Hola amigos! I arrived back home about two weeks ago. While the original plan was to blog about the trip here in quasi-real time, when I accidentally left my tablet on an overnight bus, that was the end of that. Below is a brief and very incomplete recap of my trip:
I spent six weeks in Mexico, and pretty much stuck to the planned itinerary; the only place that I skipped (and now regret) was Puerto Vallarta and some of its surrounding beach towns. While I enjoyed each city I visited, the highlights for me were Guanajuato, San Miguel, Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Mazunte, a very small beach town (almost a village really) about an hour south of the surf mecca town of Puerto Escondido. I am so glad I eventually made it one of the beach areas of Mexico...while exploring colonial Mexico was cool, for me, life doesn’t get much better than a beer in my hand and toes in the sand while watching a multi-colored sunset descending into the sea.
While I didn’t get the opportunity to meet up with Bolivar in Guadalajara, I did have dinner & drinks with Fossilkid in CDMX, who came across as a good guy who’s creating a nice life for himself in a very cool city.
Shout out to ES2--Fossilkid & I ate at Pizza Felix, and while we agreed it was not the best pizza either of us had ever eaten in our lives, it was damn tasty, and at $8 a pie (8 slices) in a nice restaurant, a solid recommendation.
Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I’ll have time to post some pics; in the meantime, I'll just say this: while Fossilkid may come across as a cheerleader for Mexico (and in particular CDMX), he’s not blowing smoke--in fact, if anything I think he might be underselling the place a bit. While no place is perfect--and certainly Mexico and CDMX are not without their flaws-- imho the pros far FAR outway the cons. I can definitely understand why he’s chosen to live in Mexico, and I agree with him that Mexico is a great choice for online grinders (or any other kind of online entrepreneur) to base themselves out of. As someone who spent several years traveling all over SE Asia, while I understand the allure of places like Thailand, Vietnam, etc., for long-term stays, I’m beginning to think that Mexico might be a better choice, ESPECIALLY for North American gringos.
* It’s exponentially easier for an English-speaker learn to speak passable Spanish than it is virtually any other Asian language, and as
such somewhat more realistic to at least partially integrate into local life in Mexico versus places Thailand, Vietnam, etc..
* Flying back to the United States is quick & relatively inexpensive.
* While I’m not of the opinion that Mexican food is better than Thai or Vietnamese food (quite the opposite actually), there seems to
me to be a larger variety of different types of restaurants (especially in CDMX) in MX vs S.E. Asian countries.
* Unless heat & humidity are your thing, overall much nicer weather.
* It is realistic to establish residency if that’s something that one day you might want to do.
* Last but not least, alcohol is cheap, and all kinds of degen opportunities are available if that’s your thing!
Other random thoughts & observations:
Mexican pharmacies: it used to be easy to buy valium, sleeping pills, etc. at Mexican pharmacies. However, without a doctor’s prescription that is no longer the case. On the plus side, getting a doctor’s prescription isn’t expensive nor particularly difficult--frequently pharmacies have an onsite physician.
Anytime you buy anything, always always count your change! While I was always careful while changing money at banks and “Cambio de Casas” and never had problems there, while making small purchases and wasn’t really paying attention (restaurants, small tiendas, etc.) on more than a few occasions I think I was short-changed, and for the most part I don’t think it was by accident. “Short-change the Gringo!” seemed to me to be somewhat of a national pastime…
Loved loved LOVED all the bike and electric scooter rentals all over the streets of CDMX! I don’t remember if this has been mentioned in this thread, but in the tourist-areas of CDMX there are (CHEAP!) bike (and electric scooter!) for rent everywhere you go:
https://medium.com/@thezeetree/3-way...y-f33553795642
Anyone who visits San Miguel de Allende should check out this place:
https://www.madebyanado.com/
FOOD: Unfortunately (and surprisingly), this is one aspect of the trip which did not measure up to my expectations. However, I should preface that statement by saying that A) I had very high expectations going in, and B) this was likely largely my fault as I did very little pre-trip research into what to eat and where. For the most part I just followed my nose and my eyes--if a place (especially a street stall) looked good and was busy, I assumed that the food there must be really good. However, that was not my experience, and while I had very few truly bad meals, I had lots of just “OK” ones. Interestingly, a local in one town told me that just because a certain street stall was busy didn’t necessarily mean that the food there was especially good, it just as likely meant that the food there was clean and you were unlikely to get sick eating there. Considering the amount of street food I ate (a fair amount) it was perhaps ironic that the only time I got truly sick was at a baja-style seafood taco restaurant which left me kneeling and retching one night in Puerto Escondido. However, memorable meals I ate included:
Seafood tostadas in San Miguel de Allende at
https://bajafishtaquito.com/
Sushi in CDMX at Tori Tori. I had the large omakase plus two servings of 4 mushroom miso soup (best soup I’ve ever had anywhere) and two beers for $60. Easily a $200+ dinner in LA, San Fran, NYC, etc..
https://toritori.com.mx/
Churro ice cream sandwiches in CDMX at Churros el Moro:
https://toritori.com.mx/
Super thick, super dark hot chocolate drink called “Black Kiss” at Cafe Tal in Guanajuato--most amazing chocolate drink I’ve ever had, an orgasm for your taste buds!
https://www.cafe-tal.com.mx/menu
Tie for best shrimp and fish tacos, both located in Puerto Escondido:
https://www.facebook.com/pinchestacospto
https://www.facebook.com/pepesfishtacos/
Seafood (especially the tuna tostadas) at El Contramar in CDMX; not cheap, but damn good:
http://www.contramar.com.mx/english.html
Like virtually every capital city everywhere, traffic in CDMX (and many other places as well) sucks, and the idiots maniacally honking their horns in rush hour traffic--to zero effect--did get on my nerves. On the plus side, however, you don’t need to leave your car to buy sandwiches, snacks, cold drinks, candy, cigarettes, and all kinds of other gadgets and trinkets, as street sellers walk up & down the lines of traffic hawking virtually anything you could possibly need. Kudos, too, to the acrobates, jugglers, clowns, etc., entertaining the crowds of commuters for tips--in one town I saw a guy performing fairly complicated tricks with a glow-in-the-dark slinky of all things!
I saw the best street art and graffiti in Mexico (and especially in CDMX) than I have seen in any city anywhere.
I'm aware that pollution is evidently an issue in CDMX, but the weather while I was there was near-perfect--t-shirt weather during the day and light sweater weather in the evening--and any air pollution that was there didn't bother me in the least.
There are at least a half dozen casinos in CDMX where you can play live poker! Unfortunately most of them are low stakes only (basically $1/$2), and the only room that I saw that played somewhat decent high stakes, i.e., 100/100 peso PLO (equates to roughly $5/$5) also allowed smoking, so that was a deal-killer for me. Additionally, in every poker room I visited, they would play one round of hold’em (or PLO) and one round of a game called “Mata Aces” (translated means “Kills Aces), so if you don’t know how to play that game (and I don’t) it’s not that much fun. On the plus side, they offer free food and drinks for poker players at all casinos I went to.
Last edited by Pride of Cucamonga; 12-29-2019 at 06:19 PM.