Cancún

Cancún
Motto: The Glistening City

Location of Cancún within Quintana Roo
Cancún

Location in Mexico

Coordinates: 21°09′38″N 86°50′51″W / 21.16056°N 86.84750°W / 21.16056; -86.84750Coordinates: 21°09′38″N 86°50′51″W / 21.16056°N 86.84750°W / 21.16056; -86.84750
Country  Mexico
State Quintana Roo Quintana Roo
Municipality Benito Juárez
Founded April 20, 1970
Government
 • Mayor Remberto Estrada Barba (PRI)
Area
 • Total 1,978.75 km2 (764.00 sq mi)
Elevation 10 m (30 ft)
Highest elevation 10 m (30 ft)
Lowest elevation 0 m (0 ft)
Population (2010[1])
 • Total 628,306
 • Density 320/km2 (820/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Cancunense
Time zone EST (UTC−5)
Postal code 77500
Area code(s) 998
Website www.cancun.gob.mx

Cancún (/kænˈkuːn/ or /kɑːn-/;[2] Spanish pronunciation: [kaŋˈkun]) is a city in southeastern Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is an important tourist destination in Mexico,[3] and the seat of the municipality of Benito Juárez. The city is on the Caribbean Sea, and is one of Mexico's easternmost points. Cancún is just north of Mexico's Caribbean coast resort band known as the Riviera Maya. In older English-language documents, the city’s name is sometimes spelled "Cancoon," an attempt to convey the sound of the name.[4]

Place names and shield

A fountain allusive to Benito Juárez's coat of arms, Cobá and Náder Av.

Place names

There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation kaan kun. The first translation is "nest of snakes". The second version and less accepted is "place of the gold snake".[5]

Shield

The shield of the municipality of Benito Juárez, which represents the city of Cancún, was designed by the Californian Mexican American artist Joe Vera.[6] It is divided into three parts: the color blue symbolizes the Caribbean Sea, the yellow of the sand, and the red of the sun with its rays.

History

Historical population
YearPop.±%
1990 167,730—    
1995 297,183+77.2%
2000 397,191+33.7%
2005 526,701+32.6%
2010 628,306+19.3%
sources:[7]

As documented in the earliest colonial sources, the island of Cancún was originally known to its Maya inhabitants as Nizuc (Yucatec Maya [niʔ suʔuk]) meaning either "promontory" or "point of grass".[8] In the years after the Conquest, much of the Maya population died off or left as a result of disease, warfare, piracy, and famines, leaving only small settlements on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel Island.

The name Cancún, Cancum or Cankun first appears on 18th-century maps.[9] The meaning of Cancún is unknown, and it is also unknown whether the name is of Maya origin. If it is of Maya origin, possible translations include "Place/Seat/Throne of the Snake" or "Enchanted Snake". Snake iconography was prevalent at the pre-Columbian site of Nizuc.[10]

Cancun Island aerial view, from the top of the Escénica Tower adding 80 meters of height. May 2008
Cancun skyline
The virgin area of the Cancun Island was filled with luxury hotels
Crowded beach at Cancun Island
La Isla Shopping Village

When development of the area as a resort was started on January 23, 1970, Isla Cancún had only three residents, caretakers of the coconut plantation of Don José de Jesús Lima Gutiérrez, who lived on Isla Mujeres. Some 117 people lived in nearby Puerto Juarez, a fishing village and military base.[11]

Due to the reluctance of investors to gamble on an unknown area, the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels.[11] The first hotel financed was the Hyatt Cancún Caribe, but the first hotel built was the Playa Blanca, which later became a Blue Bay hotel. It is now named Temptation Resort. At the time it was an elite destination, famous for its virgin white sand beaches.

The city began as a tourism project in 1974 as an Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, National Fund for Tourism Development), formerly known as INFRATUR. Since then, it has undergone a comprehensive transformation from being a fisherman's island surrounded by virgin forest and undiscovered shores to being one of the two most well-known Mexican resorts, along with Acapulco. The World Tourism Organization (WTO), through its foundation UNWTO-Themis, awarded the Best of the Best award "for excellence and good governance" to the Trust for Tourism Promotion of Cancun on February 3, 2007. This award ensured Cancún the ongoing support of the Department of Education and Knowledge Management of the WTO.

