We felt we were in the movie "The Beach."

The light had almost dropped, and we had decided to head to the beach, just 3 blocks from our hotel, where we had arrived a few hours earlier. It was a shock; describing how we felt arriving at the main strip of Playa Del Carman was challenging. Our kids would probably say, "It was Banging". It was momentarily overwhelming. Hundreds of tourists moving up and down, bars pumping out music in competition, staff waving menus at you for attention, and a sizeable jump in the cost of everything.

It was a stark contrast to most of Mexico we had seen. It felt manufactured, remote, even censored. Then we slipped into gear and enjoyed this other side of Mexico, tuning into the tourist trade.

The momentary experience brought back memories of a scene in' The Beach' where Leonardo DiCaprio has to return to the main tourist trap in Thailand after months on a peaceful island…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqDoxUxpobg.

NB. Tourism is vital to Mexico; visitor numbers peaked in 2019 with 45million visitors contributing 8-9% to GDP, surprisingly a similar % (but different value) to the UK.