Expats Like Us
A podcast series exploring life as a U.S. Expat in Mexico. Topics include preparing to move to a new country, navigating your new home and finding your passion as a retiree.
Expats Like Us
Que Padre, Que Malo, Part 2
Welcome to our latest chat where we swap stories about life as expats in sunny Mexico. The four producers of Expats Like Us reminisce about our hurricane 'welcome party', and play another round of "Que Padre, Que Malo" to weigh the cool against the not-so-cool aspects of our tropical adventure.
Strap in for a cultural roller coaster as we compare the fast lanes of our past to the leisurely strolls of Mexican life. Here, convenience foods bow to the flavors of home-cooked meals, and community interaction recalls a bygone era of America's '40s—minus the poodle skirts. We discuss the hazards of driving and admit that we're all guilty of ignoring the wonders in our own backyard, from beachside hangouts to hidden local gems.
Finally, we navigate the learning curve of Spanish car repair vocabulary and offer a hat tip to tech for bridging communication gaps. Our storytelling takes a walk on the wild side with monkey mayhem and jaguar sightings. Tune in for an episode that revels in the quirks, perks, and occasional irks of our expat lives with a little humor and a splash of gratitude for the life under the Mexican sun.
We are incredibly thankful for engagement and stories from our listeners, who have found their own sense of 'home' across the globe. Stay tuned as we continue to share the wisdom and wanderlust of those who've charted their unique international courses. We'd love to hear your comments and questions. Email them to expatslikeus@gmail.com
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Let's go to the beach. Yeah, let's just go hang out for a couple of hours or so, right? I mean, we live here.
Speaker 3:And I do say we do go for lunch at a beach club that has a good view.
Speaker 4:Yeah Right, it's not that we don't see the ocean.
Speaker 1:We do.
Speaker 4:You know, laying on the beach and seeing the ocean are two different things, two very different things.
Speaker 3:Yes, but then when we go to, it's a priority because it's dog friendly, exactly, and our dogs like to go there.
Speaker 1:So Our dog only hears the name of the beach.
Speaker 4:And we cannot say the word jungle fish in front of our dog.
Speaker 1:So we use or we will freak out. We use JF.
Speaker 4:And he's starting to clue in on that. Welcome to X-Pats Like Us, a co-production with me, vita Margarita, exploring the world of US X-Pat life in Mexico. In each episode, we'll meet new people and hear their stories. We'll also learn more about X-Pat life and get a few tips on everything from making your move to settling in, to living your dreams and, most of all, having fun. Let's dive in Today on X-Pats Like Us. It's part two of K Padre, k Molo. We had so much fun on the last podcast doing this little game that we've been playing. We decided to do it again this week. As you may remember from episode four, padre means father in Spanish, but it can also mean cool. When we pair it with K. K Padre means how cool. On the flip side, k Molo means how awful it turns out. Lots of changes that we experience in our X-Pat lives we think are great K Padre and some are not so great K Molo. So let's do another round. Let's start with a topic from Sherry.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess one of my K Padre's is the weather here. It is gorgeous Pretty much every morning you walk out. We have about 340 days of sun per year, and even on the rainy days it usually clears up by the afternoon, so there's not much chance that you can't have a great day outside, and it's just so lush. It's a very full jungle where we live, so it's lush and green and there's something blooming all the time, so I'm always amazed walking how beautiful it is here. And yeah it just kind of raises your spirit. The only K Molo that I can think along with that is that I've had to add a dermatologist visit once a year to my list of what I need to do, because you are in a lot of sun. So even if you're wearing sunscreen or sun protective shirts, it's very smart to get your skin checked just to make sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for sure. I remember a friend of ours on Facebook saw a picture of us and said, commented that we had permatans Permanent tans. And that's true, we do Permanent tans.
Speaker 1:It's funny because Chris, he tans so easy and when we went back to the States they actually our friends were like oh my goodness, you look more Mexican than Erica.
Speaker 2:I was going to say. I'll see often on social media sites, on Facebook, and that people are like oh, we're coming down for a week, but it shows it's raining all week. Yeah, yeah, maybe it rains a half hour, 20 minutes during that week. You know it per day and it clears right up, so it's great. But on the other side of that, also with the K Molo hurricanes, we are in a hurricane area. But I was doing a little research today Said only two major hurricanes have hit Quintana Roo and I guess all of this great. As long as they were keeping track, but on the end.
