"Mexican" vacation

Ahhh….. I’ve just returned from a much needed escape from the dreary Boston cold and snow. I feel a bit guilty complaining about the weather having just come from basking in the warm Mexican sun, but it somehow feels even more biting and miserable here in comparison. Anyway, we (my extended family) just spent a week in Mexico. But to be fair, our week was really spent in a resort that could have been just about anywhere in the sunny world. The only clue to our continent was the language spoken by most (but not all) of the resort staff and the stylized references to Mayan culture throughout the resort.

The Grand Mayan, where we stayed, is one of those colossal fabricated kingdoms of vacation fantasy that borders on distasteful. You are welcomed to the resort through an entrance I’m sure was described in some developer’s meeting as “creating a sensation of traveling to a faraway time, providing a separation between the every day and the experience of the resort.” The space is easily 3 stories high, lit with somber mood lighting and infused with the music of deep tribal base drums and subtle water features. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you are met at eye-height by a giant foot and look up to see eye-poppingly immense statues of gilded Mayan warriors. At all times, there is a local woman quietly mopping the marble floors as vacationers sully them with their sandy flip flops and who signifies that no expense will be spared to wipe your proverbial fat American bottom.

The resort itself is decorated in the contemporary spa style and you feel immediately ensconced in luxury. Out back, there are at least 8 or 9 interconnected pools accented with waterfalls, whirlpools and margarita bars, and surrounded by tropical vegetation worthy of a botanical garden. There’s a manmade stream encircling the whole campus of pools that serves as a lazy river for vacationers to innertube on.

But the piece de resistance is gigantic water slide built on – what else? – a mock up of the Mayan Pyramid of Kukulkan, just in case (and you can’t be blamed) you forget where you are. The resort lies just on the beach, but in case resort goers want to entirely avoid local riff raff, the Grand Mayan has constructed a “fake beach” literally 20 feet from the real one, complete with a graduated and sandy shore, and a wave pool. It’s all best described as ridiculously over the top.

My folks bought a time share here pre-construction and, they tell me, got a fantastic deal on the place. We’ve been going here for years now, and I spent most of those feeling consumed with guilt by being so surrounded by such superfluous luxury in such close proximity to real world poverty. I felt conspicuous in front of the ubiquitous Mexican staff and constantly worried how I looked to them -- likely out of touch and spoiled.

I’ve since made my peace with all of that. After all, it makes my family happy to have uninterrupted time together, and the tourism of Puerto Vallarta fuels a full 80%of the local economy creating endless jobs. I know my discomfort isn’t helping anyone and global disparities in wealth exist even when they aren’t thrust in my face. It’s not how I’d necessarily choose to vacation, but I’ll indulge my family…. And myself.