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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   From Five Fishermen to 1500 Refugees: Isla Mujeres in the 1840's Sending Slaves to Cuba, Conspiring With Rebels & Liberating Sailors from Cozumel: The Caste War 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 Hu...
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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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