so youtube i thought i'd come back for a little bit uh i think that things might be a little bit better for us to continue our stream i do apologize for those of you who [Music] missed out and
and hopefully you can watch this replay i should be able to go for at least 20-30 minutes but let's go ahead and get into it and uh yeah just kind of continue where i left off about isla mujeres
uh so we're talking about the yucatan peninsula area and it does have that tropical caribbean pipe i got into a little bit about uh punto norte uh so it's a north section island of course it's got the lagoon
there i saw it either a manta ray or a stingray like a baby uh really beautiful i also saw some really cool uh other marine life on the east side of the island it's about well the island is
roughly i think it's i think it's about four and a half miles long maybe it's five miles long and then it's about half a kilometer across so that gives you an idea of the size it's really small and
modest in size and it's uh it's just it's bucolic it's it's really just so calm and relaxing there's uh ice cream shops and there's taco vendors and there's beaches where you can get amazing margaritas for almost nothing it
feels like one of my favorite places on the island serves amazing frozen margaritas for like the equivalent of like three dollars a piece i think they're like 60 pesos which now it's a dollar is close to 21 pesos
so even slightly less than three dollars i'm not a big consumer of that but it seems like once a year i need to just like let off some steam after working really hard all year and this place isla
mujeres and mexico is one of those places where the last time i went was about four years ago i went about four years ago and the whole time i intended oh when i get down there i'm gonna do
day trips to kazuma and day trips to tulum and i'm gonna go see chichen itza i'm gonna do all these things i had all these plans i'm gonna make the most out of my week in mexico and then
like three day like 24 hours later i was like i'm not going to leave this beach i'm just gonna sit here at the beach and relax and not leave the island because the island is just so comfortable and
so calming and the people are so friendly and welcoming that once i like sit down and have a meal and watch a sunset it's i don't want to leave it's it's my happy place it's a really incredible place
and something that you all might find interesting is that isla mujeres is actually the place where the sunrise first reaches mexico so i think on the southern point it actually is the first place that when the sun comes
up in the morning on mexico over mexico it touches that point it's really a special place and it's a really gorgeous island i definitely recommend looking up other uh youtubers videos of isla and kind of seeing what they
show as far as content i'm gonna try to make some content myself on there i'm also gonna try to do at least one or two streams it's really really a beautiful place and it's somewhere where i could see
myself going back and back over and over again that the first thing i told jose my buddy that lives there in isla was that uh man i could easily live here i i could easily live here like it's
uh it's such a beautiful place it's so relaxing it's the food is so good i was like you don't need to go anywhere for vacation he's like yeah that's right we live in paradise there's there's no need to
go anywhere else it's just so nice there and i will say it has gotten a little bit pricier over the years i wouldn't necessarily call isla mujeres a budget destination so if you are more budget oriented you might
consider looking at like playa del carmen i think there's just a lot more construction in playa del carmen and there's a lot more to choose from and it's uh it's just more developed if that makes any sense isla
is a little bit less developed and i think some people might not like the vibe i personally like it but i always tell people look it's not gonna bother me if if you don't like it it's not a
lot of people like what are you gonna be doing what are you gonna be doing and i'm like i'm gonna do nothing uh for several days at least i'm just gonna do nothing recovering from my wisdom tooth removal
and trying to just get some sleep and enjoying some time with my close friends that i met about it's been about four and a half years now and it's been really nice to stay in touch with them of
course i wish i'd gone to mexico earlier this year when i was in latin america i visited colombia in peru for those who don't know and when i was in those countries it really reminded me of some of
the things i really like about mexico as far as like latin american culture i will say the food is not similar i think some people they think that in latin america all the food is basically mexican food and
that's not the case i would say be prepared that if you do like mexican food you may be disappointed in other parts of latin america i'm not going to say it's bad i found delicious food everywhere i went
in latin america but it might not be what you're expecting let's see example food in colombia a lot of people think oh colombia it's it's uh south america it's a vibrant dynamic and they're going to have spicy food
and i found that to to not really be the case a lot of colombian food is more mild and it's still delicious i ate a lot of really really good food in colombia but i had to uh i
had to kind of keep things in perspective like i'm not going to necessarily come down here and get exactly what i'm used to in the states so with isla there's um there's also a lot of snorkeling if you're
somebody that likes to go snorkeling they have a lot of snorkeling there i mentioned scuba diving i also think that there's opportunities that if you are comfortable with paying for the ferry uh every day i think it's gone
