Cancún is a city in southeastern Mexico, located on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a major world-renowned tourist destination, as well as being the seat of the municipality of Benito Juárez. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, and is one of the easternmost points in Mexico. There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation. The first translation is “nest of snakes or pot.” The second version and less accepted is “place of the gold snake”.
The Nichupté Lagoon is on the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea, which is used for boating excursions and jet-ski jungle tours. Cancún is also the gateway to the Riviera Maya and the Yucatán interior, which has numerous archaeological sites, such as Chichen Itza, Cobá and Tulum as well as the many cenotes such as Dos Ojos and Ik Kil. English Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor has created a monumental underwater art museum in the National Marine Park of Cancún.
Although Cancún is better known as a travel and tourism destination, in recent years some colleges and universities have been offering higher education to both Mexican and foreign students. The first higher education institution established in the area was the Instituto Tecnológico de Cancún. Other followed, including Universidad La Salle Cancún, Universidad Anáhuac Cancún, Universidad Tecnológica de Cancún, Universidad del Caribe, and more recently the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo and the Tec Milenium.
[caption id="attachment_214542" align="aligncenter" width="491"] Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, opening the way for European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions, sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, were the first European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. After a remarkable odyssey, his bones are now in the Sevill...
[caption id="attachment_192959" align="aligncenter" width="590"] University of Michigan (1855) by Jasper Francis Cropsey[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ann Arbor is a city in Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, with a population of 114,000, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan. The university significantly shapes Ann Arbor's economy as it employs about 30,000 workers, including about 12,000 in the medical center. The city's economy is also centered on high technol...
