Mexico’s AMLO to Expand Yucatan Tourist Train Plan

Mexico’s president-elect announced an even more ambitious proposal for a train on the Yucatan peninsula Monday that would link nearly all the region’s main tourist draws and cost double or more than the previously announced figure.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador(AMLO) had campaigned on building the tourist train from the beach resort city of Cancun down through Tulum and to the Mayan ruins of Palenque, 520 miles (830 kilometers) to the southwest.

The new plan adds a western spur that could stop in the cities of Campeche, Merida and Valladolid — the latter near the famed ruins of Chichen Itza — and ultimately complete the circuit in Cancun.

Lopez Obrador said the “Mayan train” would cost between $6 billion and $8 billion, compared with the previous figure of $3.2 billion. He said it would be financed over six years through both public and private investment, including tourism taxes that currently net about $370 million a year.

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What was to be 560 miles (900 kilometers) of track would rise to about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers), and would be completed in four years “at the latest,” he said. Most of the route lies on land already owned by the federal government.

“This will greatly stimulate tourism and will create jobs in the southeast, which is the most neglected region of the country,” Lopez Obrador said.

The announcement amounted to a doubling down on a campaign proposal had left some scratching their heads.

The route is dotted by low jungle, wildlife reserves, pre-Hispanic archaeological sites, wetlands and underground rivers that can suddenly cave in.

Even the initial proposal would have taken years to build, and soaked up scarce money, to reach ruin sites like Calakmul, which now gets only about 35,000 visitors a year — the number better-known sites like Chichen Itza have in a week.

The new plan would bring Chichen Itza into play, as well as Campeche and Merida, two gorgeous if sweltering cities known for their picturesque colonial buildings.

For fans of Lopez Obrador’s initial plan, it’s all about getting people off the beaten track — the heavily travelled tourism route of Cancun-Riviera Maya-Chichen Itza-Xcaret visited by millions of tourists every year.

Villages like Muyil are offering tours such as floating down fresh-water canals dug by the Mayas, visiting local pre-Hispanic ruins, seeing local craftsmen and sampling regional foods.

That’s not to say that Mayan communities there don’t have something to offer tourists beyond sites such as Calakmul, a sprawling ancient Maya city-state almost completely covered in low jungle. Five communities in the low jungle around Calakmul already offer hiking, biking, bird watching, cave tours, kayaking and craft workshops.

Source: The Washington Post