Smog

A few months ago I noticed that our floor fan had gotten very dirty so I went to take it apart and clean it. While doing so I noticed a black paste was building up on the blades. I had to use Bleach to get it to break apart and come clean. This wasn't your normal build-up of dust. This was a thick pasty black substance.

It was at that point that I realized how dirty the air can be inside the city in certain areas. We live on a street that has it's fair share of traffic, including about 75 to 100 municipal buses each day. One of the things you notice about most of these buses, along with many vehicles here, is how thick and black the exhaust is coming out of the tail pipes. Those emissions combined with the fact that there are so many unpaved roads in developing neighborhoods create some fairly dirty air here at times.

You also have people here that still burn their trash instead of paying for trash pickup. It is quite common for us to open our windows to get fresh air and smell burning trash. So you have smog, dirty roads and burning trash creating this thick soot that gets in the air and then on your window screens, in your air conditioning units, on your floor fans and unfortunately in your lungs.

The people who live at the beach don't experience as much of this but the people in Centro and other highly-trafficked areas can get barraged with poor air-quality.

Also, one more thing. Before you come down here you should have your fans in your laptops cleaned. And you also need to learn how to remove the keyboard and clean out your laptops on your own. We did have a fan in one of our laptops seize up and stop working. We thought it was broken and we couldn't find a laptop repair shop here who could get a replacement fan. I ended up taking the laptop back to the U.S. on a business trip and had a computer repair shop. The repair tech showed me that the fan was not broken but in fact clogged up with dust and other junk. 

Knowing how to do this will save you a few dollars in the future as you live and reside in Merida.

Saludos
Jay

Four Meridas

Did you watch Sesame Street when you were a kid? Do you remember the song, "One of these is not the same."? You were supposed to find which one was not like the others. I can still sing parts of the song and I am in my 40's. Below is an example.


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I commend you if you could endure all 1:20 of that. The point being that one is not like the other three. Well in Merida, you could demographically divide this city and state into 4 groups of people. And none of them are like the others. All four are different. Here you have:

• Spaniards (Mexicans) - often referred to as whites by the Mayans. They could pass for whites with darker hair. They look and carry themselves like Americans until you hear them open their mouths and speak Yucatecan Spanish. They have sharp Spanish European features. They are often well educated, have children that are sometimes born with blond hair, and they rarely mix with others.
• Mayans - They are deeply Mayan and often are Asian in appearance. I would estimate that they compose at least 70% of the population of the state at this time. They are physically short and stocky people and most of them are blue collar in their occupations. Flip flops, shorts and t-shirts can be their normal attire. Some dress very nicely as they are coming into the 21st century culture. In many of the rural areas around the state they comprise probably 99% of the population in small towns and at times do not even speak Spanish. They speak Mayan or at least Mayan at home and Spanish when expected to in public. In Merida they all speak Spanish.
• Mexicans (from around Mexico). Even if they are rich Spanish heritage they are rarely accepted by Yucatecos (Spaniard whites or Mayans). I can not tell you the number of times I have been told over the past 2 years by Mexicans from other parts of the country that they are not accepted here by the locals. Yet their numbers are increasing dramatically and if the native Meridian population doesn't watch out they will one day be a majority of the people living in Merida. They are coming from every state in this country, escaping to Merida to flee the social instability that is growing around their nation (drug violence and corruption).
• Expats - If you read my previous post on The Number of Expats in Merida you know there are probably only around 5,000 Canadians and Americans that live here year round. You can probably estimate that their are another 10, 15 or 20 thousand people from other Latin American countries that live here. I am guessing on that one but expats are definitely a minority in this city. The expats from Canada and the U.S. are small but somewhat well organized. Yolisto is a good place to check out in case you have not already found it.

Their are very clear cut lines between most of these groups. Mayans rarely align with Spaniards even though they are both Mexicans. Spaniards and Mayans don't accept Mexicans from other parts of the country very often even though all of them are Mexicans. All of these groups, for the most part, are not accepting of expats any more than they have to be.

