James' World 2

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Cancún is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat of the municipality of Benito Juárez. The city is on the Caribbean Sea and is one of Mexico’s easternmost points.

Cancún is just north of Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort area known as the Riviera Maya.

Cancún is derived from the Mayan name kàan kun, composed of kàan “snake” and the verb kum ~ kun “to swell, overfill”. Two translations have been suggested: the first is “nest of snakes” and the second, less accepted one is “place of the golden snake”.

The shield of the municipality of Benito Juárez, which represents the city of Cancún, was designed by the Mexican-American artist Joe Vera. It is divided into three parts: the color blue symbolizes the Caribbean Sea, the yellow the sand, and the red the sun with its rays.

In older English-language documents, the city’s name is sometimes spelled “Cancoon”, an attempt to convey the sound of the name. Wikipedia

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An image from Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico

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The Netherlands is a country located in Western Europe with territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, bordering Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. The country’s official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamento as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognized regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Dutch Sign Language, Sinte Romani, and Yiddish are recognized non-territorial languages.

The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country’s most populous city and nominal capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States-General, Cabinet, and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe, and the busiest in any country outside East Asia and Southeast Asia, behind only China and Singapore. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands and the third busiest in Europe. The country is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts several intergovernmental organizations and international courts, many of which are centered in The Hague, which is consequently dubbed ‘the world’s legal capital.

The Netherlands literally means “lower countries” in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 m (3.3 ft) above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. Colloquially or informally the Netherlands is occasionally referred to by the pars pro toto Holland. With a population of 17.5 million people, all living within a total area of roughly 41,800 km² (16,100 sq mi)—of which the land area is 33,500 km² (12,900 sq mi)—the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the second-most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of 523 people per square kilometer (1,350 people/sq mi). Nevertheless, it is the world’s second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and inventiveness.

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An image from Ter Haar, Netherlands

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