Playa del Carmen or (Hell on earth)
I recently landed on planet Playa Del Carmen, Wow! what changes have taken place in the 12 years since I was here last...
I have been protected on this trip and within my bubble.
In so many ways, this is the opposite to a small, colonial indigenous, Guatemalan village, this is like hell on earth- or Shinjuku, or Kao Sahn Road, or Las Vegas.
All the glitter and emptiness of a western consumerist megalopolis.
I am a bit embarrassed, or ashamed, of the place.
Kind of like stumbling into a brothel; embarrassed with realizing why everyone is there, and not wanting to take part in it.
Especially after the wonder of living in close community in Colosio, during a land rush (and there arent too many of those around) where folks would rather the cheerful "pay me tomorrow" if you didnt have the change for your avocados, papayas and bananas. Than let you go away empty handed...
We all lived in small huts, everyone was excited for the future.
Now its an endless mall, advertising all the things you dont need and cant have.
I forget that there are enclaves like this, Acapulco, Mazatlan, "...insert tourism blighted city here"...
Who would choose to go to them, with nothing cultural or sustainable about them...?
Playa del Carmen could be called a success story, with the fastest growing city in North America and lowest unemployment. But what a vacuum of spiritual emptiness, so immediately evident after the sincerity of highland Chiapas and Guatemala. I must have had 5 church groups on my street...
Maybe I am only whining since I didnt stay all those years ago, and wandered on, away from the smell of money...
L
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