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submitted 5 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Summary

A German tourist was arrested and attacked after climbing the Temple of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza, Mexico, during the spring equinox.

Video footage shows locals shouting insults and physically confronting the man as National Guard personnel detained him.

The temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, is off-limits to climbers due to preservation laws and safety concerns.

Violators face fines up to $16,000 and possible prison time.

The incident occurred amid a crowd of 8,000–9,000 visitors.

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[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 65 points 4 days ago

Good. Wish more locals in tourists hotspots would gang up on asshole tourists. Like Bali is infested with entitled westerners and asshole bogans. It’s the colonial mindset these tourists have.

[-] afronaut@slrpnk.net 12 points 4 days ago

The rise of the digital nomad is just soft colonialism with tech bros.

[-] Wanpieserino@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago

Colonialism is about extracting resources. Living in a low cost of living area on passive income attained globally is quite the opposite.

[-] theblips@lemm.ee 8 points 4 days ago

Is it, though? You aren't contributing anything to the local economy or culture while simultaneously stimulating gentrification...

[-] spacesatan@leminal.space 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

How is buying local goods and services not contributing to the local economy? It's the same economic effect as tourism.

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[-] afronaut@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 days ago

Colonialism is also about displacing native/local culture which is what a lot of these digital nomads are doing. One example I’ve seen are the digital nomads trying to stop locals from walking on the public beaches in front of their properties.

[-] Miaou@jlai.lu 7 points 4 days ago

You're not a digital nomad if you own property though, or my definition of digital nomad is wrong

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[-] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

I know a woman who is insanely entitled and is currently in Bali. I feel bad for the locals who have to experience her presence

[-] Wanpieserino@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago
[-] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

I hear it’s infested with westerners and bogans.

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[-] afronaut@slrpnk.net 38 points 4 days ago

Fuck yes. Doesn’t matter if you’re a German tourist in Mexico, an American tourist in Japan, or a Chinese tourist at an American buffet— respect the local etiquette if you are going to travel.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 96 points 5 days ago

I wish more people got their asses kicked for violating historic places and things.

[-] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 5 days ago

Or, really, any stupid shit when visiting somewhere. I'd have loved it if that "influencer" that yoinked that wombat got flogged in the public square like she deserved.

[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

Remember how a bunch of pissants from LA were damaging and even killing Joshua trees? I do, the trees still hunger for profligate blood.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Abso fucking lately.

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[-] einkorn@feddit.org 110 points 5 days ago

A German tourist

Sorry for not sending out best. I hope the guys wore socks in sandals at least to properly represent our national outfit.

[-] don@lemm.ee 36 points 5 days ago

Every country has its idiots, but none moreso than America right now.

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 days ago

Not really, the thing with the US is just that it joined a long list of countries led by people who should be committed for their own good. The US is not unique really at this point.

US tourists have nothing on UK stag-doers. Those people are a plague.

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

I used to work in a tourist area of CA, and most German tourists are very friendly and usually have a good dry humor, only ever had one be rude, but I think he was an offical going to the military base and not a tourist. He didn't like me walking past the lobby in a restaurant he was waiting to be seated in, I don't know how it is elsewhere, but when your picking up and paying for a to go order in the US, you don't wait to be seated, you just go to the front of house area and pay, typically front of house worker or owners aren't seating people unless it's an incredibly slow.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

German tourists in Spanish resorts are the ones who will go out at night to put their towels on the pool chairs to reserve them for the next day, something which only ever works because other people are too polite to just thrown the towels away when they get there in the morning.

In my own experience living in a couple of countries in including big tourism destinations, people from bigger and wealthier countries have a bigger tendency to behave as entitled wankers who think that they own the place when out of their country than people from smaller or poorer countries, so in touristic places you get for example more Germans, Brits and Americans doing "I don't care for others" stuff than say Dutch people or Greeks (whilst, curiously, in their own countries they tend not to behave like that, or at least not as overtly so).

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[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

Eh don't feel too bad, death valley will consume 10 of your countrymen by the closing of summer. Seriously there's running bets on my area about how many Germans will die and from what, safe bet is 5 from heatstroke.

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[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 21 points 4 days ago

Hell yeah! When you're visiting another country, you are a guest in their country and should obey their laws and rules.

[-] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 days ago

Lucky that he didn't get his heart ripped out and the head thrown down the steps

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 46 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The headline annoys me, it makes it sound like a hapless tourist was attacked by vicious indigens.