up to around 21 us per person probably something like 400 maybe 425 pesos or so then you could you know stay in isla and take the ferry over to puerto juarez but understand that's going to cost a lot
of time so you really got to be somebody who likes peace and quiet to kind of base yourself out of there which i do i love it i find it to be really relaxing i always feel just so
at peace after i spent time there last year not last year a few years ago and i'm i'm looking to recreate that and i think that mexico has a bad reputation for some people and i just kind of
want to show through my channel that it's it's not all one way or the other does mexico have crime in certain places absolutely just like almost just about every country in the world has some uh crime issues perhaps
some areas that do have crime i personally think that it is uh i personally have felt very safe when i was there in 2018 not going to make that determination for you uh but at least in isla i
never felt in danger once it's just such a slow pace relaxed pace that you don't really feel like um panicked i you know i didn't really see anything that gave me the impression that crime was an issue i
knew that uh my friend when i was there he never warned me about anything of course cancun proper is a different story there are some areas in the city of cancun that if you go away from the touristic
areas then you're probably gonna see some neighborhoods that perhaps are not as safe and are not recommended for you to be walking like centro for example really an authentic neighborhood in cancun a lot of people are really attracted
to centro because they want that local vibe they want to see what do the uh mexican people that actually live in this area live because obviously people are not living in year-round the average person anyways not leaving you
around in an all all-inclusive resort yeah i think i can get another 20 minutes and at least maybe 30 minutes uh we'll see good to see you kiki thank you so much for joining again i appreciate your patience
so much uh just where i live i have a few roommates and uh sometimes you know they enjoy having their friends over i'm on the phone and i always want to respect be considerate of that and this is
my hobby so anyway it's not a long-term situation i think that uh shortly i'll be uh headed to northern california after i get back from mexico and i will be stopping in colorado uh or texas i'm not sure
yet i'll have more details on that when i get back from mexico i just don't want to promise too much but i think that uh hopefully hopefully i can get out of my uh sort of head sometimes i
get stuck in my head and make some uh footage as well when i'm going cross-country because i'll be going from the midwest or mid-south region all the way to the west coast and for some people i i started
to think oh wow that's even though i've done this like probably a half dozen times uh it's it's a big deal to some of my viewers who have never been to the states or if they've been to the
states they've only been to like new york city or los angeles where uh they didn't really see the middle of the country and some of my favorite parts places in america are internal especially in colorado like it's it's
such a beautiful state it's it's stunning some describe it as the switzerland of america i actually lived out there for about three years and i loved it i ultimately left because i had other priorities and things worked out
but i i really like colorado i think a lot of people i really enjoy it it can be expensive you know it's not necessarily going to be the most friendly place uh to stay long-term but it's just drop
dead gorgeous so uh so yeah so this sunday uh i'll well saturday i'll be flying to philadelphia i've got an overnight in philadelphia i'm trying to decide if i want to just try to program like all night or
whatever work on programming or if i want to actually go and check out philly i just don't feel like philly in december or late december sounds super appealing i could be wrong but i think of philadelphia and the
winters being quite cold probably rainy and stuff so could you may just stick to programming and then i'll fly down uh from philly sunday morning to cancun i'll get there around uh midday and then probably grab uh i'll
get some transit to the uh puerto juarez and uh from there i will uh one sec [Music] yeah i'll be able to i was just checking to see if i needed to take a pause but uh yeah from
there i'll take a ferry over to isla and i'll go to meet my friend so uh you actually where i'll be going from cancun airport to puerto juarez which is where my ferry will take me to isla there's
i want to say it's around a half hour cab ride if i remember correctly maybe it's about 45 minutes or you can take a bus or you can take like a private transport uh there's a dif and several
different ways to get there but that is a necessity that's one thing to keep in mind with cancun is unlike cities like phnom penh or bangkok where you do have like in phnom penh you can just start walking
into the city in bangkok they have transit at the airport so you can go downstairs as soon as you land get through customs and whatnot to i take the train to the city but in cancun it's not like
that it's much more tropical it's it's more comparable uh to like um a phuket in thailand it's it's more of a resort vibe and so i'll land at the airport the airport is inland and kind of down the
coast closer to playa del carmen and chichen itza and then i'll take the transit up north to uh to where that port is and then i'll grab that fairy it's like a it's called ultramar so if you ever
look at pictures or videos it's this big blue and yellow ikea color uh fairy and it'll take you over to there there's also options for the same brand to go to places like cozumel but you to go to
