Yucatan Living
July 13, 2007 7:16 PM Subscribe
"Cancun is more like the Miami of Mexico. Acapulco is the Honolulu. Queretaro is the Richmond VA. Mazatlan is the Tampa FL."
Wait, what?
posted by mdonley at 7:28 PM on July 13, 2007
Wait, what?
posted by mdonley at 7:28 PM on July 13, 2007
Heh, The "Espanol" link is merely a link to the page through Google translator. That says a lot.
posted by vacapinta at 7:29 PM on July 13, 2007
posted by vacapinta at 7:29 PM on July 13, 2007
I stayed at a cool guest house in Izamal last year and when I got back I was surprised to find an interview with the owners on this site.
posted by Staggering Jack at 8:31 PM on July 13, 2007
posted by Staggering Jack at 8:31 PM on July 13, 2007
Hmmph. Nuevo Laredo is the Laredo.
posted by Robert Angelo at 8:35 PM on July 13, 2007
posted by Robert Angelo at 8:35 PM on July 13, 2007
yeah, what's the point in going anywhere these days when you arrive somewhere only to find you're surrounded by the kind of people you're trying to get away from in the first place.
posted by marvin at 8:38 PM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by marvin at 8:38 PM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]
Queretaro is the Richmond VA
Ridiculous. More like Boston.
posted by nasreddin at 9:27 PM on July 13, 2007
Ridiculous. More like Boston.
posted by nasreddin at 9:27 PM on July 13, 2007
Los Angeles is the Guadalajara of Mexico.
Um. What? Isn't Guadalajara the Guadalajara of Mexico? I'm so confused.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:33 PM on July 13, 2007
Um. What? Isn't Guadalajara the Guadalajara of Mexico? I'm so confused.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:33 PM on July 13, 2007
Any chance for those of us who have not been to the Yucatan peninsula getting a link to a site which shows the real Yucatan?
(I.e., your point, kind mefite, is...?)
posted by maxwelton at 9:52 PM on July 13, 2007
(I.e., your point, kind mefite, is...?)
posted by maxwelton at 9:52 PM on July 13, 2007
well, hola!
first of all, how appropriate or synchronistic or whatever that you commented about our website on my birthday. happy birthday, me, yesterday.
and secondly, i just wanted to chime in and answer some of the comments. i'm not a bloated expat...well, at least not on a good day. i'm a hardworking expat that loves living in Merida. I don't live in a high-rise condo on the beach in Cancun (not that there is anything wrong with that... each to his own), and I think what we're doing here is helping the economy of the Yucatan. In fact, most of us really VALUE the culture of the Yucatan... sometimes even more than the Yucatecans. And we've had Yucatecans tell us that, and thank us for coming and reminding them how great it really is here. Thanks to expats, the centro historico is undergoing a revival, the city and other levels of government are joining in and this place is starting to really be a better place to live...for everyone.
in fact, we do try to show the real Yucatan, maxwelton. Did you take a look at some of the videos on our site? our "day in the life" with a Mayan family in Oxtapakab, for instance?
and I don't know...you don't know me but I doubt I'm the kind of person people are trying to get away from in the first place. Well, maybe if they are sick of thoughtful, fun, intelligent, kind people and are looking for beer-guzzling, TV-watching, boring types...
Anyway, I'm glad that you folks discovered our site and I hope (if you're interested) that you'll take a moment and look around. we write it because we want to make it easier for people to overcome their inertia and leave the US to live in another country. We believe if everyone did that for a year, there would be less war and less misunderstanding between people of the world. Where do you all live? and have you lived in other countries than the one you were born in?
oh! and the "Guadalajara is the LA of Mexico" thing? We were just having fun with that. Comparing cities in the US to cities in Mexico. It's a game...join in !!
hasta pronto!
posted by workinggringa at 7:24 AM on July 14, 2007
first of all, how appropriate or synchronistic or whatever that you commented about our website on my birthday. happy birthday, me, yesterday.
and secondly, i just wanted to chime in and answer some of the comments. i'm not a bloated expat...well, at least not on a good day. i'm a hardworking expat that loves living in Merida. I don't live in a high-rise condo on the beach in Cancun (not that there is anything wrong with that... each to his own), and I think what we're doing here is helping the economy of the Yucatan. In fact, most of us really VALUE the culture of the Yucatan... sometimes even more than the Yucatecans. And we've had Yucatecans tell us that, and thank us for coming and reminding them how great it really is here. Thanks to expats, the centro historico is undergoing a revival, the city and other levels of government are joining in and this place is starting to really be a better place to live...for everyone.
in fact, we do try to show the real Yucatan, maxwelton. Did you take a look at some of the videos on our site? our "day in the life" with a Mayan family in Oxtapakab, for instance?
and I don't know...you don't know me but I doubt I'm the kind of person people are trying to get away from in the first place. Well, maybe if they are sick of thoughtful, fun, intelligent, kind people and are looking for beer-guzzling, TV-watching, boring types...
