Writings By Date| Musings On Mexico | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
The Yucatan, like just about any other place in the world, is not immune to the contamination of Americanized commerce. But you'll mostly only see it here in a few places. There are Domino's Pizzas and Subways here and there, but they never advertize outside of the tour bus parking area.
Cancun is somewhat of an exception to this. It's more lke Las Vegas on the beach, then it is part of Mexicom, with a Planet Hollywood, Johnny Rockets, Wal-Mart, Office Max and Office Depot (for all that hotel stationery, no doubt), and every other giant retail chain from the US. The only thing Mexican there were the people working the places. Thank God we didn't stay there.
But cultural melding seems more common on "La Riviera Maya" than in other places we've seen, In this coastal part of the Yucatan Peninsula we met Germans, Americans, Austrians, and, my favorites, hippies.
The hippies were the ones running Rancho Libertad, our first accommodation in the small seaside town of Puerto Morelos. This collection of little "palapas" — huts with reed-thatched roofs — was run by several of the nicest women you'd ever meet. But make no mistake, this was totally hippy heaven. The hostess who met us when we arrived was named Tinkerbell, or Tink for short. That immediately should have clued us in. She spent her life living just about everywhere in Europe, and spoke more languages than we have changes of clothes. She was horrible at math (when trying to figure out our bill), but when I said the word drug (I was actually saying something about Wall Drug in South Dakota), those ears of hers perked up like a cat hearing a can opener.
If this wasn't enough to set the mood for the place, it also had:
....you get the idea. We had a chance to meet a few of the other women there, and I'd say the attitude was pretty much the same across the board. i sure would like to know what they're like on weekends!