Speaker 4:And we had a. We had a small hurricane when we all first arrived, like what a month or?
Speaker 1:a month it was our welcome. Hurricane it was our welcome hurricane.
Speaker 4:I remember at the time thinking what have we got ourselves?
Speaker 1:into Exactly what I said.
Speaker 4:We just got our stuff put away and now we're going to have to batten down the hatches for a hurricane.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's exactly what we thought.
Speaker 2:It really wasn't all that bad, for I don't know, yeah, no, it wasn't that bad, I mean it's fine.
Speaker 1:We lost sleep. I didn't sleep. I could hear noises, winds, no power. No, we're kidding, it was fine, it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 4:As far as I could tell, I don't think anyone got injured, or certainly not killed, Of course. We've heard of that Category one Right, it's fairly mild on the scale but it's like it's, it's almost to me, because I remember sitting up that night and looking out the window. We have jungle right behind our bedroom window and it's like all the trees would whip one way and then they whip the other way and I was just like, oh my, these trees are pretty resilient around here for hurricanes, right.
Speaker 2:But it is the weather also. It's super hot in the summer at certain times that you can't even walk, or you come out of the shower, you walk outside and you're sweating immediately.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the humidity and I think that takes a while to get adjusted to.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 3:But even being here, you know, after two years last summer I felt, hi, it is really humid yeah.
Speaker 1:With the humidity also comes the mosquito bites.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's. That's huge for me because they love me, and so you have to keep in mind, like the bug repellents, all of that. In general, I don't like using the off. It makes my skin itch, so it's like you got to take into consideration little things like that, but then again it's, it's worth it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And we don't use as much moisturizer, because back in the state side it's always feeling like my skin is dry and using moisturizer. Every time I wash my face I've been slathered on and you know you feel pretty pretty good skin here, here, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:I use no moisturizer.
Speaker 4:I know the couple of times that we've gone back to the states. My skin goes dry instantly. Oh yeah, and my nasal path, you know it's everything is just it's crusty, Everything is just dry. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we went back in December. That's what I got every day was he's like my nose, I'm just. It was just horrible. It was. It was cold, it was freezing first of all, and it was just so dry and our skin was just flaking. It's itchy, itchy, ashy how did we ever live that way? What?
Speaker 4:were we thinking so good weather.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, for sure, erica. What do you got Mine's?
Speaker 4:the lifestyle. So having moving here, yeah, I mean, I'm not sure, I mean, I'm not sure, I mean, I'm not sure, I mean, I'm not sure, I mean, I'm not sure I mean, I'm not sure I mean I'm not sure. I mean I'm not sure, I mean I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:So, moving here, you have a fast pace lifestyle. You work, raising kids. You have to still maintain a home. Busy, busy, busy busy. You come to Mexico. So the the Cape Padre is the lifestyle, the came malo is everything's very slow paced. When they say a Mexican minute, they mean a Mexican minute and we got our solar panels. It was we'll be there Tuesday and I'd asked Chris, did you ask what Tuesday, of what month, of what year? Because, everything was just very just slowly, slow when they would say we're going to be there to fix whatever we need fixed or paint. Okay, what day Right Is it of this month? Is it this week?
Speaker 4:This month. That's the concept we like to say of manana. Yes, Manana, does you know? You learn that manana means tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Not, not if you're talking to somebody scheduling? Something Exactly.
Speaker 4:It means not today.
Speaker 1:But again, on the Cape Padre part of it, it helps remind you life shouldn't be lived so fast forward mode because it's not healthy. So I feel that that's also. It kind of goes both ways. But I truly love just. We did one thing today and the one thing we're good and we don't have to worry about anything else till tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Right, even if then we could go another day with just that one thing, right yeah.
Speaker 3:And a lot of times I think when someone says, oh, Minyana, or they'll do something tomorrow, it's not that they're not working that day or that they don't want to help you, but they tell you what you want here. And they also maybe told someone else tomorrow too, and so they're trying to do everything for everybody and keep everybody happy.
Speaker 4:Yes, I agree, it's part of the friendliness and helpfulness of the local people here. Yes, they don't want to tell you something you don't want to hear Exactly.
Speaker 2:I found that it kind of rubbed off on me, because when we first got here I was used to the States and you're go, go, go. So I would have 20 things I wanted to get done tomorrow. And now I'm like I got one thing I want to do and I'm like, yeah, maybe I'll do that.
