At first glance this may lead you to think this is about falling in love in Mexico. It’s not. It’s about the romance of travel returning – the ability for people to engage the human appetite for exploration, discovery and reflection. Okay, yes – beach time and cocktails too.
My recent holiday allowed me to combine my modern understanding and conveniences with the ancient ways of the Mayans. I explored some likely spots, like Chichen-Itza, one of the worlds ancient wonders, to seldom seen live archaeological sites like Ek Balam (which means “black jaguar” in Mayan).
I was surrounded during my holiday with a world, in Mexico’s largely undisturbed Yucatan, that developed between 100AD and 1300AD – a period that paralleled the emergence of the very meaningful Tang Dynasty in China and the founding of Constantinople, modern day Istanbul.
I thought while I was there about the Mayan culture – science we still use today, art that makes us dream and religion that is rich in symbolism. The building of these great cities and temples, preserved by the jungle, is a marvel. And, the uncovering of them in most cases as tedious as the original work to construct them. The images, the architecture and the locations are the types of things that create the memories, excitement and mystery that make travel romantic.
You could say, the same characteristics that make us fall and stay in love. In a sense, we are equipped to extend our travel experience into the past, present and future through more knowledge – and by having a relationship with the destinations we visit. Granted, the Mayan civilization was not short on imagination and a future viewpoint in any manner.
I also thought about where Mayans went on vacation as I looked at the perfection of their work still standing – surely they went on holiday ? As I thought of this I started my climb, painfully, up the main pyramid at Ek Balam, getting a vista across the jungle tree tops as far as the eye could see. My holiday is not one they would have chosen, it would have been called a “staycation”. I thought about what they explored, how they learned about other places and how they shared and recorded their experiences , over vast distances. I soon had an answer.
My guide, also an archaeologist, showed me stone tiles and statues on every building and ancient civic gathering place, chiseled with intricate images once brilliant in color. I assumed they were only religious images. He said that the Mayans used these as ways to communicate what they saw, where they had been and share events of meaning – their version of digital images we today send around by the millions daily. I was recording and “chiseling” mine in my iphone by the second for the same reason, and my modern day holiday became completely connected with ancient ways of sharing travel experiences. 
I planned my trip with great images and advice from IgoUgo, secured my arrangements through Travelocity, found a guide and landed in style on American Airlines. The ancient Mayans traveled extensively too – and used much of the same theory in social media we do today – explore, discover and share.
In fact, there is evidence of contact with Asia while Chichen-Itza was growing as a city. A statue in a room deep in the main pyramid, closed to the public, housed a jaguar with eyes made of a type of ruby only found in central Asia. How did that happen? My bet is someday we will know when we find the long lost images chiseled somewhere that say how. Ironically – that story will outlast anything I snapped with my iphone. One has to think though – how exhausting to come back from a trip in those days and have to chisel out your recommendations to others.
I did get some down time at The Ritz-Carlton Cancun truth be told. It wasn’t all-Indiana Jones holiday. And, dutifully, I explored, discovered and shared with the world, in the moment. Everything from ancient Mayan sites, grains of sand on my feet, brilliant blue water and my favorite drink are out there for many to see. My hope is that this will help someone else re-discover the romance of travel.
A holiday is not complete without posting embarrassing pictures of your loved one(s) too, just be sure it doesn’t kill a different kind of romance.
* Gordon Locke is a senior marketing executive with Sabre Airline Solutions.
