I have been to MC once only, but I loved the trip. It was in 2016 (or 17?)
Hope to travel there one more time when this covid-madness is over

Have it changed significantly since?

Zara, thanks for the suggestion, I will give that a try.

Good info re: BsAs. How is your Spanish? Have you been able to make friends with any locals?

I wanted to try out BsAs last Winter, but it wasn't open so I checked out Brazil instead. Then I wanted to move there later this year and it STILL isn't open, so I've given up for now. I've already booked a flight for Spain in November and am gonna slowly make my way over to Tbilisi, Georgia and then live there for a year starting in March. It seems like another digital nomad hotspot that has a very nice cost of living. After that, I may finally give BsAs a look and then have a better idea of which place might be a good long-term fit.

CDMX I think you would have better luck with women. Even though walking the streets you won't encounter near as many cute girls as Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, it seems like on the dating apps there are quite a few and a lot of the upper echelon girls will be interested and won't be time wasters.

spoink, I first arrived in February 2018 and would say it's stayed mostly the same. I hope it doesn't get more overrun by expats now that more people are getting a taste of working from home and living as digital nomads.

Buenos Aires:

My Spanish is pretty advanced now but back then it was a lot more intermediate/conversational. I did well with the ladies down there, but it can be a pretty epic minefield of time wasters, especially if going the nightlife route. My advice would be to screen for dates (and friends too for that matter) with people who moved from outside of BsAs. Portenos are comically aggressive and a bit slimy so the Portenas can get a bit jaded and adjust by being very passive/skeptical but many of them get a bit addicted to the attention. They will sometimes string you along for hours even if they have a boyfriend just to get their attention fix.

Another good idea (easier said than done) is to avoid the 10PM-6AM nightlife time blackhole in favor of meeting people elsewhere and then hosting asados to build a social circle. The super late night seven day a week nightlife was quite the temptation and slippery slope into degeneracy for some of my poker friends. It is pretty easy to make friends down there, however the average young Argentine is pretty basic/intermediate at English. Locals and gringos alike were pretty down to come out for a party or pregame.

I would recommend staying in a building with amenities so you can invite friends to the communal grill area or the girl you are dating to the pool. Both are pretty standard amenities in building complexes. It sounds like La Condesa/Roma Norte in CDMX are the Palmero Soho/Palermo Hollywood equivalents as the latter are by far the best areas to live for walkable bars and restaurants.

All things considered it is a place I am considering moving back to in the next year as I still have friends there, but it has its pros and cons. A second tier city is also something worth considering given that some cost less than half of BsAs, especially since I suspect rent prices in BsAs are going to pop once the borders reopen. There is an oversupply of short term tourism rental inventory sitting empty and artificially dragging down Airbnb prices so I am skeptical that the ultra bargains will still be there.

Does ignition poker offer games in mexico? Can I vacation there and play as an American?

Yes, we have Bodog Poker in Mexico. Whether you could get it approved in time to play during a short vacation, I'm not sure. It took me about a week to get verified IIRC, but that was back in 2018.

Thanks

has anyone played in CDMX at Palace Bingo & Sport Bets Casino® Insurgentes? AFAIK it is the most active poker room in CDMX.

I use bovada - and everytime i login it says 'we are not available in your country, but if you are travelling at the moment and already have an account, then go ahead....'

Forget if my account is from USA or brazil, but anyways bovada, bodog, or ignition is all the same and the skin just varies by country.

https://web.facebook.com/PalacePokerRoom


I think they spread mata aces as part of their DC.


royal yak seems to have games daily also after 5 pm.

What does this mean? A cursory glance at their page with my remedial spanish skills deduced that they had 3 cash games running last night.

Looks like they usually have 1-3 cash games running, normally 3k peso ($150) buyin NLHE. Occasionally 1k peso ($50) buyin.

I hate how poker rooms in Mx can never just have a regular PLO game. It's always a rotation with mata ases. If I wanted to play mata ases, then I'd look for a mata ases table, just let me play PLO dammit!

I haven't experienced it yet (the last time I re-entered Mexico was in July), but in the Reddit CDMX and digital nomad groups there are a ton of people reporting that Mexico is actually starting to enforce their visa policies. So if you had a 180-day tourist visa recently and then try to re-enter shortly thereafter you might only get like 30 days. So maybe the days of perpetual tourism are over? Temporary residency visas aren't too hard to get, but I have to think this will cut down a ton on digital nomads coming to Mexico.

