Isla Mujeres History

    Isla Mujeres was still a relatively young community in 1876, when archeologist Augustus le Plongeon lived here briefly with his young wife, Alice. The town of Dolores had been established twenty-six years earlier, by ~50 families fleeing the Caste War. In the early 1800's, the isle had been a temporary base for pirates & fishermen, without permanent settlements.      He described downtown as consisting of ~500 thatch huts ( ? that number sounds high, maybe a typo for 50? About 50 families founded the town in 1850. ), sitting in a grove of palm trees, with three sandy streets running north & south, with the main one ending at the cemetery. He said there were only about a dozen more substantial homes, made from stone and mortar, but these were also thatched with palmetto leaves. The houses were separated by courtyards, and some families proudly grew rose bushes & other flowering shrubs in the sandy soil.    ...

     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...