Annual rainfall is around 1,340 millimeters (52.8 in), falling on 115 days per year. Unlike inland areas of the Yucatán Peninsula, sea breezes restrict high temperatures from reaching 36 ☌ (97 ☏) on most afternoons. The city is hot year-round, and moderated by onshore trade winds, with an annual mean temperature of 27.1 ☌ (80.8 ☏). One development abutting the hotel zone is Puerto Cancún also Malecon Cancún is another large development.Ĭancún has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate ( Köppen Aw), with little temperature difference between months, but pronounced rainy and dry seasons. The remaining undeveloped beach and lagoon front areas outside the hotel zone are now under varying stages of development, in Punta Sam and Puerto Juarez to the north, continuing along Bonampak and south toward the airport along Boulevard Donaldo Colosio. Paseo José López Portillo.Ĭancún's mainland or downtown area has diverged from the original plan development is scattered around the city. The main ferry to Isla Mujeres is located in Puerto Juárez, on Ave. Bonampak which runs roughly parallel to Ave. Paseo José López Portillo which connects to the main highway west to Chichén Itzá and Mérida. Kukulcan which serves as the primary road through the 7-shaped hotel zone. Tulum is the main north-south artery, connecting downtown to the airport, which is some 19 km (12 mi) south of downtown. Geography City layout Īpart from the island tourist zone (part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System), the Mexican residential section of the city, the downtown part of which is known as 'El Centro', follows a master plan that consists of 'supermanzanas' (superblocks), giant trapezoids with a central, open, non-residential area cut in by u-shaped residential streets.Īve. The violent acts have begun to put pressure on the tourism industry, where in January 2019, Cancún saw its first decrease in international passengers in seven years. In January 2018 alone there were 33 homicides, triple the number from January 2017. Beginning in 2018 with a high wave of violence, Cancún is above the national average in homicides. Most have occurred in the urban nucleus, and there have been various violent episodes with firearms in the so-called 'Zona Hotelera'. Between 20 there were 76 murders: 31 in 2016, and at least 193 in 2017, the vast majority related to drug trafficking. There have been violent acts in the city related to drug trafficking. By 2010 Los Zetas, a group that broke away from the Gulf Cartel, had taken control of many smuggling routes through the Yucatán, according to the U.S. The links with Cancún date from the 1990s and early 2000s, when the area was controlled by the Juárez and Gulf drug cartels. In the 21st century, Cancún had largely avoided the bloodshed associated with the trade of illegal drugs, but is known for its retail drug sales to tourists as well as for being a center of money laundering. Įstadio de Béisbol Beto Ávila, home of Tigres de Quintana Roo Some 117 people lived in nearby Puerto Juárez, a fishing village and military base. When development of the area as a resort was started on January 23, 1970, Isla Cancún had only three residents, all caretakers of the coconut plantation of Don José de Jesús Lima Gutiérrez, who lived on Isla Mujeres. Ĭancún is a planned city, created to foster tourism. In the years after the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, much of the Maya population died or left as a result of disease, warfare, and famines, leaving only small settlements on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel Island. It is divided into three parts: the color blue symbolizes the Caribbean Sea, the yellow the sand and the red the sun with its rays. The shield of the municipality of Benito Juárez, which represents the city of Cancún, was designed by the Mexican-American artist Joe Vera. Snake iconography was prevalent at the pre-Columbian site of Nizuc. If it is of Maya origin, possible translations include 'Place/Seat/Throne of the Snake' or 'Enchanted Snake'.

The meaning of Cancún is unknown, and it is also unknown whether the name is of Maya origin. Two translations have been suggested: the first is 'nest of snakes' and the second, less accepted one is 'place of the golden snake'. Ĭancún is derived from the Mayan name kàan kun, composed of kàan “snake” and the verb kum ~ kun “to swell, overfill”. In older English-language documents, the city's name is sometimes spelled 'Cancoon', an attempt to convey the sound of the name. The name Cancún, Cancum or Cankun first appears on 18th-century maps. According to early Spanish sources, the island of Cancún was originally known to its Maya inhabitants as Nizuc, ( Yucatec Maya niʔ suʔuk) meaning either 'promontory' or 'point of grass'.

Zona hotelera