8 Things That Suck About Spring Breakers In Cancun, According To Mexicans

While Spring Breakers rejoice with the idea of sunny beaches, 18 year-old drinking age and all-inclusive fun that Mexico has to offer, what do Mexicans think about their visitors? How do locals feel about this holiday of debauchery?

At HuffPost LatinoVoices we decided to ask some of our Mexican friends to give us some of their perspective on the subject.

These are what the locals had to say about Cancun's Spring Breakers:

Thanks to the HuffingstonPost

"A Beach Resort In New York City"?

"As a Mexican, its pretty sad what's become of Cancun. It's ridiculous how Cancun doesn't even feel like Mexico any more. Although, geographically it is on a map, everyone speaks English and sometimes you feel you're on a beach resort in New York City." 

"I hate how irresponsibly [spring breakers] act. They get wasted and jeopardize their own safety, not to mention that they later blame their troubles on the safety of the country and not their behavior." 

- Andrew Rogers was born in New York but raised in Mexico City. He went to Cancun for Spring Break for his senior class trip in high school back in 2007.

It's a 'Spring Break cliche'

"If you're into the whole spring break thing, it's the best place to go. Everything is organized so you can have that type of experience--the music, the bars, the huge drinks, ridiculous shots, etc." 

"But the parties get a bit nasty. I personally don't like the music or the atmosphere, precisely because it's so 'spring break cliche'. Everyone is always wasted, doing something stupid--yelling on the street, puking, unconscious girls everywhere. When I visit Cancun I try to stir away from the hotel area and from the area with the insane clubs. I'll leave those for the tourists!" 

-Ornella Cremasco is from Mexico City. She went to Cancun for Spring Break for his senior class trip in high school, but visits Cancun.

The Country Loses the Mexican Charm

"Cancun loses a bit of the Mexican charm because all the restaurants and other establishments start catering specifically to the American tourists. I feel like the 'mexicanness' of the place is lost." 

"Some establishments really appreciate the business that American tourists bring. It all depends which Mexicans you ask--the vacationers on the beaches or the locals in the place. This is from the perspective of a Mexican who lives in a city away from the beach and likes to feel she is in Mexico when she goes to vacation in her country." 

-Patricia R. Zablah is originally from Monterrey. She's spent spring break in Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.

Spring Breakers Have No Interest In The Culture

"Spring Breakers have no interest in understanding and getting to know the local culture, yet they feel they've 'been to Mexico.'" 

-Fernanda Chouza who grew up in Mexico City and has spent many Spring Break holidays in Acapulco.

"It's the Disney Land of Debauchery"

"What shocked me the most was the grinding. I was amazed at how guys would just come up to girls and basically start humping them and the girls would stick out their bottoms out to get thrusted upon. I mean the Mexican dance floor courtship has the same objective in mind (namely getting laid) but its much more roundabout - guys ask you to dance, they buy you drinks, they ask what your name is, etc. 

"But the thing about Cancun is that it's not a real place. It's what 20 somethings from the States want it to be and they don't want it to be a real place, so that the things they do there don't really count--like having sex in clubs (which I saw people doing), or dancing on a stage (with a pole that the club has generously supplied for you)." 

"They think they've been to Mexico, but really they've been to the Disney Land of debauchery, built especially for them." 

-Sofia Ortiz from Mexico City went to Cancun during the Spring Break of her senior year in high school.

Can You Do Spring Break As A Married Man?

As a single man, "if you speak English, you can even become part of [the Spring Breakers] group: you join them, drink with them, dance with them in clubs. You have a great time. If you go on a type of 'casanova plan' you have a good chance in ending in a room of a girl. 

As a married man, "if you are planning on going to relax, the reality is you can't. The hotels (especially those that are all inclusive) have boys and girls who are drunk every hour of the day. There's always some activity for them that includes alcohol and sometimes wet t-shirt contests. So if you are going and you're married, you're best bet is to leave the hotel. Being part of the spring breaker groups is no longer the option." 

As a married man, with children, "it's impossible. I lived the experience and our best option was to leave the hotel all day. Sometimes you see drunk kids in the beach or puking around. A display you wouldn't want your kids to see. The party goes on into the wee hours of the morning in the bars and clubs and even in your own hotel so going with your kids is impossible." 

- Alberto Sanchez, AOL Latino Homepage Senior Editor, is originally from Mexico and has spent two spring breaks in Cancun and one in Acapulco.

It's All About The Alcohol

"Many Mexicans think of Spring Breakers as young people who have no clue about anything and that instead of taking advantage of the fact that they are in another country they decide to get drunk." 

