26. The Ruins

Privileged, White folk on vacation at a Central American resort may be a sort of cliche at this point, but The Ruins' version of this well-worn scenario takes some pretty fun, and perhaps, critical, twists, which seem to challenge the conventional take on this tale as old as the Club Med boom of the 70s and 80s. Tourist dollars have become a necessary evil for many a resort economy in the so called "Third-World," mostly located in the topical regions of the "Global South." The Ruins appears to be located somewhere in the Yucatan because there are Mayan ruins somewhat near by. North Americans feel lured to these "exotic" locations by the relatively cheap, all-inclusive, vacation packages, which are unequally beneficial to the local population depending on how one considers the influx of tourist dollars and the mostly menial job creation that is offered in return. Usually these packages include a few prefabricated excursions into the "strange" lands and ways of the native peoples. This culture-for-sale bargain only really works as long as the tourists remain within the confines of the protected resort even when they are outside of it viewing the local sites. Come find out what happens when a group of vacationers, mostly from around where I grew up on the "Northshore" of Chicago, lets their lust for "authentic" Mayan ruins, ruins well off the beaten path of the resort sanctioned forays, get the better of them.

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