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PHOTOGRAPH BY DON COUCH<br />
Roots Jazz Club<br />
Living La Vida Locale<br />
Venture outside the touristfilled<br />
Hotel Zone to see how<br />
the citizens of Cancun<br />
really live.<br />
BY ROD O’CONNOR<br />
ON THE TOWN: CANCUN<br />
For those craving an authentic Mexican experience, Cancun<br />
seems an unlikely vacation choice. It is, after all, a city that<br />
didn’t even exist before the 1970s, when it was built to help<br />
Mexico compete with other tourist destinations on the coasts<br />
of the crystal-blue Caribbean. But over the past decade or so, a<br />
vibrant downtown scene has emerged.<br />
Locals joke that nobody is really from Cancun—citizens<br />
are a hodgepodge of migrants from all over the country who arrived to work<br />
in the thriving tourism industry. But as the first generation of native “Cancúnenses”<br />
push into their 20s and 30s, a youthful energy can be felt in Cancun<br />
City, or simply “Centro.” Here’s a city of more than 600,000 whose early<br />
chapters are still being written, and whose proud people welcome the chance<br />
to share the treasures of their urban oasis.<br />
OCTOBER <strong>2009</strong> GO MAGAZINE<br />
051
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