Editing Chetumal (section)

===Early years===
Payo Obispo was in the beginning a small border town, mainly dedicated to border surveillance and whose economic activities were concentrated on the exploitation of jungle resources such as [[Manilkara zapota]] and [[chicle]], communication with the interior was only by sea, to the port of [[Vigía Chico]], where a railway linked with the capital of the territory, [[Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo|Santa Cruz de Bravo]], or further north [[Cozumel]] or [[Progress]].

The houses were woodland Caribbean English style, as in [[Belize]] or [[Jamaica]], built above ground level and painted brightly and with wooden latticework on the windows. Drinking water was collected from the rain through [[cistern]]s, of which each house used to have one, although a large public cistern was later built.