AirBNB has also been pretty absurd in CDMX for apartments. I'm paying waaaay too much for a 1-BR and it's not even in one of the more elite areas. I needed a place for 7 weeks and ended up paying ~$1350/month to be in San Rafael.

I'd say several factors in play: 1) AirBNB fees seem to be perpetually creeping up. 2) Mexico levied a big tax on AirBNBs a little while ago. Now you'll pay an additional 15-20% on top of AirBNB/cleaning fees. 3) Seems like either the supply of AirBNBs is down from covid or there is a big influx of tourists post-covid. I know that in Spain/Portugal AirBNB prices are like 2-3x as high due to a lot of AirBNB apartments moving over to long-term rentals due to covid. Maybe a similar phenomenon in Mexico.

As for me, I'm leaving CDMX at the start of December and then making my way over to Spain, France, Greece, Turkey, and Georgia and then will likely settle in one of those (Istanbul or Tbilisi being most likely) for at least a year. If I came back to Mexico, I'd likely go through the trouble of getting a residency visa and then probably looking for a place in CDMX on the ground instead of via AirBNB.

Just some things to keep an eye on for those who visit Mexico a lot on tourist visas.

fb marketplace has been my goto for a couple years now, or mass messaging airbnb's and getting them to deal off-site by putting your phone number in code in a message. sad state of affairs, but workable.

have heard the same over and over again the last couple months wrt tourist visas being cracked down on. I'm 3 years into my residency anyways so don't mind at all, but its def gonna screw over a lot of people looking to stay in mexico for 6+ months and expecting it to be a smooth process of border runs or overstays.

INM has been more diligent recently in attempting to crackdown on misuse of tourist visas. This is not to punish travelers but to educate and inform.

INM agents are asking for more proof of travel itinerary such as hotel accommodations and dates; return airline tickets; length of stay, etc .

Regular tourists (typical 1-3 week stay) are given appropriate tourist visas).
Snowbirds and longer term stays means INM agents look at age & retirement factors in their assessment. These people are given appropriate time based FMM's based upon length requested providing they satisfy the agents questions. Note: there is one exception. If snowbirds own and rent out property in Mexico they are expected to be a temporary resident with a permission to work visa or be a permanent resident.

Remote Workers / Digital Nomads. These tend to be younger travelers. INM officials believe if you work in a country, then you are a resident of that country. You are not a tourist. You are expected to have a temporary resident visa card.

In summary, agents are more thoroughly assessing: age; accommodations; length of stay; return plane ticket; being a landlord; digital nomad; source of income; repeated entries; duration of previous entries; etc.
Length of time for FMM tourit cards are becoming shorter.

Repeat or serial tourists please note all trip history is available to INM agents. It is constantly updated. INM staff can quickly identify misuse of tourist visas.

Other flags that agents look for when assessing visas, include suspected criminal activity, country of origin, etc.

Anyone who stays for 180 days, leaves and comes back for another extended period within the same year are obviously living in Mexico and not living in their native country. These people are now being flagged by agents and given short FMM periods. Some will be denied entry altogether. They will be encouraged to return when they apply for residency.

Yah I used FB for my 6 month stay in Vallarta and got a decent deal. I usually try the AirBnb trick, but checked CDMX for places like 2 weeks before my stay assuming there would be a bunch, but options were super limited so I was kinda screwed.

I also booked a bunch of places in Spain and France in Dec/Jan and asked about 20 places for a discount and noone was budging. I think they know they're holding all the cards for the moment. Prices skyrocketing, everyone wanting to travel, and low supply of places on AirBnb. Hope it changes soon bc it's a really **** time to be a digital nomad right now.

I wonder also if the massive influx of work from home people due to corona is gonna screw us over also.

I think I'm just gonna bunker down in a super cheap place like Tbilisi or Istanbul for a little while until it blows over. Maybe even buy a cheapish place to hedge against prices spiraling out of control. Both will have places in great areas for $1k per SQ meter.

I was wondering why they "took back" my FMM on my recent trip to CDMX, lol. Or maybe they always do it when flying from US.

Tijuana you buy it separate before checking in. Will find out in a few weeks how that goes.