Speaker 4:If it doesn't happen, it'll happen in Minyana. Exactly, exactly. Ok, chris, you got a new one.
Speaker 2:Food, I don't think we've covered food food in Mexico. Everyone loves Mexican food here. Some great food, a lot of fresh seafood coming right out of the ocean. There We've got some local favorites in the Pueblo we go down to Luis Marisols.
Speaker 4:They've got the best tacos they've ever eaten, best food around and the best prices around, too. Pasta they make a great pasta.
Speaker 2:I mean that's amazing and the prices are incredible. We can usually get dinner for under $5 and you're totally stuffed Right.
Speaker 4:And it's amazingly fresh and it's right there, it's on the street. It's on the street in front of a guy's house. Maybe that's a came out for some people, but it doesn't bother Not me, I mean, that's one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 2:I just go to that place and just eat the local food. Go get the marquisezas down the street, because you can't cook for that money at home.
Speaker 4:I don't know how they do it.
Speaker 1:So, on the came out part, I'm going to add to that is the food. You get fresh food here, so when you get fresh food you have to use it. It's not it'll go bad at first, unless you freeze it. If you get it and you think you're going to, I forgot the chicken, I thought it out or I left it in the fridge. We're going to cook it tomorrow. Then again you get busy and we'll go out to dinner when you want to cook that chicken. It's already gone bad if you don't freeze it. So that's the came out part. With the food as well, if you're cooking at home, you need to use it. But then I also understand now. Like the locals, they go to their little markets in the Pueblo Every day. They will pick up the meat they're eating, the veggies, the fruits, everything that they're going to need for that day. They do it daily where we're used to in the states of let's do our weekly grocery shopping, which is not really healthy with all the preservatives in it.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I suppose that's a function of there's not all the preservatives are in the food. We've noticed bananas are good for about two days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, suddenly, you got black bananas sitting there Because the Cape Padres makes great banana bread.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, awesome. I've learned that the last two times.
Speaker 4:Have you ever noticed what the chicken breasts are like here compared to in the states? Do you know?
Speaker 3:how much smaller. There's so much smaller here?
Speaker 4:Yes, and it's because. I think it's because in the states the chickens are pumped full of hormones and growth hormone and all this stuff to make them genetically huge like that. And in Mexico the chickens are more like they probably were in the 1950s or 60s in the United States, where they don't get all that. They're not all on corporate farms, they're not being fed all that stuff, so the chicken breasts are much smaller but they're healthier. You're not getting all that stuff in your body.
Speaker 1:So we've noticed. I have noticed when we've gone grocery shopping, we've gone into the Pueblo to buy meat, and then we've also gone to Chidralli or Walmart and Walmart's chicken breasts are three times larger. The ones at Chidralli are smaller. But you go into the Pueblo you get normal chicken breasts Normal, but those are the ones that you need to buy that day and make that day.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, that's a definitely food, yep.
Speaker 3:Well, one of the things I heard from a neighbor that's a little newer to the area was that she missed the prepackaged convenience foods that she buy to throw together a quick meal. And there are workarounds here, so you can also buy a cooked chicken in the Pueblo, which usually comes with rice and chicken cilantro and tortillas. Yeah. So if you want something quick like that, you could buy a chicken, shred it and use it to make whatever your your dishes that you wanted to have pre-packaged chicken strips for it's possible. There's workarounds.
Speaker 1:But I also realized as well I used to do a lot of that in the states the pre-packaged because we were busy working. I don't have an excuse. Now I can bake everything, I can make everything from scratch, which is easier. And that was where I was speaking about the lifestyle, the fast-paced. It was constant go, go, go, and now it's. I don't have an excuse. I can make the time to do this and prepare stuff.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:So it just, it goes both ways.
Speaker 4:It's like living in a simpler time For sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always tell her to me I obviously didn't live in the 40s, but I what I imagine. 1940 America, that's what Mexico reminds me. Everyone minds their business. Nobody's showboat. I think that too Nobody's. You know, we went back and everyone's got a big truck and loud stereo's and they're like look at me, look at me, look at me. And here everyone just keeps their head down, does their own thing, concentrates on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, everything is not bathed in regulations like they have in the. States either. You know, I mean we, and we kind of joke about it Sometimes. There's no OSHA in Mexico. No, because you see the most crazy things People working on highline poles with a wooden ladder yes, 30 feet. That's made out of sticks, you know.
