My good pal and associate Ralf has published a new photobook of a very small selection of Merida’s beautiful doors, taken in downtown Merida one sunny afternoon! If you like reading this blog and have found some use for the information contained herein, you can support the effort and get an attractive Merida souvenir at the same time! Enjoy!
Tag Archives: mexico
Hanging out with the Expats at the Living in Merida Book Launch
The other week, I felt strangely compelled to join other palefaces living in the formerly white city to an event organized by the Merida Verde people to officially launch the second edition of the Living In Merida book, now new and improved and chock full of information for new, English speaking arrivals, with the occasional tidbit that might be useful for those of us who have lived here longer than most and have our own personal favorite suppliers of everything from accurate law advice to honest real estate brokerage services to where to get a transmission repaired without losing an arm and a leg in the process.
To project an air of respectability I put on a clean shirt, picked up always charming Better Half and headed out to that hotel with the Pinedo Covalin boutique located on the corner of 47 and Montejo, right where Montejo ends and what some locals call El Remate which of course is a misnomer as it is not a remate as such, but a principio or beginning of that famous avenue modeled after Paris’ Champs D’Elysees.
Again, I digress.
There were all manner of expats milling about, some of which sported faces completely new to me, as I am somewhat out of touch with this crowd, who for the most part inhabit that part of Merida they charmingly call ‘Centro’ and are not frequent visitors to the other end of Montejo, where the Fridays, Sams Club and McDonalds along with the mall and its adjacent Starbucks make for a very different, and oft-criticized by visitors, impression of Merida.
“I prefer the REAL Merida!” they will say, wrinkling their nose, as if everyone should be wearing white outfits and balancing trays of glasses and bottles on their heads while dancing a typical jarana, panucho in hand. God forbid the locals should aspire to eating a hamburger or having a double grande latte with non-fat soy milk.
As I made the rounds, I overheard – and occasionally engaged in – earnest, well-meaning conversations on organic gardening, saving yet another local dog, the latest restoration of yet another fabulous little colonial down on 66 and all the Art that everyone seems to be making. These subjects are somewhat foreign to me, having been here now for so long with my regular boring job, normal family obligations and other mundane, boring activities that leave me precious little time for this navel-gazing that seem to be so popular among those who have moved here from el norte, to relish the freedom that a bank account in dollars can provide in a land of pesos.
Inside, the wine flowed freely (hey it was free, aprovecha!) and as some of the dialogue began to get a little slurred, I tried to identify, without much success, some of the people who I might have engaged with only online, before moving outside for some fresh air and a smoke. This nasty activity is of course now banned anywhere indoors in Merida, to the delight of many and the disgust of many more who can’t understand why Merida needs to adopt these new regulations when there are so many other things to be improved upon.
Once the book was presented and the thank-you’s made to all the collaborators in a drawn out affair which proved that not only Yucatecans will continue their conversations while someone is making a speech, the little soiree was over. A little more socializing with a few good friends I found there and I called it a night.
And the book? I’m sure it will prove to be a valuable addition to the information already out there, particularly on websites such as yucatanliving and yucatantoday and of course lawsonsyucatan, but one must take it all with a grain of salt. For example, the section on buying a used car mentions that one place to buy a previously owned vehicle is the ex-Penitentiary, which, as any local will tell you, is rife with stolen automobiles, cars with ‘papers’ issues and the occasional con artist.
It was a strangely different sort of evening, a take on a Yucatecan night out minus the Yucatecans, featuring a fantastic selection of characters out of some travel novel from the last century; something by Somerset Maugham. And although at the time I was a little less than enthusiastic about going, I am glad I went.
Gasoline Prices Up Today
In case you are not on top of these things, are driving a Nissan Leaf or only use bicycles to get around Merida, I thought I would mention that gas prices went up today, Saturday April 9th, 2011, yet again.
The price of Magna is now $9.08 pesos per liter, Premium is $10.26 and Diesel $9.44.
From my somewhat limited mathematical conversion ability, this works out to about $2.85 USD a gallon for the Magna stuff. Some people say, “Oh, that’s about what we pay back home!” Yes, Virginia, but back home you are earning in dollars and here we are earning in pesos, dear. “Oh”.
Oh, indeed.
Chillin’ at Starbucks
For most people it’s no big deal to be sitting with ones laptop in Starbucks, checking emails, surfing, tweeting, or updating a blog. It’s just that this is the first time I am doing it. And I must say that it’s really not such a great experience, except of course for the coffee which is pretty darn good good and the air conditioning, which is blessedly divine.
First of all the internet connection with a laptop running Windows is less than intuitive but after banging the laptop against the wall a couple of times, the Infinitum Starbucks log-in screen appeared and I was able to ‘register’ to use internet in any Starbucks in Mexico.Cool. The Infinitum part never worked; 7 attempts with the cashier-provided username and password yielded no result other than an incorrect username message en español.
