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Cozumel tourism is not a new trend. More than
a millennium ago, the Mayan made pilgrimages to
Cozumel a great business. The Mayan women would
travel to Cozumel at least once to visit the temple
of Ixchel and its goddess of fertility.
The Mayans were the only American-Indian society
to develop writing, astronomy, botanic medicine,
and mathematics that far exceeded the Europeans.
After a peaceful arrival to land, in San Miguel
the first mass was celebrated in Mexico in 1518.
Immediately afterwards the diseases from the old
world liquidated the half of the local population.
In only 80 years the 20,000 locals were cut in half.
The Spaniard Don Juan de Grijalva discovered the
island by pure luck while trying to get to Cuba.
In the following years the Spaniards use Cozumel
as a base to prepare attacks on the Mexican lands.
At the end of the XVI century the land became
a refuge for terrible pirates, among them were
famous pirates Jean Laffite and Henry Morgan.
For the next 200 years the island was stripped
and then abandoned in 1843.
In 1848 fugitives took refuge in Cozumel and begun
to practice fishing and farming.
The United States made Cozumel an industrial center.
During World War II the Americans built an airport
and a submarine base. During this time the American
Marines Diving Seals use the island to practice
for incursions in Europe and the Pacific. After
the war the Marines were the ones that spread the
rumors that Cozumel was a great diving spot.
In the 1950's Cozumel's fame increase and it became
one the most popular diving spot in the world.
It was helped when Jacques Cousteau visited Palancar.
Then came the first cruise ship arrival in the
1960's. Now Cozumel host over 800 cruise ships
and over 1 million visitors, making it the second
most visited spot in the Caribbean and the fifth
in the world. |
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