-Sandra Ortiz is originally from the state of Puebla, Mexico.

It's Good For The economy, But...

"There is a big influx of money into the country's economy during Spring Break. But the problem with the Spring Breakers is they travel with 'all inclusive packages' and they usually don't leave leave tips which are there to compensate the minimum wages of people working in hotels and other entertainment places." 

-Violeta Merlo, Content Editor at AOL Latino, spent some time in Cancun during this year's Spring Break.

Urban Passover - Pesaj Urbano Argentina

10 years ago that people YOK organizes the celebration of Passover Urban this celebration through the streets of Palermo to stand that will offer many typical dishes and the option to buy the ingredients to prepare at home.The event this year will be April 10 at Plaza Armenia and Costa Rica from 12 to 19. It's free and for all.

 It will be a day of celebration with proposals to share in public and outdoor debates, themed games tent, the best klezmer and other live music and an exhibition of stands with the most varied foods typical of Jewish cooking.
On Passover commemorates the liberation of more than two centuries of slavery in Egypt and refers to the mass exodus of Jews from that country some 3,300 years ago.This event became the focal point of the history of this town because his identity and said crystallized his birth as a free people.
ACTIVITIES:
Agora space:
Different cultural personalities will discuss the identity, the story of Passover and freedom.
Speakers: Hugo Mujica (Philosopher, theologian), Alejandro Avruj (Rabbi) and Enrique Herszkowich (Historian), among others.
Coordinator: Dario Sztajnszrajber (philosopher).  Marquee Games themes:
"And you shall tell your children": an area with interactive games for fun and discover more about the holiday of freedom, sharing and encouraging family transmission. ("The Sleeve", "Finding the Matzah", "Pests", "The Sons" and "Race questions about Passover," among others).
Flavors:
Fair gastronomic stands with the best of Jewish cooking in the broadest repertoire.
Also you can come and buy the typical products of Passover cooking.
Music:
Enjoy the best Jewish klezmer and other music throughout the day. Live Shows!
Artisans:
Booths of crafts in glass
About YOK
YOK is a proposal to Judaism live your way, without preconceptions. YOK is openness and emotion, is an invitation to pluralism, to be Jewish in this new century understanding that traditions are a brand to develop.

SOON MORE PICTURES!!!!

Homophobia and discrimination assaults the political agenda in Chile

While debating a law against discrimination and after brain death of a young gay manbeaten by neo-Nazis, the controversy gained momentum with the censorship of a lesbian poster that promoted a film.

"It's outrageous," summarized the movement Homosexual Integration and Liberation(MOVILH) to discuss the facts, criticizing in particular that even a city bus company refused to exhibit the film poster said, without penalty.   

Amid the debate on social networks, the president of Movilh, Rolando Jiménez, called anti-discrimination law bears the name of Daniel Zamudio, young gay murdered in Santiago after being burned, broken and marked with swastikas overnight.
 "(The case) has become a symbol of what we do not want to Chile, a symbol of violence and discrimination, a symbol against homophobia," Jimenez defended.
 But the controversy, evoking the legalization of gay married life in 2011, is framed in a larger discussion of moral issues in a country where the Catholic Church is a common mediator of political and social conflicts.
 In fact, the last weeks ruling and opposition were divided over the possibility of therapeutic abortion legal in cases where the fetus is viable.
 "No woman has the right provided by the body at the bottom, providing the home life that will be developed, to end that life," said Ena von Baer Senator of the Independent Democratic Union, the main party of government .
 His words turned into trending topic on twitter, were replicated by those who argue that a woman can abort her fetus in Chile when he is dead or will die hours after birth. "The discussion about abortion in general have to give it further. Strongly support therapeutic abortion, is something to legislate now," replied the student Camila dirigenta Vallejo, leader of the thousands of anti-government protests last year.
 Chile, where abortion was outlawed in 1989, months before the end of military dictatorship, is the scene of 150,000 illegal abortions per year, according to estimates by health organizations.
 The president, Sebastian Pinera, who promoted the legaliziación of married life, now refused to advance a law in favor of therapeutic abortion or in case of violations. "I am in favor of protecting life and human dignity from conception to natural death," summed up the president.
 A debate still seems to take years, even in a country where years ago there was no divorce and children born out of wedlock did not have the same rights as those born within it.

N2 - Mujer Amazonica!

Lets dance some Reeggaton!

 This two panamanian Djs- Singer ready to rock the Reeggaton world have brought to us this amazing song!
Amazonic Woman!

