Something Curious

I am asked, from time to time, just what my experience has been as an expat living in Mexico. I actual have written and published three books about our lives in Mexico. However, no one reads them: sigh.

But, if you can understand Spanish here is a link to a couple living in Madrid, Spain that pretty much sums up, almost exactly, my experience as an expat here.

LINK HERE

Siamese Update

We got the cat, who was in an uncharacteristically laid-back mode (go figure), to the vet for his rabies shot. He will get his other vaccinations (respiratory stuff) in six months.

The cat, Nicolae,  for some reason, known only to him, cooperated and is now happy as cane be killing small mammals, murdering songbirds, and breaking and entering neighbor's homes and stealing children's toys and bringing them home to us.

All is well once again on the cat front.

Mexican Television

I have this very unique friend who shall go unnamed since Gringos have the habit of attacking anyone who bursts their Gringolandian Bubble. So, to protect my friend I will not name him.

Anyway, he has lived in Mexico for more than 50 years. He is a 77-year-old American who moved To Mexico when not many Americans were doing so. Gringolandians didn't exist. Only genuine expats and my pal most certainly qualifies as a real expatriate.

He is, for all practical purposes, a Mexican in an American wrapper. We got his college education in Mexico City and developed his Spanish fluency. He went on to work in Mexican television in Mexico City and Guadalajara. He knows Mexico and this culture better than a lot of Mexicans I know.

I met up with him recently for coffee and laughs and finally remembered to ask him why Mexican television is run like no one knows what to do. I've written of this in this blog before.

Mexican television is an adventure. They will cut to a commercial in mid-dialog, play 35 advertisements, then will often come back in the middle of another television program all together. What I mean, and in all sincerity, is that you could be watching Dr. House, cut to ten minutes of meaningless ads, then come back to the middle of CSI: NY.

So, I asked my friend just why this happens. His reply is sure to make Gringolandians seethe:

NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT PROGRAMMING.

These were the words my friend uttered which is why my wife I have assumed for the last seven years we've lived here.

He went on to elaborate that they, the ones responsible to cut at the appropriate place in the program you're watching, will sleep in the control room, leave for an extended bathroom break, be on the phone, when suddenly, out of the blue, it occurs to them they are suppose to run some commercials. Then, they have no sense of drama or scene and will just cut the program off in mid sentence or action. Then they will run commercials for ten minutes making it impossible for you to figure out what program you were watching much less where it left off.

Basically, my friend who worked in Mexican television for decades, said they have no sense of time, time means nothing to Mexicans, and it is reflected in how they run the control booth in a television station.

Guanajuato, Mex -- Your Tax Dollars

This blog is cheerfully and merrily dedicated to all those Gringos who are on their way to live in Mexico. It is written with the motive that those who are coming here would really evaluate if this is what they want to do.

Let me share a story with you all. It is true. The names, dates, and other personal info has all be changed to protect the innocent.

If you are retiring here know that the American government does not trust direct deposit into Mexican banks. If you get Social Security and want it deposited into a Mexican bank, this can be done. But, here is how it works.

What SSA does is transfer it to the bank of the American Embassy in Mexico City. From there it is sent to your Mexican bank account. For example, your $1,200.00 US dollars is sent to the Embassy's bank where it is converted to Mexican pesos then transferred to your Mexican bank account.

Well, I can hear you pontificate, I have my Social Security deposited to my bank account in the States.

Well...I respond...the US Feds will eventually figure out that you do not really live in the States and will snatch your account right out from underneath you.

For real, I am not joking. Unless you live in the States, and they will verify this, you have to have a Mexican Bank account and will have your American bank account seized. You have to live FULL TIME in the States to maintain your American Bank account. If you put your daughter's address, or whoever, down as your place of residence, and someone's American phone number, they will check this out.

LET ME REITERATE: Unless you have a American address and phone number where you reside full time, they will close your account and seize your money.

So, if you cannot find a nefarious way around this, you will have to have a Mexican Bank account--you will have no choice.

Now, let's say you get your SSDI or SSI payment on the third of the month. According to the SSA Rules, when your payment date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, that is the third of the month falls on a weekend day, then you should be paid on the Friday before your payment date. Get that? If you get your check on the third and the third falls on a Sunday, then you'll be paid on the first which would be a Friday.

Got that?

Well...in Mexico this doesn't work that way.

If your payment date falls on the third of the month and the third is on a Saturday or Sunday, you will not get paid on the first which would be a Friday. You will get paid sometime that following week and when exactly is anyone's guess.

I mean this most sincerely. The Mexican nationals who work at the Social Security Office in the American Embassy do not get that the SSA office sends your payment on the first if your normal payment date falls on a weekend.

Now that I think of it, this applies to whatever dates: If you normally get your check on a certain date that falls on a weekend you should get your payment on the Friday before.

THESE ARE THE RULES ONLY THE MEXICANS RUNNING THE SHOW IN MEXICO CITY AT THE EMBASSY DO NOT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND THIS.

Did you hear my screeching alright?

Right now, even as I speak, there is couple who have no money for rent, no money for life sustaining medications, no money for food, no money for anything because the SSA Office in Mexico City is illegally holding this couple's money.

Here's what Mexican truly do not get by a true democracy. A government within a real democracy is that the government is WE THE PEOPLE. The Mexican nationals employed by the Embassy do not work for the Embassy or a group of politicians, or a governmental entity.

They work for WE THE PEOPLE and when on Embassy grounds, they are on American soil and therefore work for WE THE PEOPLE!

The man on SSDI, Social Security Disability, called the SSA Office. The Mexican national male laughed at him repeatedly and especially so when told of this man's illnesses and that without at least four of his medications he could die.

THE MEXICAN NATIONAL LAUGHED AT HIM!

So, that, among many things, is what you are up against if you plan on moving to Mexico.

