Sifting through back and front

iguazu!Since I read this article last semester, it often comes to mind when I am traveling. Since, so much of where I travel to in this country are for tourist, the false back region is very prevalent. I traveled last weekend to the Puerto Iguazu where there is a national jungle reserve and amazing waterfalls that are larger than Niagra Falls. But all of the paths in the park are cemented and you can take a jet boat up the river into the water falls. We stayed in a nice hostel, but the Sheraton is nestled on the side of a cliff that over looks the falls. It looked very similar in a sense to the ancient Mayan town of Lamini that over looks a lagoon. The point is that everything in Puerto Iguazu is there to service the tourists, foreigners and domestics alike. The restaurants in town, the highway with never-ending hotels, everything is for people who are visiting the waterfalls. Throughout the park there a little things that try to pretend to be natural and aren’t. Over the waterfalls there is a little platform that sits on rocks that have grasses growing out of them. It appears as though the platform was simply built on top of the rock. But on a closer look, one can rebar sticking out of the rock. If you look around the other rocks near the falls look nothing like the rock sitting there. It’s obvious to the keen observer that this rock was moved there just so the falls could be accessed better by tourists. The tourist industry alone has altered the “back” region of Iguazu and in some ways removed it. I think this is one of the most interesting consequences of tourism. Life, places and culture are changed forever because foreigners want to gain access to some place, but in doing so they destroy it or alter it in a way so that what they ultimately get is something different than what they were searching for. I think this is just another thing people have to be conscious of when they are traveling just like they are conscious about protecting their wallets or the customs of the culture they are in. When someone is traveling they need to be aware that they are not going to arrive to find an authentic experience because they are an alien. They can only experience a place as an outsider, just as a friend experiences a family that’s not there own. There is no way to see what is really authentic. I try to be conscious of this when I am traveling. Ever time I see a cow hide, or a cart wheel here, it brings back memories to MacCannell’s mention of the net in the seafood restaurant. But I think this is where the critisim has some practical value. If one can separate the symbols or objects that are falsified for tourists from the things that are transcendent in the culture regardless of who is present, then a person can begin to learn from the cultural they are visiting. They can come home to say that yes Argentine’s really eat a lot of meat, but it was winter and they eat seasonally, that’s a keener learning experience than the one presented to them. Not everything should be taken at face value especially if it is an exaggeration.