos still live in the shallow waters and can often be seen from the causeway although not as often as before the construction. A number of gaps were subsequently created in the causeway to restore water flow.
Still largely wild with swamps and scrubland populated by wild cattle, the islands boast about a dozen large international hotels spread out. Beaches are very good and the massive coral reef off the north coast attracts divers from around the world. Resorts in the area include NH Krystal Laguna Villas & Resort (formerly El Senador), Melia Cayo Coco, Gaviota Playa Coco, Blau Colonial Cayo Coco, Tryp Cayo Coco, Sol Cayo Coco and the new Blue Bay Cayo Coco.
Cayo Coco is linked by a short causeway to Cayo Guillermo to the west and by another short causeway to Cayo Romano to the east.
The island has its own international airport, the Jardines del Rey Airport (Aeropuerto Jardines del Rey) (IATA: CCC, ICAO: MUCC). Since 2005 tourists can fly directly in to the airport on Cayo Coco rather than to an airport on the mainland. An earlier airport, the Cayo Coco Airport has been reclaimed as a small natural park called Parque Natural El Baga.
Read more about this topic: Cayo Coco
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or day:
“The present age ... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence ... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.”
—Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872)
“A nation grown free in a single day is a child born with the limbs and the vigour of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze that he might chuckle over the splendour.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)