Obligatory comment that endorses pirating software. We need to make sure this stereotype about Lemmy remains accurate.

I’m not sure why you’ve chosen to be obtuse and misinterpret my comments. I’ve not said that Chichen Itzá should become a library.

The Vatican and Pisa are actually terrific examples of sites that are not overrun with tour guide and market stand mafias running every tourist scam under the sun.

So that’s it? We concede that this is the acceptable way we as a species best want to present our anthropological heritage? Forgive my comments on how we can strive to do better.

Good grief, this is such a toxic community.

Perhaps you’ve not visited this place, so for an impression: the area itself is very large and open and the site has restricted access with a fairly pricey admission fee.

Voices don’t carry very far in this environment, however the issue is that there are literally hundreds if not close to a thousand vendors literally screaming for attention. My objection is to the authorities who have permitted this kind of presence at a heritage site. Of course locals have taken advantage of the situation, that much is very clear.

It’s great that we’re enforcing laws that are there to protect our anthropological heritage. It’s not so great that it means this violator is attacked by the locals.

As an aide, I feel like Mexico themselves have quite a ways to go to protect the heritage site. The grounds of Chichen Itzá are absolutely overrun with “tour guides” telling dumbed down or outright fabricated stories and literally hundreds of souvenir stands with obnoxious sellers that don’t shy from any tactic to try to get your attention.

Walking around in that area should be serene, educational and immersive. Instead, it’s like being in a kindergarten, where hordes of salespeople are incessantly calling out to you (“where are you from, sir, where are you from?”), literally throwing cheap Chinese junk in your direction, playing drums and pan flutes or squeezing squeaky toys and gimmicks that are meant to sound like monkeys. It’s a cacophony of cheap garbage and harassment from locals (and nonstop clapping to hear the temple’s acoustic effect) that takes you out of experiencing your surroundings in an inkling of tranquility. In fact, only from specific angles is it even possible to capture a photo of the Temple of Kukulcán without the brightly colored eye sores of a hundred nearly identical souvenir stands visible directly adjacent to it.

Mexico should also take more pride in this site and treat Chichen Itzá with more respect.

I didn’t mean to suggest that it isn’t affecting the ordinary, working class Russian. My observation is that there don’t appear to be any less affluent Russian tourists.

I travel a lot, both for work and leisure, and wherever there’s no travel restrictions for Russians, like Thailand, UAE, or Egypt, it’s simply overrun with Russian tourists. And they’re rich, too, with the latest iPhones, Apple Watches and all the other fashion brands.

As much as I’d like to see l say that Russia is feeling the impact of this war, empirically, I can’t say that it seems that way.

What a terrible inconvenience for you.