Solidaridad, Quintana Roo
Encyclopedia
Solidaridad is one of the ten municipalities
that make up the Mexican
state of Quintana Roo
. It is also one of the youngest municipalities in the country and was formed on July 28 of 1993 by decree of the State Congress
during the administration of Mario Villanueva Madrid. At this time the municipality of Cozumel
was split into two, with the mainland section constituting the new municipality of Solidaridad. Its municipal seat is the town of Playa del Carmen
. On March 13 of 2008 Solidaridad was separated from the new municipality of Tulum
, as a result its land area and population was adjusted.
Solidaridad is home to the Maya
archaeological site of Xcaret
.
. Prior to the creation of the municipality of Tulum
, the municipality was situated between latitudes 20° 45' and 19° 46' north and longitudes 86° 57' and 88° 05' west, and had an area of 4,245.67 km². Today it borders the municipalities of Benito Juárez
, Lázaro Cárdenas
to the north and Tulum
to the south; and is separated in most places from its neighboring municipality to the east (Cozumel
) by a stretch of the Caribbean Sea
known as the Cozumel Channel.
The ecotourism park of Xel-Ha
and the Calica
limestone
quarry are not part of Solidaridad as they belong to the neighboring municipality of Cozumel
. These are the only two mainland locations for the municipality of Cozumel
with sizes of 90 Ha and 11.9 Ha respectively. All of the limestone
from Calica
is exported to the US, and the quarry has its own docks and also serves visiting cruise ships.
, Solidaridad is almost entirely flat with a gentle slope towards the sea, so from west to east, most of the area never reaches an altitude above 25 meters above sea level .
Like the rest of the peninsula's surface the land has a limestone
base that does not allow the formation of surface water flows such as rivers and streams, the water instead form flows in underground rivers that sometimes rise to the surface in the cenote
s. Lakes and cenote
s are the major water bodies of the municipality
.
Currently most of its population are immigrants, mainly from the southeastern states of Mexico; but also, according to the National Institute of Migration, Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Migración de México)
, the municipality has 12 percent of its population of foreign origin.
The Hacienda Tres Ríos is located on the Cancún-Tulum Highway Km54, near Playa del Carmen. It is a resort which was built with local materials and has implemented technologies to make the operation more environment-friendly. For example, many of the structure are built on three-meter high piles as to not interrupt the flow of water through the area. Also, garbage is recycled and cold water from deep wells is used for the cooling system. The hacienda, which is located by the sea, also has a desalinization plant to avoid using groundwater. The hotel area is surrounded by two hectares of land with 50,000 plants and surrounding that is 60 hectares of bioreserver with more than 120 species of flora and 90 species of wildlife. The hacienda has been recognized by the Mexican government as a “ regional and national model of sustainable tourist development” and has been recognized by the World Travel Awards. Part of the operation’s earning go toward studying the local ecosystems.
Municipalities of Quintana Roo
The Mexican State of Quintana Roo is made up of 10 municipalities : Tulum and Bacalar are the newest municipalities. The state was created from the Quintana Roo Territory in 1974 with seven municipios. Solidaridad was formed in 1993 by act of the Congress of Quintana Roo. Tulum was split off from...
that make up the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
state of Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 10 municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal....
. It is also one of the youngest municipalities in the country and was formed on July 28 of 1993 by decree of the State Congress
Congress of Quintana Roo
The Congress of Quintana Roo is the legislature of Quintana Roo, a state of Mexico. The Congress is unicameral....
during the administration of Mario Villanueva Madrid. At this time the municipality of Cozumel
Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
was split into two, with the mainland section constituting the new municipality of Solidaridad. Its municipal seat is the town of Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen is a balneario resort city just south of Cancún on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, in the northeast of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The city is the seat of the Solidaridad municipality. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 149,923 people and it is rapidly growing...
. On March 13 of 2008 Solidaridad was separated from the new municipality of Tulum
Municipality of Tulum
Tulum is one of the ten municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It became one of the newest municipalities in the country when it was formed on March 13, 2008 as a result of its separation from Solidaridad Municipality...
, as a result its land area and population was adjusted.
Solidaridad is home to the Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
archaeological site of Xcaret
Xcaret
Xcaret is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the modern-day state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. The site was occupied by the pre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation and an important Maya trading center...
.
Geography
The municipality has some small but rich continental sites including the ecotourism park of XcaretXcaret
Xcaret is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the modern-day state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. The site was occupied by the pre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation and an important Maya trading center...
. Prior to the creation of the municipality of Tulum
Municipality of Tulum
Tulum is one of the ten municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It became one of the newest municipalities in the country when it was formed on March 13, 2008 as a result of its separation from Solidaridad Municipality...
, the municipality was situated between latitudes 20° 45' and 19° 46' north and longitudes 86° 57' and 88° 05' west, and had an area of 4,245.67 km². Today it borders the municipalities of Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez, Quintana Roo
Benito Juárez is one of the ten municipalities of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Most of its population reside in the municipal seat, Cancún. It is named after the 19th century president and statesman Benito Juárez.- Location :...
, Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas, Quintana Roo
Lázaro Cárdenas is one of the ten municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Its municipal seat is the town of Kantunilkín, which was founded on 10 October 1859...
to the north and Tulum
Municipality of Tulum
Tulum is one of the ten municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It became one of the newest municipalities in the country when it was formed on March 13, 2008 as a result of its separation from Solidaridad Municipality...
to the south; and is separated in most places from its neighboring municipality to the east (Cozumel
Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
) by a stretch of the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
known as the Cozumel Channel.
The ecotourism park of Xel-Ha
Xel-Há
Xelha is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located on the eastern coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the present-day state of Quintana Roo, Mexico...
and the Calica
Calica
Calica is a quarry and a port on the Quintana Roo coast of Mexico. The name is short for the full Spanish name Calizas Industriales del Carmen, "calizas" Spanish for lime or limestone...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
quarry are not part of Solidaridad as they belong to the neighboring municipality of Cozumel
Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
. These are the only two mainland locations for the municipality of Cozumel
Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
with sizes of 90 Ha and 11.9 Ha respectively. All of the limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
from Calica
Calica
Calica is a quarry and a port on the Quintana Roo coast of Mexico. The name is short for the full Spanish name Calizas Industriales del Carmen, "calizas" Spanish for lime or limestone...
is exported to the US, and the quarry has its own docks and also serves visiting cruise ships.
Orography and hydrography
Like most of the Yucatan PeninsulaYucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
, Solidaridad is almost entirely flat with a gentle slope towards the sea, so from west to east, most of the area never reaches an altitude above 25 meters above sea level .
Like the rest of the peninsula's surface the land has a limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
base that does not allow the formation of surface water flows such as rivers and streams, the water instead form flows in underground rivers that sometimes rise to the surface in the cenote
Cenote
A cenote is a deep natural pit, or sinkhole, characteristic of Mexico and Central America, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath...
s. Lakes and cenote
Cenote
A cenote is a deep natural pit, or sinkhole, characteristic of Mexico and Central America, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath...
s are the major water bodies of the municipality
Municipalities of Quintana Roo
The Mexican State of Quintana Roo is made up of 10 municipalities : Tulum and Bacalar are the newest municipalities. The state was created from the Quintana Roo Territory in 1974 with seven municipios. Solidaridad was formed in 1993 by act of the Congress of Quintana Roo. Tulum was split off from...
.
Demographics
The municipality has a population of 159,310 according to the results of the Population and Housing Census of 2010 conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), of these, 83,468 are men and 75,842 are women. By this time, Tulum Municipality was already separated from Solidaridad.Currently most of its population are immigrants, mainly from the southeastern states of Mexico; but also, according to the National Institute of Migration, Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Migración de México)
National Institute of Migration
The National Institute of Migration ) is a unit of the government of Mexico dependent on the Secretariat of the Interior that controls and supervises migration in the country.-Controversy and public demonstrations against:...
, the municipality has 12 percent of its population of foreign origin.
Communities
The largest localities (cities, towns, and villages) are:| Name | 2010 Census Population |
|---|---|
| Playa del Carmen Playa del Carmen Playa del Carmen is a balneario resort city just south of Cancún on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, in the northeast of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The city is the seat of the Solidaridad municipality. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 149,923 people and it is rapidly growing... |
149,923 |
| Puerto Aventuras Puerto Aventuras Puerto Aventuras is a community located in Solidaridad Municipality, Quintana Roo, Mexico. It had a 2010 census population of 5,979 inhabitants, and is located at an elevation of 9 meters above sea level. It is the second-largest community in Solidaridad Municipality, after the municipal seat,... |
5,979 |
| Barceló Maya | 606 |
| Grand Palladium | 334 |
| Cárcel Pública | 314 |
| Iberostar | 242 |
| Felipe Carrillo Puerto | 176 |
| Punta Laguna | 138 |
| El Dorado | 131 |
| Hidalgo y Cortez | 128 |
| Grand Sirenis | 125 |
| Total Municipality | 159,310 |
The Hacienda Tres Ríos is located on the Cancún-Tulum Highway Km54, near Playa del Carmen. It is a resort which was built with local materials and has implemented technologies to make the operation more environment-friendly. For example, many of the structure are built on three-meter high piles as to not interrupt the flow of water through the area. Also, garbage is recycled and cold water from deep wells is used for the cooling system. The hacienda, which is located by the sea, also has a desalinization plant to avoid using groundwater. The hotel area is surrounded by two hectares of land with 50,000 plants and surrounding that is 60 hectares of bioreserver with more than 120 species of flora and 90 species of wildlife. The hacienda has been recognized by the Mexican government as a “ regional and national model of sustainable tourist development” and has been recognized by the World Travel Awards. Part of the operation’s earning go toward studying the local ecosystems.