"Down the malecon is the Hotel los Arcos, a full service hotel that also offers bungalows." So says today's newspaper, speaking of travel in a certain town in Mexico.

From context I can get the word, but I've never heard of it before. Have you?

According to Google Translate it is Spanish for "levee". I've never heard of it and it doesn't appear in Onelook. I'd suggest your newspaper should have put the word in italics to indicate a word from another language, and preferably included a translation.

Looking at a Spanish dictionary, I see that as well as a levee, malecón, can also mean a jetty, embankment, embarcadero, or breakwater. In Cuba, especially, it refers to a walk which runs parallel to the water (of the ocean or a river). Sounds a little more high-falutin' than a levee. (Its etymology is uncertain.)

Please click to view an article about the Malecón in Puerto Vallarta.

I use the same dictionary as zmj (RAE). I also checked wordreference.com, & there was a discussion among Spanish-speakers trying to decide how to translate the RAE 'seaside or riverside walkway' definition into English. In that case they were using the word 'malecón' for a walkway along a cliff overlooking the seashore, so they eschewed 'boardwalk' in favor of 'bluff.'

In Argentina iit's El Litoral.

[pronounced lee-toh-RALL]. Another translation .... waterfront.

The Malecon in Havana is probably the main road along which the Cuban and is senora walks in the evening. It's a very major road and certainly not a levee.

Sadly, when I was there, the wonderful old buildings that lined the landward side were badly in need of some paint, at that time unavailable because of the US embargo.

Ya gotta love those Cubans, especially ones like the Italian-born Menucci who invented the telephone before A G Bell.

I find much to doubt in this article and the following is surely wrong:

"...About 1873 a certain Bill Carroll from Boston, who had news about Meucci's invention, asked him to construct a "telephone for scuba divers"..."

Although diving suits had long been in existence by 1873, scuba diving sets had not and the expression "Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus" and its acronym was certainly not in use 170 years ago. Indeed, there are very few acronyms that antecede WW2 - RADAR being one of the first.

I agree with both zmj and RE on the general quality of the wikipedia article.

As to the specific "Bill Carroll/scuba" point, the wiki-author is apparently relying on this site
which says on page 7, 1872-1873 - sviluppa uno speciale telefono per sommozzatori, su richiesta di William Carroll, un sommozzatore che, avendo saputo dell'invenzione del telefono, chiede a Meucci di adattare il dispositivo in modo da consentire le comunicazioni fra sommozzatori e nave appoggio.

Clearly the wiki-editor has had trouble with his English. I don't know Italian, so I can't say if the reference (if accurate) supports any similar view.

Not to the point; typical obfuscation by misdirection. There're some good books, as well as monographs, out there on Menucci, many of which are cited at the end of the less than perfect Wikipedia article.