Preparing the encounter
Every travel has the purpose of creating encounters. These encounters can be made with nature, with other people and their cultures, and with ourselves. Those of us who work in the tourism industry know that these deep encounters are the holy grail that we look for in each experience.
ATMEX 10th Anniversary: A Decade Promoting and Strengthening the Adventure and Nature Industry in Mexico
We are celebrating 10 years, wow!
In November 2009, during the administration of President Calderón, his Secretary of Tourism, Rodolfo Elizondo Torres, saw a certain adventure traveler and businessman who had recently disembarked from the Hurtigruten, a Norwegian ship, in which he had just carried out the World Adventure Tourism Summit in the majestic fjords of that country, enter his office. About 450 people attended this event, all delegates from different countries of the world, with a common goal, to strengthen and professionalize adventure tourism on the planet.
We always return to the places where we loved life
A few weeks ago as part of the organizing committee of ATMEX, I had the opportunity to travel with the leading team on a scouting visit to the City of Guanajuato.
ATMEX is the most important adventure and nature tourism event in Mexico and Latin America. This year we will celebrate its tenth anniversary and pur host destination will be Guanajuato.
The portals to the Maya underworld
There is a close connection between caves and Maya ceremonial centers. Humankind emerged from the caves. The Myth of Creation in Mesoamerica relates that the origin of the first tribes were seven caves. Caves remained as shrines and adoration places. Indigenous cosmogony distributes existence in three levels, the sky and stars, the ground and people, and the underground and deities.
Xibalba and the Entrails of Earth
Xibalba is a Maya Word from the K’iche’ variant that is mentioned in the Popol Vuh saga. It is one of the regions in the otherworldly dimension located inside the caves. It represents a spiritual real of existence in the afterlife. Since from the dark labyrinths of caves there is no exit, it is natural to believe that the caves were the final resting place of the souls once they depart this dimension.
Sinkholes or Swines, the Ring of Cenotes succumbing to the industrial pig farms
The Geo-hydrologic State Reserve Ring of Cenotes is located spanning several counties in Yucatan state, in the area rear the Chicxulub crater. It was declared a Ramsar site in 2009, and as a Natural Protected Area in 2013. The meteor impact and the formation of the Ring of Cenotes are closely link, however millions of years divide them.
Paleotourism- Discovering the caves where Maya culture was born
When you plan an epic trip, unconventional journeys are the best choice. Here we will virtually adventure into the Mexican states that comprise the Maya land, and that overlap the geographical limits of the Yucatan Peninsula, to discover the first symbols of spiritual growth that detonated the evolution of a culture.
Speleotourism, Sustainability, Collaboration and Conscience
The Yucatan peninsula is not particularly famous for its caves, but it should be. Two of them stand out as the most extreme to visit; not for its difficult access, but for the display Mother Nature brings us there every day. One, is home to millions of bats that fly out at sunset to feed on insects; the other, hides dozens of snakes that hang from the top catching bats to feed themselves in total darkness.
WTTC´s Global Summit key take-aways
The ATMEX team had the opportunity to participate in the 20th edition of the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit which took place in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico from April 25-27, 2021.
Peeking into prehistory from within the ground
Speleo diving is a trip to the underground cosmos, one that exists without us knowing; gnawing the Yucatan peninsula from within; rain carving from above, the ocean caving from the sides.