Mexico journal: Xcaret (part 1)
A good rule of thumb I go by when visiting new places is looking at the price - if something is not priced in local currency, it’s usually not worth seeing/doing/buying.
Going to Mexico, I expected to be able to follow the similar rule of thumb - after all, Mexico is known for good inexpensive food, and cheap attractions. Visiting Yucatan peninsula however somewhat changed that (mis)conception. The rule of thumb still worked for food, however in this part of Mexico there was no such thing as cheap “attractions”, despite the raging global pandemic. I’m putting attractions in a quotation marks because there is (for me at least) hard distinction between a tourist attraction and a tourist trap. I don’t think there is a set-in-stone definition, but if visiting the place enriches you in some way (plus if it benefits the local community as a whole), it’s an attraction. If it’s presented solely to milk money from rich tourists with (a potential for) a negative impact on the site the people in the area, it’s a trap. For example in my opinion, visiting Dubrovnik in the winter is an attraction - in the summer it’s a trap.
And Cancun and Tulum are filled with tourist traps.
I’d even go so far as to say that most places (where a tourist would stop by) are traps. The same restaurant on what visitors consider is Cancun which will charge you about USD20 per meal, and have a sister restaurant run by the same people for a quarter of the price somewhere else in the city. Whilst Tulum doesn’t have that type of discrepancy, there is another one - a restaurant where you pay USD50 for food, and the food is handmade from local ingredients delivered to you on a beach and a restaurant that delivers you a defrosted pizza for the same price. For someone like me, who is not familiar with the culture and doesn’t speak the language distinguishing between the two is often impossible.
Despite closures in Quinana Roo, Xarec related parks are open at 30% capacity. Having said that, I've felt like it was uncomfortablly crowded even then.
Visitors in Xcaret are often Mexican families, for whom this is one of the few places where they can witness culture from all around their country.
In normal times, visitors are predominantly foreign (let's face it, American)
This is why when Tamy suggested visiting Xcaret, one of the largest “ecological parks” and certainly one of the most expensive attractions along the riviera, I was sceptical. Knowing that the ticket price is out of reach for most local people (although they do have a discount) with prices such as USD4 for a water bottles was simply not something I would ever consider as “my thing”. Some time later, after much convincing and resignation (as everything else was closed due to COVID19), I gave in and we got the tickets. And boy was I glad to do so (and sad that I didn’t get the two day ones). Tamy’s dad said that it’s the only piece of culture along the cost aside from the Mayan ruins, and I think that is exactly what Xcaret is - rather than (or maybe better said, in addition to) being a way to extract money from tourists, it a platform for cultural conservation of all regions of Mexico. The fact that they are positioned in a place where they can charge as much as they do, means that they can pay the authentic artisans and performers in order to celebrate and preserve the variety of cultural traditions of Mexico.
Artisans of Xcaret: The artisans within Xcaret are often making souvenirs you can buy and keep the profit of their sales (which makes me feel much better about spending money there). Here Bernardo is making a straw hat, just like mine.
The raw materials before …
… and after processing.
Juan is making bread and serving (overly sweet) traditional Mexican spiced coffee.
Self-portrait outside of Juan's shop.
Traditional spices used in coffee Juan served us.
Me enjoying Juan's and Bernardo's creations. Photo credit: Tamy
While I will not fret on every single article in the park (and proverbially let the photos - likely over multiple posts do the talking), one I have to single out is the last performance of the night - the Xcaret Special performance. It’s a production that I think could rival any Broadway/West End show I’ve ever seen. More photos to come in subsequent posts.