I am not implying that they hate expats, though some do. They are just not going to go out of their way to connect with you. If they do it can most often mean that they are looking for something...a job, financial help, ....something. They think all Americans are rich. You can tell them you are not but they don't believe it. By their standards you are. Otherwise why would you be here. That is their logic.

I have seen exceptions to what I just said. Some of the people I care about most in this world are Yucatecos living here. My wife and I love a number of people from here. Great people. Some of them are Mexicans from Mexico city or other parts of the country. I have met some incredibly intelligent and warm people of Mayan decent. Some of the expats living here are extremely giving, sacrificial and generous. It is just that, as a general rule, their are clear cut lines among these groups. They are all not the same. All are clearly different and the majority of some of the first two groups are extremely prejudiced towards everyone not of their kind.

It is almost like a Yucateco fraternity of sorts and the people most often on the short end of that stick are the Mexicans from other parts of Mexico, the expats, or those that don't have money. You need to be aware of that when coming here.

Saludos
J.E.

The Final Leg

Well, after an almost 2 year effort and journey it looks as if we are moving back to our home state of TX at the beginning of February. We started mulling over and praying about this at the beginning of October and came to the conclusion this was what we were being led to do.

We are scheduled to head out on February 3rd...My wife and the boys on an airplane and myself in the truck. With that said, I hope to have the time to write some departing posts about different areas of life here in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

It has been my observation that much of the feedback that comes from others comes with financial strings attached. My intention is to not be pessimistic or overly optimistic but to simply point out both the beauty and not so beautiful parts of life in this country that many of us expats have called home. Work, play, family, financial.....I will give some in's and out's of what I see as we move along here.

Please watch for more to come in the next two weeks as we finish up our journey here.


God Bless,

Jay and family

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

San Angelo 08

They are busy hoisting these things near the North side of the city.....

San Angelo 08 from San Angelo 08 on Vimeo.

Here is the official Link.

Aesthetically speaking, I am sure there this place will be very beautiful once they finish it. My guess would be another 2 years to complete it out since they have been working on it for six months already and still are not done with the subterranean parking garage. But a few more things I might point out....

• As you can see from the American flag on the bottom of one of the website pages, they may be counting on expats to help sell this thing through.
• Mexicans keep different hours from Canadians and Americans, for the most part. Mexicans are extremely loud, on average, and do not respect their neighbors as readily, i.e. stereos, parties, anything that generates noise. What I am saying is that living in an adult living environment in MX is comensurate with dorm life for college kids at say UCLA or the University of Texas.
• This entire buildings will be made mostly of concrete and steel. Sound will reverberate through this entire structure like a tuning fork, unless they take the time to insulate the walls.
• I believe these will be the tallest buildings in Merida when completed. This will garner much attention, at least at first. 
• The views will be ?????. You are 19 miles from the coast and are overlooking brush covered fields around the Periferico Hwy. But hey, at least you can see Wal Mart from your living room. 
• Not sure how they are pricing them but I would be interested to see if they will be higher than they should be. That is what many real estate ventures in MX and the U.S these days. Las Fincas is an example. LF is now selling double lots for the price of one at that development. It is a sign that the developers overextended themselves. I know. I physically walked the development with Fransisco (my attorney) and saw them charging $350K for base models before upgrades or a pool. Just an example of the cycle these great development ideas run here. And Las Fincas was designed, in part, with the advisory of paid U.S. land developers to draw in American buyers and consumers. Apparently they are struggling with selling through on it now.

My advice, if you are dead set on moving here, is to come down and rent for at least six months to a year while you educate yourself on this real estate market. They don't have an MLS system here like the U.S. so prices in this market are floating all over the place. Come down and buy land and build to your specs and preferences or buy some huge run down structure, gut it and build it up with a great plan. That is what I would do.