Once that was working, and I began to check my myriad accounts of this and that and the other, it immediately became obvious that the seats are of the old-fashioned wooden variety and the apparent lack of tone in my muscles means that every pelvic bone I own is in direct contact with the maple or so it seems. I shift from side to side, sliding to the front and then to the back, trying to find the sweet spot to no avail. The fact that the wood is so smooth doesn’t help either, as any position I adopt changes in seconds as I literally slide in another direction. The chairs back rest seems too far away to offer any support to my spine and so I alternate between slouching and then self consciously straightening my back like a 1950’s Mad Men secretary banging away primly at her Olympia.
Other than that, things are just fine here in Starbucks. The background music is classical guitar and although very nice, although it seems to me, as I slide around on my chair, that the ambiance is reminiscent of Monty Pythons cheese shop and the increasingly irritating background music therein, as Cleese orders cheese.
To make matters more interesting, just now a less than-youngish man has sat down at the next table, set up his laptop and is doing his business correspondence here at Starbucks because, as I just overheard him yelling into his cell phone, his internet is down at home and that’s why he came here. I am also privy to potentially boring information about his upcoming sales promotions and the fact that he has only two months left on something or other and he needs to get things moving. Before and after the high-volume business chatter is of course the social chatter, again on extra high enthusiastic volume, which involves a lot of friendly banter and macho bullshit back and forth. Did I mention that his cell phone is actually a NexTel phone and emits that irritating electronic fart every two minutes?
Ah yes. Perhaps it’s a sign of age and my increasingly diminishing levels of tolerance for loud, annoying individuals and uncomfortable furniture, but for me, the laptop at Starbucks thing isn’t working out tonight.
Although I did hammer out this post as a result. In Starbucks.
Bank Credit Card Interest Rates
For those of you not familiar with the exorbitant rates charged by Mexican banks for use of their credit card, and think you have it bad there in the US or Canada, here’s an interesting tidbit of information, sent to me recently in my HSBC credit card statement by the Banco de Mexico and the Condusef. The former is the central bank in Mexico and the latter is the place to go when you have a complaint or grievance against a bank or credit institution.
The rates, comparatively, for “Gold” credit cards, by bank:
Bank / Product / Annual % Rate
- Banco Inbursa – Oro Inbursa – 25.5%
- BBVA Bancomer – Oro Bancomer – 32.9%
- Santander – UNISantander-K – 33.2%
- Ixe Tarjetas – Ixe Oro – 35.3%
- Banamex – Oro – 41.7%
- HSBC – Oro HSBC – 42.3%
- Banorte – Oro – 43.8%
- Scotiabank – Scotia Travel Oro – 53.4%
- American Express – The Gold Credit Card – 54%
Pretty shocking huh?
Finally, some good news about Mexico – The Washington Post
For those of you who read my neurotic ramblings – and I know you are out there – and haven’t seen this, here is a link to an article from my pal Edith over at the Washington Post that summarized what a lot of us who live here feel about the place. A little sugary for me, but still, better than yet another report on a narco-beheading, a hotel exploding or a tourist losing an actual arm and a leg to a real shark (as opposed to those tourists who attend the “free” breakfast and lose a virtual arm and a leg to the time share cetaceans)
The link is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/02/AR2011030205529.html
Enjoy.
Offended Mexicans vs BBC Comedy
I received an interesting article on the BBC/Mexico scandal in my junk-infested inbox this morning from my dear Better Half, who in turn received it from a friend whose acerbic wit and online social commentary on life in Merida was often the target for xenophobic hate mail accusing her of being *gasp* a critical wach, of all things.
The Milenio article (available in Spanish here) commented on the recent scandal involving the BBC’s program Top Gear, in which the comedy troupe said stereotypical things about Mexicans which apparently, caused the Mexican ambassador to England to feel such distress that he fired off an official protest letter to the government denouncing the show and its “xenophobic” remarks.
The author at Milenio says, in a nutshell, that everyone that is ‘offended’ by the program should take a look at themselves and the discrimination, racism and lack of tolerance perpetrated every single day in this country, by Mexicans.
Also interesting is the debate below the article. I think the author makes a good point. What do you think?
La Taberna de los Frailes – A Second Visit
On a trip to Cancun and back yesterday, the Critic and his Better Half had enough time to stop for a ‘nice’ restaurant lunch as opposed to the usual (but always delicious and eminently satisfying) Doña Tere at the toll highway isla near Valladolid.
This time, the Critic veered off the highway and landed – after some meandering among the twisting yet bewitching back streets of Valladolid – at the Taberna de los Frailes restaurant, reviewed previously by the Critic. Yesterdays visit was as good, if not better, than the first one.
The menu is a real mix of things innovative and things Yucatecan and things both innovative and Yucatecan. Think Thing One and Thing Two. No, on second thought, don’t.
For example, the Critic ordered a Valladolid Temptation appetizer. What the hell is that you ask? It is two slices of grilled watermelon with a thick, gooey semi-melted (molten?) slab of panela cheese in between. Served with a little fruit sauce dip and grilled tomatos and a sprig of lettuce
bathed in balsamic vinegar, it was completely out of the ordinary and quite delicious not to mention unexpected. Is this Valladolid? A glimpse at the crumbling stone wall of the monastery across the tiny street confirms that yes, it is.
