Traditional ceremony to ask permission for the Maya Train is held in Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo., (June 28, 2021).- The director of the National Tourism Fund (Fonatur), Rogelio Jiménez Pons and the municipal president of Solidaridad municipality, Laura Beristain Navarrete, participated in a traditional Maya ceremony to request permission from Mother Earth to begin the work of the Maya Train in this region.

“The Maya Train will be the economic trigger for the Riviera Maya, generating more sources of employment, reducing the social gap by bringing new development opportunities and diversifying the productive sectors,” said Mayor Laura Beristain, after the welcome made by the head of the Fonatur, Rogelio Jiménez Pons.

Later, following the traditions and customs of the indigenous communities, a ritual was carried out to request permission from Mother Earth to start the work of the train in this section, which corresponds to the 5 Sur, which goes from Playa del Carmen to Tulum. 

It is not the first time that a ceremony of this nature has been held for this project, in December 2018 in the archaeological zones of Palenque, Chiapas; Tulum, Quintana Roo; Chichen Itza, Yucatan; Calakmul, Campeche and Tenosique, Tabasco simultaneously performed the “Ritual of the Original Peoples to Mother Earth, for the consent of the Maya Train.”

In this particular area, asking for permission from Mother Earth is done to carry out the project successfully. There are several stories about constructions that the ‘Aluxes’, the owners of the Mayan land, prevent from being carried out because they have not asked permission, the most famous is that of the bridge that connects the airport with the hotel zone of Cancun. The work collapsed several times until the managers built a small house for the aluxes to ask for their consent. The structure still stands under the bridge, which was built in its entirety.

Section 5 of the train was divided into two sections. According to the plan, in Playa del Carmen, the municipal seat of Solidaridad, both will converge the 5 North, which goes from Cancun to Playa, and the 5 South, which departs from Playa to reach Tulum. In total, they are 121 kilometers long. This section will be completely electrified.

The official banner of the works was symbolically done on March 5 by the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his visit to Cancun.