Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post your trip reports, travel experiences, and updates abroad. Or your expat story if you already live overseas. Note: To post photos and images, insert the image URL between the tags Image after uploading them to a third party site.
Post Reply
ladislav
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4040
Joined: September 6th, 2007, 11:30 am

Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by ladislav »

When the lockdown happened I was not able to get to the Philippines. So I flew from Cambodia to Japan to visit some holy Buddhist sites and then on to California. Went to OH to have my DL renewed, then back to Palm Springs. Stayed in the US six months total. Very boring and hot. Decided to go to Mexico City to check it out. Been here 2.5 weeks now.

The image of Mexico in the US media is terrible. It's like there is some kind of propaganda going on against the country. Dirty, hot, with bandits in sombreros and drug related killings and kidnappings of Gringos. Nothing positive is ever said about the country.

Was I in for a big shock! Mexico City is a first world city. Cleaner than LA and just as modern, great planning and lots of gorgeous parks, monuments and architecture. Absolutely lovely. The people are very polite, cultured and well behaved. US citizens get 180 days on arrival. The country is not locked down and no covid tests are needed. They just check your temperature and you need to wear a mask when entering stores.

Most of Mexico City reminds me of the Wilshire Blvd area of Los Angeles and of Los Angeles in general. Just that there are way more parks here.

The most attractive thing about this city that most people don't realize is its elevation. 1.398 mi above the sea level. Spring weather and cool dry air at all times. People seem to know that Bogota and LaPaz are elevated cities, but for some reason they think of Mexico as hot and located in the desert. But many major Mexican cities are very elevated so the weather is gorgeous and there are forests around.

The government here has done a lot to decrease the pollution so there is really not much smog anymore. Also, there are police patrols, the streets are very well lit at night and there are teams of janitors on every block cleaning the streets spotless. With 21 million people, I expected more crowds but there are not that many people walking. The traffic is also not so bad.

Now, on to the girls! Not as good as in the Philippines. Mexicans are probably the fattest people in the world. Lots of overweight girls everywhere. Not many cute skinny ones as in the PH. Still way better than the US girl-wise, though. I have not been dating but just checking things out. Not really planning on staying here all my life, but in this covid madness, this is a good asylum.

Another pleasant thing after Asia is that as a white person in Mexico City, you don't stick out. No Oriental-on-white reactions. The mixture here is huge. Lots of immigrants from all over the world have settled here over centuries so, it's not clear who is Mexican and who is not. You walk down the street and no one is looking at you. There is no shouts of farang, gaijin, etc. no people feeling uncomfortable around you because you are a different race. Everybody is expecting you to speak Spanish, though. Non negotiable unless you are a tourist on a short trip. In E/SE Asian one develops a cautious attitude towards people. How will they react when they see me? Are they gonna run away? Nothing like that here. The Latino vs Gringo is in the border areas with the US. Mexico City is very far from the US.

I am going to cheat and show some videos I've found on YT to give you some ideas.

This is from the air. As you can see, it's very green:



[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcmRUty ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQdK7kn ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]



The food: a street meal is around $3.80. A nice steak meal can run $10-20.

Uber starts at $2 short distances and maybe up to $13 all across town.

A modest hotel room can be had for some $11-20 a night.

Cellphone services are more expensive than in the PH. A SIM card is like $ 2-4. Costs me like $8-12 a week and I get 2GB for surfing. In the US, T mobile offers Mexico coverage for $5 extra so I pay $45 a month for unlimited US and Mexican calls from a US SIM. WIFI is pretty fast with little to no downtime. Ping 19ms, download 17 Mbps, upload 4Mbps. Not bad.

Asian food here is no good. They don't know how to make it properly. But the native one is very good. Salads are fresh and so are steaks, etc. Not many chemicals in the food. But no burritos anywhere and no hard shell tacos. Seems to be Northern food.

I have found an interesting site on cost of living comparison between Manila and Mexico City.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/c ... ty2=Manila

To be continued:
A brain is a terrible thing to wash!
User avatar
E Irizarry R&B Singer
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 3113
Joined: April 18th, 2013, 5:26 pm

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

ladislav wrote:
October 19th, 2020, 2:48 am
.....Asian food here is no good. They don't know how to make it properly. But the native one is very good. Salads are fresh and so are steaks, etc. Not many chemicals in the food. But no burritos anywhere and no hard shell tacos. Seems to be Northern food.....
A steak man...sweet. :+1: =) You're right and wrong about the Chinese food in Mexico. You have to go to GDL (i.e. Guadalajara) for the best Szechuan cuisine in the country. Pre-CoVid, the buffets were $2-5 USD convertible todo lo puede comer. Yes, you have read that correctly.