cozumel you leave from a different area so that's something to keep in mind is that if you've heard these names kazuma tulum the mayan riviera quintana roo isla i'm a really big fan of that a lot of these
places are within reasonable distance of each other but it can be really helpful when you're selecting accommodation you're trying to plan your trip uh to select a place that is closest to most of what you want to do
right so if you're really big into the party scene you want to go to file carmen that's where a lot of uh things are going on i will say be careful i have heard of some some touts and
scams and things like that definitely do some research on playa del carmen but if you're looking for that developed nightlife cancun type vibe without having to stay in an all-inclusive resort maybe you want a little bit more control
pick your own hotel room pick your own restaurants pick your own bars that's more of what i'm a fan of like denise asks i was just reading about the cartel turf wars in the cancun area does that concern
you so that's a fair question right i'm not going to be one of these travel youtubers that everything is awesome everything is good only positive not to say that it's not wonderful and positive i just feel like it's
important to balance sharing what drives me to do it and also what's on my mind uh so a big thing for me is that i'm not going to stay in cancun proper uh cancun properties is very expensive very
developed it's kind of like staying in south beach miami i'm not going to criticize south beach it's gorgeous for people that have a lot of resources you know you're going to have a really good time in a place
like south beach but i find that you're also paying the highest prices you're dealing with the largest crowds you've got potentially pickpockets and other people that are intoxicated that kind of thing right so i think of it even
if there weren't uh organized crime in miami which i imagine there are not to the same extent in cancun i it still wouldn't be super appealing to me so for me i kind of go directly to uh areas
more on the outskirts and places that are more low-key a little bit more under the radar where i just feel like there's not as much potential to make money off of large crowds where i'm going that's kind of
i guess the way i would explain it is i'm looking specifically at a few places that are less crowded less populated and it seems like in my mind it seems like in my experience and a lot of the
issues with that it's more related to places where they are competing for lots of people's business they're they're looking to make substantially large amounts of money whereas where i'm going i'm i'm going to an island with maybe 10
12 000 people and it's it feels like a small town in a way it's called uh i'll type it in the description actually just so people can see and so yeah i would say you know if you are
concerned about that in in cancun i'd say you know that's that's realistic that that is something that has been on the news i have read about that heard about that uh but from what i've read and heard most
of it's relegated to cancun the city proper and it's uh how to say about cancun is comparable once again to miami where if you're in miami it's a big city and if you go to the outskirts you go
to places uh certain beaches north uh perhaps even south or on the western side of florida they're not as desirable because there's not as many jobs there's not as much work opportunity but on the other hand they also
tend to be safer it's a little bit pricier isla is isla mujeres is a little bit pricier than most of the surrounding areas except for tulum tulum i've heard is really really expensive my mom really enjoyed going to
tulum but she went like 30 years ago 25 years ago when it was not what it is today so i think it's it's a great option for me as far as being somewhat budget-minded but i don't want to
compromise on the quality of my experience just to save money and so that's and i also don't want to pay a lot to have conveniences that aren't really a big deal to me like part of why cancun isn't
appealing to me is i i don't really care for the all-inclusive kind of presentation i just feel like it's it's too easy that sounds weird maybe i'll change my mind as i get older but it just it feels
too easy like people bring me drinks and food and i don't have to leave this beach and uh i one thing that i try to make it a point to do wherever i go is i try to once
i kind of make local friends is is have at least a little bit of the experience of the local lifestyle not totally i'm not going to go and stay in a local's only neighborhood i'm not going to only
shop at markets and things like that but i i want to at least see how regular people live because it really has helped me to put a lot of things in perspective in my life as far as uh
being grateful being appreciative for what i have so yeah i was kind of a long-winded response to these but really great question i would be concerned if i were in the more uh hustle and bustle and and nightclub
kind of districts i'm a little less concerned because i i really get picky with with my locations i'm similar with that in uh in latin america in general just because latin america and certain parts of latin america there
are safety concerns uh they're perhaps not as much of an issue in the u.s i will say i have had dealt with uh crime issues in the u.s but it's it's been somewhat situational you know it's if i'm
in a dangerous city uh if i'm in a dangerous neighborhood i i have to be aware of you know the time of day that's that's a big thing too is i'm not a major nightlife guy and so some
of the stuff that is an issue that i've heard uh for example people getting scams and touts some of that stuff happens at night time when people are more likely to be tired jet lagged they're more likely to