Now...if you are asking yourself just how this applies to you if you never move to Mexico, let me elaborate.

If you are an American citizen and are reading this, know that a portion of your taxes, your hard earned income taken from your pay each week, goes to support not only the American Embassy, but the Social Security Office within the American Embassy that has Mexican nationals as their incompetent and unwilling-to-help your fellow Americans as employees. They are allowed to neglect their jobs for Religious Holidays causing your fellow Americans to suffer from lack of money to pay their bills and access health care.

If you want to express how you feel about how your taxes are being wasted with these SSA Mexican nationals click here to send an email:

Send SSA an Email -- Juarez
Send SSA an Email -- Guadalajara
Send SSA an Email -- MEXICO CITY (Hit this one if choosing just one)

Why not send your feelings to all three addresses to see if you get a response?

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Guanajuato, Mexico - TV Mexican Style

Plan on getting cable or satellite if you are moving to Guanajuato or any where in the country. I do not have cable or satellite. I have the regular "rabbit ears" TV that draws in the one local channel and all the national channels signals.

Mexican TV programming is strange to say the least. In reality, if I were to try to use one word to describe it, Mexican TV programs are its commercials. It is not comprised of the telenovelas and/or the dubbed American programs like Criminal Minds, The Big-Bang Theory, Smallville, etc... What it is are commercials that takes breaks for two to three minutes of shows.

Confusing? You bet and you cannot begin to grasp this, trust me.

For example, I will try and watch The Big-Bang Theory to see what Sheldon is up to in this week's episode. The program is in Spanish so I have to listen extra carefully since the Sheldon character can talk fast. Two minutes into the opening of the show, they go to a commercial. When I say, "to a commercial" what I mean is 35-50 commercials.

This is what it is like with any and all so-called TV programming in Mexico. They break away in the most inopportune times, sometimes in the middle of a fight scene and dialog, and show so many commercials that no human being on this planet can possibly remember what was happening in the show before they broke away. You would have to be an android to keep up.

There have been times when I forgot what show I was watching because there were so many commercials.

The only exceptions I have seen are when they are showing a soccer game. They break away to commercials during time outs and come back before play resumes.

It so figures.

In American TV they usually break way to commercials at the end of a scene in the program. In Mexican TV they have no sense whatsoever what constitutes a scene. They will break away when the actor takes her next breathe reciting her dialog. I mean this. You should see it. They will do this as a punch is being thrown in a tremendous fight scene before the actor's fist hits the bad guy's jaw, show ten minutes of commercials, then when they return you can even find an entirely different TV show on when the show you were watching still had 15-30 minutes to go.

In the middle of a fist being thrown, give me a break!

And, as if that isn't mind numbing, you can never, in a million years, count on a show coming on when it is advertise to come on.

I was waiting for TERMINATOR 3 to come one on Sunday night. It was advertised to begin at 7:00 P.M. and this ad telling the start time appeared at each "commercial break."

Bah!

As seven o'clock rolled around they kept showing "Law and Order" which they began at a quarter to seven. Terminator 3 began at 8:15 P.M.

Then...then...then all through the Terminator 3 program, at each "commercial break" they would show the ad for the Terminator 3 movie saying that it will begin at 7:00 P.M. when the show had already started.

At the end of the movie, well into the next movie, they kept showing the seven o'clock start time for Terminator 3.

This is how it is here. I've been told that cable is sometimes worse and the shows never start on time and often are not the show advertised at all.

Solution: Get satellite dish and draw in American TV shows from America.

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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

Guanajuato, Mexico - Interface

Almost all the Gringolandians I know in Guanajuato will profess with the most grandiose pontification that "all my friends are Mexicans." What they mean by this is that all the Mexicans they know are bilingual and speak English with the Gringolandian because the Gringolandian refuses to learn Spanish.

(Unless the Gringolandian is brain dead, it is NOT an issue of CAN but WILL in learning Spanish.)

The Gringolandians actually have to use bilingual Mexicans to interface with the language and culture never, ever living in the culture they profess to love and know.

That's why it is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me when I hear Gringolandians refer to Mexicans by their first names. You know they did not have any sense at all of the language to be able to use the formal Usted form until given permission to use the informal Tu form. It is an assumption of familiarity that is tolerated by the Mexicans they claim are their friends.

Their so-called Mexicans friends are too polite to correct them.

We have a close elderly Mexican friend in town. She is influential and rich. She gave us permission a very long time ago to call her by her first name. However, we don't. We continue to show her respect with regard to her age and status by using "Doña" in front of her first name.

And of all of this most certainly begs the question whether the Gringolandian's perception of these bilingual Mexicans are their friends is true or not.

It also begs the question as to how much the Gringolandian understands the Mexican culture at all.

If all the Gringolandian can do is use a bilingual to interface with the culture they claim to love, then how do they know, how will they ever know, the complete picture? You have to be able to interact (interface) with Mexicans from all walks of life, all educational levels, all the socio-economical levels that exist in Mexico to learn "what it is really like."

Just how can you do otherwise?

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

Guanajuato, Mexico - House Hunting

If you are really considering moving to the city of Guanajuato, you will need to engage in the #1 Survival Factor and that is finding a place to live.

Because American Gringolandians coming to start their expatriation experiment tend to think of Mexico as just another American state (I am not kidding either.), they think in terms of how an American would find a place to live. They want to know which rental-finding service to use.

You are not going to find that in Guanajuato. No matter how hard you look you are not going to find it and you might as well get it our of your mind long before you step a foot over the border that Mexico is not like America. Mexico is not set up like America and no amount of foot stomping is going to change how it is.

Some real estate agencies, both Mexican and American run, have rentals. But the #2 Survival Factor will come into play when you walk into any of these offices: The Rip Off Factor.

