Uncovering Mexico

By Karen

March 28, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this

Any improvement to the road from Oaxaca city will be an improvement. I once took a memorable overnight bus trip from Oaxaca to the coast. Emphasis on once. Never again. You had to survive four hours of hairpin turns and the constant speed up and slow down and being tossed (no pun intended) in your seat before it straightened out. I’m an adventurous soul, but once was more than enough! Continental only has flights to Huatulco on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays via Houston (they’ve also made significant cuts to direct flights to Oaxaca via IAH). With flights averaging $550 to $686 into Huatulco, I fear it will take more than airport upgrades to get tourists from Texas in there. I always try to avoid making a connecting flight in DF if possible.

By Max Uhler

March 28, 2008 6:29 PM | Link to this

Well, Jeremy, those of us who live in Oaxaca aren’t too enthusiastic about what we consider an ongoing project of Disneyfication all over the state. The Huatulco project is a pretty good example.

The government tells us that this is good for the economy. And it is for the rich. “Government planners set aside 50,000 acres,(and) moved the existing population to a ‘neighboring town.” As you said in the first paragraph. These were indigenous people who had lived there since time out of mind and made their living, in this beautiful place, from the sea.

They now have been ‘relocated’ into the sweltering, stinking, dengue riddled jungle. Their former property, which they owned and shared communally, is now the property of multinational hotel corporations. The common ‘wisdom’ of the government is that this will provide lots of swell management jobs for the former residents. It doesn’t, the big hotel chains bring in their own people and the only jobs that go to the locals are the scut work. Making beds and cleaning toilets for about $5 a day.

One sees help wanted adds posted all over the state of Oaxaca. They list the qualifications, a certain age range, male or female and often contain the curious phrase: “A good appearance required.” It took me a long time to figure out what this meant. It is code for “No Indigenous Need Apply.” This in a state that is predominately indigenous.

So you can well imagine that most of us Oaquenos feel regret that the tourists don’t have another really swell beach to bake and swill on, but not much regret.

By Paul

March 28, 2008 8:09 PM | Link to this

Having traveled in Mexico for many years, I’d tend to agree that distance and travel costs are the main problem for tourists. Fortunately, the comment by Max deepened the discussion to include the plight of the indigenous population. The all too common tactic,to displace indigenous peoples from lands they’ve lived on for perhaps 500 years in order to build a resort for the relatively wealthy, isn’t perhaps as sexy a topic as travel problems faced by tourists. But it is more important, and it is the truth in Huatulco, Chiapas and much of Mexico where ejidos can now be sold to developers, thanks to NAFTA. We see a continued willingness by the greedy to violate human rights in the name of development.

By Ron Mader

March 29, 2008 2:31 AM | Link to this

I first visited Huatulco in 2006 to take part in Musica para la Tierra and an eco conference in which I talked up Responsible Tourism and Conservation — http://www.planeta.com/planeta/06/0605naturalezanotes.html — but the local environment itself was very, very strange. Booze and cruise trips to the reefs, disgruntled ‘First Choice’ tourists from England and the worst food I have eaten in Mexico.

There’s a serious disconnect and not much of an interest in serious dialogue. The result is that every two years the government has to ‘re-invigorate’ the initiative. I’d argue that Huatulco has some great potential, but it will take more than transportation infrastructure to make the difference.

By Butch Burwash

March 29, 2008 7:35 AM | Link to this

Thank you Max, for your frank and informative comments. Tourists planning a vacation in any resort “hot spot” would do well to consider the way these resort developments have dealt with the area’s original inhabitants. While we are rushing to chastise China for its human rights abuses, we should have the honesty to examine how fairly Mexico, (and yes, her two NAFTA partners to the North,) has treated aboriginal people.

By Patrick Kelly

March 29, 2008 9:16 AM | Link to this

I visit the Huatulco area once a year. I used to go early in December and now I go in January and meet my sister and her husband there.

A. Getting there is expensive and time-consuming. My sister sometimes has to spend a night in Houston because there are no flights connecting on the day she arrives there. The new highway will be a boon for Mexicans wishing to visit Crucecita but won’t do much for the fancy hotels.

B. Once you get there, you’re there. There isn’t much in the area to do. I entertain myself taking pictures, snorkeling, and visiting with local people. Tourists aren’t big on entertaining themselves. You can take a day trip to a coffee finca or the Magic Waterfalls and then you head to the bar.

C. There is darned little shopping and while that doesn’t interest me it does interest a major percentage of the tourists.

I know there are a lot of tourists who want to see the quaint villages frozen in time but unfortunatly the people don’t want to live frozen in time.

Everyone I’ve met working in Huatulco is from, big surprise, Huatulco. That means they are indigenous. The big hotels are owned and managed frequently by people from outside the country.

Please note that while I live in Oaxaca, the opinions expressed here are mine and I don’t presume to speak for any group.

By Factfile

March 31, 2008 7:43 AM | Link to this

I am completely happy about the “Re Birth”. Basically it just means a highway and an expansion of what is already here, but …?

The local people were starving before this resort opened. Now they have jobs. I live with the local people here (Huatulco). Do not listen to the middle class disgruntled types in Oaxaca City. the poeple are very OK with what is going on. It is not all loss for the locals. far from it.

There is nowhere more beautiful and peaceful than Huatulco. This is no Cancun, it is very Mexican. The number of Gringos is very low. Middle class Mexicans love it here, they have a good knowledge of their own country.

Where else in Mexico can you Surf renown world class waves and then snorkel on deserted reefs the same day?

Anyway cynically, it is a great investment now. No doubt about that.

By Virginia Montes

March 31, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this

I loved Huatulco and most of Oaxaca from my first time there 12 years ago. Its beauty, undeveloped beaches are great. Besides that, The chance of visiting nearby cooffee growers indigenous communitites exporting to the Fair Trade markets in europe and the US was great. I discovered that Oaxaca is a breeding place for musicians, sculptors, painters and humanists. The sense of being at Café huatulco with thinking people, talking about innoavative projets, was wonderful.

But most of this is now absent. The government seems to be commited to destroy all the things that made Huatulco and Oaxaca much more than sand, water and blue skies. After the violent imposition of Ulises Ruiz as Oaxaca governor, many artists went away. Many independent cultural projects ended as the authors killing of Indymedia reporter Brad Will have not been punished, altough there are video evidence of them.

And regarding the beautiful undeveloped beaches, the goverment is doing as much as possible to convert them into plastic, expensive hotel rooms.