Speaker 2:And a chair on top of it and a chair on top of it. I have a scooter with a ladder.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they transported the ladder on a scooter. Two guys on a scooter.
Speaker 4:Sometimes two guys a dog, a wife a baby or you know in the States. When's the last time you saw somebody that had kids in the back of a pickup Right? Oh yeah, I mean here that's like it's almost like that's what they buy a pickup for, right it's to carry people in. That's true, and you see trucks of you know, workers getting transported to a job site or something.
Speaker 1:They're all standing there.
Speaker 4:They're crammed on the back of a truck like sardines, you know?
Speaker 1:Yes, we've seen that, and it's usually every morning if you're out early.
Speaker 4:And you would never see that in the States anymore. But that's part of you know, that's something that maybe you would have seen that in the States decades ago.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah. Another one for Ke Padre. We live so close to the Caribbean Sea but the Kemal always we don't visit it as much or go to it as much you had mentioned before. You visit when you have friends. That's our thing. When we have friends visit, it's our vacation from our daily routine and that's when we go to the beach. But it's very rare that we go.
Speaker 4:We're kind of that way too. We go, you know, maybe once every couple months or something like that, Other than when our friends are here. We go three days a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we brought inflatable paddleboards down here. We've gone once in almost three years, which is horrible.
Speaker 4:And you know, I would say when we first got here we went. We discovered beach clubs that we like and we went quite a bit more and there are people that I know of some friends of ours go all the time. You know that's their thing is going and sitting on the beach and you know, watching the waves and all that. But yeah, it's not. It's not something that you just do forever, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I don't even think we really even started doing it. Yeah, it's when friends visit is when we go. But to say, let's just go to the beach today.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, part of that is the beaches. Here it's hard to find beach access that doesn't cost you money. You know all the I mean. There are gorgeous beach clubs all the way up and down Riviera Maya, but there's a minimum that you have to spend there. The food that, from our experience, is glorious in these places, but it can be quite expensive, you know yes. Yeah, and they charge. They charge gringo prices there too, yeah. Yes 50 bucks a person or whatever for a day, and that's not something that expats like us like to spend.
Speaker 3:Yes, Well, and I think it's just part of whether you're visiting somewhere on vacation or whether it's your home, because I grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota that everybody came to on vacation in the summer, but we never visited those sites unless we had family in from out of town. So you know, we never went to Mount Rushmore or driving up through the, you know, the national parks unless we had family. So it's you just try to take it for granted.
Speaker 1:Well now, yeah, but now I think about it. We're originally from Utah and it's one of the biggest places for skiing and snowboarding, and we really didn't do much of it.
Speaker 2:Well, the reason I didn't, you know, I had a job that if I got hurt I wasn't able to do my job and I have to get an alternative assignment, which was not fun and just one worth the risk for me especially as you get older.
Speaker 1:I just didn't do it. I didn't want to have a job.
Speaker 3:Well, that maybe that we just need to make point Use the beach more. I think we need to. Don't take it for granted From here on out.
Speaker 4:We're going to the beach at least once every two weeks.
Speaker 3:Well, looks like it is a podcast today, Well off to the beach.
Speaker 1:No, I think, but then also again it's like you if you make plans, you make plans to go out, hang out, have dinner. We should be able to do. Let's go to the beach. Yeah, let's just go hang out for a couple of hours or so. I mean, we live here.
Speaker 3:And I do say we do go for lunch at a beach club that has a good view. Yeah Right, it's not that we don't see the ocean. We do.
Speaker 4:We do but laying on the beach and seeing the ocean are two different, two very different things.
Speaker 3:Yes, but then when we go to, it's a priority because it's dog friendly, exactly, and our dogs like to go there.
Speaker 1:So your dog only hears the name of the beach.
Speaker 4:We cannot say the word jungle fish in front of our dog, so we use JF.
Speaker 1:We use JF.
Speaker 2:And he's starting to clue in on that, but that is another Cape Padre is. This area is so dog friendly.
Speaker 1:Oh, you can bring your dog anywhere you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we were in the States, like Erica was saying back in December, and most of the places we could get away with bringing our dog, but someplace we got told at one place that you can't have the dog care.
