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CANCUN |
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Hand-picked by computer, CANCÚN is, if nothing else, proof of
Mexico's remarkable ability to get things done in a hurry if the
political will is there. A fishing village of 120 people as recently as
1970, it's now a city with a resident population of half a million and
receives almost two million visitors a year. To some extent the computer
selected its location well. Cancún is marginally closer to Miami than it
is to Mexico City, and if you come on an all-inclusive package tour the
place has a lot to offer: striking modern hotels on white-sand beaches;
high-class entertainment including parachuting, jet-skiing, scuba-diving
and golf; a hectic nightlife; and from here much of the rest of the
Yucatán is easily accessible. For the independent traveller, though, it
is expensive, and can be frustrating and unwelcoming. You may well be
forced to spend the night here, but without pots of money the true
pleasures of the place will elude you.
There are, in effect, two quite separate parts to Cancún: the zona
commercial downtown - the shopping and residential centre which, as it
gets older, is becoming genuinely earthy - and the zona hotelera , a
string of hotels and tourist amenities around "Cancún island", actually
a narrow strip of sandy land connected to the mainland at each end by
causeways. It encloses a huge lagoon, so there's water on both sides.
The Town and beaches
There's little to see in downtown Cancún . Most visitors head straight
for the zona hotelera and the beaches . Though you're free to go
anywhere, and signposted public walkways lead down to the sea at regular
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