I’m not about to claim to live completely like a local in the places I travel. I don’t. I eat at touristy restaurants and go to tourist destinations and stand around on street corners looking at maps and taking pictures of stupid everyday things. But there are a whole host of different worlds out there.
As the end our time in Tulum, Mexico was fast approaching, we were scratching a few things off our list. Two of these things were going and checking out Playa del Carman and going and checking out the Hotel Zone of Tulum. To be clear, these weren’t not the top of the list of things we wanted to do, they were at the bottom, which is why they were getting done last.
In these places, you find designer brand shops and hamburgers and detox breakfast burgers are as common on menus as tacos. And those tacos definitely aren’t going to be 10 pesos. I could go on, but you get the idea. What’s weird is how different those places feel. The places me and Elani tend to be are the convergent zones where you’ll find a mix of locals, expats, and travelers who are fine adapting a bit more to their surroundings. These other places feel more, I guess, constructed. The people who are there are either the tourists who want comfortable, familiar luxuries with a bit more of a pleasant climate and or course a bunch of locals who spend their workdays there.
Of course, there are worlds beyond that. Driving the highways on the Yucatan, there are huge, grandiose gates with 24/7 security guards manning them, behind which are all inclusive resorts that I honestly know almost nothing about. And I’m sure other places I don’t even know about.
I don’t really have a point here beyond just how weird it is to see all these different worlds coexisting in more or less the same places. I guess I think it’s a little sad to see people isolating themselves so much from the culture of the places they’re visiting. It’s not like I don’t have my comforts I still keep up while abroad, but if you aren’t challenged at least a little by traveling to another country, it kinda seems like what’s the point.
Cover Picture: Elani admires an art installation in Tulum’s hotel zone. Photo taken by Geoff
I, too, would find it weird to stay in a place that’s “gated” off from the area it’s in; better to hit the streets with locals….but I’m not so mobile anymore, so not sure how I’d accomplish more adventuresome travel, were I to go.
It all looks marvelous to me; are you to the place where you’ll be working yet, or is that next? And where will you be for Christmas? Thanks for blogging, Geoff; it’s fun hearing and seeing what you’re doing! Much Love, Ann