Long Time Forum Fan wants to answer your Mexico questions

[GammaGlobulin]

I don't know how much you know about Mexico.

 

However, I once raced, at breakneck speeds, in 1990, for 5 hours, through Tabasco, down near the border of Belize, and mostly across the Yucatan Peninsula, where you would see almost nothing but almost totally unclothed natives, while driving a Mercedes, chasing two faster Toyotas. The guys in the Toyotas were maniacs of speed..

 

Every time I would inch up on them, they would just go faster.

 

 

Toyotas are faster than the 420 SE Benz, for sure.

 

This was a very hair-raising ride, and foolish, on winding roads through the jungle.

 

No cars coming or going on this highway, for hours, 33 years ago.  Just three cars together, racing as fast as we could go, for hours on end, through the Yucatan, on an extremely lonely road.

 

Very few (basically zero) hospitals in that area back in 1989.

 

On the way from Naples Florida, through Mexico City, to Belize in a Benz, at a time when there were zero Mercedes in Mexico City, and this was just a couple of years after the earthquake there.

 

Lots of excitement.

I would not repeat it.

 

The food in Mexico is wonderful.

 

The water in Mexico, the drinking water, is terrible.

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[GammaGlobulin]

10 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Inadvertent misposting due to a keystroke error. Pardon Me.  No option to remove this. Sorry.

 

10 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[GinBoy2]

Mexico in general on this forum gets a bit of a bad rap, mostly underserved.

 

My family comes from Guadalajara, and no it's not some drug crazed gangland depicted on TV, but a rather beautiful colonial style city, full of culture, entertainment and great food.

 

My wife and I have visited my family there many times over the years, and if my wife spoke Spanish I'd be in two minds whether or not to move there. 

 

Now this is merging a couple of topics. But the first time we went there together was when my she was, at the time my GF got denied a tourist visa to the US when we wanted to go visit my daughter who had had a baby. 

We flew to Mexico, I left her with my Aunt and cousins, and as in all hispanic culture I use cousin, primos like Thai women will refer to family members as sister. I then continued my journey to the US. 

 

All in all it was a great month. I got to see my Granddaughter, and my wife got to see my extended family in Mexico 

Edited January 24, 2022 by GinBoy2

[LaosLover]

I gotta say, I got tired of Mexican food faster than any other cuisine on earth, including The Philippines. Do you love pork, do you love it 5 ways? How about the many hairline variations of a taco-like holder for said pork? Many other terrible ideas like slathering mayonnaise on an ear of corn.

 

Not that great at cooking rice either. Al dente is a dirty word (or is it two words?). No black pepper, except in a tiny slice of The Yucatan. Garlic prawns taste like they left it out, compared to the sumptuous genius of fill in the blank with pepper and garlic like you get in Thailand. You have to like you food overcooked and bare and then slathered with chili sauce, which again is not even in the same ball park as a squeeze bottle of Sri Racha.

 

Just like I prefer americanized Chinese food, I would prefer to eat at SunRise Taco's on Soi 13 over even a mid-level Mexican restaurant in Mexico. Guacamole is another thing better enjoyed in California than Mexico. Most Mexicans seem to agree with me; in Mexico City, the prime dining choice for the locals is always an Argentinian-style Steakhouse.

 

I would love to have the experience of the person above of eating with a Mexican family, but I think I'd have to live here a very long time to get an invite. The opportunity for cross cultural interaction here is much lower than in Thailand.

 

GinBoy, if you haven't seen Mexican Narcos on Netflix, it shows Guatalahara's old 70's style modern buildings off to great effect. 

[Danderman123]

I am trying to get a Mexican visa for a Thai lady, any hints? Their paperwork looks arduous for a tourist visit. 

[LaosLover]

No idea. Very generous to Americans, tho. I got 183 days at the airport.

 

Tangentially, I just read a great book, Snakehead, about the world of Chinese people traffickers. Mexico was and still is a big route for it, so prob some sensitivity about it. I have seen zero Asian people here, even as tourists.

[GinBoy2]

12 hours ago, LaosLover said:

I gotta say, I got tired of Mexican food faster than any other cuisine on earth, including The Philippines. Do you love pork, do you love it 5 ways? How about the many hairline variations of a taco-like holder for said pork? Many other terrible ideas like slathering mayonnaise on an ear of corn.

 

Not that great at cooking rice either. Al dente is a dirty word (or is it two words?). No black pepper, except in a tiny slice of The Yucatan. Garlic prawns taste like they left it out, compared to the sumptuous genius of fill in the blank with pepper and garlic like you get in Thailand. You have to like you food overcooked and bare and then slathered with chili sauce, which again is not even in the same ball park as a squeeze bottle of Sri Racha.