Here is the problem: No matter how much you take offense at this Inconvenient Truth, if you are not Spanish and Culturally fluent, the chances of you getting "taken," "ripped off," "scammed," or "gouged" rises to the power of infinity and beyond.

You need a representative. You need someone who is linguistically and culturally fluent and who is objective. You need someone who can spot a scam from a mile away.

Martha Roberts is such a person.

We've known this woman for years and though she charges for her excellent services (as she should), she can spot a flimflam and make sure you do not get ripped off.

Check out her web site. Her contact info is on this site.

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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

Guanajuato, Mexico - The Most Hated Gringo in the World #36

If you want to know the quintessential member of Gringolandia read this forum quote:

I must confess how surprised I am to learn that the absence of expats in a town can be seen as a positive feature. my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn t all that different from their homecountry (Wallmarts and anglospeakers to be found). Surely it´s positive to integrate into one s local community and have Mexican friends.But also having people who share one s first culture and language is important for one´s long term integration in sociocultural terms. If the presence of expats was of no importance I´d be living on a sailboat, in Nha Trang, St Pierre de Miquelon. Of course I am as fluent in Spanish as in English, but I know from personal experience that I could not resettle in a place without expats. Voila! - Quote as is from Yahoo Forum

1. This person is "surprised" to learn that the fewer the amount of Gringos in a Mexican town the better. Well, Voila, it is not a positive trait to have any sort of organized Gringo community, enclave, or Gringolandia. The fact that you postulate such a thing tells me that you are not an expatriate, are not expatriate material, and never will be an expat apart from a complete stripping away of your Gringolandian presuppositions.

a. If what you want is to live in an American or Gringo enclave with an exotic flare, why did you bother to leave American in the first place? Why not move to Scottsdale or Miami?

b. You obviously do not understand the cultural impact Gringolandians have on Mexican communities. It is cultural destruction. Americans move into a Mexican community with their vast riches and take on the attitude, "This does not appeal to my American tastes..., then go about changing everything into a little America. They conform the rich, centuries old cultural into something more suitable to their Imperialistic tastes. The local color is gone, the tie that bound the locals, cultural, is destroyed, and what you have left is a hybrid: Not America, Not Mexican, but something entirely different.

c. "...my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn't all that different from their homecountry (sic) (Wallmarts (sic) and anglospeakers (sic) to be found)..."

This, to be perfectly honest with the reader, is one of the most disgusting, if not the most, aspects of the Gringo infection in Mexico. This only confirms my 7-year long developed hypothesis that Americans are so incredibly culturally and internationally STUPID.

Rather than come to a foreign country and assimilate into the cultural, with all its good points and bad, they come here (mostly Americans) and proceed changing it into something entirely different.

Note how Voila defines her own culture: It has Walmarts and anglo-speakers. She is out of touch with her own culture much less what Mexico is. She thinks it is "not all that different from American's home country."

I find the abject ignorance almost beyond my ability to comprehend and disgusting beyond the pale.

2. "...But also having people who share one s first culture and language is important for one´s long term integration in sociocultural terms...." Once again, Voila, you betray your ignorance. No study, credible or not, I have read has mentioned this as important for developing a bi-cultural fluency.

3. "...Of course I am as fluent in Spanish as in English,..." -- I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard this claim and when the Gringo opens their mouth they can barely pronounce Spanish much less communicate fluently. Native speakers are fluent. Children who come from a bi-cultural household and grow up in bilingual homes develop fluency. We Gringos work at developing the highest possible degree of proficiency. There is a huge difference.

Voila, we don't need another Gringo like you in Mexico. Try living in the sailboat.


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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

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Guanajuato, Mexico - To Bribe or Not To Bribe

Check out NBC's Dateline Report on San Miguel de Allende Kidnappings--CLICK HERE

***


I found a cool website. It is a travel column with the LATimes and I found a great quote:

On a recent crossing from Mexico back to the U.S., I was stopped for an alleged traffic infraction in Tijuana. The police ended up taking me to an ATM, where I withdrew $500 in cash. Then they then let me go. What could I have done?

--Rob Gonzalez, Claremont

This issue is a hot topic in forums. You will find everything from those Gringos who will pay their way out of a horrid situation to those who are on their almighty, Gringo high horse and profess with chest beatings and a screech to be heard to the border and back, that they would not dare be caught paying off a Mexican cop out of a sticky situation.

What these self-inflated, morally superior Gringos do not possibly get is that they can very easily get their principled Gringo butts thrown into a jail cell (especially in smaller towns) and made to languish awaiting a trial date for refusing to contribute to the "Mexican Policeman's Fund" when a cop rousts them.

I know someone to whom this has happened.

The Gringolandian screed goes something like:

"I refuse to contribute to the moral decay of a horrible problem in this country."

Well...excuse me!

I just wonder what one of these goodie-two-shoe moralists would do when the cops would have them in an isolated situation and draws one of their guns on them actually say:

"Shoot me! I have principles."

"I would rather you kill me than pay you a bribe?"

I found a story on the Mexican Vacation Awareness website where this happened to a Gringo. In an isolated area of Baja they took out their guns and asked if the Gringo had a problem with paying them off.

This is what I am saying. Americans come down here for a vacation and get targeted by the corrupt police for money. They can make your life a living hell when and if you get all high and mighty and try the "I am an American, hear me roar..."

These gringos who say they would refuse to pay a bribe just crack me up. Have they really been in a situation where they've faced off with a crooked Mexican cop holding a gun in their faces? I mean, really!

Alas, this is one of the dirty little secrets of travel. Extortion of tourists happens more often than is reported. It's not confined to Mexico, of course, but because so many of us cross the border so often, whether to enjoy Baja's beaches or to shop, we may get our turn on the horns of this dilemma. -- Source

This problem is so prevalent that Mexico shows public service announcement on the Tele and the State Department of the U.S. issues warnings.

