Former prison in Mexico is now a tourist attraction

A Mexican marine taking a picture of the Islas Marias Tourist Centre on the Maria Madre Islande in Nayarit, Mexico. — Reuters

One of Mexico’s most notorious prisons has begun a new chapter as a Pacific Ocean getaway after a makeover aimed at bringing in tourists to the former penal colony.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador opened the Islas Marias Tourist Centre recently, bidding to turn the decades-old federal prison in the Islas Marias archipelago into an environmental attraction and place for history lovers.