Cancún

Cancún
City
Cancún Aerial View, looking South Caribbean Sea on left; Lagoon on right
Location of Cancun within Quintana Roo
Country	Mexico
State	Quintana Roo
Municipality	Benito Juárez
Founded	April 20, 1970
Government
• Mayor	Gregorio Osweiler Martínez (PRD)
Highest elevation	10 m (30 ft)
Lowest elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Population  (2005)
• Total	572,973
Demonym	Cancunense
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
Postal code	77500
Area code	998
Website	www.cancun.gob.mx

Cancún (Spanish pronunciation: [kaŋˈkun]) is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula. Cancún is located on the Yucatan Channel that separates Mexico from the island of Cuba in the Greater Antilles. The Cancún region is sometimes known as the Mexican Caribbean.

Cancún is the municipal seat of the Benito Juárez municipality and a world-renowned tourist resort. The city center is located on the mainland which connects the Nichupté and lagoons to a narrow 7-shaped island where the modern beachfront hotels are located. The island of Isla Mujeres is located off the coast and is accessible by boat from Puerto Juárez.

City layout

The older section of the city, known as "El Centro" follows the original master plan, consists of neighborhoods called "supermanzanas" (superblocks) that are formed by the intersections of the boulevards and traffic circles (roundabouts). This area is characterized by winding streets with culs-de-sac that tend to keep out the main flow of traffic, including market places such Xel Ha. They usually have one or more parks, green spaces, paseos (pedestrian walkways) and various national historical monuments.

Ave. Tulum is the main north-south artery (connecting downtown to the airport some 30 km (19 mi) to south). Tulum is bisected by Ave. Cobá. East of Ave. Tulum, Cobá becomes Ave. Kukulcan which serves as the primary road that runs through the long 7-shaped hotel zone. Ave. Tulum is terminated on the north side by Ave. Paseo José López Portillo which connects to the main highway 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.

The original master plan was repeatedly modified, and on the mainland, often ignored. 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 comprised almost entirely of identical one- or two-story small row-houses, sometimes built around interior plazas. Almost all buildings on the mainland are below four stories high.

Tourism

File:Atardecer en Cancun.jpg

Skyline at night

File:Viva mexico.jpg

Traditional dancers provide evening entertainment

There are about 150 hotels in Cancún with more than 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily. The Hotel Zone of Cancún is shaped like a 7 with bridges on each end connecting to the mainland. Hotels on the vertical or long side of the 7 tend to have rougher beaches and beach erosion can be a problem. Resorts on the horizontal or short end of the seven tend to have more gentle surf because the waves here are blocked by the island of Isla Mujeres which lies just off shore. The Hotel Zone offers a broad range of accommodations, ranging from relatively inexpensive motel-style facilities in the older section closest to the mainland, to high-priced luxury hotels in the later sections, great malls, theme parks and swimming with dolphins activity.

On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is the Nichupté Lagoon, which is used for boating excursions and jet-ski jungle tours.

Cancún is also the gateway to the Riviera Maya, another tourist pull in the area, where people go attracted by the numerous archaeological sites, as Cobá and Tulum, the many cenotes, charming towns as Playa del Carmen and theme parks such as Xcaret Eco Park, Xel-Ha and Xplor.

History

Monument to the history of Mexico

Originally known as Ekab ("Black Earth"), what is now the northern district of the state of Quintana Roo was thickly populated by people who spoke the language now known as Maya when the Spanish arrived, according to the conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo. In the years after the Conquest, most of the 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 city of mecan Cancún resulted from a 1967 study by Banco de México to determine the feasibility of capturing more dollars and other foreign exchange through tourism development. It was actually selected after extensive research and exploration by the bank's researchers. Banco de México obtained a $27 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to install the first infrastructure. The name "Cancun" translates from the Mayan language as "Snakes Den", since the terrain was inhabited by various species of snakes. Many images and statues of snakes can be found within the city. When development was started on Jan. 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, and there were only 117 people living in nearby Puerto Juárez, a fishing village and military base.

