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April 2001 Issue

The Cycle of Cancun

By Rob Dixter

Every year around the month of March, college kids around the country break loose the shackles that is higher education and rejoice together in what has become known as spring break.

Cancun has become the target destination for college kids looking to relax during this break. Mexico basically has all the right requirements, sandy beaches, cold beers, and they also seem to be very lax on laws involving groping. I was sent there on work and therefore managed to avoid direct contact with the revelers.

By hanging back and working I was able to observe the customs and the cycle that is spring break. I say cycle because spring break in Cancun is exactly that, a continuous repetitive cycle of days that do not really change from one into the next.

Cancun during spring break is a complete breakdown of society and the rules that govern us. It is like a Mensa meeting gone wrong, where everyone shows up in swimsuits and clutch at margaritas as though they contained the very essence of life. I decided to try and document the proceedings of the week from a fly on the wall perspective.

The days began everyday for the employed at 9:00 a.m. We were working on the beach so we were right in the middle of what would be the main attraction. When I started work the beaches were empty and people were still removing empty plastic drink containers from last night's events.

When I left the hotel at 8:30 a.m. taxis would arrive with guests who had just finished their previous night's activities. For the breakers, the day begins during the afternoon due to the nights. People get up around noon, examine their beds to see if they are alone or not, and if introductions are in order.

Following a somewhat skimpily placed bathing suit, the kids flock to Fat Tuesday, which is a well-known watering hole on the beach. At Fat Tuesday, the afternoon drinking begins with a Corona or one of the many drink concoctions Mexico has invented. They have names like Blue Demon and Raspberry Swirl--names so fabricated that after ordering a wacky drink I always felt the need to poke a little doughboy in the stomach.

Then your attention is drawn to the big stage at Fat Tuesday where MTV has set up their spring break attraction. This is where I was working. Standing on the stage during down time I was able to look out over the entire crowd and wonder how many of these kids were actually sober in the middle of the afternoon.

MTV put on roughly eight different shows that were all taped to air the following week. Among the artists that performed for the spring breakers were Eve, Crazy Town, Shaggy, Tyrese and Snoop Dogg. It seems like the perfect recipe, take half naked kids and alcohol, add rap music.

It was an instant party on the beach, overlooking a pale blue ocean. The crowd was already wearing as little clothing as possible, but Molly Simms and Carmen Electra took it up a notch and covered only the bare essentials on stage.

MTV seemed to add to the festivities; the kids really enjoyed singing along with today's hot acts as I waited backstage sweating in the 90 degree weather so that they could have a good time.

The day was simply a filler for the night's activities. The beach would usually empty out around 6pm and then there were a few hours that were never really accounted for. I slept and tried to get my work ready for the following day. Once 10:00 p.m. rolled around, all hell broke loose on the streets of Cancun.

People started drinking early, so once 10:00 p.m. came around the party was well on it's way. There was always a convergence at Fat Tuesday but other bars were also frequented, including Coco Bongo and Liquid.

During this time I was usually eating dinner or simply standing by at Fat Tuesday, trying to document the debauchery for friends back at home. The breakers’ nights are spent drinking as much as possible, trying to meet and get intimate knowledge of the opposite sex, and basically making an ass of one's self in public. The locals, rather than looking on in disgust, tend to encourage it by offering to sell the breakers more booze.

I felt like a peeping tom, getting a glimpse of these kids trying to outdo each other in forms of degradation. But then I remembered that I was actually out in public and that it was these kids who should take it inside.

Fat Tuesday turns into a bump and grind dance machine during the night hours; College kids, who the older generation refer to as the next leaders of this country, perform acts so lewd and obscene, Larry Flynt would stand up out of his wheelchair.

As a breaker, once 5:00 a.m. arrives, you would have done one of three things: 1) passed out in a pool of your own sick 2) met and escorted a "date" back to your hotel or the beach or 3) sobered up just enough to wonder why you were lying in an alley with the words "No Hablos Espanol" tattooed across your chest.

Then the day starts all over again the following afternoon when the cycle repeats itself, the only difference being that you will try to top the previous night's performance.

All the commandments that Moses delivered from Mt. Sinai are broken in Cancun. It is a gathering of meatheads who have clearly arrived to party as much as possible and repeat the Cancun cycle as much as possible in their limited time.

Maybe kids do need time to unwind every year, so it's a good thing they do it down in Mexico. I can guarantee, a lot of them would have been arrested in this country

Rob Dixter is a freelance writer in New York City. And he's a very serious guy.

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