Speaker 4:And it's rare to have a dog in a restaurant in the States, unless it's an outdoor restaurant, which around here most are.
Speaker 3:Or a service dog, and or a service dog. Our dogs, david, quite that Well, they don't recognize service dogs here in Mexico.
Speaker 4:Right, okay, we learn that so that's okay. Dexter can never pass himself off as a service dog. Anyway, he causes more problems than he solves. We're next. So what else do we have for? Cape Padre came along.
Speaker 3:Well, one of my Cape Padres was the use of apps to do a lot of our work here or interactions here, and they're free. So we have WhatsApp, which we use for everything from making a reservation for a restaurant to contacting a service provider, a doctor. We have WhatsApp groups for different groups of friends or even our community, and it's a great way to share information. So if you're wondering about the process for getting a driver's license, someone will ask in one of those groups and right away a couple people will come back and need to do this, this and this. Here's a pin to get there. So, very good way to share information. And then Google translates the other one. So we use them all the time. You know just when I'm looking for something in the store, if I want to make sure it's exactly the spice I'm looking for or how to use the product, I can just flip out my phone and translate it on the spot. Super handy, super handy.
Speaker 4:Right. Google translate for those that don't know has a camera function and you point your camera at, like, in our case, stuff that's on the grocery aisle. That's all in Spanish and it will translate it, or signs, or, whatever, but it will translate that into English, which is and I see, I see so many people in the store standing there, you know, going down the aisle looking at stuff with the camera. Yes, imagine what life would have been like moving here without Google translate for us that don't know Spanish.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we would have carried around a phrase book.
Speaker 4:Right, and we'd only had to be able to say these 200 short phrases.
Speaker 1:But even for me my parents are originally from Mexico. I can see the difference of when they left Mexico to the States. It would have been the same thing that the contacting of the family. They would call once a month because back in the day it was long distance calls, so you didn't have that luxury. But for me I have seen I've even struggled being fluent in Spanish. I sometimes struggle with it. I know basic Spanish, I know how to do things, but I don't know anything about cars getting fixed Like I don't know. And then, having been from more central Mexico to here, the Spanish changes Right, and so the Mayan Spanish for me is a little bit more different than the Spanish I learned.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's different words for different things. Yeah there's probably what three different words for tires.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, I learned that when we got a flat tire Actually cried Because I'm like what's a tire here, like what's it called?
Speaker 3:So what's the answer?
Speaker 1:It was the same, it was yanta, but the slang words I can't remember off the top of my head were different ones, but it was the same. It was yanta. Okay, yeah, but our security guard had come up because he heard it and he chased after us and he said something like no, it's yanta. Then he said something else. I'm like man, I don't know what that is, I don't know what it is, so I learned that.
Speaker 4:I have found. You know, when we talk about how nice people are here, there's a lot of people. If they see you struggling with Spanish or something, they will just stop what they're doing and help you.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've had that happen at the DMV getting my license.
Speaker 4:I've had that happen. If somebody's saying something, I'm given the old gringo stare of nod and pretend I know what they're saying, when I really don't. Someone will recognize that and come over and say well, here's what she's asking you to do.
Speaker 3:That happened to us once in the airport too, so they were questioning how long we had been here and I was able to explain that we were residentes permanentes. But then she wanted us to go, I don't know, over to a kiosk and Bob started to do it, but he was taking the suitcase with us and someone intervened and like no, no, no, you can just go get the ticket from the kiosk and leave your suitcase here. So we didn't quite catch that.
Speaker 4:And then he ran off with our suitcase. That did not happen. He was a very nice person that did that.
Speaker 3:So very, very helpful.
Speaker 1:They are very helpful.
Speaker 4:So one of the things that I like here is we say we're living in paradise, and it really is. The jungle is lush here and there's monkeys. It's 24 hours, it's 365 days summer here. Yeah, everything is green and lush. We're surrounded by nature, by, like you said, monkeys and kawates.
Speaker 2:There's a certain time of the year where the butterflies I mean there's thousands of them in the air.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's amazing. I go out walking every morning and I try and walk like five miles, but I mean, I feel like I'm just surrounded by nature.
Speaker 1:It makes the walk go really fast. Yes, it does you really enjoy it? That is true.
Speaker 4:Even if you're sweaty and miserable after halfway, you don't care, because it's a beautiful, beautiful place.
