Travel Diversity

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain, The Innocents

Cultural diversity is something you are bound to encounter on any vacation. And I'm not just talking about there being Canadians from every province all visiting Mexico the week we were there. "We're from P.E.I! Where are you from? B.C.! My aunt lives there! Lovely here, eh?" (by the way, British Columbia's slogan is "Super, Natural B.C."--cool and spooky at the same time). Anyway, it was fun getting to practice our Spanish as we interacted with the Mexican people who took care of us. Off the resort, Dale struck up a conversation with a young man on a "collectivo", the Yucatan's answer to public transportation. These are 15 passenger vans that run up and down the main highway stopping to cram 12-18 people inside. For $2 they will drop you anywhere along the strip-a bargain for vacationers wanting to venture "off resort". Through their conversation (he had lived in the U.S. for a while and spoke very good English) hubby learned that he had been a desk clerk at the resort we were staying. Salary? $5 a day. That's it. You started to understand why the bus boys that deliver your luggage were always older men--they got frequent tips which would boost their daily salary tremendously. It was a step up from desk clerk. Sobering. Now I know that there is a great difference in cost of living there, but I also know how much the collectivo cost-$2 a person.

I need to appreciate what I have more than I do, that's for sure. And to quit whining about gas prices.

Of course, then there's these guys:

They run a kiteboarding business on Paradise Beach in Tulum. The kites were amazing to watch, and of course hubby would have loved to give it a try. Cost? $200 for a 4 hour lesson. That's right-$50 bucks and hour. Are we in the wrong business or what? (They are eating some kind of pies they bought from a young Mexican kid that was selling them from a tray.) Too cool.

Tommorrow I'll tell you about the Mayan component of our trip. No heads will roll, I promise.