So, what do one do?

You could choose the Gringolandian demigod's way and stand up for your principles by facing down a cop with a gun in your face. Or, you could ask to accompany the cop down to the "station" and speak with a judge or supervisor.

If you choose the second option and you are in some small village I can almost guarantee you will be slapped into a jail cell until you come to your senses. Who are you going to call when they won't let you use the phone? Who would you even know to call if they let you use the phone? Maybe they will just shoot you when you start pontificating your principles.

The third option is to pay up and be on your high and mighty American way.

What do you think?

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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - Mexico Is Not America

In my first book, THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO, I mentioned in almost every chapter that MEXICO IS NOT AMERICA. I actually got mostly verbal threats (alcohol fueled no doubt) and one physical threat as a result of my effort.

Yet, it would seem that the message that Mexico is not America has fallen on deaf ears. I found this quote in a Yahoo Mexico Forum:

I must confess how surprised I am to learn that the absence of expats in a town can be seen as a positive feature. my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn t all that different from their homecountry (Wallmarts and anglospeakers to be found).

Do not miss what this person is saying: The basis for which this person is saying, "...but also because it isn't all that different from their homecountry (sic)..." is the existence of Wal-Marts in Mexico.

Just imagine, Mexico is just another state of America by virtue of the existence of Wal-Marts.

Well, it must be America itself since you will find Sam's, Home Depot, almost every America fast food hamburger joint, Pizza Hut, Domino's, and much, much more.

It is amazing, stunning, incredible, but I am afraid true. American Gringos who move here or think of moving here (even tourists according to my Mexican tour guide pals) really do think in their heart of hearts that Mexico is not all that different from America, and it is those Gringos who end up moving to Mexico.

I ran across a statistic the other day but now cannot find it. It was a study of American Gringos who move to Mexico and how quickly the make a retreat back to the States. I cannot recall the percentage but it seemed that it was either in the sixty-percentile or in the seventies of Gringos who leave after their first year of "expatriation". (I will look for the study and report back to you.)

How these Internationally Challenged Gringos make it here as a tourist, not to mention expatriatism, escapes me. But, they do. And when they come they are expecting it to be just like America and great is the fall thereof.

The disappointment the Gringo experiences is almost unbearable.

I have to confess I was in a perpetual honeymoon with Guanajuato until the day my wife was attacked on the streets, in broad daylight, and it was sexual in nature.

It was when I realized Mexico was just a place.

The country is not intrinsically evil. It is just a country in which both good things and bad things can happen. There is lot Mexico does right and there is a lot Mexico could afford to fix or reject as not working and dump it.

But, be assured of this, MEXICO IS NOT AMERICA. in any sense of the word.

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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###

San Miguel de Allende Shoot Out

Check out NBC's Dateline Report on San Miguel de Allende Kidnappings--CLICK HERE

***


As I have been saying in my blogging, the fact of crime in Gringolandians, like San Miguel de Allende, is usually hushed up by those powerful interests (Gringolandians) to protect these real estate properties they want to sell or their travel agencies (or any number of others businesses).
Something like a gun battle, a shoot out, would not be something they would want to leak to the general public. Shoot outs in the streets of San Miguel de Allende would not sell houses. And yet, here is the most recent shoot out story:

Fallece comandante tras balacera

Por: Redacción, Domingo, 14 de Febrero de 2010

El elemento de la Policía Preventiva fue abatido a balazos en la comunidad Don Francisco

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

Un enfrentamiento a balazos se registró la tarde de este sábado en el camino de terracería que conduce a la comunidad Don Francisco, de San Miguel de Allende, en la que participaron elementos de Seguridad Pública y habitantes de la comunidad, y donde un comandante perdió la vida y dos agresores resultaron lesionados...Source

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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Guanajuato, Mexico -- Like Mindedness

I often wonder what Gringos would rather hear, the truth about living in Mexico, or a lie? I can tell the lie. I have read enough of the website where their authors have something to sell to know what it is that sells. I know the lingo:

"Mexico is your haven, the Nirvana you've been looking for all your life. Leave the crime ridden United States and move into your Shangri-La, your Land of Milk and Honey, your heaven on Earth with there is no crime and Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better. All the good guys wear white hats and always prevail over evil."

Or, perhaps you will want to know the truth:

"Mexico is just a place. It is a country with a vast and deeply significant history and culture worth the Gringo's lifetime study. It is a country struggling with horrible crime problems and out-of-date attitudes toward Gringos, attitudes mired in provincial myths and lies. It is a place where certain culture behaviors toward Gringos can make it difficult to live. And the crime and prices rise in proportion to the increase of Gringos in their enclaves (Gringolandia)."

Which do you want to hear?

I cannot predict what you the individual reader would pick, but I do know that you will not hear the truth from the vast majority of websites with travel services or real estate sites with house to sell.

Nor will you likely hear of how the Gringo enclaves (Gringolandians) form something very similar to what you will read in THE LORD OF THE FLIES. Out from the control of American law, incapable of reading and understanding Mexican law, they form their own little community rules and means of enforcement. They "deal with" those who come into their group and force compliance or force them out.

For an interesting comparison read this site about Costa Rica and what has been going on in that central American country, It is very much like what I have been writing about Mexico's Gringolandians. It is wort a read. (Note the used of the word, "perfect" and "haven" describing living in CR.)

In the meantime, I ask again, which do you want to know? The truth or something sheer make believe?