have imbibed some beverages that impair their judgment maybe they're they're on vacation and they're just oh i'm not i'm not in my my work clothes anymore so i can just be wild and do whatever they're not really considering
uh the impact of their actions or the fact that there are laws in mexico there are rules it's not just a free-for-all where people can just do whatever they want i know that some people may have that perception
because uh they just have that perception that they're on vacation and it's no big deal but people do have to be really mindful of like so so kind of answering a question i also i'm not going out a
lot at night mostly like i'm but i would say most nights in mexico i'm back at my accommodation by like 9 00 p.m 10 p.m so i'm getting up early and doing most of the stuff that i want
to do during the day such that i'm pretty tired at night most most of time at night especially in mexico i remember just being exhausted because i'd walk around the island i'd go swimming a lot explore different neighborhoods
on the island i just have a lot of fun it's it's really really cool now i will say something that may be of concern to some of you is brush up on your spanish before you go because uh
when i went to mexico i had no no conception of the spanish language at all and so a gentleman came up to me and offered me a coconut and i'm thinking oh this is perfect ice cold coconut and
i just pointed at it and uh he said uh 30 pesos and i said what and he said 50 pesos so if they get the impression that you don't have any spanish like for me i i could pass
as a latino person perhaps argentine or chilean [Music] i i even in peru and colombia sometimes had people thinking i was perhaps peruvian japanese i'm not pruning japanese but uh being racially ambiguous has really really goes a long
way in traveling overseas but if i don't practice the language enough to do a little bit of business then it's not a big help so be confident you know if somebody if you hear somebody say a lower price
and then they try to raise it i wouldn't get a flat out argument with them but but insist you know hey if you don't feel like you're in a dangerous situation then i definitely don't just always just say
oh i've got to go with the scammer or the tout regardless of what happens because it's i'm already trapped no you can you can resist you can say no kiki says mexicans have a wonderful sense of humor metal
quite a lot of mexican people when i lived in barcelona um i i can't speak on that i uh i don't uh i can't say have enough insight to know about that if uh anybody that's a subscriber of
my channel is latino or mexican uh wants to chime in on on latin american culture and these kinds of things i love that i don't like to to stereotype i recognize uh those in your intention kiki i just
i want to make sure i can always uh be inclusive i will say that everybody was super friendly to me really really nice i never got any scam or touts in mexico when i was there i a lot
of people were saying hey it's going to be this and that nothing really struck me as being sketch i will say i did meet a friend there very shortly after arrival and hung out with him almost most of
the time until i left and he was able to kind of give me tips and introduce me to cool local restaurants and help me do business and and kind of do things in such a way that i wasn't
putting myself as a at as much risk uh that being said if you guys have any questions definitely reach out i'll have my email somewhere on here and there's there's a few ways to contact definitely comment if there
are questions you have about different places that you may be concerned about then it's it's definitely worth asking denise says i agree it's a much richer experience to live like a local yeah denise i absolutely agree it is
a much richer experience i feel like people everywhere in the world that seems like are mostly peaceful mostly kind mostly just want the same things that we want most people in the world i found uh wanna be close
to their loved ones they want to be close to their families they want to have good food to eat they want to have a safe place to live and they want to have reliable work and and those are
just a few things that like i feel like every single place i've gone in the world i relate to other people in those ways we can always relate on food because i love food everywhere in the world we
can always relate on work because i work they work even if we don't have the same jobs we can we can relate and family even though uh up until uh more recently uh which i'm not gonna get into
that now but it is pretty exciting i felt like i just didn't have any family and so as some that came but even then i've always wanted family so it's really easy to relate to other people is what
i'm trying to get at uh for me anyway and so when i do get into these neighborhoods that i perhaps don't have as many tourist conveniences like i'm not going to be able to just walk into mcdonald's and
have a mcdonald's meal or whatever i'm not going to necessarily be able to get a sim card that will allow me to contact anywhere in the world there's certain conveniences that that i do give up that you do
give up if you look to spend time like a local but you get so much more value i always use this phrase and i got it from jason fever who's i'm a big fan of mr free 33 definitely
suggest him shout out to jason and he said oh he always uses this phrase price is what you pay value is what you get right so that's partly why i'm doing this trip is i'm going to get two
wisdom teeth removed one on top one on bottom and uh when i asked a friend a friend of mine's mom hey you know how much would it cost to get a couple of these out around here uh i
