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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2005 
The Real Spring Break?
 Justine Parker & Andrew Hunter - NEWS.com.au
| While thousands of US college students are spending spring break doing tequila body shots at pool parties in Vallarta, Acapulco and Cancun, nearly 10,000 Christian youths are building homes for poverty-stricken Mexican families.
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Spring break, the sex- and alcohol-fueled party season made infamous by the reality film The Real Cancun, is traditionally a time for hard-working students to throw away their books - and their clothes - and party hard for three weeks.
But youth church groups from California, Texas, and Arizona - organised by Amor Ministries - are instead working for disadvantaged Mexicans.
The volunteers spend a week mixing concrete, laying floors and measuring doors and windows for each home - all without power tools.
Melissa Erwin, a 17-year-old Californian, told the The Christian Post she didn't mind sacrificing creature comforts for a week.
"When you put up a house for someone who has been living in a car all their life ... it gives you so much joy," she said.
For many spring breakers, however, creature comforts are essential to their more secular pursuits.
A new option for those hedonists who prefer to party like John Belushi in "world-class" comfort is National Lampoon Tours, a division of the company famed for Animal House and National Lampoon's Vacation movies.
Promising not to "herd students around like cattle", National Lampoon Tours offers all-inclusive getaways to Las Vegas and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Executive vice-president Jason Hollander said the "lacklustre" spring break trips of his youth motivated him to develop the packages.
He described the Vegas trip as a "96-hour party" centered on the "Rooftop Beach", a 21,000sq m deck with DJs, bars and barbecues open around the clock.
Guests are entertained by the likes of Petey Paul and the cast of MTV's Viva La Bam.
National Lampoon's other package takes in Cabo San Lucas, described by the company as "Hollywood's celebrity playground".
"It's the Rolls-Royce of spring break trips," Mr Hollander told the University of Southern California's Daily Trojan newspaper.
"Its airport is the busiest private resort airport in Mexico. It's not cheesy, like a lot of other places (in Mexico)".
There is, Mr Hollander said, at least one caveat to the fun: a "no high-schoolers" rule is enforced.
Perhaps for now, under-18s should get in touch with Amor Ministries. Some Mexicans have all the beach they want but just need a roof over their heads. |
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