Winter in Minnesota is a good thing...for awhile. But then, about mid February, it seems like we have all have enough. We're tired of hauling kids to hockey, early darkness, and wearing coats and gloves; we just want it to end!
So sometimes we get to go on vacation and get away from it all. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that with my family and some friends last week in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. I guess that was about the same time my cabin got twenty inches of snow dumped on it, but I didn't really watch the weather a whole lot down there.
What I did watch were the people. I guess I am always interested in how others live, and that is why I generally enjoy traveling by road rather than air. No one really "lives" on a plane; they mainly sleep, read, and make odd noises now then.
On the other hand, it was interesting to me to find out more about the people who worked around Cancun, Playa and Cozumel. Although it is almost an obsene disparity between the majestic resorts along the water and the barely habitable hovels on the other side of the highway, these people work with a non-ending conviction and no obvious complaining. Perhaps because there are so many others to take their place, or because they are striving to get ahead.
Tips are a big thing in Mexico. Wages are quite meager, so those that have worked their way up to a job that pays tips can do quite well. There are over 1,000 taxis just in Playa alone, and each of them is white. Coincidently, there are also 1,000 different prices to get to the same location, and unlike up here where you have to wave down a taxi - and get one if you're lucky - the drivers down south are out on foot tracking down business...and making deals in hopes of better tips.
Long hours are common in Mexico. Our shuttle driver had 62 trips lined up for Saturday, from 4:00 AM until 11:00 PM. He probably makes several hundred dollars or more per day and does OK. He also works six days a week, as do most of the people around there - except the ones who work seven days. He was talking about taking a vacation to Minnesota, but thought it would be a bit cold yet.
But the guys in the restrooms impressed me the most. They weren't handing out woven towels with refreshing fragrances like you might see at a fancy hotel here in the states; they were in bathrooms barely large enough to turn around, and tearing off chunks of brown paper towling while they pointed out the soap dispenser and hit the handle on the faucet. The tip jar was right there so it was kind of hard to avoid, and I guess if someone wants to stand there for sixteen hours doing that job I can flip them a buck. Those dudes may bring in $1,000 a day since some of the drinks are quite large in the bars and restaurants where they worked.
Many of the people in Mexico don't have a lot of choices - it is obvious they do what they need to for survival. Even though our economy has been tough, we in America still have so much more opportunity that any place else on earth...if we allow ourselves to make seemingly difficult choices, and changes now and then.
Sometimes it just takes getting a break from our everyday normality - and The Weather Channel - to realize it.
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I live in Nashville and have recently discovered Mexico! originally being from England I enjoyed being on the ocean in Cabo San Lucas and Puerta Vallarta but to experience the more traditional Mexico try Guadalajara. The architecture here is very European and has the feel od an old Spanish city. There is even a huge lake around Chapala with some great opportunities to invest in lake front property in Mexico!
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