Introduction to Mayaguez

98 miles (158km) W of San Juan, 15 miles (24km) S of Aguadilla

Approaching from the north, where Highway 2 swoops down along beautiful coastal overpasses, it's easy to dismiss Mayagüez at first glimpse as a rather drab commercial port city, but the so-called "Sultan of the West" warms to visitors who give it a chance to show off its charms.

Although it's a commercial city, Mayagüez is a convenient stopover for those exploring the west coast. And it has its own charms.

If you want a big-wave beach with dramatic coastal cliffs, you can head north to Rincón, Aguadilla, and Isabella. And if you want white sand and palms, with tranquil aquamarine water, head south to Cabo Rojo, Lajas, and Guánica.

One of our favorite hotels is in the city, the Mayagüez Resort & Casino, which is nice enough to warrant a stay here. Mayagüez makes a good base from which to explore the whole west coast with a rental car, a good idea for first-time visitors wanting to experience several different destinations. That's especially so if you want the luxury of a first-class resort at night and don't want to keep switching rooms every night.

Once you start poking around Mayagüez, the city will begin to win you over. A unique architectural style was forged here after successive renovations following a string of disasters that struck the city.

A great fire in 1841 ripped through the city, destroying large parts of its downtown area. A 1918 earthquake striking offshore along the Puerto Rico Trench knocked down buildings and unleashed a tsunami that sent 20-foot waves crashing over Mayagüez.

The rebuilding efforts afterwards were a conglomeration of styles popular at the time of the reconstructions, with the last great wave taking place in the 1930s.

Mayagüez is a port whose elegance and charm reached its zenith during the mercantile and agricultural prosperity of the 19th century.

Although the town itself dates from the mid-18th century, the area around it has figured in European history since the time of Christopher Columbus, who landed nearby in 1493. Today, in the gracious plaza at the town's center, a bronze statue of Columbus stands atop a metallic globe of the world.

Famed for the size and depth of its harbor (the second largest on the island, after San Juan's harbor), Mayagüez was built to control the Mona Passage, a route essential to the Spanish Empire when Puerto Rico and the nearby Dominican Republic were vital trade and defensive jewels in the Spanish crown. Today this waterway is notorious for the destructiveness of its currents, the ferocity of its sharks, and the thousands of boat people who arrive illegally from either Haiti or the Dominican Republic, both on the island of Hispaniola.

Queen Isabel II of Spain recognized Mayagüez's status as a town in 1836. Her son, Alfonso XII, granted it a city charter in 1877. Permanently isolated from the major commercial developments of San Juan, Mayagüez, like Ponce, has always retained its own distinct identity.

Today, the town has been hit by the closure of its tuna packing industry (which once packed 60% of the tuna consumed in the United States) and its manufacturing plants, victims to low-cost jobs elsewhere.

But the town has a future in tourism and some of the life science and high-tech manufacturing springing up around the fine University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus, which specializes in engineering and the sciences. The university community adds much to the city's cultural life.

Today, the city is getting ready to host the 2010 Caribbean and Central American Games, with a slew of new construction projects, including new sports facilities, underway. Some $400 million is being invested.

A History of Honeymooning -- Mayagüez is the target of a peculiarly romantic 16th-century legend. It is said that local farmers often kidnapped young Spanish sailors who had stopped at Mayagüez for provisions en route to South America. There was a scarcity of eligible bachelors in Mayagüez, and the farmers kidnapped the young sailors in hopes of providing their daughters with husbands and their farms with overseers. However, it's anyone's guess whether this was good or bad luck.

Some tradition-minded Puerto Rican couples still come here on their honeymoons. But for most visitors, Mayagüez would rank low as a honeymoon retreat.