If you search a good place in Europe you can go in Albania, it's very cheap and no Corona-crazy, everybody no have the mask were the people will put it , the same things for policeman. Everybody said of the gouvernement is **** in Albania and there no respect rules. Is very good . Albania language is very difficult but lot of people speak English. And it's VERY SAFE
sorry for my English ...

Just arrived in Mexico City! If anybody is down for beers/food feel free to hit me up!

28yo grinder from Germany

This recent trip to Yucatán we flew from Tijuana Airport & were given a 180 day FMM at the booth. They didn’t ask us any questions (which is normal there).

The (very friendly) guy was wearing military fatigues vs. the normal blue uniform the 2 other ladies were wearing. Who knows if TJ Airport is a consistent way to get 180 day Visa these days.

Gonna stay 1 month in CDMX from mid Feb until mid March. Plan is to grind online, work out, play football (does anyone know where?) and go out for dinner from time to time. Most airbnbs I've checked are located on Roma area, is that the best place to stay? or where else is good? Budget for rental is 1k∼. Thanks in advance.

Condesa/Roma is fine and the area where most tourists will stay so you'll hear lots of English.

Polanco is also nice and has fancy high end places, but would probably be too much for that budget.

I personally prefer Juarez and Cuauhtemoc b/c it's a little more local feel while also being perfectly safe and close to Paseo de la Reforma, which is cool.

If you want to save, you can go a bit south to Napoles, Narvarte, Del Valle, but they're slightly more boring.

A lot of people choose Coyoacan, b/c it's a super unique and historical area, but located a bit far from the rest of the sights, so you'll use the metro a lot.

Finally, Centro is an option, and safe near the main areas, but can get a bit sketchy at night and in alleys.

Hey Fossil, long time no talk to...sounds like you've left Mexico, where in the world r u living atm?

We've both traveled in a lot of the same places & we both really like Mexico City, I'm interested to hear your opinion of Istanbul if / when you get there. I spent a few weeks in Turkey about 10 yrs ago...really enjoyed the country as a whole, and thought Istanbul was $&#^ing GREAT! Super cool city (interesting mix of ancient & very modern), very young population, plenty of opportunities to party, English widely spoken, and due to currency crisis I'm guessing uber cheap at the moment (for those of us w/ dollars/Euros). Oh, & the Turks go nucking futs over football (soccer) so you'll have that in common w/ them.

Hey PoC! Nice to hear from you.

We've been in Europe since early December:

1 week Madrid
10 days Sevilla/Córdoba/Granada/Málaga
1 month Paris
1 week Lyon
1 month Barcelona (still here for a few more weeks)

Upcoming we've got:

3 days Athens
1 month Istanbul
1 month Tbilisi

Then, provided that Istanbul or Tbilisi seems like a cool enough place to stay, we're gonna choose 1 of the 2 for a year long stay and mix in more trips to Europe and W. Asia throughout the year.

Glad to hear your opinion on Istanbul. I was thinking it was probably 90% likely to be the place we end up choosing, but after hearing your take, I think it's more like 95%!

My gf and I are both fans of massive, chaotic cities, with lots going on, so I think Istanbul will probably fit the bill perfectly for us. Most stuff seems uber cheap there, although rents on AirBNB in Istanbul have been rising rapidly just like most of Europe. But rents will still be like 33 to 50% as much as places in Spain/France. I'm thinking the cost of living might be a bit cheaper overall than CDMX from what I've been seeing.

It's been awesome seeing Europe, especially considering it's my gf's first time, but costs are really starting to add up, so it would be nice to hang out for awhile in a place close to Europe at a fraction of the cost.

Hit me up if you ever make it out to this part of the world.

hi im currently in puerto escondido, oaxaca, and i d like to go to play live games to mexico city for ~2 weeks
can anybody give me some info about casinos and live poker scene in mexico city pls?
im interested in NL holdem, stakes from 1/1usd to 2/5 usd

i would be very thankul if anybody can give some info about these questions:
- avaialabilty of these games: 1/1usd to 2/5usd - pessos equivalent
- rake structure, promotions
- smoking inside
- info about /drinks in casinos
- are the locations near casinos safe
- any other useful tips/info are welcomed

thanks

Not much aggregated info out there.

https://m.facebook.com/#!/CodigoPokerMexico/

https://www.codigopoker.com/torneos-...xhWKp69qx5K6G0