“Riviera Maya is a different time, a different speed, a different Mexico.”

-Terry Jones
Founder/Former CEO, Travelocity.com
Chairman, Kayak.com

I’ve devoted my career to travel — as a travel agent, at American Airlines, as the founder and CEO of Travelocity, and now as chairman of Kayak — in good part because I love it. I’ve been to 100 countries. And I’ve learned that even if you go to somewhere you’ve already been, you can have amazing new experiences.

Cobá is huge — 70 square kilometers, which is twice the size of Chichen Itza — with around 6,500 structures. Mayan workmanship is so impressive: At the large pyramid, a temple for the honeybee god, there’s a sidewall more than 100 feet tall and perfectly straight. At Cobá, we saw ruins way more than 2,000 years old — and there are probably a lot more underneath that. We were looking at the tip of a finger and trying to extrapolate the rest of the body. It forces you to use your imagination, not just to wonder what the other buildings are like but to conjure up the people, the riotous colors of their costumes, the smells, the food, the animals and everything.

Ruins alone aren’t enough: You want to see how people live today. We went to the Mayan village of Tres Reyes, where we learned that schoolkids are taught with televised lessons — it’s better than no teacher at all. We saw how the Mayans raise chickens and pig-like animals called pecari, and how around their houses they grow medicinal plants, almonds, bananas and a gourd called jícara. Local women served a lunch of chicken prepared with achiote (annatto seeds), beans and rice, empanadas, pico de gallo, and fresh tortillas. We drank tamarind and jamaica juice (jamaica is a relative of hibiscus), and for dessert we had a candy made with amaranth seeds. It’s not the kind of food the Mayans ate 3,000 years ago, but it’s what they eat now. The food was wonderful — and just like it does anywhere, it gave us a sense of the country that we couldn’t get any other way.

When we were arriving in Tres Reyes, our guide, Juan Carlos, said, “Open your eyes, open your ears, open your heart.” He was inspiring to watch — and he made a point of making contact with everyone – talking with them, shaking their hands, goofing around with the children. He’s obviously not Mayan, but they accepted him. When you travel, talking to people is the important thing, but it’s not always easy to do. That’s when having the right guide is crucial.

The company he works with, Alltournative, is doing something very valuable. It has helped towns like Tres Reyes to use what they have — including, in Tres Reyes’ case, a cenote (freshwater sinkhole) that we ziplined across — to improve their way of life without damaging it. Mayan men had been leaving their villages to look for work, and even then they made only about $40 per family per month. With Alltournative, they’re able to spend two weeks in the village working with travelers and two weeks tending to crops, and they earn $400 per month.

 

Many luxury travelers today are looking for eco-friendly hotels. We’ve all seen the more visible initiatives, like motion sensors and air conditioning that turns off when balcony doors open. But at the Hacienda Tres Rios I learned that there was far more going on that was invisible.

In this year-old resort the owner devoted even more time to studying the impact of the construction than he did on construction itself. The resort was built on columns rather than on a big block of concrete – which cost three times what traditional construction would have — so as not to harm the aquifer. The building was oriented to face cool tradewinds and away from the sun when it is strongest.

“I take the heat from the rooms and turn it into hot water,” said Diego Arroyo, director of development, explaining how the resort makes the most of the heat generated by air conditioning. The resort has reduced air conditioning energy consumption by 40 percent by using geothermal well water for cooling. An on-site nursery is working aggressively to reforest the mangroves damaged by the last hurricane. When we kayaked through the mangroves, along one of the resort’s three rivers, we spotted a raccoon-like animal, the white-nosed coatí, in the trees, and an anhinga, a bird similar to a cormorant.

On our last full day, Ginny and I spent a morning on the resort’s Sense Adventure, which entailed going through a series of experiences in the jungle – blindfolded. We felt strange objects and listened to evocative sounds. The guide instructed us to “imagine the universe” and then breathe it in deeply. It sounds hokey, but I thought it was great. I really slowed down: I wasn’t multitasking, I was just enjoying what was going on at that moment.

This trip, Riviera Maya, really struck me as a softer part of Mexico. By softer I mean it’s a quieter experience, a slower experience. There’s plenty of greenery here, and more than a little mystery. Riviera Maya is a different time, a different speed, a different Mexico.