Ecotourists Unite!

Lately, Kelly and I have been doing some research on cool places to go while here in Mexico. It didn't take to long to run into a lot of references to the "Mayan Riviera". The term refers to the stretch of coastline surrounding Cancun and seems very fitting. Just imagine breathtaking ruins right along sandy white beaches with crystal blue water. Not bad, right?

Anyways, in one of our searches we came across the Travel Channel review of Maroma Resort (pictured above). While I was reading the review (Not that we'd dream of staying there. I think we'd need to sell quite a few organs to afford a night's stay...) I found something that has had me laughing for days now:

"Handmade Hospitality" is the philosophy the resort operates under, referring both to the passion to meet guests' every need and the machine-free method of construction used in creating the resort. Eco-travelers will delight in learning that every building on the property was made by hand, without any machinery or electricity, and only 1/10 of Maroma's property will be developed in order to preserve the ecological balance.

I repeat: without any machinery or electricity

Now, I am as much an "eco-traveler" as the next guy (in fact my sea turtle punching has gone down 70% since 2010) but this one really has me stumped. I still can't fully picture the tourist who revels in the fact that his "eco-cabin" was built by a hot sweaty day-laborer in the most difficult way possible. Something tells me the construction workers didn't stay after work for yoga and candlelight reflection.

In my attempt to discover who it really was that was "delighting" in the Amish approach to resort building, I decided to Google "ecotourist". On the very first page I found a website with the Two Step Guide to Becoming an Ecotourist. I clicked on the link and this is the first thing I saw:

I can only assume that this is Step One. It begs the question: Am I already halfway to becoming an ecotourist?