Then there were the 
nachos. Thankfully ordering only this one other appetizer the Critic, who is not shy about finishing his plate, could not finish these nachos. Arriving on a very hot plate the size of a small indoor swimming pool, the nachos featured tostadas that were thin and crispy, not the thick and crunchy ones usually found here. The cheese was apparently cheddar but the Critic can’t be sure but what was innovative about these nachos is that they were made with Longaniza de Valladolid, the citys famous smoked sausage, and served with a small dish of chopped pickled onions along with the usual jalapeno peppers. Again, please be aware that the size of this platter is on the huge size and the contents will feed a small village the size of Xcunya without much
difficulty.
Better Half ordered a lime soup and Dzotobichay aka Brazo de Reina which is a Yucatecan treat that must be tried at least once during any visit to this part of the world. The tomato salsa on top was fresh and very tasty. Again, the portion was quite large.
Service, from the same waiter as on the last visit, was courteous and friendly. Prices were reasonable, in the Critics humble opini
on.
Things to look forward to as I age (can’t wait)
While this particular blog entry has absolutely nothing to do with Life in Merida from the Neurotic Foregners POV, the aging process is, nevertheless, a universal topic among members of my social circle and one with which I becoming increasingly familiar.
I look forward to becoming technologically impaired; that decisive moment when I decide that whatever technology is ‘new’ and therefore incomprehensible to me and just dismiss it as ‘stupid’ is a moment that will inevitably come, especially given the grade of neurosis I already posess. The new ‘FaceBook’ of the future will seem to me to be an invasion of privacy and just ridiculous and I won’t be able to figure out what the hell it’s good for, if anything. I will refuse to engage in conversation with my offspring, who will attempt to convince me of the benefits of adopting the new technology, that I have nothing to fear, that it is a good way to see what the grandchildren are up to. My derision will be accompanied by much shaking of my grey-haired head and moving my right hand from an over the shoulder and near my right ear position to a below the waist position (with an open palm, facing downward). These two actions will be taken while walking away from the person I am supposedly having a conversation with.
I look forward to not comprehending the significance of the future version of the CC button on the future equivalent of emails. I will complain therefore, in my self-pitying way, that it is craaaazy that people cannot communicate with each other normally and that I don’t understand if I just sent an email to one person that all the others didn’t get the message. I will not see that adding another email address in the future equivalent of the “TO” field on an email is not really that difficult and that I don’t have to go out in the winter cold, chop down a tree, put up a satellite dish and install another computer to send several emails at once.
I also look forward to forgetting how to spell my offsprings or their significant others names. To me, it’s all the same and I won’t understand the fuss and how could that tiny triviality possibly be any indicator of the depth of my feelings for that person or the significant other in question. Why are they all so grumpy, I will ask myself.
I anticipate (and this is already happening) abhorring (is it one R or two?) social engagements where loud music and loud conversation at too-large tables result in me staring abjectly at the people across the table, with whom I am unable to communicate beyond the occasional raised eyebrow and shoulder movements resembling dejected shrugs. The volume will put me in a foul mood that only a hasty exit to a more quiet environment can remedy, thereby forfeiting my right, should I be in Merida, to the lukewarm catered meal served at midnight as a strategy to keep us old folks hostage beyond the time we would normally tolerate the assault on our nervous system.
I will cope with and accept the increasing limits that aging puts on my body, from the newly discovered impossibility of climbing on the roof to enter my home when I have forgotten the house key, to the pain in my finger joints when I try writing as a method of communication as opposed to a keyboard (which funnily enough produces no such irritation).
There are many more things I look forward to as I reach the ripe old age of a half-century, and many of those will be positive I am sure. But this morning, I felt compelled to write about some of the less-than-stellar moments that I can look forward to (and I haven’t even touched on the GI tract).
Happy 2011!
Merry Christmas to All and to All a Prosperous 2011
Posting as the Neurotic Foreigner, I have been blessed with a small but loyal readership and many of you seem to enjoy my often ascerbic comments on life here in the Yucatan. While it would seem that my writings are often less than flattering, I would remind readers that mostly these are written with the intent to be somewhat humorous (Canadian spelling) and that the viewpoints are those of an admittedly neurotic foreigner and that I really do love it here. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy Christmas and wish you all peace and decent health in the coming year. And thank you to those of you who care enough to comment now and then!
Recent developments in the Riviera Maya/Cancun area what with the gangs and news of Tony Soprano-style extortions do not bode well for the future of the area and it is my sincere wish and hope that this desintegration of the fabric of Mexican society does not spread to this last bastion of relative calm and tranquility that is the state of Yucatan. Of course there are the political battles but these are unfortunately par for the course in this country and albeit unsettling, are not nearly as threatening as the violence and fear that are so commonplace now in many parts of the country. Yucatan is still a fantastic place to live and work.
Merry Christmas to all! Feliz Navidad a todos!!