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Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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Guanajuato, Mexico - A Great Mystery

A "Who's Who of American Writers", Journalist and Author, Fellow and Diplomate of the International Editor's Association, Cy Bolinger read one of my books and here is what he had to say:

Having just finished Cindi and Doug Bower’s book, “Guanajuato, Mexico…” I can sense their depth-ridden, sincere admiration for the city of Guanajuato –coupled with good writing and well described personal reflections. As a published writer and journalist myself, it was refreshing for a change to read truthful ruminations and not “boiler plate” about the country of Mexico and its central area state and city of Guanajuato. So many writers about Mexico, Central America and South America are motivated by the prospects of having their palms greased by crass American developers, “service people” and various hucksters who charge exorbitant fees to weasel American “expat relocation services” and tours. I have experienced a number of popular web-site blogs who sell their lists for gain. I have found many books and articles loaded with outright lies and contradictions, written by so called “experts”, particularly about Mexico and Costa Rica. Finding the truth is a monumental chore. Cindi and Doug Bower are proof that living in another country can be quite rewarding within the boundaries of that country’s language and culture. Also, the Bowers have pointed out how ugly Americans, with their SUVs, trips to gigantic malls and utter crassness are trying to force the supercilious “American dream” on citizens of a country that has an ancient culture of tradition, elegance and values. Bravo Cindi and Doug! - Source

The reason I bring up this little bit of praise from a renown writer and editor is not so that I can receive more accolades. It is to present a great and mind-boggling mystery that though I have written about years ago, I still haven't solved what is to me and what has to be an existential puzzle of mammoth proportions.

Here is a guy who most certainly has the credentials judging a piece of my work as recommendable. The book to which Mr. Bolinger refers to in his review, Guanajuato, Mexico: Your Expat, Study Abroad, and Vacation Survival Manual in the Land of Frogs came out in 2006 with Brownwalker Press. This is a for fee, print-on-demand outfit that, I should add, offered me a traditional contract for this manuscript-this is NOT self-published book.

Another fellow of a not-too-small journalistic stature wrote a review of this book too.

Bruce Drake (Formerly of NPR News) (Washington, DC) wrote this:

Highly Recommend , September 8, 2006

As someone who has visited Mexico several times as I struggle with my study of Spanish, and who is thinking of moving there, I found this book to be far superior to the general run of guides on the expatriate life or retiring in Mexico. Some of the others of this genre just lack the ring of authenticity, or seemed to be aimed at people with a lot of bucks who are headed for a gated community or an expensive house in Cabo San Lucas. But the Bowers' book has that ring of authenticity and is squarely aimed at the (for lack of a better cliche) "average Joe" who is looking for a life that is different and/or better and needs down-to-earth practical advice on how an American can make this transition.

To date myself, the Bowers' reporting reminds me of the usefulness of a Travel Forum I used to frequent on one of the pioneer online services, CompuServe, where I got the best travel ideas and advice ever from the many participants who gave their firsthand reports, and to whom you could pose the kinds of questions that you don't see answered in newspaper travel sections or guidebooks.

The Bowers live in Guanjauato which is not far from where I always visit, which is a too-Americanized well known town that they don't quite approve of, San Miguel de Allende. [...]

So, if this is the kind of information you are looking for, buy this book as well as the Bowers' book on Guanajuato.

And yet, here is a so-called review from someone on Amazon.com about my book:

80% the author hates the US vs. 20% information about living in Mexico,

January 18, 2010

By	Loren K. Maxwell

If you want to see this gomer's entire comment go to Amazon.com.

So, I hate America?

Let me tell you what I wrote and to which these "Doug hates America" naysayers refer.

In THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO, I refer to American products being advertised on Mexican television and the effect these morally relativistic themed television commercials have on Mexican youth.

One is an ad for a Chevrolet car. It has this guy getting into the driver's side with his date on the passenger side. He takes off with this music playing with lyrics:

"I want to slide up your leg, cause I love the way that you feel..."

The guy, the driver, is actually shown with his hand on his date's scantily clad leg and he is sliding it toward the female's crotch.

Now tell me if I am wrong, but what does that scene have to do with selling and buying a car?
And, would you want your kids to see a commercial like that on the commercial break from Sesame Street or The Powerpuff Girls?

I suggested in the book that this is America business fostering its moral relativism upon another culture through television.

I mentioned even more examples some of which show kids committing criminal acts and getting by with it, laughing all the while.

And yet, go to my book's pages on Amazon.com and see how many personal attacks I have taken from these moral relativists from America who think I hate America.

I don't hate America.

I hate those claiming to be Americans and yet defend the filth that has taken American kids down a slippery road of moral decay and how through cultural imperialism, American business is trying to do the same thing in Mexico.

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Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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Guanajuato, Mexico -- Rental Truths

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE: Would be kidnapper caught sitting outside a safe house where a victim was kept...Read Article


***

Here's something you need to know if you plan moving to Guanajuato:

As I have written before, if you rent, more often than not, if something in the house goes wrong you the renter is responsible to fix it. That's right. You heard me. If the toilet craps out on you, Pun Intended, you have to pay the plumber.

We lived in a house once owned by The Bruja de Guanajuato and the sink pipe sprung a leak. The Witch was told and she promptly called a plumber. Guess who paid the plumber.

You don't own the place yet you have the responsibility to fix it up when the need arises.

This week when discussing my leaking ceiling (it has been raining for a week without stop) with a Mexican I was told that when you move into a new place you have 30-60 days to tell the owner of what's wrong with the place because afterwards you have to foot the bill to fix it.

Unbelievably, there are Gringolandians who go merrily along with this. I know at least two of them who have invested tens of thousands of dollars into developing someone else's property. They are renters, RENTERS MIND YOU, and they pour money into someone else's property.

I do not get that at all!

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Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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Guanajuato, Mexico - Talking For a Tip

"...the Careys are questioning the safety of tourists in Mexico and warning others who plan to venture there." -- Vacation from Hell

***

One year we were on a traveling jag. We went everywhere and then some. We rolled into a Mexican town called Aguascalientes and had a two hour layover before making our connection to our next destination.