Juliane Koepcke: How I survived a plane crash

Juliane Koepcke was flying over the Peruvian rainforest with her mother when her plane was hit by lightning. She survived a two-mile fall and found herself alone in the jungle, just 17. More than 40 years later, she recalls what happened.

It was Christmas Eve 1971 and everyone was eager to get home, we were angry because the plane was seven hours late.

Suddenly we entered into a very heavy, dark cloud. My mother was anxious but I was OK, I liked flying.

Ten minutes later it was obvious that something was very wrong.

There was very heavy turbulence and the plane was jumping up and down, parcels and luggage were falling from the locker, there were gifts, flowers and Christmas cakes flying around the cabin.

 

Koepcke returned to the crash scene in 1998 apa: Reuters

When we saw lightning around the plane, I was scared. My mother and I held hands but we were unable to speak. Other passengers began to cry and weep and scream.

After about 10 minutes, I saw a very bright light on the outer engine on the left. My mother said very calmly: "That is the end, it's all over." Those were the last words I ever heard from her.

The plane jumped down and went into a nose-dive. It was pitch black and people were screaming, then the deep roaring of the engines filled my head completely.

Suddenly the noise stopped and I was outside the plane. I was in a freefall, strapped to my seat bench and hanging head-over-heels. The whispering of the wind was the only noise I could hear.

I felt completely alone.

I could see the canopy of the jungle spinning towards me. Then I lost consciousness and remember nothing of the impact. Later I learned that the plane had broken into pieces about two miles above the ground.

I woke the next day and looked up into the canopy. The first thought I had was: "I survived an air crash."

I shouted out for my mother in but I only heard the sounds of the jungle. I was completely alone.

 

Koepcke soon had to board a plane again when she moved to Frankfurt in 1972 

I could see the canopy of the jungle spinning towards me. Then I lost consciousness and remember nothing of the impact. Later I learned that the plane had broken into pieces about two miles above the ground.

I woke the next day and looked up into the canopy. The first thought I had was: "I survived an air crash."

I shouted out for my mother in but I only heard the sounds of the jungle. I was completely alone.

Continue reading the main story

Lansa Flight 508

• Koepcke flew on a Lockheed Electra OB-R-941
• Airline Lansa had a poor safety record with two crashes
• It was flying from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru
• All 91 other people on board died

I had broken my collarbone and had some deep cuts on my legs but my injuries weren't serious. I realised later that I had ruptured a ligament in my knee but I could walk.

Before the crash, I had spent a year and a half with my parents on their research station only 30 miles away. I learned a lot about life in the rainforest, that it wasn't too dangerous. It's not the green hell that the world always thinks.

I could hear the planes overhead searching for the wreck but it was a very dense forest and I couldn't see them.

I was wearing a very short, sleeveless mini-dress and white sandals. I had lost one shoe but I kept the other because I am very short-sighted and had lost my glasses, so I used that shoe to test the ground ahead of me as I walked.

Snakes are camouflaged there and they look like dry leaves. I was lucky I didn't meet them or maybe just that I didn't see them.

Juliane lived in the jungle and was home-schooled by her mother and father when she was 14

I found a small creek and walked in the water because I knew it was safer.

At the crash site I had found a bag of sweets. When I had finished them I had nothing more to eat and I was very afraid of starving.

It was very hot and very wet and it rained several times a day. But it was cold in the night and to be alone in that mini-dress was very difficult.

On the fourth day, I heard the noise of a landing king vulture which I recognised from my time at my parents' reserve.

I was afraid because I knew they only land when there is a lot of carrion and I knew it was bodies from the crash.

When I turned a corner in the creek, I found a bench with three passengers rammed head first into the earth.

Continue reading the main story

Perils of the Peruvian rainforest

• Snakes, spiders and mosquitos were Koepcke's greatest adversaries
• At one point she thought she might lose her arm to a maggot infestation
• Her fair skin was also heavily sunburnt where the dress had ripped
• She walked in streams where she could avoid poison plants on the jungle floor
• Piranhas were a threat too, but only in shallow water so she waded mid-stream
• She encountered alligators but knew they seldom attacked humans

I was paralysed by panic. It was the first time I had seen a dead body.

I thought my mother could be one of them but when I touched the corpse with a stick, I saw that the woman's toenails were painted - my mother never polished her nails.

I was immediately relieved but then felt ashamed of that thought.

By the 10th day I couldn't stand properly and I drifted along the edge of a larger river I had found. I felt so lonely, like I was in a parallel universe far away from any human being.

I thought I was hallucinating when I saw a really large boat. When I went to touch it and realised it was real, it was like an adrenaline shot.