Most 'Cancunenses' are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. A growing number are from the rest of the Americas and Europe. The municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as limiting squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city.[11]

In the 21st century, Cancún had largely avoided the bloodshed associated with the trade of illegal drugs, but is known for its retail drug sales to tourists as well as for being a center of money laundering.[12] The links with Cancún date from the 1990s and early 2000s, when the area was controlled by the Juárez and Gulf drug cartels. In recent years Los Zetas, a group that broke away from the Gulf Cartel, has taken control of many smuggling routes through the Yucatán, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.[13]

The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Cancún from November 29 to December 10 of that year.

City layout

Town Hall
Town Square

Apart from the island tourist zone (part of the world's second-longest coral reef), the Mexican residential section of the city, the downtown part of which is known as "El Centro," follows a master plan that consists of "supermanzanas"[14] (superblocks), giant trapezoids with a central, open, non-residential area cut in by u-shaped residential streets. These open centers usually have walkways and 'sidewalks' around a central garden park, or football fields, or a library, etc. which make the mainland "Mexican" Cancún bicycle-friendly. The residential roads of central or 'Mainland' Cancún, U-shaped and culs-de-sacs, insulate housing from the noise and congestion of the main flow of traffic. Mainland Cancún has a central market that resembles an outlet mall, colorful buildings on a pedestrian city block.

Ave. Tulum is the main north-south artery, connecting downtown to the airport, which is some 30 km (19 mi) south of downtown. Tulum is bisected by Ave. Cobá. East of Ave. Tulum, Cobá becomes Ave. Kukulcan which serves as the primary road through the 7-shaped hotel zone. Ave. Tulum ends on the north side at Ave. Paseo José López Portillo which connects to the main highway west to Chichén Itzá and Mérida. Another major north-south road is Ave. Bonampak which runs roughly parallel to Ave. Tulum. The main ferry to Isla Mujeres is located in Puerto Juarez, on Ave. Paseo José López Portillo.

To save on the cost of installing sewer systems and other public services, the design of much of the rest of the city reverted to the grid plan after Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. The newest upper-middle-class residential areas reflect the original plan, but are much less intimate. Less expensive developments are composed almost entirely of identical one- or two-story small row-houses, sometimes built around interior plazas or 4 story apartment blocks. Until recently, most mainland buildings were four stories or shorter; since 2005, there has been an influx of condominium and luxury retail and office space concentrated along Ave. Bonampak.

Cancún's Mainland or Downtown area has diverged from the original plan; development is scattered around the city. The remaining undeveloped beach and lagoon front areas outside the hotel zone are now under varying stages of development, in Punta Sam and Puerto Juarez to the north, continuing along Bonampak and south toward the airport along Boulevard Donaldo Colosio. One development abutting the hotel zone is Puerto Cancún,[15] also Malecon Cancún[16] is another large development.

Cancun Airport's old Control Tower Memorial

Despite being a young city, Cancun has a memorial monument of its foundation on a replica of the old Airport Control Tower that resembles to its own date of foundation. The original Control Tower was a provisional wooden structure to satisfy the operative needs of the recently created airport. Some documents of the city mention that on that time there were no other formal buildings constructed in the city, being possibly the first built structure of Cancun's recent history.

The old airport was located on the same part of the city that today corresponds to the Kabah Avenue. The tower is 15 meters tall, has a staircase of 45 steps, and has a base dimension of 5 x 5 meters. The memorial was first built in 2002, with the donations of Aerocaribe, a local airline, but the structure was damaged after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. After the claims of the local people asking to rebuild the tower memorial, a new version was built on 2010, which was later abandoned without proper maintenance until Woox Pinturas, another local wood maintenance company, made a donation to restore the structure to its original appearance.[17]

Maya archaeological sites

El Rey archaeological site

There are some small Mayan vestiges of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Cancún. El Rey (Las Ruinas del Rey) is located in the Hotel Zone. El Meco, a more substantial site, is found on the mainland just outside the city limits on the road north to Punta Sam.

