Honeymoon to Mexico

With poverty and lack of education, environmental problems in the third world tend to take second place to filling stomachs and improving deficient health care and education systems. For this reason, buses and lorries still belch black fumes, and locals still throw their rubbish wherever they see fit. Nevertheless things are slowly changing, and tourism is a strong influence in this change. Visitors do not like to see litter all over the place, so people living in and around tourist destinations are beginning to get the message.

One good thing about tourism is that it is uncentralised. Few visitors to Mexico & Central America stay for long in the capital cities, hence spending more currency in the provinces and outlying areas. This gives work with good salaries to people who without this may spend their lives as subsistence farmers. It also encourages people outside the capital to make sure their children get an education. You don't need to read in order to till a field, but you do if you are to be involved in tourism.

Santa Rosa is one of a number of Mexican-owned haciendas near Merida that have an ethical social policy of employing most of their staff from local villages and investing in their employees through a variety of free vocational training courses. Sisal plantations that once exploited Maya slave labour are now giving something back to local communities.