"Due to the reluctance of investors to bet on an unknown area, the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels." The first hotel financed was the Hyatt Cancun Caribe, but the first hotel actually built was the Playa Blanca, which later became a Blue Bay hotel, and is now Temptation Resort. The entire project was master-planned, with the island (soon connected to the mainland by causeways) devoted almost exclusively to tourism facilities, while workers housing and service areas were located on the mainland in what became the city of Cancún.

Most 'Cancunenses' here 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 to control squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city.

Transportation

Cancún is served by Cancún International Airport. It has many flights to North America, Central America, South America, and Europe.

There is also a public transit bus system, servicing the hotel zone with frequent stops and buses.

Climate

The temperature of the city is warm and tropical, moderated by the marine breezes created by onshore trade winds, which circulate through its avenues. Under Köppen's climate classification, Cancún features a tropical wet and dry climate that borders on a tropical monsoon climate. The annual average temperature in Cancún is 26°C (79 °F) with over 3000 sunshine hours a year or almost 70% of possible, making it one of the sunniest locations in the Caribbean. Unlike inland areas of the Yucatán Peninsula, sea breezes restrict high temperatures from reaching 35 °C (95°F) most afternoons, however extremes have ranged between a record maximum of 39.5 °C (103.2 °F) to a minimum of 7.5 °C (45.4 °F) on March 3, 2009 but conditions are typically far more moderate. Annual precipitation is just over 140 cm (55"), mostly concentrated in brief, heavy rainfalls during the wet season. Extended rainy periods are very rare. 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 so during Hurricane Season (averages close to 70% on rainfree days). [1]

Climate data for Cancun
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source: Weather

The tropical storm season lasts from May to December, the rainy season extends into January with peak precipitation in September. February to early May tend to be drier with only occasional scattered showers. Although large hurricanes are rare, they have struck near to Cancún in recent years, Hurricane Wilma in 2005 being the largest. Hurricane Gilbert also made a devastating direct hit on Cancún in September 1988 and the tourist hotels needed to be rebuilt. Hurricane Dean also made its mark on the city of Cancún.

Mayan archaeological sites

"El Rey" ruins in Cancún

There are some (non-relative) 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 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.

Education

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

The first higher education institution established in the area was the Instituto Tecnológico de Cancún. Other followed, including Universidad La Salle Cancún, Universidad Anahuac Cancún, Universidad Tecnológica de Cancún, Universidad del Caribe, and more recently the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo and the Tec Milenium.

Hurricane impact

Cancún is located in one of the main Caribbean hurricane impact areas, but since it was founded it has received direct hits from only two major hurricanes, Gilbert (1988) and Wilma (2005). In both cases, federal, state and municipal authorities were well prepared to deal with most of the effects on tourists and local residents. After Wilma, emergency plans were modified to rectify areas of weak performance. To avoid having tourists wind up in uncomfortable situations in public shelters, authorities asked tourism operators to suspend sending tourists to Cancún when Hurricane Dean approached, and encouraged airlines to send empty planes, which were then used to evacuate tourists. Most recently, remnants from Tropical Storm Olga caused some localized flooding on December 14, 2007.

Hurricane Wilma

Main article: 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. Some portions of the Yucatán Peninsula experienced hurricane-force winds for well over 24 hours. The hurricane began accelerating in the early morning hours of October 23, exiting the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and entering the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 storm.

Hurricane Dean

Although in 2007 the eye of Hurricane Dean landed 190 miles (310 km) to the south of Cancún, fierce winds at the outside of its impact cone stripped some of the sand off 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of beach from Punta Cancún (Camino Real Hotel) to Punta Nizuc (Club Med), reports Virginia Prospero in Novedades de Quintana Roo.

Sister Cities

• Timişoara, Romania

External links

• Template:Wikitravelpar
• Cancún at Curlie