The country's premier tourist destination, San Pedro this weekend celebrated its 20th anniversary as a town. On Saturday Alfonso Noble traveled to the island to join in the festivities and files this report telling us how they've come so far so fast.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
These were the sights and sounds at San Pedro back in 1984 when what was then a sleepy fishing village took one step forward to become a town.
[Vintage Video footage of Parade in 1984]
Twenty years later history holds a mirror up to itself to find San Pedro as a bustling center of tourist enterprise.
The town council and the area rep took to the principal streets of the town to tribute the decision of 20 years ago.
This time however it was with a great sense of accomplishment.
Elsa Paz, Mayor
"20 years ago it was a village, it was a fishing village and today it is a town."
Manuel Heredia, Area Rep
"Fishing has died drastically but I can say that the growth with people has tremendously increased by like 5 times. We have now about 12,000 residents on the island and development has dramatically happened on the island. From one to the other now you can see development."
Elsa Paz,
"We have seen a lot of development especially like in the population. Right now we have approximately 15,000 and 20 years ago we only had about 2,000 so its a big difference."
And that difference can also be quantified by the impact San Pedro has had on the tourism industry. Having moved away from the traditions of fishing and dived head long into tourism, Paz says San Pedro has now become the number one tourist destination in the country.
Elsa Paz,
"We have more hotels and 20 years ago we only had one hotel. It was 'Holiday Hotel', today we have 62 hotels, and we are the number one tourist destination in the country."
That being the case both Heredia and Paz agree that there is only one way for San Pedro to move on, keep on growing. So much so that Heredia says that very shortly they can see the island becoming a city.
Manuel Heredia,
"Definitely I can see a San Pedro coming close to a city and not really a town. The way it is growing I am sure in 20 years definitely San Pedro will be a city with development happening most on the north. San Pedro in the north it is two thirds of the island and that is where soon I can foresee, in the next 5 years, exploding. So I can see San Pedro more than 4 or 5 times than we are today with the way it is growing."
But that is for later. On this day the focus was on twenty and as part of the celebrations, past mayors of the town were honored. A Mexican orchestra and marching band pitched in along with the San Pedro dance companies to all tells San Pedro: we are proud.