Speaker 1:I actually tease, chris. Sometimes you kind of feel like a jerk. Sometimes, when I feel I'm grateful for my life, I wake up to birds chirping and I know what time it is. It's like oh 6.30. There's this bird sound oh, 7 o'clock. Here's the other. I know what time it is. But then when I go take walks it's amazing to see everything, just to look it's incredible. And so I have to remind myself. Sometimes when it's hot and you're sweating and you're like, oh, what did we do? You Chris will walk outside and is sure it's just drenched in sweat and it's, but you have to remember the good to that.
Speaker 4:Right, Right. I don't think there is a K-Molo to living in nature.
Speaker 3:living in paradise is there, Unless Sherry's got one, oh no, not in K-Molo, I'm just going to share. We have a beautiful yoga facility that's very close to us and I went today for a Pilates class and the class was disrupted towards the end because there were three monkeys outside the beautiful windows swinging through the trees and nobody can't tension anymore because we're all looking at the monkeys.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool. I will say that the K-Molo to that living in paradise. I was walking one day but I was by myself and I looked over and a Kawate was looking at me and he stared at me and scared the hell out of me. I had to just slowly walk backwards and be like, okay, this is your home, I will leave you there. Don't look at me that way. I am scared, but it scared me. So walking alone with that, because sometimes they're protective of it.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:And wasn't there. There was a time when we had a crazy colliding around here. That was a raccoon.
Speaker 4:There were collides like a raccoon for people that don't know Kind of rabbit or something, yeah, and it's in it.
Speaker 1:This one, yeah, we were thinking it was a raccoon. It was attacking other animals.
Speaker 2:It was attacking pets.
Speaker 4:It was coming after people and somebody finally took care of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't need to get into any details there.
Speaker 1:No, there was something wrong with that colliding.
Speaker 4:Yes, that was a lot that was that was big news for like a week, and in our community we were all terrorized by the other colliding.
Speaker 1:I didn't know if it was just if they had eaten something, if they were poisoned. So I just slowly walked backwards and kept eye contact and every time I'd make a move he'd follow me and I was really close to calling Chris like pick me up, like down a passing car Help me Well you know, our, our, our former neighbor and friend had a ring camera on his back patio at night and he caught a closeup of a massive jaguar.
Speaker 4:Yes, it was coming up and sniffing around his patio, but this thing was just huge, it was like the size of a lion, you know and it walked right up. It was really cool video.
Speaker 1:I'll see if I can find that posted on our expats like us Facebook page.
Speaker 3:It was beautiful, it was right downstairs from us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was right below us.
Speaker 1:But I loved how he went up to the camera. Like he went like trying to say hi to everybody.
Speaker 3:Like what is this thing?
Speaker 4:Can I eat?
Speaker 3:it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:It smells so good. What is that? Oh yeah, I know it smells less of Jesus, yahweh.
Speaker 4:I have a real good reputation with Jesus Yahweh. The other thing that I like is I've always been a fan of restaurants and you know exploring different kinds of foods and stuff and if you're like a foodie type, this area is insane. There's thousands of restaurants there is and they're changing and because there's so many of them, they have to be pretty good to survive. You know, both with price and with quality, and you know you can go to Tulum and there's so many good Asian, indian.
Speaker 1:Literally every country in the world is cuisine as represented in.
Speaker 4:Tulum, and usually there's multiple ones.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know apply as well.
Speaker 4:Apply as the same way. Playa del Carmen is the same way. There's probably tens of thousands of restaurants there.
Speaker 1:We haven't even seen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always say you could start and try to hit everyone and before you finish they would have all moved on and had another one start up. You would never live long enough to get through.
Speaker 1:Playa del Carmen, oh yes.
Speaker 4:Now the K-Malo with that is. I was in. I walked through a restaurant. I was at a meeting at a restaurant yesterday and walked through and saw some friends and I couldn't even make my way over to their table because it was so packed. Because it's high season right now in Riviera Maya, in this restaurant every seat was full. They had brought in extra tables. I mean, people were just up against, shoulder to shoulder in this restaurant and it's like that a lot this time of year and both Playa and Tulum.
Speaker 3:Well, and I was going to mention, as we've traveled a little bit around Mexico different parts of Mexico have different types of cuisine, but we have found so many fabulous restaurants wherever we've traveled. Mexico really is a food destination.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:And there's a foodie.
