Turquoise memoir

On August 31st of 2020, I arrived at Cancun International Airport with a one-way ticket hoping to find stability.

After being stalled in Mexico City, I arrived at Cancun International Airport with approximately 500usd. Economy was just starting to reactivate, and things seemed to be getting better. Uninvolved until that moment with the tourism industry, I quickly grabbed a job at a call center that sells, or sold, attractive discounts at five-stars and five-diamond resorts. At least, those were the opening lines from our sales speech; it was all a scam to get easy money.

Unexperienced, stupid, and tempted by a relatively easy income source, I quit and looked for more honest options. I finally got an opportunity as a photographer for a company that produced luxury weddings at those same resorts I mentioned during those calls. For more less 30 dollars per shoot, I had to go to the hotels where there would be a wedding and take photos for that company's catalogue. Definitely not the best rate but was interesting and it gave me access. I could finally start to see what all the fuss about the Riviera Maya was; a place I visited ten years before, just for 5 blurry nights.

After two months of 3 shootings per week on average, wedding season ended, January 2021 arrived and I moved to Puerto Morelos, a small village right between Cancun and Playa del Carmen so I could "cover more ground". What I liked to call "assignments", so I felt better about someone who's got a major interest in documentary photography, suddenly stopped. The "following-my-dream-of-becoming-a-professional-photographer" persona I posted on social media was no longer sustainable, and with my online entrepreneurship to attract patients with my psychology degree not taking off, I grabbed a temporary job at a government institution for the upcoming state elections; it gave me a breather for two or three months, but nothing more.

Desperate, and with my 31st birthday a couple of weeks ahead, I got an opportunity as a busser at a 4- or 5-stars all-inclusive resort thanks to having a college degree, conversational English, and not having any criminal activity on record. I had improved my income to 150-175usd a week, taking into account tips, and had a relatively more stable lifestyle. Thursdays were my day off, which I used to do laundry, take a walk, or maybe going to the local beach.

Slowly and patiently, things started improving for me. After 4 months as a busser, I pushed for a different position, this time at human resources in a different resort thanks to my short but operative experience in restaurants and previous knowledge on personnel training; after a year at that position, I got a double promotion thanks to my performance, met a beautiful, young lady and moved to Playa del Carmen. Things went that way for 8 months, but I quit my job when the ""following-my-dream-of-becoming-a-professional-photographer" feeling struck again. At the moment, I have an easy-going job as a photographer on board of luxury sailboats, with an approximately 300-400usd per week income.

Today, in a province where its astonishing natural beauty has been exploited indiscriminately for the last 50 years to satisfy the tourism industry, deforestation in favor of development under the approval of federal, state and local governments, along with the degradation of the Belize Barrier Reef and careless manipulation of the aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna, and even the characteristic ground of the Yucatan Península, plus the drug trafficking route that goes through it along with Cozumel Island just under the gaze of authorities, and obviously connected to the already known party scene of destinations like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, plus the commonly overlooked homicides and femicides, along with some notorious criminal episodes that occurred both in the suburbs and in populated areas of the 80 miles that make up the Riviera Maya, ironically, I've found stability.