Tulum 2024 - A New Dawn

 I woke up and laid in the comfortable bed in my room listening to the occasional bird calls emanating from the jungle thick trees which abound in this part of Mexico. Despite my luggage mishap life didn't seem so bad in the moment. 

So, with optimism which, I was to discover later was misplaced, I had a breakfast of a delicious Mexican roll, which reminded me of the Mexican neighborhood I had lived in in Chicago in my 20s and trips to the bakeries there, and a bowl of mixed fruit, donned my single change of clean clothes, shorts and a tank top, and set out to the local bike rental shop to investigate their rates. 

It was run by an exceedingly charming gentleman from Argentina. He, during our conversation told me, briefly, about his extensive travels though South America and Europe. I remarked on the beauty of the green parrot siting on a perch outside the shop and asked, as it was not caged, if it's wings had been clipped. He said he would not even consider doing that. The parrot was Amazonian and he had raised it from a chick when it had fallen from a tree. It was free to come and go as it pleased, never straying far, and always returned to it's perch outside the shop. The bond between the two was endearing. The bird, perched on his finger, played with the finger on his other hand as he wiggled it and nuzzled his face with it's beak. The man grinned from ear to ear,. the bird, were it able to grin, I'm certain would have been doing the same. He said about their relationship, "He takes care of me and I take care of him".

I strolled through the area and discovered a park which had been cleared out from the dense foliage. Beautiful blue birds flew about and called to each other from the virgin growth still left. It contained a thatched roof gazebo and a small playground. 

This area of Tulum, like much of the the city, was experiencing booming growth. Newly constructed and under construction low rise apartment buildings were ubiquitous./My concern was that too much of the jungle would be clear cut and stripped away leaving Tulum to resemble a Mexican version of sprawling, asphalt covered, U.S. suburbia. Certain places become what they are by the nature of their beauty and charm. Too often man, in the name of profit and greed, strips that beauty and charm away. Our desperation as a species has, in certain areas, devastated the beautiful and resource rich planet we have been gifted with. We, working together , must search for solutions and begin to repair what we have damaged over the centuries. We owe that to the generations that follow.