Why We Don’t Own a Car in Mexico
By Editor | May 7, 2008
When we moved here, I was determined that that we would not need nor own a car. My hubby was not so sure. He has always loved cars since he was a teenager, and this would be the first time in his life that he would not own one. We discussed the pros and cons. The pros before we moved were that we would not have the expense of buying a car, we wouldn’t have to buy gas or insurance or worry about repairs. The cons were that we didn’t know how far we would live from a grocery store or other stores and getting around when it rained (which during the rainy season can be at least a little while every day). I convinced him to try it, and if it didn’t work we could always buy a car in Playa del Carmen.
Now we are both very glad that we made the decision not to own one, and we found there are new reasons not to. One is that public transportation is very affordable and is nominal in comparison to the cost of owning a car. We live close to two large grocery stores, Mega and WalMart, and if we buy more than we can carry home on foot, we can get a taxi. We also travel by taxi to Sam’s Club, the mall and anywhere else that we think is too far to walk. Easy! If we want to go to Tulum or other places for the day, we get a colectivo (a van that carries 12 to 15 people) or ride on one of the very nice, air conditioned buses for a small fee. Another reason is that people drive a little crazy here, and it’s probably much safer to leave the driving to people who are very experienced in dealing with it.
Today, I learned another reason for not owning a car. The following link on the In The Roo public forum was posted by a friend of ours regarding a scam situation involving him and some local taxi drivers.
http://intheroo.com/playa-del-carmen-forums/playa-del-carmen/1146-beware-latest-taxi-scam.html
If you are not familiar with the In The Roo web site (http://intheroo.com/), it’s a great place to visit for information about Playa del Carmen. They even have an interactive map of the area.
Topics: Living Here | No Comments »
How to Eat a Mango
By Editor | April 16, 2008
I love the all the wonderful fruits and vegetables of Mexico. The plantains, the papaya, the plentiful and cheap avacados, the chayote squash -
It’s very similar to summer squash in the U.S., but because of its firmer texture, it requires a little longer cooking time. It makes a wonderful addition to soups or stir-fries and may be sliced or chopped and used raw like a cucumber. The seeds are also edible and have a nutty flavor.
The subject here, however, is the wonderful mango. When we lived in Belize, the “mango man” would wheel around town on his big tricycle with a large basket in front full of tropical fruits all cut up and stored in baggies. The mangos were in perfect little wedges and that you could just pop in your mouth and relish. Yum! But when I tried to cut up a mango at home, those little slippery critters made a huge mess that made me want to dump the whole thing in the trash can. I thought there must be a better way, and came upon the Yucatan way to eat a mango. Now eating a mango is a delight instead of a debacle. Here’s how.
First, hold the end of the mango that was previously attached to the tree up and using a sharp knife, slice down one side.
Do the same thing on the other side so that you have two slices. The center part contains the seed.
Now you can spoon each slice out of the skin like you would a half of avacado.
Then pick up the semilla (the part with the seed) and peel off the skin on either side.
Now you can nibble the remaining flesh clinging to the large hard seed. (This part is Mother Nature’s natural dental floss.)
Eat as much as you want, and then.…you are done! How easy is that!
Topics: Living Here | No Comments »
2 Bedroom 2 Bath in Centro - One Week to Six Months
By Editor | March 25, 2008
A lovely two bedroom, two bath apartment is available in Rinconada del Sol. The upscale apartment is fully furnished with a fully equipped kitchen, including a washer and dryer. The balcony overlooks a beautiful garden pool. Amenities include underground parking, an elevator, full time maintenance and overnight security.
Rinconada del Sol is located in Centro Playa del Carmen. It may be the perfect location, only a block from Mega with the Perlas Mall next door. Walmart is four blocks away, 5th Ave is three blocks, the beach five.
Vacation rentals available now, and three to six month rentals are available May 1, 2008. Three month rental is $1300 per month plus electricity. Six month rental is $1200 per month plus electricity. Email janaita@yahoo.com for more information.
Topics: Housing | No Comments »
Where’s the Horseradish?