don't know how complicated it will be and she said well probably around fifteen hundred dollars i was like fifteen hundred dollars that's that's quite a bit to pay just for uh wisdom tooth removal and so i contacted a
dentist down the street in isla mujeres for my friend and i was like hey how much is it gonna cost to get this done and for two and they said four thousand paces well i'll go and do the
math for you four thousand pesos equals roughly 190 dollars and so when i compare that i'm thinking okay so i'm gonna save probably like thirteen hundred dollars well i can spend some of that thirteen hundred on having a
great time in mexico relaxing at the beach having food that i enjoy enjoying a lot of ice cold coconuts to help me with the soreness because that's going to be really sore for a few days that's incredible like
versus doing that same process in the states where it's not going to be as comfortable i'm not going to be able to rest as well sleep as well i'm going to be thinking about the cost you know spending
that kind of money on it and then okay well how am i going to shift my my budget around to accommodate the cost of this big bill 100.90 that's not nearly as shocking if it was for 1500 and
that's 1500 it may be more than that let's say it's complicated or something and they want to do something different they could charge quite a bit more i know x-rays are going to be really expensive so these kinds
of things uh being able to do it at much lower price at a well-rated clinic clinics with high ratings in mexico you can go and check the reviews too which i recommend doing if you look into getting dental
or medical work done anywhere in the world is check out the reviews i'm not going to give you medical advice or financial advice but some of these places like one place i'm looking at as a backup in playa
del carmen they have 149 reviews with a 4.9 average and i was telling the prices to a friend of mine and uh she was just really really surprised at how much cheaper it is in the us and i
would say well normally you know you might worry about the quality but they have like 150 people here that are uh thrilled and google is pretty good about trying to catch fake reviews it's it's you know it's gotten
pretty difficult to trick their system they have pretty sophisticated algorithms and uh so to be able to do that and then relax on a beach afterwards with uh good friends of mine in the sun getting a tan and
uh really getting a lot of vitamin d and and swimming and seeing the beautiful coral reefs that's just yeah absolutely absolutely it's incredible i mean it's it's it's mind-blowing and i lived in uh what was once a fairly
economical uh part of the us the mid-south region kind of the nashville area used to be quite affordable but in the last five years everything's basically doubled in price and so it's no longer providing the same value that
it used to provide and why i support the hustle you know i understand people they go through a lot to go to dental school it's really difficult they're doing com they're doing some things that are comparable to becoming
a medical doctor uh for me because i have the choice and because i've accrued some paid time off at work that i can use uh for me it's like oh wow okay so knowing what i make comparing the
amount of time i have to work it's it's a no-brainer i mean it's it's a lot of my time as far as as far as the price goes uh kiki says similar dental costs in ireland dentists are very
expensive here yeah i can imagine they're they're quite high and i think it's similar in japan i heard the japanese people are going to thailand uh for dennis uh dennis work and so yeah i feel like it's a
good deal and i'm i'm i'm thrilled i'm i'm really thrilled and a lot of people are thinking oh but you know a little bit of spanish my spanish isn't that strong and i actually messaged them on whatsapp in
english and they responded very quickly in english and we actually have i think either a call or we're going to talk a bit more tomorrow to hammer out some details because i'll be getting to mexico on sunday and
i'd like to get the wisdom teeth out on monday or tuesday just so i can recover quick and at least have a solid three four days uh to enjoy myself before i fly back i fly back to the
us on sunday the following sunday night uh and then i will arrive to um i'll arrive back to uh where i need to be ten minutes before i gotta be at work on monday morning i've set things up
such that i'm really making absolute maximum use of my paid time off work rafael mendoza hi alex i'm thinking of moving to riviera maya next year cost of living is much cheaper than us well thank you for chiming
in rafael i'm so glad to hear that i'm so glad to hear that you're thinking about it it is much much more modest i actually did some price quoting on some apartments and i want to say i checked
about 10 different ones in my preferred area which is in the riviera maya and i want to say some really nice one-bedroom apartments i was getting quoted at like between like six and eight hundred dollars a month uh
which sounds like a lot and it's probably a little bit steep for the area but these are really nice apartments i mean these are modern apartments brand new everything uh a luxury apartment something that would easily cost three
or four thousand a month in miami maybe more by now maybe five or six thousand a month uh and so it to me too the weather is comparable to miami i spent some time in miami uh about 10
years ago uh yeah about 10 years ago and can broadly speaking riviera maya reminded me somewhat of cancun or somewhat of miami with a lot of things i like and missing some things i don't like it's extremely expensive