Anyway, I'm glad that you folks discovered our site and I hope (if you're interested) that you'll take a moment and look around. we write it because we want to make it easier for people to overcome their inertia and leave the US to live in another country. We believe if everyone did that for a year, there would be less war and less misunderstanding between people of the world. Where do you all live? and have you lived in other countries than the one you were born in?
oh! and the "Guadalajara is the LA of Mexico" thing? We were just having fun with that. Comparing cities in the US to cities in Mexico. It's a game...join in !!
hasta pronto!
posted by workinggringa at 7:24 AM on July 14, 2007
Guadalajara is the LA of Mexico
So I can take it that LA is a boring, flat, four-square dump?
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:27 PM on July 14, 2007
So I can take it that LA is a boring, flat, four-square dump?
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:27 PM on July 14, 2007
Welcome, workinggringa. I think you'll be surprised how many people on here aren't in America or are already world travelers, though.
Anyhow... the thing about my comment above is? You DIDN'T say Guadalajara is the L.A. of Mexico. Look again. You said Los Angeles is the Guadalajara of Mexico.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:55 PM on July 14, 2007
Anyhow... the thing about my comment above is? You DIDN'T say Guadalajara is the L.A. of Mexico. Look again. You said Los Angeles is the Guadalajara of Mexico.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:55 PM on July 14, 2007
oops!! you are so right! okay, i fixed that.
and as for a lot of people are already not in America...great! good! wonderful! glad to meetcha'
and UbuRoivas... are you saying that Guadalajara is a boring, flat, four-square dump? it hardly seemed that way to me when I was there...
posted by workinggringa at 8:24 PM on July 14, 2007
and as for a lot of people are already not in America...great! good! wonderful! glad to meetcha'
and UbuRoivas... are you saying that Guadalajara is a boring, flat, four-square dump? it hardly seemed that way to me when I was there...
posted by workinggringa at 8:24 PM on July 14, 2007
Cocaine's a helluva drug.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:06 AM on July 15, 2007
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:06 AM on July 15, 2007
workinggringa: passed thru for a mere nite or two after zacatecas & guanajuato. in comparison with those two...no comparison. to be fair, i think it was a sunday or public holiday. maybe the place has some life at other times, but from my experience it's the canberra of mexico. big big yawn. easily the most boring place visited in around six weeks there.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:28 AM on July 15, 2007
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:28 AM on July 15, 2007
...and as for a lot of people are already not in America...
Not sure what the "already not" means exactly. But I think what was meant is that there are people here born and raised and still living outside of America.
You seem like a good and well-intentioned person who knows and loves the Yucatan. As for myself, I must admit to having mixed feelings about this sort of externally introduced gentrification. Especially so when this celebration of Yucatan life is also peppered with real estate ads. Is the intent here cultural or commercial? If both, the two have a way of getting involved in unsavory collisions...
posted by vacapinta at 6:47 AM on July 15, 2007
Not sure what the "already not" means exactly. But I think what was meant is that there are people here born and raised and still living outside of America.
You seem like a good and well-intentioned person who knows and loves the Yucatan. As for myself, I must admit to having mixed feelings about this sort of externally introduced gentrification. Especially so when this celebration of Yucatan life is also peppered with real estate ads. Is the intent here cultural or commercial? If both, the two have a way of getting involved in unsavory collisions...
posted by vacapinta at 6:47 AM on July 15, 2007
you know, i am a good and well-intentioned person. and i do love the Yucatan, and most other places on the planet. when i first got here, i focused on the 'quaint' culture of the place... you know, the Mayans in huipiles and the decaying haciendas (so photogenic!). but the truth of the matter is that NO one is more intent on gentrification than the Yucatecans themselves. it's the gringos that want to preserve the downtown, the architecture, the remembrance of THINGS past. The Yucatecans love to remember as well, but they are firmly faced forward. They care about their heritage, but they aren't (most of them) very fond of old things. They want everything (new cars, iPods, fast boats, new houses, Starbucks) that the US culture broadcasts and exports 24/7 to the rest of the world. They are not half as nostalgic for their past as we are.
