Isla Mujeres is a small beautiful island located a short ferry ride from Cancun, in the state of Quintana Roo. The island is 5 miles long and about a quarter mile wide. Most visitors never leave the small town located at the west end of the island.
Isla Mujeres has a rich history filled with pirates and marauding buccaneers. As the story goes, in 1517 a Spanish butcher by the name of Francisco Hermandez de Cordoba happened upon the island searching for slaves for Cuban mines, the Spanish already in the process of securing slaves had decimated the indigenous population of that island. Unfortunately the slavers found nothing but old statues which they perceived to be statues of women, thus the name of the island, "Isle of Women".
According to Mayan legend the island was used for traditional Mayan fertility ceremonies and there are In recent times the island was populated by fishermen until the building of Cancun which opened up opportunity for growth. There is still a small fishing and lobstering port on the south side of the island, but the island was badly damaged by hurricanes Wilma and Gilbert in recent years, and is not entirely restored.
1 comment:
Gorgeous! Love the way you have done these pages! I have always liked photos used as backgrounds...
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