By Editor | March 3, 2008
Since we have several large food markets here in Playa del Carmen, not to mention a super WalMart and a Sam’s Club, we find almost everything we would like to eat and to make our favorite recipes. Recently, I bought a large bag of frozen cooked jumbo shrimp at Sam’s Club. Mmmmmm…..I was thinking shrimp with cocktail sauce and a glass of vino, but then looked all over town and no shrimp cocktail sauce. I remembered I made a very good cocktail sauce when we lived in Florida with Hot and Spicy Ketchup and tablespoon of horseradish. I found Heinz Kick’rs Hot & Spicy Ketchup at WalMart, but there was no horseradish to be found at any of the stores. I began to ask around where one might find horseradish in this town and was told that Pacsadeli carries it. I hadn’t heard of this place before, so I did a little research and found out it is a restaurant supply company, but is open to the public. It has a good variety of high quality red meats, cheeses and import items . It is located on Constituyentes between 85th and 85th diagonal street (Ejido).
I also found some real American sour cream - a rare find in Playa del Carmen.
We enjoyed looking around, and when we asked for horseradish, a man went back to the refrigerated area and got a jar for us. Here’s some of the items we saw.
Topics: Groceries | No Comments »
What’s To Do?
By Editor | February 27, 2008
People are always asking me, “So…..what do you do to pass the time?” I guess they think because we are basically retired that we sit at home twiddling our thumbs. Nope, that’s not us, although we do enjoy some evenings at home reading, writing email to friends, listening to music or watching a movie (yes, we have a Blockbuster Video here, and we catch a good movie every once in a while on one of our cable channels). Sometimes we go out to a movie at one of two very nice cinemas that actually do show movies in English. We have taken oil painting lessons. There’s shopping in the many stores and malls. It’s very interesting to walk into the less touristy areas and find wonderful little Mexican shops. We enjoy going out to eat, and there are many varied restaurants here, most with outdoor seating, ranging from gourmet and expensive in the tourist areas to very Mexicano with excellent food at a much cheaper price (guess which one is our favorite). We have made many friends here among the local expats and have dinners or parties at our house, or we are invited to theirs. On Thursday and Saturday afternoons, you might find us at Bad Boys Beach Bar where we kick back with an ice-cold cerveza and listen to live rock and roll while enjoying time with our friends who also hang out there. It’s a 10 minute walk to the beach from our condo, so some days we go lay in the sun and enjoy the spectacular ocean view. Everyone is welcome on the beaches around Playa. Mexican law protects every beach as public property so you can sun yourself wherever you choose – even in front of resorts where you aren’t a guest. The sand here is even cool……made up mostly of coral. From time to time, we explore different beaches along this coast or the Mayan ruins and hope in time to venture out even farther. Akumal and Tulum are a short distance away as are the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres.
There are things to do here that other people enjoy that we don’t particularly. Playacar has a nice golf course and country club from what I’ve been told. Many people like to go to the Muscle Beach Gym to work out or go to a spinning or aerobics class. There are Tae Kwon Do studios and Yoga classes. You can swim, snorkle or dive in the gorgeous reef or one of the cenotes (underground caves) that abound here. Of course there is deep sea fishing and I’ve been told, fly fishing.
I think only a hermit would be bored here. There’s lots to do.
Topics: Living Here | No Comments »
Lost My Cellphone - Now What?
By Editor | December 21, 2007
Losing a cell phone is never a good thing, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined when I first realized I couldn’t find it last Sunday morning. As luck would have it, I had just added a 500 peso prepaid card the night before. Fortunately, it was an inexpensive phone. I had a total credit of about 1750 on my prepaid balance when I lost the phone, so between the air time and the cost of the phone, it was like losing $125.00.
In Mexico, it is unlikely that the man on the street who finds your phone will return it. It would have been very easy for someone to look through my stored numbers and find my home number or simply call any of the local numbers on the phone to find a way to contact me. I didn’t really expect that to happen, but I was hopeful. I waited two days before doing anything about the missing phone.
On Tuesday morning I decided there had been adequate time for someone to get my phone back to me, and it was time to replace it. A friend advised me to go to the Telcel Customer Service Center at the Centro Maya mall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Of course, there was the obligatory line to stand in, but the wait wasn’t terrible… about 20 minutes. Our customer service representative was very helpful and spoke much better English than my Spanish. He deactivated the lost phone, transferred my number to a new phone, and also transferred my remaining prepaid balance to the new phone. The prepaid balance was about 300 pesos less than when I lost the phone, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to transfer the balance at all. My cheap replacement phone, a Motorola C139, and the fee to transfer the phone number totaled a little less than $500 MX. So losing my cell phone was more like losing $50 instead of $100. Probably a more significant loss was my stored phone numbers.
Lessons learned - hang on to my cell phone and backup my phone list.
Topics: Phone & Utilities | 1 Comment »
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