Mexico Vacation 2010: Leftover Thoughts

In February my wife and I took a week-long vacation to the Riviera Maya- the Caribbean Coast of Mexico. We stayed at the Bahia Principe Akumal Resort about an hour south of Cancun. Through this past couple weeks I have been blogging about the trip and our experiences.
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So here I am, three months post-vacation. My trusty Moleskine journal is still by my side, filled with more stuff, but still part of the memory of the Riviera Maya.

“Travel writing isn’t really an exploration of where you’ve been, so much as an explanation of where you’ve come from. All journeys end up at the same address. Back home. Travelers don’t write for the people they visit, but for the people they’ve left behind.”

–A.A. Gill, AA Gill is Away (2002)

--HT Rolf Potts Vagablogging

At the top of my memories is the New 7 Wonder- Chichén Itzá.


Well, more to the point - the collapse of Chichén Itzá. There is an awe-full beauty to the place that can easily become awful. It is a place that inspires a sense of amazement. It also has many, many picture opportunities- lines, colors, people, trees, sky. Then I stop and remember that people lived here. Lots of people lived here. Today we walk through what's left of their streets, glance at their artwork, and admire who they were. We do this 800 years later. 800 years. All that's left of them is their mysteries, our guesses, and a lot of uncertainty.

We have been able to reconstruct some of what was there, but there is much we don't know. Their calendar, for example. I wondered who would have been playing the great ball game in 2012 if they were still around?

Then I wondered who will be roaming around some parts of our nation in 800 years wondering who we were?

Which is not as far out of the realms of possibility as they would have felt in Chichén Itzá  900 years ago. Many think that the collapse of this great culture was at least to some degree their own fault. There is reason to believe that the society became "top heavy," too much aristocracy, too many people at the top to be able to support by the greater community. They used a primitive "slash and burn" technique that had to be expanded and expanded to support more people. The result.... the collapse of the society from ecological disaster. The world of the Yucatán was unable to provide what they needed.


And as the stones bear a mute witness to what was...

... murals in resorts give us some feeling of the depth of the lost culture...

and statues of Kukulcan become the centerpiece of neo-Maya buildings.

Such is the great sweep of time.

It is humbling and scary since I wonder

if we ever learn?

On a more prosaic note, though was the ironic silliness of the trip....
a classic example of tourism at its craziest.
It would appear that tourists who have just visited one of the New 7 Wonders of the World need to be entertained on the way home. As we left Valladolid on the way back from Chichén Itzá they showed a movie on the bus. The guide told us three times on the way there and at least three more times on the way back that this was the only movie available and that it was what was given him by the office in Cancun.

And what movie do they show to keep us entertained after a visit to an educational and culturally significant place?

Unbelievable.

Anyway, moving on to other personal reflections....

• If this doesn't motivate me to do something about my physical shape- nothing ever will. The scuba diving and snorkeling exhaustion was a real eye-opener. As a result, I am sure, I have continued my 5 day/week workouts ever since. I have worked out Monday - Friday in one way or another ever since. My first bike ride the other week was better than almost any last year... easier, especially for a first ride. I have been hiking, probably 3 miles or so last weekend. Not a lot, but with a lot more stamina. It feels good. Very good.

• I mentioned the barbecue that the people of Apple Vacations held for us. Well, part of the evening was the entertainment where people were called up/volunteered to be part of skits. It struck me that this was a lot like what we used to do at campfires at church camp. Only the double entendres and sexual undertones become more like overtones. People must have a built in desire to get up and make fools of themselves in front of others.

• Then there was my Pine Creek hat. You can't see it all that well in the picture but it is a Rastafarian-type guy riding a bicycle. It was from my 60 miles for 60 years ride two years ago. I brought it because it was light colored and had a fun look to it. Well, when we were waiting for our luggage prior to customs on arrival in Cancun, a guy in line laughed thinking it was Goofy from Disnew World. It was at that point I realized that it was Jamaican-Rasta colors. Hmmm. I had a moment of panic. Oh, no. I'm going to get pull aside by the officers. Glad no one noticed that.

Actually the hat did lead to one interesting conversation - 

one of the scuba instructors liked mountain biking.

• When thinking back on the scuba, I realized that while I was down 40 feet, where it was twice the pressure of sea-level atmosphere, it was only three yards or so beyond a first down on an American football field. Amazingly shallow. A four story building. (I know I wouldn't think it was shallow if I jumped off a four-story building.) But in such a short distance it was a completely different world.

I also did not take my computer- and didn't miss it other than to download the pictures each evening and play with them. But if I had done that I wouldn't have been sitting at La Casita enjoying the evening warmth and the Latin music coming from the sound system. No, computers may be neat and fun but it was nice being completely unplugged.

Then reality hits and one returns to the daily life in Minnesota in February.

On return from a trip where one's soul has been shaken unexpectedly (but who expects to have their soul shaken?) one comes face to face with what has always been there- oneself. The old line is as true for vacations as it is for anything. Wherever you go, there you are. Except hopefully you come back more aware of self and soul and the possibilities that exist under one's own roof.

You don't have to backpack and stay in seedy hotels to have a pilgrimage. An all-inclusive resort can bring one face to face with the way life can be lived. I enjoyed it- I was shaken by it- and I am a different person for it. Whether it is the ancient Mayan ruins, the waiter's assistant, the coral and fish at 40 feet, or the three local recovering people who made me welcome, it was a pilgrimage and a slight peek behind the scenes of my life and theirs.

“The practice of soulful travel is to discover the overlapping point between history and everyday life, the way to find the essence of every place, every day: in the markets, small chapels, out-of-the-way parks, craft shops. Curiosity about the extraordinary in the ordinary moves the heart of the traveler intent on seeing behind the veil of tourism.”
–Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgrimage (1998)

--HT Rolf Potts Vagablogging

• See all of the pictures used in this series as well as others at my Mexico 2010 Flickr page.....
• LINK to the Mexico Photos on Flickr