in miami whereas in the riviera maya it's it's ironically it's considered the most expensive area one of the most expensive areas in mexico alongside of course cabo and on the west coast and of course mexico city however when
you compare it to what it costs to live in the u.s it's so much lower prices have been rising there's an incredible amount of demand coming from expats from around the world uh not just american expats but also
europeans and of course other latino people but even even with all of that it's still in my mind remains an incredible option as far as having the feeling like okay i'm in a different country i'm paying a lower
cost of living perhaps if i was interest if i belong to that culture that would just be another layer on there like i'm around my people or i'm around people that we share a similar background similar we have
the same language i feel like i don't know i imagine it's comparable to how i feel in certain parts of southeast asia and so yeah i'm definitely making a lot of content in the riviera maya raphael i'm going
to be filming i'm also going to do a couple of live streams down there it's it's going to be really really cool and i'm looking forward to sharing it because i visited about four years ago and prior to
going of course a lot of people they say these negative untrue things about mexico and i didn't believe it but i just didn't have any reason to like learn otherwise i when i was younger i loved traveling the
us it was a lot cheaper about 10 years ago so that was a big part of it but uh when i eventually went down there my my friend jose who's from uh west coast of mexico he kept inviting
me and i was like well you know i need to just take him up on it i need to put myself out there and and try it and i fell in love with it it's just so it's so
peaceful if you go to the right places but if you want to go have a good time it's so easy to go have a good time people are very laid back you don't see people in a hurry especially
where i like to go i'm looking at isla mujeres people are not in a hurry on isla people are very laid back they're they're hard working i'm not that that's i don't want to get that conflated they're hard
working because it is very hard work to live on an island it's costly they're paying higher electric bills they're paying higher rental fees relative to much of mexico however compared to the u.s where you know you're in traffic
and people are tailgating you and people are flashing their brights and they expect you to do 10 miles an hour over or 20 miles per hour the speed limit i just didn't find that experience in isla in fact
ironically they have a lot of speed bumps in islam muharram's specifically to stop people from speeding jose told me several years back they had some issues with speeding so they put in these speed bumps all over the island
and now you can't do more than like i think 20 miles an hour so it's it's just it's so uh so peaceful so people are warm that the food is amazing by the way just on isla you have
150 different restaurants of course that doesn't take into account the hundreds that are i'm sure in cancun also in playa del carmen tulum cozumel if i have the time i'd like to get to cozumel i'm not sure yet
if i'll be able to make it but if i do have the time and i feel well enough after recovering from my surgery i'd like to visit cozumel i know my mother visited there and she really enjoyed it
and it's just uh it's really really interesting and and something else that is uh really cool to me is this is the first time i'm i'm going back to a place in latin america that i've already been to
before of course colombia and peru are new places but part of me also loves going back to places that i've already been and it's really nice too that when you are there it has that small town vibe where
jose was able to introduce me to a lot of his friends and then also show me some local restaurants where uh it's off the beaten path and you're you're able to get like dollar tacos that are freaking incredible
like some of the best not some the best dollar tacos i've ever had um i'd say the only ones that i could think of dollar tacos that are right up there in that range or some i've had in
downtown los angeles downtown los angeles has incredible tacos but you're also talking about like a hyper competitive area there's everybody's trying to make a buck out there so somebody's like i can make tacos for a dollar i can
i could do this as a business so yeah raphael says yeah it's the new digital nomad hotspot right now i totally get it i think that i was like when i when i visited there i was like this
is this is just the beginning as far as people's interest in this area is so beautiful the water is so clear um the ceviche i mean i i used to uh tell people because i'd forgotten about the ceviche
i had in mexico that was my first exposure to ceviche and i love sushi being japanese i grew up eating sushi sometimes on on occasions i'm not going to say i ate it frequently but i love that that
seafood and so having that ceviche in mexico is incredible of course they use raw fish and then they put lime juice on top and the acid from the lime juice helps to break down the fish of course it's
not foolproof definitely be careful when you're eating ceviche don't go to just some random place it doesn't look that great because sometimes the bacteria can make you ill but yeah i i get it and and it's not just
the ceviche though i think some people when they think of like oh if i go to mexico i'm only going to be able to eat mexico food for a week first off i love mexican food i i eat
mexican food at least a couple times a week in the states because i just it's it's so hearty it's got a variety of ingredients it's spicy it's got the fat it's got the protein it's got the carbs it's
