Playa del Carmen’s Alternative Alltournative
While Cancun is more associated with the spring break, beer-swigging crowd (a Ft. Lauderdale south of the border, if you will), its neighboring city of Playa del Carmen is more low-key and offers some unexpected ecotourism and socially conscious tourism experiences.
When we went to Playa in 2000, the company Alltournative was only a year old. Even so, we had a great time on our tour, combining lunching at a traditional Mayan village, swimming in a cenote (an underground, fresh water cave), ziplining, and visiting the ruins of Cobá, home of the tallest pyramid in the state. We also did a little shopping, canoeing, rapelling, and rope-ladder climbing. It was a full day! (And let’s just say that climbing a rope-ladder looks a lot easier than it is.) While their offerings have changed slightly, Alltournative has only gotten better over the years. We know this because our friend Levana took a tour with them in December and it sounded just as juicy as ours.
Alltournative’s (get it?) vision is to be the best alternative for adventure expeditions in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and an example of sustainable recreational tourism.
“In 1999 the Mayas of the isolated jungle community of Pac-Chén were on the brink of selling off their natural heritage in the face of an extremely bleak economic future. However thanks to an enormous creative effort on the part of both parties the groundwork was laid for what today has become an internationally-recognized success story in practical sustainable development.”
Yes, just as important as the “fun” aspect is the fact that this is true sustainable and socially conscious tourism. Alltournative works with local communities to understand how best to collaborate on tourism initiatives. They rent land from the communities in order to provide ziplining and other adventures for tourists. Alltournative hires local guides to run tours and local women to cook the traditional Mayan lunches. Through their website and tours, they aim to educate tourists: their sustainable development and Mayan web sections give a timeline and history of the ancient Maya and talk about the Mayan communities with which they work, explaining their histories, how they came to work with Alltournative, and their current situations.
Finally, they are also a true ecotourism provider, steering away from popular, yet damaging, adventure tours that include ATVs or jet skis, and instead focusing on eco-friendly approaches (hiking, biking, kayaking, etc.) to tourism in Playa and its surrounding areas. Bravo!
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