I was sitting outside watching the buses coming and going and the people. I get some of the greatest blog fodder from people watching.

A young Mexican man walked up and sat beside me and began talking. He wanted to know all sort of things like where I was from, if I liked living in Mexico, what I did for a living, etc... We talked for an hour, at least, until my bus was ready.

When I stood to board my bus the young man thanked me very much and then held out his hand and said, "That will be $25.00 dollars."

He asked for dollars and not pesos.

When I asked him what for, in my dramatic, heightened tone of voice, he said it was for being nice to me and chatting. That was his fee for talking to me.

Well, I told him to get lost, got on my bus, and watched him through the bus window staring daggers at me. I am sure he is hating me to the grave.

Yesterday, the wife and I went downtown to do some business. When we walked up from one of the tunnels, we were set upon by a pair of ten years olds who in accented yet perfect English asked if they could tell us a story. I assumed it was to practice their English. We used to see this a lot. The kids would ask you if you would speak to them in English for practice. I assumed this was the case.

Luckily I asked her why to which she responded, "After I tell you the story you can pay me a nice tip."

After I sent her packing I said to my wife, "They learn young, don't they."

Gringo tourists love this sort of thing. I see the Gringos constantly forking over the dough to these hucksters. They squeal with such practiced delight and merriment over the kids doing this. The younger the better.

But, what's wrong with this picture?

First, this is what the American and other tourists expect when coming to Mexico. They want the locals to entertain them and the younger the shyster the funnier they seem to the Gringo. This huckstering is not what the educated Mexican trying to pull their country out of the
Third-World-Country mire wants to be thought of. And yet, this is what a lot of Mexican children are taught to do.

Our friend, Erica, told us that she, her cousins, and most of her peers were taught from a very early age that the Americans, the Gringos, are their ATM's, the banks, their fountain of wealth. They were taught how to scam the Gringos from as young as she could remember.

It is a lesson in how to get by, barely by, with scamming the Americans when they come as tourists. Instead of working hard at a job, they are taught it is easier to beg. Some, children as well as adults, will lie to your face with how a member of their family died and they can't afford to bury them. A favorite is when an adult male will put on an Academy Award winning performance, tears and all, telling how his wife lost their baby and they can't get the body back from the police for burial until they pay a fee.

Then there are those who will talk to you then try and get your money from you for the effort.

It teaches how Americans are an easy mark and why should they have to work hard when it is so easy to scam the stupid Gringos.

Secondly, Gringos paying out money for such shysterism perpetuates the idea that the Gringos exist to take care of the Mexican. This is disgusting beyond measure. It fosters the myth that Americans, without exception, are fabulously wealthy and are there for the Mexican to take for a ride.

I have asked Mexicans who beg money from me why they think I have money and why they think I have money to give to them. Without exception their answer has been because I am a Gringo.

I got into an hour-long discussion with a group of youths who told me they were taught that because Americans, all of us, are wealthy that it is not wrong to cheat us, steal from us, rob us, or scam us. If we were poor, it would be wrong. Since we are all rich beyond description, it is ok.

(There is also the President Polk and Texas incident to which they will allude.)

I have a good friend at our church who is 45 years old, married, and has three children. The man works his tail off to put his kids through school, including college, and does all the work on his home. He told me he's never had to rent a house because he has always worked hard to be able to buy a home. He has just now purchased a pair of computers and internet service for his kid's school work and all from HARD WORK!

Think of the example to his children. They have learn delayed gratification, to work hard, that nothing comes very easy in life, and that if you want something in life go out there and work for it.

I just love that!

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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Guanajuato, Mexico - The Most Hated Gringo in the World #35

Another episode of The Most Hated Gringo in the World!

I am hated among Gringolandians because I happen to take exception to Gringolandians unbelievable arrogance when they come to visit as a tourist from the Great Gringolandia, America, or come to live here.

Here is a prime example:

Trip Advisor-Puerto Vallarta Forum --

5. Re: pesos or US dollars

Jan 12, 2010, 2:01 AM

"just got back from PV on Sat. Probably tipped about $180 in a week. Tip jars were conspicously placed on the bar and contained 95% USD. I didn't observe much tipping at all. If your from the US and tip, use dollars. The recipients can spend them as readily as we can down there. Be proud of your US heritage and don't let our lesser tipping neighbors change our style. These bartenders, maids, cooks, bellhops make very little per day. Our tips help to brighten their life. It's part of our US culture. If it's not part of yours, don't make us out as bad guys!"

First of all, I so despise having to read prose by Americans in which they neglect to include, as if being trendy or cute, a subject of the sentence.

Secondly: I was talking to a Mexican friend who said that the Americans who come as tourists or even expats never seem to get that they don't "get it." They don't "get that they need to get it and never get it." I couldn't agree more.

"The recipients can spend them as readily as we can down there." -- In most of the small stores and markets where locals go to shop, they cannot use dollars. Vendors and store owners want pesos since that IS the national currency. Using dollars is not as easy as this poster suggests.

In fact, "Why would anyone use USD outside of the states?? Last time I checked it was not the world's offical currancy." --Trip Advisor poster

In addition, the local will have to go and have the dollars exchanged into pesos having to pay a fee to do the exchange. This reduces the amount of the tip. Some banks in the area no longer are taking dollars. This leaves the higher fee at the exchange kiosks.

Furthermore, Americans seem to be confused when it comes to money exchanges. It is perhaps the vast lack of international experience. Perhaps it is just being stupid. Sorry. What else can it be? Why would you try and spend dollars in a foreign country? Many Americans act like Mexico is just another American southern state. And, I am being charitable in suggesting that.

A friend of mine in PV said Americans will not change their dollars into pesos because they are lazy. They don't want to stand in a line to make the exchange and often say, "Mexicans should take dollars if I spend the money and effort to come here."

It is the arrogance of "entitlement" and nothing else.