 

Just like I prefer americanized Chinese food, I would prefer to eat at SunRise Taco's on Soi 13 over even a mid-level Mexican restaurant in Mexico. Guacamole is another thing better enjoyed in California than Mexico. Most Mexicans seem to agree with me; in Mexico City, the prime dining choice for the locals is always an Argentinian-style Steakhouse.

 

I would love to have the experience of the person above of eating with a Mexican family, but I think I'd have to live here a very long time to get an invite. The opportunity for cross cultural interaction here is much lower than in Thailand.

 

GinBoy, if you haven't seen Mexican Narcos on Netflix, it shows Guatalahara's old 70's style modern buildings off to great effect. 

Wow, you really haven't experienced real mexican food.

 

My Aunts would stuff you with food to blow your mind.

 

My wife, as Thai as she is, and always hates non Thai food, loves to cook with my aunts

 

There is also a pizza joint in town, who's name I forget right now, but is up there with anything I've ever experienced in Italy

[LaosLover]

Can't fault Mex food at all. But I'm a non-red meat eater who likes to see a lot of veg on the plate. For me, a Mex menu is always going to be a bit of compromise on that. Chicken enchiladas verde or Mole (hopefully the pumpkin seed one) are my solid, can't fail go-to's like Pad Thai and Green Curry are.

 

Two big eating out surprises in Mex City:

 

Lots of very good ME/Jewish restaurants. Worth a google if that's your flavor.

 

Decent and inexpensive sushi/ramen chain restaurants, practically on every other block. The Sushi-ito chain is like an upper-middle Japanese food experience in America for about half the price. Tons of 2 for 1 specials on Mondays and Wednesdays.

 

I went out to a proper Izakaya-style restaurant last night and had a huge sashimi platter, 4 very creative veg side dishes (grilled avocado -It worked), and 2 giant Japanese salaryman-style highball cocktails: $70 with tip. Would have been at least $120-140 in NYC/Tokyo.

[Danderman123]

I couldn't get a Mexican visa for my Thai lady friend, so we went to Argentina instead. 

 

 

[VinnieK]

No Covid insanity in Mex either.

..but if you like the masks/jabs/mass psychosis of Thailand, be my guest.

Health and money reasons keep me here at the moment.

I have a few destinations in mind for when the fog clears and all are in LatAm.

[morrobay]

On 1/21/2022 at 3:13 AM, LaosLover said:

.......And def include Oaxaca on your route. It's really the most attractive and culturally alive (means: not very) town in Mexico. Most creative high end restaurants too.

 

Maybe Mex City -Guadalajara - Taxco (for a pretty mountain town) -Puerto Villarta -down the beachy coast- great mountainous bus ride to Oxaca- and then either back to Mex City or on to Cancun. 

Maybe a nice mountain bus ride  up to Oxaca. But do not take the bus down the mountain to the coast from Oxaca

Edited February 4, 2022 by morrobay

[LaosLover]

99.9% of Mex people on the street are wearing masks and socially distancing.  4000 peso fine for not wearing a mask (prob not enforced). Hand sanitizer and temperature check at most restaurants.

 

Covid test info: Don't bother going to a clinic and paying 450 peso's. They won't give you a quick result or a fit to fly certificate. They send you an email, and then you have to fill out a long questionnaire (in Spanish) to get your results, and then they don't send them to you. This happened to me twice and also to 2 other people I know.

 

If you're flying out, there is a good testing site at the airport. Allow at least 2 hours above what you would normally allow for the airport to get your test. I was there at 4 AM and it took an hour.

 

On the other hand, just read in The Economist that the Mex gov is very slack on Covid. But that has not been my experience.

 

Yeah, def. want to ride that Oxaca-beach bus from the beach up to Oxaca, but I'd say it's no worse than a trip to Pai in a minivan.

[The Hammer2021]

And the gay scene?

Drugs?

Old folks homes??

[LaosLover]

Puerto Vallarta is supposed to be gay-heaven, but it seemed pretty low key to me, not that I'm the kind of person who pops up at a white party. A handful of bars, really.

 

Mex weed is famously terrible, like what you bought in high school. Only saw it once, it was maybe a notch above Cambodian pizza-level. I hadn't seen seedy pot in decades. The rest of drugs are beyond my pay grade.