But [then I saw] there was a small path into the jungle where I found a hut with a palm leaf roof, an outboard motor and a litre of gasoline.

I had a wound on my upper right arm. It was infested with maggots about one centimetre long. I remembered our dog had the same infection and my father had put kerosene in it, so I sucked the gasoline out and put it into the wound.

The pain was intense as the maggots tried to get further into the wound. I pulled out about 30 maggots and was very proud of myself. I decided to spend the night there.

The next day I heard the voices of several men outside. It was like hearing the voices of angels.

 Juliane celebrated her school graduation ball the night before the crash

When they saw me, they were alarmed and stopped talking. They thought I was a kind of water goddess - a figure from local legend who is a hybrid of a water dolphin and a blonde, white-skinned woman.

But I introduced myself in Spanish and explained what had happened. They treated my wounds and gave me something to eat and the next day took me back to civilisation.

The day after my rescue, I saw my father. He could barely talk and in the first moment we just held each other.

For the next few days, he frantically searched for news of my mother. On 12 January they found her body.

Later I found out that she also survived the crash but was badly injured and she couldn't move. She died several days later. I dread to think what her last days were like.

A 34-kilometer human chain accompanied the first run of the Pope

Thousands of people were on the streets of Guanajuato, on their way from the airport to  residence. "Benedict, brother, you're Mexican!" they chanted


 
 Credits: Infobae Tens of thousands of Mexicans celebrated jubilantly in the streets and roads of Guanajuato, center of the country, the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, who expect a message of peace on his first visit to this country, the second that makes America America. After a first stage in Mexico, the newly-started apostolic visitation will continue from 26 to 28 March in Cuba, the second phase of what will be the pope's first trip to Spanish-speaking American countries.
 In the Bajio International Airport, located in the town of Silao, and on board the popemobile Pope Ratzinger heard shouts and songs like "It looks, feels, the pope is present!" and an affectionate "Benedict, brother, you're Mexican".
 Along the 34 kilometers between the airport from the College of Miraflores, in the center of the city of Leon, tens of thousands of people waved white flags and yellow colors of the Vatican State, and made to feel the passing of Pope .
 Some 120,000 people, according to the Archdiocese of León, and 600 000 according to official figures, the sun endured the passing of Pope, who arrived in Mexico at 16.12 local time (22.12 GMT) and left the airport an hour later to complete the course of an hour to the College Miraflores, and overnight.
 Earlier, President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, and Pope Benedict XVI gave welcome speeches and end of both the folkloric ballet at the University of Guanajuato danced to the highest spiritual leader of the Catholic Church. At times, the shouts of joy and desire to become the Pope prevented the speakers talk.
The pope received a wooden box hand painted with soil from several states of Mexico that gave him "three children who come from rural communities, some of them indigenous," he told EFE Samuel Najera, Director of Communications and PressMexican Bishops' Conference (CEM). "We had announced that this would commemorate the arrival of Pope John Paul II, who kissed land, soil, the country he visited for the first time. Now the sign is given to Benedict XVI" he added.
 Then it was the turn of a large group of mariachis, wearing their best clothes, light colored, who sang several popular songs among which were The sound of the black and Guanajuato Highway, which ignited the minds of hundreds of people that greeted the arrival of the pontiff.
 Throughout the tour, the pope could have with a given population in a state with 93.9% of Catholic population, a percentage higher than the 83.9% national average, according to EFE said Father Jorge Raul Villegas, of the Archdiocese of León.
 Ads banners and large installed by parishioners, most of the messages were light-hearted and were welcome but had a more politically charged, as one located on Avenida Lopez Mateos de Leon: "Pope prays for violence is over and peace returns. "
 A woman of 65, Maria Picon Baltasar de Leon, who was spending the Pope with his two grandchildren, was grateful for having seen the popemobile, even so fleeting. "It was a very historic thing that never happened. It's a great thrill for all the people of Leon," he added. The woman waiting for Benedict XVI "a message to all young people, so you always have peace and all children grow up in an atmosphere of peace."
 Some people complained that, by the speed that brought the popemobile, they could not see well the Pontiff: "Good lord, was flying. Seems that happened in the plane," warned a woman who saw him pass in front of a hotel .
 Check the operation was calm, told Reuters spokesman municipal Public Security Secretariat, Gabriel Cordero, who said that nothing had to meet two people for heat stroke.
 At nearly 85 years, the twenty third trip of Benedict XVI is the first by Mexico as pontiff.Remain until Monday, when travel to its next stage, Santiago de Cuba.