Isla Mujeres (,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
for "Women Island" (formally “Isla de Mujeres”) is an island where the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
and the Caribbean Sea meet, about off the
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
coast in the State of
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo ( , ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo), is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 11 mu ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. It is approximately long and wide. To the east is the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
with a strong
surf and
rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess M ...
coast, and to the west the skyline of Cancún can be seen across the waters. In the 2010 census, the namesake town on the island had a population of 12,642 inhabitants.
The town is the seat of
Isla Mujeres Municipality
Isla Mujeres (, Spanish for ''Island of the Women'') is one of the eleven municipalities of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula. Most of the municipality is located on the mainland in the northeastern corner of the state. ...
.
Very little violent crime has been reported on the island over its history, leading the island to gain a reputation for its relaxed nature, with the safety of both residents and tourists being unusually high. The biggest danger to the residents of the island has historically been the threat of
tropical storms
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dependi ...
and
hurricanes
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
, some of which have caused devastating damage, such as
Hurricane Carmen
Hurricane Carmen was the most intense tropical cyclone of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season. A destructive storm with widespread impacts, Carmen developed from a tropical wave that emerged from Africa toward the end of August. The disturbance tra ...
and
Hurricane Wilma
Hurricane Wilma was an extremely intense and destructive Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense storm of its kind and the second-most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Part ...
.
History
In
Pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
times the island was sacred to the
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
goddess of childbirth and medicine,
Ixchel
Ixchel or Ix Chel () is the 16th-century name of the aged jaguar Goddess of midwifery and medicine in ancient Maya culture. In a similar parallel, she corresponds, to Toci Yoalticitl "Our Grandmother the Nocturnal Physician", an Aztec earth Godd ...
. When the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
arrived in the 16th century they named it "''Isla Mujeres''" because of the many images of goddesses. The first information available about Isla Mujeres is from the period between 564–1516 AD, when it was part of the Maya province called
Ekab
Ekab or Ecab was the name of a Mayan chiefdom of the northeastern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
In the fifteenth century most of Yucatán was controlled by the League of Mayapan. By 1 ...
. There were 4 Maya provinces in what is today the State of
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo ( , ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo), is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 11 mu ...
. The Maya also exploited the salt that the island produced in the "salinas" (small interior lagoons). The salt was used not only for the preservation of food and medicine but also as a generally accepted currency for commerce of goods along the whole Maya region. The Maya goddess
Ixchel
Ixchel or Ix Chel () is the 16th-century name of the aged jaguar Goddess of midwifery and medicine in ancient Maya culture. In a similar parallel, she corresponds, to Toci Yoalticitl "Our Grandmother the Nocturnal Physician", an Aztec earth Godd ...
had a temple in what is today the Hacienda Mundaca (Mundaca's Plantation House). The island was also a favorite stopping place for pirates in the early 1800s. The shallow lagoon on the mainland side of the island was a good place for sailors to sit out major storms, careen their hulls and trade for salt. Pirates
Henry Morgan
Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming wea ...
,
Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte ( – ) was a French pirate and privateer who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time used "Lafitte". Thi ...
and Hernan Mundaca spent time there. Hernan Mundaca lived on the island for quite some time, building a large hacienda with which he hoped to entice a local beauty, Martiniana (Prisca) Gomez Pantoja, into marriage. She married someone else, to his regret. A small bit of his Hacienda is still there. It has served in the past as a zoo.
A small Maya
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
was once located on the southern tip of the island. However, in 1988,
Hurricane Gilbert
Hurricane Gilbert was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Atlantic basin in terms of barometric pressure, only behind Hurricane Wilma in 2005. An extremely powerful tropical cyclone that formed during the 1988 Atlantic hurri ...
caused extensive damage, leaving most of the foundation but only a very small portion of the temple.
Since the 1970s, along with nearby
Cancún
Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...
, there has been substantial
tourist
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...
development in Isla Mujeres.
Like much of the rest of the tourism industry, Isla Mujeres was
economically devastated by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, although case numbers remained relatively low on the island.
Transportation
![Isla mujeres 004](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Isla_mujeres_004.jpg)
Transportation on the island of Isla Mujeres consists primarily of
taxis
A taxis (; ) is the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Taxes are innate behavioural responses. A taxis differs from a tropism (turning response, often growth towards or away from a stimulu ...
or
golf car
A golf cart (alternatively known as a golf buggy or golf car) is a small motorized vehicle designed originally to carry two golfers and their golf clubs around a golf course with less effort than walking. Over time, variants were introduced t ...
ts and
moped scooters. there were 121 taxis, 500 golf carts, and 1500 moped scooters.
[Census of 2005]
Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI by its name in es, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática) is an autonomous agency of the Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Stat ...
, in Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
. There is also a bus service that runs from the downtown to the different neighborhoods, called ''colonias'' in Spanish (where most locals live). The island was formerly served by
Isla Mujeres National Airport, but the airport and landing strip have since closed. Nowadays, locals, military personnel, and tourists can be seen jogging up and down the runway at various times throughout the day.
Ferry service to the mainland
There are two main
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
boat
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inl ...
companies (UltraMar and Jetway) that run to the island from
Puerto Juárez
Puerto Juárez is a district in the Benito Juárez municipality, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is in the north-east of the Yucatán Peninsula, on the shore of the Caribbean Sea, 2 km (1.25 mi) north from the center of Cancún. ...
, Cancun, or Gran Puerto on the mainland. There are also many party boats that make day trips to Isla Mujeres. The island is popular with
day trip
A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or hostel in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location that ...
pers, but activity quiets down in the evening after the tour groups leave.