Another issue this entitled Gringo Cultural Imperialist refuses to take into consideration when saying,

"Be proud of your US heritage and don't let our lesser tipping neighbors change our style.",

is that Mexican tourist tend NOT to vacation in Vallarta because of the plethora of Cultural Imperialists and their U.S. heritage pontificating up and down the streets. They tend to go elsewhere other than American style resorts.

Could this be, and it is, escaping the narrow nationalistic mind of this poster? The reason there were more dollars than pesos in the tip jar is that there were more ignorant American tourists, refusing to change their dollars into pesos, visiting the place than Mexicans?

This all leads me to exclaim, "Gag me with a spoon!!"

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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Guanajuato, Mexico - Working the Culture #5

My next installment of a "Working the Culture" blog I was going to use an example from page 89 of Ned Crouch's fine treatise called, "Mexican & Americans Cracking the Cultural Code to demonstrate one of the three components of Mexican culture that you will most certainly encounter no matter why you end up moving to Guanajuato or anywhere else in this country.

Space, Time, and the evolution and practice of language are three cultural truths which sets Mexico across a gigantic gulf from the Gringolandian. The Mexican sense of these three cultural truths are as different as light is from day or an apple is from an orange.

American Gringolandians erroneously assume that because they've eaten tex-mex, hired an illegal to do their domestic bidding, or vacationed in a Mexican resort that catered to their Gringo whim that they know Mexican culture.

Tisk, tisk...how little do they know Mexico.

I was going to use Ned Crouch's example to demonstrate Mexican's sense of space and how radically different it is from the Gringo's. However, I had an incident this morning which happened to be a perfect example of what you can expect to happen to you each time you walk out your front door living in Mexico.

If you don't send your maid to do your shopping, which many Gringolandians do, then when you go to the Super expect the following:

We were standing at the deli/cheese/meat counter where the wife was asking for a certain cheese to be sliced into sandwich size slices. The joven (young Mexican man) dutifully said he would be glad to do this and began his cheesy labors. After finishing the slicing he went to weigh the cheese on a scale. So far, so good.

In the weigh process of this transaction a group of Mexican babes came up to the counter and wanted him to help them NOW. And, he did just that. He set our cheese aside, told us he would be right with us in a moment, and left to help these Mexican jovencitas (cute young women).

He helped them while making us wait.

In the meantime, some other worker threw our cheese order to the side and began using the scale. The joven (young doofus man) had to make us wait even longer until his coworker got through. He re-weighed the cheese, tagged it with a price, gave it to us, and apologized.

What just happened here, culturally?

I can just see all hell breaking loose in American if some kid tried this. What happened is a demonstration of the Mexican's sense of space and a little bit of time.

There was the Supermarket employee's space behind the counter. That was their group. There was the store customer's space in front of the counter. That was my wife, me, and the hot Latina chickadees in the customer group. Two groups. The employee group, the customer group.

In the minds of those young hussies who interrupted us and prevented the kid from filling our order, they were not doing anything rude. Neither was the young man rude. In their Mexican sense of time and space, my wife and I were standing in the customer group with the girls and for the male employee to stop our order and help them was nothing bad at all. In his mind he was helping the customer group. No one was neglected, all orders were filled, and in his mind everything was right with the Mexican world.

In the mind of the young man, logical sequence was not even considered. American Gringos want logical sequence, Mexicans do not. The two events, ours and the young women's events--our orders--were all happening at the same time. There were no lines, only circles.

Everyone was being helped at the same circle of time. The employee group was helping the customer group and in the end all will be well.

First come, first serve is not in Mexico. You will rarely find this axiom here and if you do you will find yourself wanting to swoon to the floor.

In very rare cases will you find a Mexican vendor, employee, or store clerk who will tell his or her fellow Mexican he or she will have to stand in line and wait their turn.

Now, that is what I experienced today and that is what Mr. Ned Crouch would have said in his assessment of what I experienced. He would go on to tell you that as soon as you start clinging to your American need for sequence, "I was here first so get the hell out of my way...", you are going to get into trouble.

What Crouch then says is really true. You can pitch a fit and do a war dance but it will get you absolutely nowhere.

But, to all of that I say, "What a piece of crap!"

This practice, and you will see it everywhere in the Provincial Mexican Highlands is as Byzantine as it comes.

I know Mexican "transplants" (not originally from Guanajuato) who balk at this just as much as we do. They are from a more modern, upscale, and intelligent Latin spectrum and feel no compulsion in telling these "folks" they are just going to have to wait their turn.

One lady, Lucy, told us when we inquired into this behavior that they are nothing more than "badly raised" or in Spanish MALCRIADOS.

So, there you have it. If you are planning moving into Provincial Mexico you will have to expect this and learn, somehow, how to cope with it.

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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

Learning Spanish Part Two - Some Solutions

"Foreign language learning is not something that happens overnight; it takes a commitment of time and money. U.S. schools compound the problem by waiting too long to start foreign language instruction. According to ACTFL Professional Programs Director Elvira Swender, U.S. students often start learning foreign languages at puberty, "an age at which their brains are least receptive to language learning." Swender also notes the relative unimportance that schools assign to languages. "It doesn't occur to anyone that we should wait to teach students math," she points out, "so why do we wait with foreign languages?"

Why has America always had this love-hate relationship with learning a second language? What is it that Americans seem to fear in the acquisition of a second language-a fear so great that they will resort to English Only legislative efforts to assure that their children are not brutalized by the introduction of a foreign language in their schools.

"Why pass laws to repress "bilingualism," a resource that competitors are trying to conserve and exploit?" ("...brutalize our schools with their language..."-Frosty Wooldridge, an anti-Mexican xenophobe and Minuteman Project supporter)

There is a real and unacknowledged fear of foreigners in the American culture. I see this all the time in the people I talk to. I am a syndicated columnist and book author who is constantly deluged with readers' comments--some not so nice. I get a sense from the hundreds of column readers' responses I receive that not only is Xenoglossophobia (The Fear of Foreign Languages) a real problem but Xenophobia in general is alive and well in America.