JEB

The Number of Expats in Merida

INM in Merida on Avenida Colon

In October, while renewing our visas at INM (Immigration), I asked one of the ladies working there how many expats (Canadians, Americans, Cubans, ......) actually live here in Merida/Progresso. She couldn't tell me exactly but she did say that they handle 50 scheduled or walk-in appointments a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year in the Merida immigration office. That comes out to 12,500 actual appointments a year.

Now, everyone goes in for at least 2 appointments during the application/renewal process on the visas. The first is to turn in your paperwork and application. The second is to actually receive your visa, usually about 2 to 3 weeks later. So that would cut the number of people in half to 6,250 going into the INM office twice a year. Are you with me?

Now there is an immigration (INM) office in Progresso to alleviate the pressure on the Merida office. However, they are very lightly staffed and you have to live in Progresso or neighboring beach towns to use that office. I have been in that office twice, once with my attorney Fransisco, and they usually only have one lady working the front desk. I can't imagine that they get around to handling more than 10 people a day, judging from the workload of 50 appointments a day in Merida. The Merida office always has at least 5 or 6 people processing apps at any one given time. With that said, I am assuming that Progresso processes about 50 appointments a week, 2,500 per year. That would cut in half the number of actual people to 1,250 since everyone processes in-and-out on two appointments set a few weeks apart.

National Flags of Latin American Countries

Most of the expats in Progresso are retirees from Canada or the United States. They probably make up 95% or more of the traffic in that office. But the INM office in Merida is another story. I have been in that office four times now. And of the expats that I have seen in there no more than 25% of them actually look to be Canadians or Americans. Most of the time they look to be, at least to me, Spanish speaking immigrants from Latin American Countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico or Columbia.

So let's say, rounding up, that 30% of the 6,250 applicants processed annually through the Merida office are Canadian and American. That comes out to around 2,000 people. Then you have somewhere around 1,500 people being processed through the Progresso office of which about 95% or more fly the CAD or USA flag.

Then you have to factor in those expats that have already attained Inmigrado status through Immigration and are no longer being processed on an annual basis. My best guess on that number.......Let's say 1,000 of those people in Merida. I have never met an American or Canadian with inmigrado status so I think 1,000 is awfully generous.

That's 2,000 in Merida plus 1,500 in Progresso/Chelem plus maybe another 1,000 seasoned-veteran Inmigrados. I get somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500 Canadian and U.S. expats in Merida/Progresso/Chelem/Chixclub.......plus or minus 500.

The expat community here is not very large in comparison to the overall population which is well over 1 million. You are talking maybe less than one half of one one percent of the population. I have .4% of the population, an incredibly minuscule fraction of the people.

Even amongst foreign expats, Americans and Canadians are a minority within an extreme minority. And if you are going to be involved with people here on a broad basis then guess what you are going to want to be able to do?  That's right....Speak Spanish. It doesn't mean you won't meet people that speak English. You will. But it is not the majority of people.

Just an insider's view not based on a financial agenda.

JEB

Set It On The Curb

Since I have now seen this happen twice I will write about it. About two months ago I set out a partial roll of unused chicken wire fencing to be picked up by the sanitation department. I had used the wire fencing material in the design of our large bird cage (Click Here).

Within two hours the stuff was gone. Someone had picked it up off the curb to use it in spite of the fact that the metal was half-way rusted through. Yet someone was still willing to take it. 


This morning I set out a large bag of dog food that we had bought from Sam's Club. We had tried some new dog food with our beloved Missy but she didnt' take to it to well. So, I thought I would just set it out  on the curb and see if anyone would take it. Sure enough, the bag of already opened dog food was gone within about 30 minutes.

We know a Canadian couple that owns a bed and breakfast in Centro. When remodeling some time ago they had some old sheet metal from the property that they set on the curb for trash pickup. The neighbors came out by the droves to carry it all off and use it for themselves.

Imagine watching an ant colony kill and dissect a dead insect and then carry it off for consumption. That is about what I am talking about.

JEB