Tourism
![Isla_Mujeres_Playa_Norte_Beach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Isla_Mujeres_Playa_Norte_Beach.JPG)
Isla Mujeres has fostered a strong restaurant industry and culture, with many restaurants located throughout the island. There are numerous places to eat fresh
seafood
Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...
cooked with local and traditional recipes, and other restaurants offer Mexican,
Yucatecan Yucatecan may refer to:
*A hashtag made by Futuro Sureste, represents a speculative possibility in Yucatan
*The Mexican state of Yucatán
*The Yucatán Peninsula
*The Yucatec Maya language
Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as ...
, Italian, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Israeli, French, Thai, Cuban, and Maya cuisine, among others.
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
prices vary from cheap to very expensive at the resorts on the southwest end such as Hotel Villa Rolandi, and Playa Norte. In the north is El Centro (downtown), whose central axis, Hidalgo Street, is the main dining and entertainment area. Also located on the north end is a famous beach called Playa Norte, which has recovered quickly since
Hurricane Wilma
Hurricane Wilma was an extremely intense and destructive Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense storm of its kind and the second-most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Part ...
hit the area in 2005. Besides these attractions,
swimming with dolphins
The popularity of swimming with dolphins increased in the 1980s and 1990s, occurring in over 65 countries, both as a form of therapy as well as a tourist activity. Proponents of dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT) say that interacting with dolphins can ...
can also be experienced at the Island. Isla Mujeres has been a popular location for destination weddings for several decades, with larger hotels on the island sometimes being used to house wedding parties. These weddings are performed throughout the island, primarily at beachside venues on the west or north side of the island, with ceremonies generally taking place on the beach.
The island of Isla Mujeres is located close to one of many
coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
Co ...
s such as the one located in Garrafon Park, which is an attraction popular for its
snorkeling
Snorkeling ( British and Commonwealth English spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a ...
and
scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
. The
Cancún Underwater Museum
The Cancún Underwater Museum ( es, Museo Subacuático de Arte, known as MUSA) is a non-profit organization based in Cancún, Mexico devoted to the art of conservation. The museum has a total of 500 sculptures, by a series of international and loc ...
, created by English sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, is located off the western coast of Isla Mujeres. Isla Mujeres is also home to a population of
sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...
s. Because of the recent
endangerment
Endangerment is a type of crime involving conduct that is wrongful and reckless or wanton, and likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm to another person. There are several kinds of endangerment, each of which is a criminal act that can b ...
of sea turtles in the area, a facility named Tortugranja was set up on the southern end of the island for their rehabilitation and breeding. This facility is open to the public.
The island's relative proximity to
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
has made it a popular stepping stone for
Cubans
Cubans ( es, Cubanos) are people born in Cuba and people with Cuban citizenship. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds.
Racial and ethnic groups
Census
The population of Cuba wa ...
trying to reach the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in recent years.
Isla Mujeres is considered to be one of the best places in the world to catch
sailfish
The sailfish is one or two species of marine fish in the genus ''Istiophorus'', which belong to the family Istiophoridae (marlins). They are predominantly blue to gray in colour and have a characteristically large dorsal fin known as the sa ...
.
Life on the island
In addition to the Isla Mujeres' use as a popular
day trip
A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or hostel in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location that ...
spot, many homes have been built on the island, including the homes of those who have lived on the island for generations, affluent condos or houses for seasonal use,
snowbirds
The Snowbirds, officially known as 431 Air Demonstration Squadron (french: 431e Escadron de démonstration aérienne, links=no), are the military aerobatics flight demonstration team of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The team is based at 15 Wing ...
, fishermen, and those working in the island's tourism and restaurant industry. The island has also enjoyed a dedicated yacht and boating presence through the years, with many docks on the west coast, including some designated for seasonal use. In general, the island's population declines in the summer due to the
decline of tourism during that season. Some of the residents on the island ferry to and from Cancún daily in order to attend school or work.
Shopping on the island for residents was limited for many decades, leading day trips to Cancún (sometimes on a specialized ferry for automobiles and shipping trucks) to be a common necessity to purchase items such as a television or foods not stocked at one of the many minisupers (locally run convenience stores) or the downtown supermercado (supermarket) located in the city square. As the tourism industry increased in the later part of the 2000s, businesses such as
Chedraui
Chedraui is a publicly traded Mexican grocery store and department store chain which also operates stores in the U.S. in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada under the name El Super. It is traded on the Mexican Stock Exchan ...
began to establish a presence, providing residents with less need for repeated trips to Cancún.
There are a multitude of stadiums throughout the island, including a full scale
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
park and organized
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
venue along with makeshift dirt or sand fields which can commonly be seen played on by local children or organized teams. Technology on the island (particularly in the ''colonias'') was humble for many years, with the island slow to widely adopt innovations in entertainment beyond the standard
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
. By the early '00s, technologies such as
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
, the
arcade cabinet
An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...
(most commonly an original or repurposed
Neo Geo
Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. On the market from 1990 to 2004, the brand originated with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES.
The Neo Geo MVS was su ...
) and
cellular phones
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
were beginning to become commonplace with local households.
Isla Mujeres is the home of Mexican naval base, Quinta Region Naval.
References
External links
*
Fideicomiso de Promoción Turística de Isla MujeresOfficial tourism website
*
{{Authority control
Mujeres
Mujeres, Islas
Tourism in Mexico
Populated places in islands of Mexico