everything that i want uh at least multiple nights a week but you also have uh you have places that you can get sushi in in uh cantanaroo in the riviera maya you have places you can get a good
hamburger you have places that you can go have italian food you have you can go get pizza if you like pizza it's not going to be a place that you can't have a good pizza if you like for
me a big thing is smoothies i really like having smoothies and so all those fresh fruits that you have down there because of the tropical weather create an environment where you can get really really tasty smoothies that are
super refreshing on hot days the coffee is also incredible i'd say that that's an underrated part of that region uh because i think a lot of people think of it being this tropical vibe and we're mostly enjoying uh
refreshing things like margaritas and and coco you know ice-cold coconuts but the coffee there is really good so if you're somebody that you want to like get up and get some stuff done you've got work to do your
digital nomad like rafael mentioned then the coffee there is incredible and you get a lot of american like conveniences in river jeremiah that i think would really surprise a lot of people like it was super easy for me
to find a pancake breakfast or like a french toast breakfast something reminds me a little bit more of home because for me it's it's nice to to have a little bit of the familiar even though i do love
traveling i love going everywhere i go occasionally on some of my long trips i do miss home a little bit and i do want some things to kind of remind me of the experiences that i had back home
and the the places that i i went and the people that i met and the food that i ate and and so it's close you know that's something else about riviera maya is if you're somebody that like doesn't
want to fly 17 hours to singapore for a layover to fly to bangkok or to bali or something like that you don't want to have jet lag and that much kind of extreme time change maybe you have family
or relatives in the u.s that you want to be reasonably close to well you can get to the us and say three or four hour flight so you may have a layer once you get to us if you're
in like a northern state or something like that but you're not going to really feel in my experience anyway you're not gonna feel like you're in the middle of nowhere um certain places that i've been especially like remote
parts of the philippines i love it but you you don't feel like you're near a city you don't feel like it's gonna be easy if you need to have a business flight or something you know travel for business
or if you need to go back home on the holidays so being there in the riviera maya you do feel like okay i could probably get to the airport uh in like an hour or something like that and
it's gonna be you know it's gonna be a half a day thing it's not gonna necessarily be this thing where you're giving up a couple days on the way there in a couple days on the way back like
that's the primary reason i'm not going to thailand right now is that even though i could go to thailand for a week i'm thinking okay i'm going to lose a day on the way there i'm going to lose
a day on the way back and then the five or six days that i'm going to be there i'm going to be so jet lagged i'm not going to be able to do anything so for me places like
southeast asia i want more like a month at least a month to make it worthwhile because anything less than a month and it's just to me it's i don't know two weeks is decent too doing it wrong two
or three weeks can be good but i don't think southeast asia coming from america is is as viable for a week where it seems like uh quintana roo it is a perfect place that if you just want to
come for a week you can do that but if you want to come for a month it's also great for that and if you want to stay for longer periods of time you do need to to be careful
about visas i will say after those watching the replay historically mexico was known as a place that just kind of was welcoming to travelers they're like hey we'll stamp you in six months you can stay six months easy
to renew keep renewing for six months at a time but now they're being more serious about it from what i've heard people are arriving at cancun airport intending to stay in mexico for six months and immigration asks them
hey how long are you staying here and they tell them oh i'm just gonna stay here for a month well then immigration is asking well do you have proof of where you're going to stay do you have proof
that you have the resources to be able to afford to stay here for longer they want to show they want to see proof they want to see that you're legitimately planning to stay for the duration of what you're
saying because if you know if i tell them a week they're gonna just stamp me in for a week they're not gonna to stamp me in for six months so what i'll tell them is probably uh you know
the exact number of days that i'll be there including uh the day i arrive and then the day i leave so probably eight or nine days something like that and uh technically seven since i i've got a count
that i'm coming from the us and going back to us but uh that's something to be kind of careful about with mexico is just uh when you do get prompted uh to ask how long you're gonna stay pre-plan
for that if you wanna go and be a nomad down there for several months pre-plan for that have some accommodation lined up have uh the funds to show hey look i can afford to do this also maybe have
a little brush up on your spanish it wouldn't hurt to try a little spanish uh with you know to kind of show like as an example hey like i am i am attempting to learn the language i'm not
just looking to aimlessly exist in your country because they are probably starting to see issues with uh tourists who didn't really plan ahead and are causing issues for them down there and so that's kind of why they are