I can well imagine how they told him not to do it, and eventually had to resort to physically getting him back down when he just didn't listen. Maybe technically an attack, but at the very least it should've read:

"Tourist violating ancient artefacts attacked and restrained by locals" or some such.

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago

I've seen enough of these stories that it was very clear that they climbed the temple (a no no) and was quickly karmaed by locals. Which is the proper way of things.

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[-] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 34 points 5 days ago

I climbed that pyramid forever ago when it was still legal to do so.

Tons of people were going up & down. I didn’t realize things had changed and that it was also on the list of “new” 7 wonders of the world.

It was a bitch coming down though because it’s so steep.

Anyway, dude should have known better.

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[-] spooky2092 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I was lucky enough to go there when they still allowed people to go up the temple at Chichen Itza, and it was pretty cool, but I couldn't image just climbing shit they tell you not to. Especially when the reasoning is protecting heritage.

Honestly, he's lucky he didn't trip on the way down. Those stairs are steep.

[-] Lon3star@lemmy.world 39 points 5 days ago

Sounds like a cause for human sacrifice

[-] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Mayans usually only sacrificed nobility. This dude got a "von" in his name?

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[-] grepe@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

oh shit... i was there on that day! and i missed it...

[-] El_Scapacabra@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago

I bet you'd have been able to see it from the top of that pyramid though.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 4 days ago

Sounds like an episode of Always Sunny.

[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Lucky they didn’t get their heart cut out and show to them like in the good ol days

[-] drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Good, now sacrifice him to whatever God they believe in

[-] poopkins@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It's great that we're enforcing laws that are there to protect our anthropological heritage. It's not so great that it means this violator is attacked by the locals.

As an aide, I feel like Mexico themselves have quite a ways to go to protect the heritage site. The grounds of Chichen Itzá are absolutely overrun with "tour guides" telling dumbed down or outright fabricated stories and literally hundreds of souvenir stands with obnoxious sellers that don't shy from any tactic to try to get your attention.

Walking around in that area should be serene, educational and immersive. Instead, it's like being in a kindergarten, where hordes of salespeople are incessantly calling out to you ("where are you from, sir, where are you from?"), literally throwing cheap Chinese junk in your direction, playing drums and pan flutes or squeezing squeaky toys and gimmicks that are meant to sound like monkeys. It's a cacophony of cheap garbage and harassment from locals (and nonstop clapping to hear the temple's acoustic effect) that takes you out of experiencing your surroundings in an inkling of tranquility. In fact, only from specific angles is it even possible to capture a photo of the Temple of Kukulcán without the brightly colored eye sores of a hundred nearly identical souvenir stands visible directly adjacent to it.

Mexico should also take more pride in this site and treat Chichen Itzá with more respect.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago

It's not so great that it means this violator is attacked by the locals.

It's not?

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[-] muh_entitlement@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Virtue signaling BS. That motherfucker deserves his ass to be beaten to shit

Honestly wish he fell from the top

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[-] Muyal@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

No matter how much you try, Chichen Itzá will never be tranquil, it is visited by thousands of tourists every day, so it will always be crowded and full of voices.

Vendors are usually local indigenous people, and selling to tourists is their only source of income, it would be silly on their part not to take advantage of the situation.

[-] poopkins@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Perhaps you've not visited this place, so for an impression: the area itself is very large and open and the site has restricted access with a fairly pricey admission fee.

Voices don't carry very far in this environment, however the issue is that there are literally hundreds if not close to a thousand vendors literally screaming for attention. My objection is to the authorities who have permitted this kind of presence at a heritage site. Of course locals have taken advantage of the situation, that much is very clear.

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[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 14 points 5 days ago

I have no problem with this.

[-] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago
[-] SnotFlickerman 12 points 5 days ago

I guess I'm glad my parents took me in the late 80's/early 90's when you were still allowed to climb it.

I keep meaning to get my mom to dig out the photos we took from the top.

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[-] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 11 points 5 days ago

What an idiot not only for potentially damaging an ancient pyramid but also because those stairs are only about 3" deep and it would be incredibly easy to come tumbling off that when coming back down. I scaled one that was maybe 10 feet tall outside Playa Del Carmen (not a perserved one but one you can climb on) and even that was terrifying to come down as a tall person.

[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Punks jump up to get beat down. Or I guess climb up to get beat down in this case.

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this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
600 points (100.0% liked)

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