Close by in the Riviera Maya and the Grand Costa Maya, there are sites such as Cobá and Muyil (Riviera) the small Polé (now Xcaret), and Kohunlich, Kinichná, Dzibanché, Oxtankah, Tulum, and Chacchoben, in the south of the state. Chichén Itzá is in the neighboring state of Yucatán.

Transportation

Cancún is served by the Cancún International Airport with an added main runway that commenced operation as of October 2009. It has many flights to North America, Central America, South America, Asia, and Europe. It is located on the northeast of the Yucatán Peninsula serving an average of about fifteen million passengers per year. The airport is located around 20 km (12 mi) from the hotel zone, approximately a 20 minute trip by car.[18] The island of Isla Mujeres is located off the coast and is accessible by ferry from Puerto Juárez.

Climate

Cancún has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen Aw), with few temperature differences between seasons, but pronounced rainy and dry seasons. The city is warm year-round, and moderated by onshore trade winds, with an annual mean temperature of 27.1 °C (80.8 °F). Unlike inland areas of the Yucatán Peninsula, sea breezes restrict high temperatures from reaching 35 °C (95 °F) on most afternoons. Annual rainfall is around 1,340 millimetres (52.8 in), falling on 115 days per year. More temperate conditions occur from November to February with occasional refreshing northerly breezes, it is drier and becomes hotter in March and April. It is hottest from May to September, due to proximity to the Caribbean and Gulf humidity is high the year round, especially during hurricane season (averages close to 70% on rainfree days). The hotel zone juts into the Caribbean Sea, it is surrounded by ocean therefore daytime temperatures are around 1-2C less and windspeeds are higher than at the airport located some distance inland, which is the official meteorological station for Cancún, averages as shown below.[19]

Average Sea Temperature[21]
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
79 °F

26 °C

 79 °F

26 °C

 79 °F

26 °C

 81 °F

27 °C

 82 °F

28 °C

 84 °F

29 °C

 84 °F

29 °C

 84 °F

29 °C

 84 °F

29 °C

 84 °F

29 °C

 82 °F

28 °C

 81 °F

27 °C

Thanks to the Yucatán current continually bringing warm water from further south, the sea temperature is always very warm, with lows of 79 °F (26 °C) in winter and highs of 84 °F (29 °C) in summer.[22]

The tropical storm season lasts from May to December, the rainy season extends into January with peak precipitation in October. February to early May tend to be drier with only occasional scattered showers. Cancún is located in one of the main Caribbean hurricane impact areas. Although large hurricanes are rare, they have struck near to Cancún in recent years, Hurricane Wilma in 2005 being the largest. Hurricane Gilbert made a devastating direct hit on Cancún in September 1988 and the tourist hotels needed to be rebuilt. In both cases, federal, state and municipal authorities were well prepared to deal with most of the effects on tourists and local residents.[23] Hurricane Dean in 2007 also made its mark on the city of Cancún.

Hurricane Gilbert

1988's Hurricane Gilbert was the second most intense hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic basin. It landed on the Yucatán peninsula after crossing over the island of Cozumel. In the Cancún region, a loss of $87 million (1989 USD) due to a decline in tourism was estimated for the months October, November and December in 1988.[24]

Hurricane Wilma

On October 21, 2005, Hurricane Wilma made landfall on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, with strong winds in excess of 150 mph (240 km/h). The hurricane's eye first passed over the island of Cozumel, and then made an official landfall near Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo at around midnight on October 22 EDT with winds near 140 mph (230 km/h). Portions of the island of Cozumel experienced the calm eye of Wilma for several hours with some blue skies and sunshine visible at times. The eye slowly drifted northward, with the center passing just to the west of Cancún, Quintana Roo.

Hurricane Dean

Two years later after Hurricane Wilma, in 2007, Hurricane Dean made landfall as a Category 5 storm in Majahual, 190 miles (310 km) to the south of Cancún. Fierce winds at the edge of Dean's impact cone stripped sand off 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of beaches from Punta Cancún (Camino Real Hotel) to Punta Nizuc (Club Med).[25] The authorities asked tourism operators to suspend sending tourists to Cancún while Hurricane Dean was approaching, but did ask airlines to send empty planes, which were then used to evacuate tourists already there.[26]

Education

Although Cancún is better known as a travel and tourism destination, in recent years some colleges and universities have been offering higher education to both Mexican and foreign students.

