Zihuatanejo

Zihuatanejo on the map of Guerrero

Zihuatanejo is a port city in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It belongs to the municipality of Zihuatanejo de Azueta (until 2008 the municipality of José Azueta ), whose headquarters it represents.

Just north of Zihuatanejo Ixtapa Zihuatanejo is located adjacent ( often short Ixtapa ), a modern ( and high-priced ) Holiday Resort Ixtapa, which emerged in the late 1970s and today is one of Mexico's most important destinations for international tourism.

Name

There are two theories on the origin of the name Zihuatanejo. Derived from the language of the Purepecha word stems Itzi would be ( water) Huata ( hill ) and Nejo ( yellow) that is " water of the yellow hill ". In Nahuatl, which was also widespread in the region, the origin of the name in the words Cihuatl ( woman), Tzintli (small) and Co ( place ), thus for " place of little women." The second theory is obvious to a matriarchal form of society, clear evidence of this, there is not.

Climate

History

The first mention Zihuatanejos took place in the Matricula de Tributos of 1540.

With the arrival of the Conquistadores the bay of the settlement as a port to an important starting point for Seexpeditionen to explore the coast was.

In the Mexican War of Independence Zihuatanejo has been used since 1811 by José María Morelos as a port for the distribution of goods and soldiers.

Population development and housing situation

In 1960, Zihuatanejo only 1,619 inhabitants. 1980, the beginning tourism was already noticeable in an increase to 6,887 inhabitants. From the 1980s, there came, also due to the increasingly popular Ixtapa, a boom, which presented itself in a population increase to 37 328 inhabitants in 1990 and 54,537 inhabitants in 1995.

Twinning

At Palm Desert in the state of California maintains Zihuatanejo twinned.

Traffic

The international airport Ixtapa - Zihuataejo ( IATA code: Zebra Technologies, ICAO code: MMZH ) maintains national calls to Guadalajara, Mexico City and Oaxaca, as well as a series of smaller goals. Zihuatanejo is served, among others, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix from regularly from the USA.

In the peripheral area of the city there are two bus terminals for long-distance bus with daily connections among other things to Acapulco, Mexico City, Manzanillo and Puerto Escondido.

Public transport has a bus network within and between Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa, supplemented by the usual colectivo.

Trivia

In Stephen King's novella Spring Awakening: Pin-up, as well as the film adaptation The Shawshank Redemption, the two main characters make an appointment after a successful escape or release from a U.S. prison in Zihuatanejo, a small, almost unknown village. Although, this mention of Kings is now interpreted as ironic or criticism by many visitors who know the history, this is not very likely because at the time of publication ( 1982) the development of the resort was not yet in sight.