Speaker 4:This is a great place to check out. Oh my God, and different regions have different regional foods. It's incredible, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, we learned that when we went to Guadalajara.
Speaker 4:And different drinks and different drinks as well. By region. I know one that's K-Malo, and you guys will probably agree lack of craft beer.
Speaker 1:That is exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:Yes, If you're looking for craft beer, like we were used to everywhere in the States, you will not find that here. You're lucky to find maybe one IPA and maybe a dark logger or something like that, but it's nowhere on the scale it's just has a dozecky.
Speaker 2:You have Victoria.
Speaker 4:Modelo. It's all just pretty kind of run-of-the-mill beer, but you get used to it. You know it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1:From beer to vodka or wine or margaritas On the other hand, we have tequila and the scala which is better than anywhere else in the world.
Speaker 2:And we went to tequila and that was a great trip, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That was an experience for sure. I appreciate tequila more From tasting it, from when they start making it to just now it's tequila. Oh, I understand. I understand now and have a different appreciation.
Speaker 4:Well, I've noticed a lot of our friends have really developed a deep knowledge of tequila. I mean seriously and not just they just don't drink tequila all the time, but they know a lot about it yes or a miscal, because there's so many different kinds and it's all you know. There's a lot of nuance and in every different kind.
Speaker 1:It's amazing.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:For sure. I don't know if we've said it outright, but a healthy lifestyle here, you know, just being active and you know, like you said, I know we all play pickleball.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you play pickleball every day I play probably three times Three or four hours a day, every day. You're a pickleball fiend, yeah, but also sharing a golf, which you know, that's certain form of exercise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're on a PGA golf course, so I never imagined that I would golf on a regular basis on some. On a golf course is nice.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 4:That's easy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I lost, I think what 40-45 pounds when we moved down here.
Speaker 1:I think it was more like no, our friends didn't recognize them when we visited a year later.
Speaker 4:They kept asking where his other half was I lost a bunch of weight on that scale when I first got here and since then I've eaten so many tacos and tortillas you know, gone to so many restaurants which are, all you know, way too many calories and stuff that I put a lot of that back on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a basket of chips that ends up on the table every time you enter a restaurant.
Speaker 1:That's right, someone's got to eat them and that's the thing they're fresh, yeah Right, they just made them in the kitchen minutes ago.
Speaker 4:How can you not? It'd be rude, right, all right. Well, thank you guys for joining us for K Padre K-Malo. This has been fun. We got two shows. We thought we were going to get one, so this is really good and it's been fun.
Speaker 2:It'd be interesting to hear with the viewers what they like yeah, they don't like about Mexico. They live here. They visited here Absolutely.
Speaker 1:What they want to know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Comments would be appreciated. Send us an email at expatslikeus, at gmailcom, or send us a comment on our Facebook page at expatslikeus, and we'd love to hear from you. Yes, all right, thanks, guys. Thank you All right, bye, bye, all right. In each episode of X-Pats, like Us, we're going to teach you a new Mexican slang word. This is something you may not find in your phrase book or your online Spanish class or your Spanish app or wherever you're learning your Spanish. Instead, this is a term used primarily by Mexican Spanish speakers. Today's word is Wakala, wakala. I don't think I've ever heard that in my life, erika, uh, what? How do you spell that?
Speaker 1:That is G-U-A-C-A-L-A Wakala.
Speaker 4:And what does Wakala mean?
Speaker 1:Gross yuck.
Speaker 4:Okay, so it's an expression of Ew.
Speaker 1:Ew yes.
Speaker 4:Okay, very good. Thank you, Erika Kowalski. From Me, vita Margarita. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's topic. Just look up X-Pats Like Us on Facebook or send us an email at xpatslikeuscom. You can also see the video version of today's discussion and all of our discussions on our YouTube page. Follow, like, subscribe and leave us a review. Thank you to the producers of X-Pats Like Us for getting together today for another round of K-Padre K-Malo. It's been fun. Thanks, chris and Erika. From Me, vita Margarita and thanks to my wife, sherry Bussey. Thanks also to Tony and Diana Cardin for their awesome wildlife video. We hope you guys are loving it in Florida. Most of all, thank you for tuning in to X-Pats Like Us and thank you for interacting with us on social media. Next time we'll bring you more firsthand information about your international move. Until then, remember our homes are not defined by geography or one particular location, but by memories, events, people and places that span the globe.
