Saturday, March 24, 2007

Isla Facts

Out of curiosity, or maybe even boredom, I did a Wikipedia search on my new home, Isla Mujeres. It was a short but sweet entry with some useful information. Most of it from the 2005 census.

Many people who visit here do not realize that we are really classified as Isla Town. The municipality of Isla Mujeres actually is on the mainland, in the Punta Sam area. (where you catch the car ferry) In the olden days, before Cancun was anything more than a couple of shabby fishing huts, people used to come over here to the island because that is where the only grocery store was. The airstrip was used for small commerical flights, before the military took it over. Our "town" was the major commercial hub of the area. Hard to believe that now and hard to believe that Cancun has only been in existence since 1970.


Some facts I gleaned:
11,147.............number of residents on the island

121.............number of taxis on the island

500............number of golf carts on the island

1,500............number of motor scooters on the island

Total size of the island is 4.37 miles long by 704 yards, or, for my metric readers, 7K by 650 meters. This would be at the widest point of course. It is much narrower at the ends.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How cool is that!!
I love drivin' on the islands on a scooter. What a life!
Holly