Private schools in Cancún include:

Sport

The city has been home to Atlante F.C., a traditional Mexico City football club, since 2007. Atlante F.C. was moved to Cancun's Andrés Quintana Roo Stadium when that stadium opened. Its games had low attendance at its previous stadium, Azteca Stadium, which it had been renting. The team currently plays in the Ascenso MX, the second level of the Mexican football pyramid.

The city is also home to the baseball team Tigres de Quintana Roo, who play in the Mexican League (LMB).

Andrés Quintana Roo Stadium, with a very slight increase in its capacity for Atlante F.C.

References

  1. ↑ 2010 census tables, MX: INEGI, archived from the original on May 2, 2013
  2. ↑ "Cancún". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  3. ↑ "OMT concede premio excelencia a la promoción turística de Cancún (México)" (in Spanish). ES: El Economista. 02/3/2007. Retrieved June 17, 2011. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Aging. Subcommittee on Federal, State, and Community Services. Transportation, improving mobility for older Americans: hearings before the Subcommittee on Federal, State, and Community Services of the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, second session. Google Books. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Fast Facts". ’’World Atlas’’. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  6. ↑ Varillas, Adriana (19 August 2013). "Centro de Cancún, tan mexicano como cosmopolita". El Periodico de Quintana Roo. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "MEXICO: Quintana Roo". Citypopulation.de. 2012-01-08. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  8. ↑ A proper Maya spelling of Nizuc may be “Ni’ su’uk” which translates to “promontory” or “point of grass”-Source-Some Historic Notes and Observations on Isla Cancún, Quintana Roo, published at FAMSI by Andrews, Anthony P.
  9. ↑ Government of Mexico, Cancún 2014, published in Cancún government official page cancun.gob.mx
  10. ↑ Snake iconography was prevalent at the pre-Columbian site of Nizuc-Source- Historic Notes and Observations on Isla Cancún, Quintana Roo, p. 5 published at FAMSI
  11. 1 2 3 Siegel, Jules (2006). Cancun User's Guide. Lulu.com. p. 204. ISBN 1-4116-3944-8.
  12. ↑ Booth, William (May 27, 2010). "Mayor of Cancun, Mexico, charged with drug trafficking, money laundering". Washington Post. Associated Press.
  13. ↑ Hawley, Chris (May 26, 2010). "Drugs cast cloud over Mexican paradise". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  14. ↑ El Centro supermanzanas-Source-La arquitectura norte americana, motor y espejo de la arquitectura española ... By José Manuel Pozo Municio, Javier Martínez González
  15. ↑ "Location". Puerto Cancun. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
  16. ↑ Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ http://www.revistapioneros.com/la-antigua-torre-de-control-simbolo-de-la-fundacion-de-cancun/ Cancun's Airport Old Control Tower.
  18. ↑ CANCUN AIRPORT MAP (CUN) ICAO CODE (MMUN) LATITUDE 21.0° LONGITUDE 86.9°
  19. ↑ Cancun Weather
  20. ↑ "Normales Climatologicas 1951-2010" (in Spanish). National Meteorological Service of Mexico. August 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  21. ↑ "Cancun Climate and Weather Averages, Cancun and Riviera Maya". Weather to Travel. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  22. ↑ "Cancun weather - water temperature". Cancunmap.com. Archived from the original on July 27, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  23. ↑ Hurricane Dean On Course for Cancun
  24. ↑ Benigono Aguirre. "Cancun under Gilbert: Prelimenary [sic] Observations" (PDF). International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters March 1989, Vol. 7, No.1, pp. 69-82. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 10, 2005. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
  25. ↑ Novedades de Quintana Roo
  26. ↑ Vacationers flee Cancun and Belize resorts after Dean, now a Category 5 storm, barrels past the Cayman Islands
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