The intent of our site is to communicate our experience, to entertain and inform as honestly as possible. of course we make some money from our website... it's a lot of hard work and we aren't getting rich here. we work 7 days a week most weeks, feeding the growth of this area. our clients are our friends who have real estate agencies, tour companies, hotels, vacation rentals, b&bs, art galleries, etc. Some are Yucatecan, some Mexican, American, Canadian, French, etc. We're supporting ourselves just like everyone else, but in a culture that is new to us. We're expanding our horizons, learning culture, language and history that we were not taught in the US, expanding our appreciation for the complexities of human life and hopefully doing our part to create peace on the planet. Oh, and we're trying to enjoy ourselves in the process.
and you? I must admit I never knew about this website until you linked to ours. Who are the people that hang out here? what is the common thread...?
posted by workinggringa at 7:33 AM on July 15, 2007
The intent of our site is to communicate our experience, to entertain and inform as honestly as possible. of course we make some money from our website... it's a lot of hard work and we aren't getting rich here. we work 7 days a week most weeks, feeding the growth of this area. our clients are our friends who have real estate agencies, tour companies, hotels, vacation rentals, b&bs, art galleries, etc. Some are Yucatecan, some Mexican, American, Canadian, French, etc. We're supporting ourselves just like everyone else, but in a culture that is new to us. We're expanding our horizons, learning culture, language and history that we were not taught in the US, expanding our appreciation for the complexities of human life and hopefully doing our part to create peace on the planet. Oh, and we're trying to enjoy ourselves in the process.
and you? I must admit I never knew about this website until you linked to ours. Who are the people that hang out here? what is the common thread...?
posted by workinggringa at 7:33 AM on July 15, 2007
Who are the people that hang out here? what is the common thread...?
I'm not sure that's so easy to answer. There are more than 55,000 members now, so heaps of different people, although I'd guess that there might be only a few hundred to perhaps a thousand heavy, everyday MetaFilter addicts.
I'm not going to speak for others, but I like the place for the general intelligence of discussion & the quite wide-ranging eclecticism of posts that people make. Almost anything & everything goes here, although community self-policing plus reasonably light-handed moderation means that posts & comments tend to be of pretty high quality, in my opinion.
MetaTalk is the section of the site where people discuss (amongst other things) what the site is about, how it should work, how members should behave, etc, so it's a good place for getting a feel of what goes on here.
Anyway, to get an idea of the place, have you tried - as an apparent mexophile - a search of posts with the term 'Mexico' included, or posts tagged with Mexico? Dive in & enjoy!
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2007
I'm not sure that's so easy to answer. There are more than 55,000 members now, so heaps of different people, although I'd guess that there might be only a few hundred to perhaps a thousand heavy, everyday MetaFilter addicts.
I'm not going to speak for others, but I like the place for the general intelligence of discussion & the quite wide-ranging eclecticism of posts that people make. Almost anything & everything goes here, although community self-policing plus reasonably light-handed moderation means that posts & comments tend to be of pretty high quality, in my opinion.
MetaTalk is the section of the site where people discuss (amongst other things) what the site is about, how it should work, how members should behave, etc, so it's a good place for getting a feel of what goes on here.
Anyway, to get an idea of the place, have you tried - as an apparent mexophile - a search of posts with the term 'Mexico' included, or posts tagged with Mexico? Dive in & enjoy!
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2007
thanks...i've already gotten my MF feet wet and plan to go diving later tonite...
posted by workinggringa at 3:38 PM on July 15, 2007
posted by workinggringa at 3:38 PM on July 15, 2007
I've been down to Porto Morelos a few times and really enjoyed it, especially the english-language bookstore. Cenotes are also fun, though I have only experienced the one at the "Tres Rios" nature park.
posted by Mid at 4:35 PM on July 15, 2007
posted by Mid at 4:35 PM on July 15, 2007
There's a very nice cenote at Dzibilchaltun (open air) that I've been too... and a million that I haven't been to yet. There's so much to do here...after five years I'm still not bored.
posted by workinggringa at 5:41 AM on July 18, 2007
posted by workinggringa at 5:41 AM on July 18, 2007
i quite liked the one just outside valladolid - great big cave with roots from the tree on the surface reaching down into the water, um, 50m (?) below...
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:42 AM on July 18, 2007
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:42 AM on July 18, 2007
here it is (actual photo by travelling buddy. i off exploring somewhere)
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:57 AM on July 18, 2007
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:57 AM on July 18, 2007
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Merida became part of Florida when they opened the Super Walmart and the Ruth's Chris.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:22 PM on July 13, 2007