Empalme

Founded in 1905, Empalme is a city surrounded by a municipality located on the south-central coast of the Mexican state of Sonora. According to the 2005 census the population of the city was 40,630 inhabitants, while the municipality, which has an area of 708.53 km² (273.56 sq mi), reported 50,663 inhabitants. Except for its coastline on the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortes), the municipality is entirely surrounded by the much larger municipality of Guaymas. In Spanish, the word empalme means "junction". At first, the community site was called Kilómetro Nueve because it was nine kilometers out of the port city of Guaymas. Then for a while it was called El Empalme meaning of course, the junction. The El was soon dropped. Unlike other...