At the writing of this story, the Minuteman Project movement is growing by leaps and bounds. This will, in my view, cause an even large isolationism from Mexico. Maybe America will even go back to the days when learning a foreign language will be outlawed or at least dropped from every school's curriculum all together. Anything is possible. Stranger things have happened.

In Europe, there is a bilingual rate of about 52% compared to America's 9% rate. The reason for this is, in Europe, one has to learn foreign languages just to survive. Where I live, in Guanajuato, Mexico, I constantly meet Europeans who are fluent, to some degree, in multiple languages. They are multilingual because they live in such close proximity to other countries that have a language different than their own.

If Nebraska had one language and Kansas another, there would be many Nebraskans and Kansans who would speak one another's languages. Their close proximity would necessitate the learning of one another's languages.

Americans simply have never had to learn another language, unlike their European counterparts. Language inability deprives one of the opportunities to learn of another culture. That is the breeding ground for ignorance and fear-Xenoglossophia. Nor do American school systems start teaching other languages to children in the very earliest years of their formal education, as do their European cousins. One, however, should not underestimate the issue of need. Americans have simply never had to learn another language to conduct their affairs in life, as have other citizens of the world.

NEXT: Why Acquire a Second Language?

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ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

Guanajuato, Mexico - Spanish Ears

I have talked with many would be Spanish learning students who complain that though they've taken years of Spanish classes, they cannot understand a word of Spanish when it is spoken to them. Listening to Spanish, comprehensible Spanish input, you can do this with podcasts.

The Importance of Spanish Podcasts: One of the most frustrating things about trying to develop the highest possible proficiency in a second language is that the native speakers sound like they are speaking at Warp Speed!

I am just now emerging from that linguistic pit in understanding the rapid-fire native speakers and I want to share with you how I am doing it using the online FREE and PAID media tools.

I suggest two things. First of all try to buy this product:

Immersion Plus Spanish – One of the most misunderstood parts of becoming fluent in any language is the need of training your ear in the target language. What I mean is, if you cannot hear the euphony or music of the language, you will rarely, if ever, be able to understand what someone is saying to you in the target language. I live in Mexico. I can tell you though I went through massive preparation before coming to Mexico, I did not count on the speed at which the locals speak. It is remarkably fast! This course, by design, will help you with this problem. It addresses this common issue.

The second most important thing to do is to listen to Spanish Podcasts. The list I am including will help you if you listen to them in the order I which I've numbered them. When you get through the list, start over and re-listen until you can actually anticipate what the speakers on the podcasts are going to say.

1) NOTES IN SPANISH - This is a beginner through advanced podcast and is one of the few FREE Spanish Podcasts.

2) Rojas Spanish Language - Both FREE and some PAID services.

3) Audiria is a new online tool which freely supports your learning of spanish, offering multimedia audiofiles to increase your knowledge of the language.

4) Learn Spanish on Your Terms - Both FREE and some PAID services.

5) Lo Mas TV - LoMásTv is an online Spanish video magazine for people who wish to improve their Spanish skills. Authentic Spanish videos include television programs, music videos, interviews, documentaries, and travel. Only LoMásTv offers Spanish and English captions, pitch-correct slow play, integrated dictionaries and listening exercises.

[The Lo Mas TV is a paid service with some free demos. The cost is cheap, in my view, for what you get and I highly recommend this service as worth the price and what you learn!]

ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

Guanajuato, Mexico -- Dingbats

The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Ding-a-lings.

Actually, I am not including any names in this post since it is too incredible to do so.

Once again the wife shares with me some of the forum fodder she reads online.

Q1. I want to know about apartments in Guanajuato and Michoacan.

A1. Yes, dear batty forum poster, they have apartments.

Had this woman just mentioned "Guanajuato" I would have made the assumption that she was referring to the city of Guanajuato. Guanajuato, the city, is the capital of the state of Guanajuato.

But, since she mentioned "Michoacan", another state, I am left to conclude she is also meaning Guanajuato the state and not the capital city.

What could possibly going through someone's mind, if anything at all, in stating such a question?

"I want to know about apartments in two of the states in the republic of Mexico."

Where in the states could this person possibly mean?

Q2. I am going to move to Guanajuato in two weeks and want to know where should I live?

A2. Are you for real?

One has got to wonder if these posters to the forums are real people or trolls trying to make the life of my wife miserable?

Q3. I am moving my family to Guanajuato and want to know about schools for my children. Can you enroll them for me and call me when you have the enrollment completed?

A3. See answer A2.

This is a real life post I got a number of years ago. The lady was from New Zealand. She actually gave me the stats for her children and asked if I would call her when I got the kids enrolled in school. GIVE ME A BREAK, PLEASE.

Q4. I've booked my destination to Guanajuato, what is there to do?

A4. Go to the nearest Barnes and Noble and buy something this is called a guidebook, BEFORE leaving the States.

Again, a real question that appears more than once on the forums.

Q5. We want to fly from the States into Mexico City, take a day trip to Acapulco, then hop over to Cancun on the bus. We want to do this in three days.

A5. Cancun is on the other side of the country from Acapulco meaning you would have to do this via plane. Did your Mickey Mouse Travel Agent tell you this?

Q6. How far is the beach from San Miguel de Allende?

A6. Are you geographically dyslexic or what? San Miguel de Allende is in the central highlands of Mexico smack dab in the middle of the country. By bus the nearest beaches are 8-10 hours away.

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Be sure to get a head start for you and your family in learning Spanish BEFORE visiting or moving to Mexico...ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!