As for the overweight women, Mexican women generally-speaking have good concha...panocha...toto.....buseta (if Porto is your stick). Au contraire to popular belief, Mexicans, especially in Guerrero, Veracruz, Tabasco, and Yucatan Pennisula have Olmec West African ancestors so that good p.ussy effect has been passed down via the generations. Mexican women don't like preservativos and have good p.ussy to reward you for not using them. I was dating a mulatta of Olmec-mestiza descent for 4 months earlier this year and her p.ussy stayed wet ad hoc. Good Mexican W.A.P.
gsjackson
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 3758
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 7:08 am
Location: New Orleans, LA USA
Contact:

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by gsjackson »

Ladislav is the role model for useful information. Great reports.
User avatar
MrPeabody
Experienced Poster
Posts: 1788
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 11:53 am

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by MrPeabody »

I go to Mexico every week to escape the beer virus madness. The Mexicans are less rigid about it.
Taco
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 5382
Joined: July 9th, 2011, 9:30 am

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by Taco »

Is it a big problem if you don't speak Spanish?
Paranoia is just having the right information. - William S. Burroughs
User avatar
E Irizarry R&B Singer
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 3113
Joined: April 18th, 2013, 5:26 pm

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

MrPeabody wrote:
October 19th, 2020, 7:26 pm
I go to Mexico every week to escape the beer virus madness. The Mexicans are less rigid about it.
Meh maybe now since I had not been there in 2 months. When I was there, they were most definitely more paranoid about it depending on the Federated Mexican state as its citizens as a collective.
e.g. the Yucatan Peninsula and Tabasco states were tripping pretty hard about it as late as August.
So as or one of the Mexican states that I deem as my "honeycomb hideout", I had to pay a "cohecho" of 26 USD convertible to get into that state because the federales were vetting each and every car at the "peaje" checkpoints at the border of two Federated Mexican states for people that were citizens of that Mexican state...if they weren't (which obviously happened to me but I bribed 'em), they got rejected at that post and had to wait for an ADO bus or camioneta to come back.
ladislav
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4040
Joined: September 6th, 2007, 11:30 am

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by ladislav »

Taco wrote:
October 20th, 2020, 1:24 am
Is it a big problem if you don't speak Spanish?
It is only a problem in that you won't be able to form any meaningful relationships with the people. Otherwise, you can get by in English if all you want to do is run daily errands such as shopping, getting your laundry done, etc.
A brain is a terrible thing to wash!
Taco
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 5382
Joined: July 9th, 2011, 9:30 am

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by Taco »

I just found this...

Paranoia is just having the right information. - William S. Burroughs
Taco
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 5382
Joined: July 9th, 2011, 9:30 am

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by Taco »

Mexico is another great option because legal residency is relatively easy and inexpensive to obtain. And there are so many ways to do so.

For example, I’ve learned recently that, for anyone who gives birth to a child in Mexico, the baby automatically becomes a Mexican citizen.

But the parents instantly become lifelong permanent residents of Mexico… with the ability to become citizens through naturalization in just two years.

What’s even more interesting is that extended family (like the baby’s grandparents) are eligible to become permanent residents of Mexico as well.
Paranoia is just having the right information. - William S. Burroughs
fschmidt
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 3470
Joined: May 18th, 2008, 1:16 am
Location: El Paso, TX
Contact:

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by fschmidt »

Mexico is far from a utopia and the covid bullshit there is about the same as in America. Add to that a fairly docile and stupid population. But I am considering the Mennonite area in north Mexico.
Moretorque
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 6275
Joined: April 28th, 2013, 7:00 am

Re: Ladislav in Mexico City now

Post by Moretorque »

fschmidt wrote:
March 7th, 2021, 10:37 pm
Mexico is far from a utopia and the covid bullshit there is about the same as in America. Add to that a fairly docile and stupid population. But I am considering the Mennonite area in north Mexico.
Everybody is stupid compared to Ashkenazi Jews, why do you think they rule the world ?
Time to Hide!
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Trip Reports, Travel Experiences, Expat Stories”