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Chronological Table of Contents (Click on "Read More" to open the Chronological Table of Contents)

Chronologically: From Mayas to Tourism



PRECOLONIAL  

 Ruins of a second temple to Ixchel were found on the Mundaca Hacienda a few years ago

EARLY CONTACT

Mayan Merchant-Sailors Traded Salt & Stingray Spines and Met Columbus

PIRATES

Hard times in the 1500's: Attacks by Conquistadors, Corsairs & Pirates

Do you think of Isla Mujeres pirates when you hear the song "La Bamba"?

SETTLED IN 1850

From Pirate Refuge to Established Settlement
 

The Census of 1866 (16 years after the town was founded)

Mundaca & La Trigueña

 Isla Mujeres in 1876

1876: The Fishermen & the Bay by Alice Le Plongeon

AMONG THE TURTLE CATCHERS by Alice le Plongeon in 1876

This Town was Built by Farmers Who Learned to Fish and Survive Disasters & Disease

1900's

The Hurricane of 1922

How America's obsession with chewing gum began with the Maya & supported our regional economy before tourism

From the Copra Plantation to Living by the Salina Lake Before Tourism: Interview with Doña Aurelia Nájera  

Remembering the Coco Plantation: El Chocolate Garrido I from article by Fidel Villanueva Marid

Hunter of Crocodiles & Turtles: El Chocolate Garrido II from article by Fidel Villanueva Marid

Early Tourism  

Tourism in its Infancy

Travel Writer Describes the Isle in 1960

1966 Vacation Video: Summer Holidays on Isla Mujeres


From Dozens of Farmers & Fishermen to Millions of Tourists: The Changing Face of the Isle



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Mayan Merchant-Sailors Traded Salt & Stingray Spines and Met Columbus

     On his last voyage in 1502, Christopher Columbus encountered a large canoe in the Bay Islands of the Gulf of Honduras which was full of Mayan trade goods, and presumably from the Yucatan. Its ~40 passengers included well dressed merchants, their families, and about 25 oarsmen. It was eight feet wide, 'as long as a galley' (~50ft), with a cabin in the middle. He compared it a Venetian gondola and was impressed with their seamanship. Mayan murals display boats with raised, curved bows and sterns.      He described their fine textiles, weapons made of flint (probably actually obsidian), and copper goods including cups, bells and hatchets. The Mayan merchants carried a type of beer made from fermented corn, now called "Cheba", which young Fernando Columbus enjoyed. The Europeans also had their first exposure to chocolate.   Maya trade routes on land & sea The blue lines are commercial sea routes, red are comm...
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Mundaca & La Trigueña

Top  photo is  part of the gardens and bottom photo is his empty grave & tombstone in the downtown Isla Mujeres cemetery From Yank in Yucatan by Rolfe F Schell, 1963           After the British Navy stepped up enforcement against piracy, in 1858, pirate Fermin Mundaca, 33, came to Isla Mujeres. He purchased 40% of the island, having acquired his fortune through the trafficking of slaves from Africa to Cuba. There are indications that Mundaca was also involved with transporting Mayans to work as slaves in Cuban mines and haciendas, as well as Africans.       He was the first to construct solid buildings on the isle, except for the old Mayan temples, whos e stones he presumably used. The foundation of a temple to Ixchel has been found on his Hacienda, which he named "Vista Alegre".        He was in his 50's when he became infatuated with a beautiful teenager known as "La Tri...
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