The recent opening of the Maya Train through the heart of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula has been greeted with much criticism around the world. However, a small, dedicated alliance of indigenous and local community-led tourism groups are hoping that the opening a new train line will help keep their traditions, culture and community alive

Roughly 127 km north of the white sandy beaches and luxurious resorts of Tulum lies the Maya community of Ek’ Balam.  Founded in the late 1970s the people of Ek’ Balam continue to live as their ancestors have for centuries, following their indigenous traditions and culture centered around farming the milpa (cornfield), making traditional handicrafts, and cooking. Its scattering of homes built alongside a dusty, dirt road, are adorned with colorful sabanas (sheets) as makeshift doors allowing the smoke generated from cooking their daily meals over a wood-burning stove inside their house to easily escape. It is a community where the locals prefer to sleep tucked inside a hand-woven hammock instead of a store-bought bed. A practice they learn and perfect as babies.

Entering the community of Ek’ Balam, the homes are adorned with beautiful, colorful sabanas and handwoven hammocks.

Yet for what Ek’ Balam lacks in luxuries, they make up with a rich culture rooted around a warm and welcoming community that would only be a small dot on the tourist map if it wasn’t for the nearby ancient Maya ruin with the same name.

Ek’ Balam started introducing community-based tourism ten years ago to earn additional income and showcase and preserve their indigenous culture for generations to come. Their community tourism cooperative the Unajil Ek Balam Community Association is part of  Co’ox Mayab, a social enterprise that offers similar initiatives throughout the region.

While many similar indigenous-led community tourism projects shut down during the pandemic, Ek’ Balam survived. Located not far from one of Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos  (magical towns), Valladolid, Ek’ Balam is hoping for an increase in visitors and desperately needed infrastructure that the new Maya train stop and Visitor Center opening this summer in nearby Valladolid will bring.

Some of the lovely local ladies of the community of Ek’ Balam

The government has already promised a new road – the first paved road their community has ever had, in addition to promoting sustainable tours and new jobs for their community. It is the hope that their venture into community-based tourism will keep the younger generation from migrating to the big cities and resort towns, losing a piece of their culture and themselves along the way.

“The program is the first of its kind in Mexico and will start in Yucatán, benefiting tourist cooperatives, collectives, and family-based grassroots enterprises directly by providing training in cultural and natural heritage, community tourism management, promotion, and the development of sustainable tourism products” per UNESCO. Partnering with Airbnb to help market these opportunities, these experiences will help promote rural tourism initiatives in the region.

We started our visit with a 2-hour tour of the milpa where we learned all about the community’s regenerative farming techniques. 

While the Mayan language itself is already slipping away since the government-employed teachers in the community only teach in Spanish, a part of their heritage is also being lost. “Children don’t want to learn Mayan at home,” said Jose, our community guide who received funding for tourism school from the community tourism cooperative.  The art and culture of making huipiles – the beautiful, colorful embroidered dress that Maya women traditionally wear – is also disappearing.  Young girls are no longer learning this craft for many reasons.  Advancing technology is one reason. Huipiles are done faster by sewing machines and in factories, making it cheaper to buy huipiles at local shops. And unfortunately, discrimination is another reason.  Maya women don’t want to wear traditional dress outside of their community in fear of discrimination, making the practice of wearing huipiles slowly fade away. We did not see one woman in the village in traditional dress. We were told that only a few remaining women practice this art form, one being our tour guide Jose’s mother.

A highlight of our visit was watching a live demonstration of hammock making by a local woman and her daughter

Another part of the community’s livelihood that is being challenged is farming. Climate change is one of the big culprits impacting their harvests and the farmers have learned to implement regenerative farming techniques -such as reforestation, planting different varieties of crops, and caring more for the soil – in order to ensure they produce enough of a harvest to survive.  A relatively new governmental program called “Sembrando Vida” (“Harvesting life”) has helped. It provides rural communities with education, economic assistance and support in agronomy and reforestation. However, the drier the climate gets the harder it becomes to get a good harvest.

Below are examples of the cabanas offered to guests. Thanks to a new initiative with Airbnb, you can find the cabanas listed on their site.  

Over a dinner conversation with some of the members of the cooperative Co’ox Mayab, we learned that it is the hope that the new Mayan train stop will lead to more sustainable tourism and income.

“We are cautiously optimistic about the Tren Maya,” says Mario Tuz May, President of the Co’ox Mayab.  “For the first time, we will have access to infrastructure and reap the economic benefits of tourism. It will be a way for us to keep our culture and traditions alive”.

