Don’t Deface the Ruins, You Jerk!
Don’t deface the ruins!
Last week, while Bob and I were filming at the El Rey Mayan ruins in Cancun, we witnessed some guy carving into the 700 year old monument, “Greog was here.” (video here)
WHY do people feel the need to do that? I’ve never understood it; Not on the back of bathroom stalls, not on hundred year old ruins.
Too bad the iguanas didn't team up and eat him!
After staring at him with a look of disgust, Bob asked him why he was doing that. He said he wanted his name there for long after he left. Grossed out and annoyed, I tried to jokingly say that the Mayan spirits were going to come after him if he continued, hoping that he’d get the point that we didn’t approve, but he just laughed and said he “didn’t give a shit about the Mayans”.
Okay, I hate this guy even more. If you don’t care about the history and the people then why are you visiting the ruins in the first place. UGH!
I couldn’t take it anymore- as Tom was walking up to film our reaction shots of the large temple, I told him what was happening, he was completely annoyed as well and we told the park security.
What do you think about people defacing artifacts and monuments? Would you speak up and tell the authorities or just leave it be?
That’s such a shame, and I probably would have reported it as well had I seen it. I agree, if he’s not interested in the history or culture then why even bother visiting in the first place?? On a happier note, filming for the travel channel in Mexico sounds fantastic and the Yucatan is so beautiful! Congrats on landing such an awesome gig!
A similar thing happened while my family and I were visiting Pompeii last year. There were two younger children – perhaps between 6 & 10 years old – climbing on, jumping off, and just destroying the ruins. I’m not saying children shouldn’t go to Pompeii (my 2-year-old daughter was with me, after all) but parents should keep a watchful eye on their offspring at places like Pompeii, so they don’t deface/destroy something so fragile. These kids, though… THEIR PARENTS NEVER TRIED TO STOP THEM. They seemed to be following us, arriving at the same sites as we did at the same times. The destruction continued and then I finally said something to the mother. She didn’t understand English, and Italian didn’t work, either, so we threw up our hands in disgust and tried to get away from them. The whole thing made me sick to my stomach.
Wow. Just wow. I would have handled it with much less grace and kindness than you did. I would have reported him immediately, especially if it is one of those countries with a really crappy jail and justice system.
I am astounded at what people think is acceptable behavior.
this is the reason so many great ruins are totally off limits now. My 7 year old says any one touching natural beauties and ruins should rot in jail:)
We see it soo often here in Guatemala. It’s such a pity!
Stuff like this disgusts me. While I did not see anyone actually the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, there was plenty of evidence of it there. (Hope you don’t mind the link..)
http://manonthelam.com/graffiti-s21-tuol-sleng-genocide-museum-phnom-penh-cambodia/
That is disgusting. Good on you for reporting it – hopefully there will plenty of bad karma heading his way (and some angry Mayan spirits too!).
That is pretty despicable. I’m glad you spoke up and told someone though. If we make a concerted effort to punish those who deface these marvels, maybe they’ll start to think twice about it.
It was so awkward, his wife was doing some yoga pose off to the side I guess to kinda get away from it, and the guy had this grin that I’ve only ever seen on guys who run ice cream trucks