American Movies & Mexican Audiences...

Last night Jen & I went to Cinemex in what I call the Home Depot Plaza (behind Home Depot at the west end of Coba) and saw The Campaign. It's funny enough, if you like Will Ferrell movies. At one point in the movie, Ferrell, who plays an infantile North Carolina fat boy-turned-Senator (think George W Bush before he found Jesus at age 40) and his naive gay opponent (think Richard Simmons' lamer brother) have some drinks together and Ferrell, in party mode, cries out, "We are going to Cancun...!!"

The trash-talking scene in The Candidate

Looking for Market 28? This AIN'T It!

Jen & I live 5 minutes from Market 28, Cancun's main market. It's a great place to shop (Market 21 is slightly cheaper, but much smaller). Tourists flock to this place to buy everything from shot glasses & T-shirts to silver rings & porcelain pottery (photos below).

Almost every day we pass along a road called Tankah, that runs south from Market 28. And almost every day, when we return, we pass a large shop called Plaza 28. And almost every day, when we do, we see a group of white-clad men standing nearby, shouting something about Market 28 at passing tourists.

Buying Water - Agua Men-a-Poo!

I've blogged before about the water here in Cancun. We still buy most of ours in 20L bottles ($2), from one of the army of men who ride, drive, or otherwise roll through every area selling it. You'll be sitting at home, or lying in a hammock writing a blog post, and hear "Agua! Agua! Agua!"

 

Mexico's Day of the Revolution

Statues of revolutionaries at the National Museum of the Revolution

November 20th (tomorrow) is Mexico’s Día de la Revolución (Day of the Revolution). It’s not Independence Day, and it’s not Cinco de Mayo (which celebrates the Mexican victory over the French during the battle of Puebla in a war that Mexico eventually lost).

Paletas: Amazing Mexican Popsicles!

Paletas - so good they'll make your vision blurry!

One of our favorite things in here is so-called Paletas -- Mexican ice pops! 

These popsicles are amazing, and Mexicans love them too. In fact, one city in Michoacan even raised a statue of a paleta at the entrance to the town!


I had managed to forget about paletas (they are verrrry addictive) until I came across a story in the LA Times about how they are becoming more popular with Latin Americans in the US, and who can blame them...

"Chock-full of chunks of fresh fruit and available in a hypnotizing array of colors and clear, not-too-sweet flavors -- conjure images of hot afternoons in the park, time spent on a bench under a shady tree, clear blue skies dotted with red, white and green balloons..."

Damn you LA Times!

Jen & I are going home for Christmas soon & won't be able to get any of these in Canada. 

Maybe we need to buy a cooler so we can bring some back with us :)

Sexy Mexican Women!

I'm busy with our newly launched website anecdotage.com (30,000 funny anecdotes about celebrities) but I'm still trying to post something every day...

Pressed for time, what's a busy blogger to do? Simple answer: post something about sex! What sells better than sex, sex, and more sex?

In that spirit, I just googled "sexy mexican women." I always knew Mexican women were sexy but I'm still amazed by what I found...

In addition to the obvious pictures of sexy Mexican celebrities like Salma Hayek...

Public Hygiene in Cancun... Ewww!

Jen's been nursing a cold for more than a week & I've still got the cough I blogged about (here) more than a month ago. We expected to be sick more often here, and we have been, but we expected to encounter digestive issues, not respiratory infections. It's hard to believe...

At least it was until recently.

I won't go so far as to say that Mexicans are less hygienic than other North Americans (hey, my dad once saw a skanky woman drop her pants and urinate in a busy gas station parking lot in the middle of the day), but Jen & I have now seen a few things which help to explain how we keep getting sick.

Here's my top 3...

Beep! Beep! Honking in Cancun...

Near Plaza Las Americas in Cancun

Jen, and I ride our bicycles almost everywhere here. Though guidebooks often warn tourists not to ride bikes and scooters, I often marvel at the decency of the average Mexican driver. Their reputation seemed undeserved.

Mexicans in the United States

So many of the people we meet here claim to have lived in the United States that I was beginning to wonder if some of them were lying. Then I read this in a recent article in the Economist about business in Mexico: 

Mexico is unusual in that it not only has a globalised elite but also a globalised peasantry. The rich study in the United States; the poor mop floors there. Both groups benefit their homeland. The elite pick up skills and contacts at American universities, which help Mexican firms do business with their giant neighbour. Migrant mop-wielders send money home to poor Mexican villages. The scale of border-straddling is colossal. One Mexican in ten lives in the United States—some 12m people. Add in the descendants of Mexicans born in the United States and the number is 33m. This creates a market for Mexican products: Corona is the most popular imported beer north of the border.

Día de la Raza (Columbus Day) in Mexico

Today marks the 520th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas!

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate this anniversary (which occurred on October 12, 1492) as an official holiday. The event is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, and as Día de la Raza in many countries in Latin America.

Is it Safe for Tourists to Visit Mexico?

I just did an interview for blogexpat.com (yay! -- I'll add a proper link when it's published). They asked me to name a myth about Mexico & I recalled a funny story that I forgot to blog about..  

Funny Mexican Phone Call Blooper

I just did an interview for blogexpat.com (yay! -- I'll add a proper link when it's published). They asked me how I communicate with home & I recalled a funny story that I forgot to blog about...

Google, Google, Google! Google video chat is reliable & free. I also use Google to make local calls. It’s about 50% cheaper than Skype.

Cloud-Seeding Could Help Tame Hurricanes

It's still hurricane season here in Cancun. We had a near miss a few weeks ago...

Sure, hurricanes may not take many lives anymore, but the big ones still do billions of dollars worth of property damage and devastate marine ecosystems. The reefs around here always seem to be recovering from the last big one.