What Mario told us is the same hope we had been hearing over and over again after a week spent visiting local and indigenous communities in the Yucatán Peninsula. Despite all the negative press and heated debate behind the highly controversial Maya Train, there was another side of the story. An untold story behind some of the potential beneficiaries of the train.

Our group of RISE Travelers got to meet with the community leaders to learn firsthand about the hopes and dreams of their community tourism initiative.

Our group learned about the many complex dynamics behind the highly controversial Maya Train in the Yucatán. Most of what we had read about the train before our trip was reported by Western media highlighting the death and destruction of this “terrible, expensive project”. Not only did the government cut down millions of trees throughout the rainforest to make way for the train, there were also human rights violations (roughly 3,000 households were displaced) and concern that the construction would damage some of the region’s cenotes and Maya architecture. While many of these concerns are valid, it is also important to recognize the local stakeholders’ point of view which was quite different from the opinion offered in the global press.

This was truly eye-opening for me. I had been hearing all about the environmental destruction from the train and how horrible it was. Yet I had never thought about how these mostly Indigenous communities had been completely cut off from the benefits that this new infrastructure will bring: Access to tourism, healthcare, education and the global marketplace. While the environmental damage is terrible there are other sides to the story and it was really nice to finally hear their viewpoints. 

It was a memorable experience for our group to spend the night in the rustic huts in the heart of the jungle, falling asleep in the crisp, fresh air and rising to the songs of the birds. Community-based tourism at its finest is when it is so immersive and managed by the community. It was a rare treat being able to stay in Ek’ Balam falling asleep as many have done for centuries in the heart of the Maya Yucatán. 

If you go:

Visiting the Ek’ Balam Community

Visiting Ek’ Balam and better yet, spending a night or two, provides travelers with an intimate glimpse into traditional Maya life and community.  The community preserves many ancestral Maya traditions such as cultivation in the cornfield, embroidery, hammock weaving, and tortilla making, which they share with visitors through community tours of the town. Check out this tour lead by the cooperative that picks you up directly from Mérida and brings you to the community, the ruins, and the cenote.

Hammock-Making

Hammock-making is a longhand tradition by Maya girls and women in this community. Grandmothers and mothers teach their girls at a young age the art and craft of hammock-making, weaving hammocks throughout the day. The women sell the hammocks in the community to travelers and also offer hammock-making classes as an additional way to earn an income.

Traditional cuisine

Included in your stay at Ek’ Balam is delightful Maya cuisine for your meals. Guests enjoy the fruits of the community’s labor in the milpa eating meals prepared directly from the farm to the table. We enjoyed fresh vegetable and corn soup, grilled chicken, and rice and beans. For breakfast, we enjoyed farm-fresh eggs with corn tortillas and fruit.

The cabanas

The Unajil Ek Balam ecotourism center also offers lodging in traditional cabins and camping areas.  They have eight rustic cabins which can accommodate up to 30 guests making it an easy place for families and groups to visit.

The ruins and a nearby cenote 

The Ek’ Balam archeological zone is right next to the village and is an amazing, less crowded option than other more popular nearby Chichén Itzá.  A visit to the neighboring XCanché Cenote is also highly recommended.

The impact

Ek’ Balam’s sustainable tourism initiative Unajil Ek Balam Community Association is part of Co’ox Mayab, a social enterprise made up of nine tourism cooperatives dedicated to community-based tourism in Yucatán. Co’ox Mayab is the first of its kind in Mexico, and benefits tourist cooperatives, collectives, and family-based grassroots enterprises directly by providing training in cultural and natural heritage, community tourism management, promotion, and the development of sustainable tourism products.

This is the third post in a series on my trip with RISE Travel Institute. This past February, I joined students and alumni of the RISE Flagship Program for the RISE Experiential Journey (EJ) trip to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Partnering with Etnica Travel, RISE’s annual Experiential Journey (EJ) was an opportunity to explore what it means to travel in a way that is Responsible, Impactful, Sustainable, and Ethical.

During the week-long trip, RISE Travel Institute participants visited four community-led tourism initiatives showcasing the rich traditions, culture, history, and vibrancy of local and Indigenous communities. We also learned about the important and beautiful biodiversity of the region.

RISE travelers got to see the benefits firsthand of sustainable, community-based tourism (CBT). If done correctly, CBT can provide sustainable tourism income, conservation, and preservation of precious ecosystems and cultures to communities that are often left off the typical tourism map while affording travelers with some of the richest, most memorable experiences of a trip.