Comments on: Yucatan News: Live and Learn

By: Anny

Anny — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:16:30 +0000

I have been going to Cuzuma for some 20 years. I remember when it was a real, working henequen fiber plant, with a small rope business on the side. We would go up, knock on someone’s door, and ask if he had time to take us to the cenotes. There were no other tourists, no parking lots, no benches or canopies on the “trucs” and no track to the end of the line.

At this time the men worked, and the women stayed home to take care of their children.

Then came hurricane Isadora, which blew the roof off the henequen fiber building, destroyed some of the machinery, and left the men without jobs.

Since then the fields have been neglected, the women have begun coming into Merida to work as service people all week, only returning home for the weekends, and the men have had to stay home to care for the children, and find what work they could close to home.

I agree…it’s a shame to not have proper equipment for your working animals, BUT…kids have to come first. It’s a real struggle for many of them to get food on the table and to pay bus fare for their kids to get to schools outside the village. Now that the cenote tour has become a business, they have to line up just like the taxi drivers and take their turn, and there are a lot of drivers now!

What we on the outside see is how much we are paying for one tour, but I imagine that more often than once this is the driver’s entire income for that week.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that kindness and tact is the way to treat people, especially here in Yucatan, and a gringo with a fat purse is certainly not one to criticize someone’s habits.

Incidentally, I’ve never seen the animals mistreated, either.

By: CasiYucateco

CasiYucateco — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:29:44 +0000

Maybe to “us” they appear callous and cruel to their animals, but I imagine to “them,” we appear remarkably nonchalant about caring for (or ignoring) “our” children. Drop an average Yucatecan into a restaurant or store in the US where there are parents with children and they’d be appalled at the behavior of both.

Different cultures simply have different values. I’m not advocating cruelty to horses. But everyone doesn’t think the way “we” do. They have different struggles, different experiences, different thoughts. Yes, I’d be happier if the horses looked less thin and thirsty. Especially those little single ponies totting 6 or 8 fat tourists. I mean, couldn’t they do it with a pair of horses? (double the expense, different carriage parts, double the care, etc).

The carriage ponies aren’t the worst mistreated. The dirt sellers work those poor animals hard, whip them, and don’t seem to feed them a thing. Yet, they are dirt sellers, not exactly a high income career.

To me anyway, these aren’t people giving carriage rides as a hobby. They are doing it to eat, to live, to house their children. Sometimes, maybe, expats think there are more resources available to Yucatecos than there really are.

By: Mary Lou Martin

Mary Lou Martin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:01:29 +0000

I’m sorry, but I have to say that, for all the gentility and friendliness of the locals in the Yucatan, I have found the population to be remarkably callous and cruel when it comes to animals. Witness all the lame, half-starved horses pulling carriages around Merida. I have taken to walking rather than using them. I don’t doubt that some of it can be attributed to poverty, but the owners of those carriages must surely pull in enough to properly feed their horses, and you would think that keeping them healthy would be a priority when their livelihood is at stake. It’s a shame, because I love the people of Merida, but it seems to be one more issue, like the handling of garbage, that needs an educational campaign starting in the schools. If only these “life” issues were given the same amount of time and energy as the fiestas.

By: mmoguel

mmoguel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:01:02 +0000

I’ve been to Cuzuma and I’ve always enjoyed it there. When I was there the horses looked fine and the guides weren’t beating them. First time I was there, the stairs and ladders were dangerous scary. The ladders were made of tracks. Second time I went, I was amazed at the renovation. Both times I went, I was amazed about the cheap tour fare and the beauty of the cenotes.

But just like CasiYucateco mentioned in regards to the horses, the reason is economic. Do I buy a proper harness for my horse or feed my family? That should a no brainer. If the reader really wanted to help, she should personally buy the proper harness for the horse rather than give the guide an earful.

By: CasiYucateco

CasiYucateco — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:32:41 +0000

This link works for the 10 Mayan Foods:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/08/26/mexicomix082609.DTL