 

For what you want, you prob want to be in Tulum. In a place like Mexico City, I guess you'd have to try your luck at a club, like you would in Bangkok. The average Mex person would be even more anti-drug than the average middle class Thai person.

[LaosLover]

I have a global nomad friend who says that a popular substance (not sure what the TOS are here for drug discussions) is freely available in the beachy south along any bar row for about half off USA city prices. Other party enhancers are similarly priced.

 

The myth that you can buy stuff like Xanax over the counter continues to disappoint tourists. It is easily prescribed by a doctor here, tho. On average, I have seen no big discounts on prescription medicines here over the US so far. My thyroid medicine costs 4 times more here.

[The Hammer2021]

17 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

I couldn't get a Mexican visa for my Thai lady friend, so we went to Argentina instead. 

 

 

I bet Argentina is great fun..F*^k Mexico.

[LaosLover]

All in, I am surprised at how un-exotic Mexico is. It's a poorer Arizona. So yeah, for a more foreign-feeling wow-factor, S. America prob delivers more of that. 

 

I have a friend with a long distance much younger GF in Sao Paulo and says it def feels very Blade Runner-ish with tons of Brutalist buildings set in weird tropical plants.  He says the tinder game is through the roof there.

 

 

[The Hammer2021]

4 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

I have a global nomad friend who says that a popular substance (not sure what the TOS are here for drug discussions) is freely available in the beachy south along any bar row for about half off USA city prices. Other party enhancers are similarly priced.

 

The myth that you can buy stuff like Xanax over the counter continues to disappoint tourists. It is easily prescribed by a doctor here, tho. On average, I have seen no big discounts on prescription medicines here over the US so far. My thyroid medicine costs 4 times more here.

I didn't really mean to ask you about the availability of cannabis/ acid/ecstasy/ speed/ coke/ H/Ice/ hash/ weed/DMT/LSD/K /shrooms/ because I dont know or want to know about those kind of things but I meant the drug scene and all that goes with it. 

 

[LaosLover]

I guess if you went a hippie bar on the beach where they were blasting Bob Marley, it would be the same as one on Ko Phangan. Otherwise, you'd have to really go out of your way to get involved in the local drug scene. 

 

Much less interaction here between locals and foreigners than in Thailand. No local equivalent of motorcycle taxi guys who want to share a beer with you. Even in Touristy San Miguel, going into a more local-oriented bar not far from the craft shop-laden town center, you def feel a bit of a cold shoulder.

 

There's also a language barrier. More Thai people speak in English in a place like Chiang Mai than Mex people speak in English in a place like San Miguel. Even Mex City has surprisingly few English speakers. Cancun is really the exception.

[LaosLover]

Nah, I went to Laos like 10 times, and when I did my historic preservation project, some of those trips were a couple of months apiece. Thai and SEA culture has been my obsession since the first Lonely Planet book.

 

I never lived in SEA for longer than a couple of months at a time. I def. envy those who do. The westerner in Asia, and most def the romance (or whatever) oriented westerner in Thailand is something I have a lot of affinity and interest in. As a guy who travels mostly solo, who else would talk me?

 

To me, this forum is a real time reality tv show about those topics. No hidden agenda on my end, just real appreciation of the people here who share their stories. 'Don't think my own story is all that interesting to people here.

[biervoormij]

On 1/20/2022 at 2:40 AM, Danderman123 said:

I am in Brazil at the moment with a Thai lady, and we have a little time at the end of our trip, so I am thinking of a side trip to Mexico before we go back to Thailand. My planned itinerary:

 

Arrive at MEX via overnight flight from Manaus on Copa Airlines. We will be very tired, so probably stay at the Camino Real at the airport.

 

Next day, rent a car and drive up to the Paso de Cortes to see the volcanoes. Then drive down to Cholula. Spend some time looking at the Grand Pyramid.

 

Next day, go to Puebla, maybe stay at an AirBnB for a few days. Not really much to see in Puebla, but it’s pleasant.

 

Go back to the DF, return the rental, and stay in a hotel for a few days. Lots to see and do in the DF.

 

Fly to Guadalajara, rent a car, and go visit a Tequila factory in TequIla.

 

Fly to Tijuana, and spend some time there. She can see the US from a tall building. Shop for stuff imported from America that I can take back to Thailand.

Fly to Cancun, stay for a couple of days, get a PCR test, and fly back to Thailand.

 

Anything I left out?

Sorry am a bit late to comment on your plans.

 

I did not think the trip to the the Grand Pyramid at Cholula was very interesting.  If you have the time I would recommend El Tajin in Veracruz or if you have not been to Teotihuacin I would say do not miss it. It is very impressive even with the crowds of tourist.

