A dune and small islands linked by a highway, this is Cancun, a real paradise in the American Way of life. There are hundreds of hotels and palaces for practicing « sea-sex-and-sun ». Each hotel is a waterfront property with giant salt and fresh water swimming pools. There are lagoons on one side and the green, blue and purple horizon of the most beautiful ocean in the world.
There the sand is made of reef dust accumulated over the centuries. Cancun is the largest tourist place in Mexico and the largest in the world because of its exponential growth in residential and hotel development. Mexican President Etcheverria laid the foundation stone in 1969, where there was only a fishing village with 117 inhabitants living from shark fishing (The sharks are harmless there).
– Where to stay
Jolie Jungle Mayan Ecolodge: Ecological hotel located in the Riviera Maya, between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, in Puerto Morelos, Ruta de los Cenotes, 26.5 km, minutes away from the Cancun International Airport, touristic adventurous and attraction parks, culture, sea and nature.
With water skiing, diving, sport fishing, tennis and above all, golf : Cancun is a paradise of luxurious farniente.
From Cancun, you can visit the whole coast as well as the Pre-Hispanic inland of the state of Quintana Roo. This trading city with its long paseo could make you believe that you are in Nice, Miami or Acapulco : you can find in Cancun everything from everywhere in the world. For the record, this tourist destination has been known worldwide since the famous « Summit of Cancun » in 1982 and also because of the many cyclones which has devastated the coast during the past several dozen years. But, all year long, and especially in summer, it is the paradise of sunscreen oils. The temperature has an average fluctuating from 26°C to 35°C (78 to 95°F).
Cancun is divided in three parts : the sad suburb with a concentration of workers living from the tourism, the old city, and the island of Cancun, a large sandy stripe between the ocean and the lagoons.
The 22 kilometer long Kukulcán Boulevard, between the continent and the Island, services the hotel complexes. More than six hundred businesses, restaurants and cafés surround the main places such as Caracol and Kukulcán places. The Museum of anthropology and history, located by the Convention center, displays a small collection of Mayan objects ($37).
On the coast, many aquatic clubs offer activities such as surf, diving, parasailing and wonderful themed cruises, excursions in the islands, transparent-floor boat rides, dinner-cruises, etc. Mass Tourism and Luxury Tourism !
The « flaunted wealth » : it is the first Cancun that you discover coming from the airport. A 22 kilometer long four way boulevard, 26,000 hotel rooms which hide the ocean, swimming pools and golf courses, luxurious stores and green lawns : this is an artificial zone, built on a thin sandy stripe between the ocean and the lagoons. 95% original mangroves, which was a protection against hurricanes, disappeared.
The second Cancun is a city with 700,000 inhabitants, which grew up in twenty-five years. It broke another record in Mexico : this is the strongest demographic growth, nowadays about 5%. According to every property developer, the prodigious expansion of this fishing village (100 inhabitants in 1970) is the undeniable proof of tourism as an economic engine. José Bayon said : « Cancun, which nobody believed in at the beginning, was a model for tourist resorts during years. Today, we recognize that we made mistakes on the environment».
Mayan religion is a geographically and historically versatile phenomenon whose history is not done yet. Mayan people believed in the recurrence of the cycles of creation and destruction. The rituals and ceremonies were strictly linked to these multiples terrestrial and celestial cycles. The Mayan priest had to interpret these cycles and prophesy the past and future times.
If you are looking for organized tours in small groups, contact Cancun Diving Adventures at info@cancundivingadventures.com or log on to www.cancundivingadventures.com. Boat tours through the mangrove or jeep tours to the Mayan ruins or diving tours in the « cenotes » or offshore, which is what they started with !
Quintana Roo state extends over a surface of 50 843 km2 (18,303 sq miles) and has 1 136,000 inhabitants (2007).