A Lasting Impression

Emily's Tattoo

My experience with Selvatica had begun with myself and my mother. She had previously gone, and had such an amazing experience she demanded we would visit when it was time for our vacation. Needless to say, I was equally as amazed and enthralled by this zip line through the Mexican jungle. I had the time of my life, and I got to know the tour guides fairly well from my multiple trips back down for my vacations. While we were down in Cancun, my mom and I had made a decision we wanted to get a matching tattoo together, to symbolize an extremely close bond we had together. And since our Mexico vacations had a huge part in bringing us so close, we decided to get a Mayan symbol. It was unique, special, and the only thing we had left to do was pick out the symbol we would get inked on our bodies for the rest of our lives. This came with a bit of difficulty; we couldn’t agree on a symbol that we both loved. Then one day I was walking around my house with the Selvatica shirt on, and upon looking at the symbol that is next to the name, my mom pointed it out. We both absolutely loved it, so I sent a message to my friends down at selvatica to ask the meaning of the symbol. We wanted to make sure it didn’t mean something weird. My friend, a tour guide there, had told me it meant “Citizen of the Jungle”. And we knew then that we were going to use that symbol as our tattoo. We made our appointment and got it done, and fell absolutely in love with our new ink. Then on our next trip down, we sought to surprise the boys by showing it to them. They were shocked by it, and explained to us that it did not mean Citizen of the Jungle; it wasn’t even a Mayan symbol. They explained that it was created as a logo for the company, like the Nike symbol, or the McDonald golden arches. We don’t care though, our tattoo means to us that we are citizens of the jungle, and it reminds us of how close we are. What surprised me even more, that a year later when we went down yet again, we visited Selvatica to say hi, but didn’t recognize any of the tour guides.  Half way through the tour, I received the opportunity to go upside down, an experience I was very accustomed to by that point. And while I was upside down the tour guide yelled “that tattoo!!! You’re that girl!!!”. I had no idea that my tattoo would become recognized by the tour guides who I did not know. This only makes me love Selvatica even more. My mother and I love our tattoo, and what it means to us. Selvatica did not only give us a completely amazing vacation, but a stronger bond between a mother and daughter. And every time I see my tattoo on my ankle it reminds me of that. 

-By Emily from Massachusetts

Thank you Emily for sharing this with us! You are our number 1 Fan! You are VIP for life!