 

If you are in Guadalajara over the weekend I would recommend to visit the rodeo. It was one of the highlights of Guadalajara for me but think I may have been the only tourist there.

 

Hope you have a great time in Mexico and would be interested to hear the highlights of your trip.

 

 

 

 

[biervoormij]

2 hours ago, LaosLover said:

Yeah, def. want to ride that Oxaca-beach bus from the beach up to Oxaca, but I'd say it's no worse than a trip to Pai in a minivan.

I have done the trip from Chiang Mai to Pai and a minivan from Oxaca City to the beach at Mazunte. I think it is fair to compare the two trips but the Oxaca one is twice as long. I would not do the Oxacca minivan again and would just fly to Puerto Escondido and then take a bus down the coast.

[biervoormij]

Living in Thailand there is an abundance of furnished condos at cheap prices. Is this also the case in Mexico? Did you find it easy to find a place in Guanajuato and did it have every thing you need?

 

I think I may leave Thailand next year but not sure where I want to go next but Mexico is a possibility.

[LaosLover]

Furnished condo's are a lot less likely than unfurnished. As near as I can tell, you have to walk around to find a deal rental-wise. We just asked a guy at the hotel. There are farang Facebook pages for every town that offer so-so deals compared to walking around.

 

Stuff like a corkscrew is def hard to find. Air BNB is expensive for what you get.

 

Most nice condo's outside of Cancun do not have A/C, if that's an issue. A very few have central A/C which means you don't control it. We bought a unit for the bedroom.

 

Agreed, the big pyramid outside of Mex City is a snore-drama. The whole Mayan Aztec thing is not a patch on the Khmer ruins strewn throughout Issan. You have your cartoony snake done in bass relief and your big Olmec head. If you're lucky. Best to get in early because all that marble really refracts the heat.

 

A pyramid tour means a stop at fake tequila distillery (not too bad). The best tequila for the least money is Don Julio. Patron is for suckers. Mex people seem to favor Hornitos. Mezcal is like Lao Lao moonshine minus that intriguing blue plastic pipe taste.

If there's anyone here who hasn't seen the fantastic film Apocalypto, Mel Gibson explained the Mayans better than the big museum in Mex City did (closed due to Covid). There's a famous pulpy novel called Aztec that's pretty hard to read.

 

I'm a crazy bus ride in poor people-land fan (fave: Hue to Savanakhet -20 hours of torture/bliss), but if you're not, def. spring for a flight between the beach and Oaxaca.

Edited February 4, 2022 by LaosLover
added bus thoughts

[CharlieH]

Inflammatory comment and subsequent exchange removed.

[morrobay]

6 hours ago, biervoormij said:

I have done the trip from Chiang Mai to Pai and a minivan from Oxaca City to the beach at Mazunte. I think it is fair to compare the two trips but the Oxaca one is twice as long. I would not do the Oxacca minivan again and would just fly to Puerto Escondido and then take a bus down the coast.

From Oxaca to Puerto Escondido just continue South on the Train down to the lowlands then take bus North up coast . Being on a bus down mountain with macho bus driver trying to bass another bus ... As far as Mexico overall, Mazatlan is on the North-South rail line ,day and a half overnight to border on train. On the coast. City variety.

[Danderman123]

8 hours ago, biervoormij said:

Sorry am a bit late to comment on your plans.

 

I did not think the trip to the the Grand Pyramid at Cholula was very interesting.  If you have the time I would recommend El Tajin in Veracruz or if you have not been to Teotihuacin I would say do not miss it. It is very impressive even with the crowds of tourist.

 

I lived in Cholula for 5 years. 

[Danderman123]

58 minutes ago, morrobay said:

From Oxaca to Puerto Escondido just continue South on the Train down to the lowlands then take bus North up coast . Being on a bus down mountain with macho bus driver trying to bass another bus ... As far as Mexico overall, Mazatlan is on the North-South rail line ,day and a half overnight to border on train. On the coast. City variety.

Are passenger trains still running in Mexico? 

[Danderman123]

I am planning a trip to Mexico in late April, this time I go with a Mexican lady. 

 

I mentioned being in Argentina now, there is a shortage of gringos at the moment. Everyone I meet is amazed I can speak Spanish. I get a few who try some English, but most give up and just ask why I can speak Spanish. 

[morrobay]

28 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Are passenger trains still running in Mexico? 

That was in the 80s. From searches privatization (screwed up) ended passenger train service in Mexico.