being a little bit more strict i'm not going to say they're super super strict obviously they want people to come and spend money and enjoy mexico but they don't want people who are going to misuse the privilege of
being able to visit such a gorgeous place normally and ironically normally i'm not a major beach person in the us as much as i used to be uh not and and i should say tropical beach like i love
the beaches in california and the hiking and things like that but like east coast beaches to me um perhaps they feel a little bit crowded we have a lot of people in the us and so sometimes you feel
like you don't have as much privacy but in mexico and the philippines you can go to these beaches and like not have a whole lot of people around you and so you feel like you have your own private
space in a way and you can really just detach you know for me i my mind slows down and this i'm feeling the sun on my face and i smell uh kind of the ocean breeze uh i'm in
a mild ocean breeze not the old fish smell and i'm enjoying a cold beverage and just feeling the sand between my toes and real feel really feel the tension uh come off my shoulders and i was kind of
worried about this when i was like i really need to do this but i i'm justifying it with the wisdom teeth removal and i'm really looking forward to it because i haven't done anything in about almost six months
and so this will be the first time i'm really getting to do something uh travel wise i i did drive cross-country that wasn't a vacation this is this is the first vacation i'm having six months and i know
some people might say that that's too frequent and perhaps it is but uh it's it's gonna be it's to be good value i'm going to ultimately spend less to visit mexico for a week and have my wisdom teeth
out then i would spend just to have my wisdom teeth out here in the u.s so it's it's a big victory for me because they're they're bugging me it's time they came out i don't want them to uh
make my you know jaw sore any longer and uh just gotta buckle up and do it i have never been a big fan of the dentist but i imagine i'm gonna receive really really good quality care in in
mexico and i'll be reporting back on it uh i'll definitely be letting you all know how did it go how how did the uh how did it go did the cost uh match up to what i was uh
quoted at um what how did the recovery process go did i have to uh also go to a pharmacy or were they they have a pharmacy on site all this kind of information just i think would be really
cool to share because something that i do want to keep in mind about my chat channel is medical tourism is an interest of mine dental tourism is an interest in mine dental more so than medical just my personal
preferences but dental especially it just seems like the cost of gotten out of hand thank you so much denise and he says you sound really stoked about this trip i i'm so excited i sometimes i feel a little
guilty enjoying myself but i've got to remind myself life is short and i'll never forget this trip i i remember so many details about my first trip because it shattered the first layer of shattering like my preconceived notions
about international travel was israel that was my first country and i went there totally totally different than what i expected and then not long after that maybe a year year and a half after that my friend from mexico
was like hey you should come down and so i ended up going down and i was like so this is what i thought mexico was and this is what mexico actually is it's it's not perfect i'm not gonna
ever come here and say oh this country's perfect and and move to this country because it's perfect there's there's real challenges in mexico but it's beautiful the people are warm and friendly the food is incredible the the beaches
in isla mujeres for example have been rated as some of the best in the caribbean and i can attest to that um the only other place i've seen beaches like that are in the philippines and the difference being
is that uh in isla it's it seems closer to uh population center when i some of these beaches i'm talking about in the philippines they're they're really remote and they're not near a whole lot of places and oils
it feels really expensive because it has to be [Music] boated in and they don't have they can't store large amounts of it anyway it's all around kind of tricky but this is like on easy mode i haven't been
to hawaii yet but i hear uh some comparisons to places like that i do want to go one day so if any of you have been there or know much about it definitely share uh your thoughts down in
the comments and yeah it's just it's so exciting and i think what's cool about mexico also is that once you go down there and and you see things um it kind of shifts your perspective it's it it made
me a lot more open-minded it made me a lot more open-minded because before going down there i didn't really feel as strong of a need to learn spanish i just felt like well i speak english i work in
the united states what does it really matter not that i don't think i'd ever work with spanish people but just like well it seems like everybody in the world learns english but after i went down there and i
started to meet more local people and interact with people and i really really enjoy myself i thought i need to be able to communicate with with uh spanish speakers there's a lot of spanish speakers in the world and
a little bit of spanish would go really really far and so i'm so excited to be going back because the the first time i was down there uh i tried to say gracias and i said grazie which is
like italian i don't even know any any words in italian but i was uh yeah i was having a good time and and uh so i just didn't have any spanish when i went uh four years ago and
now i spent the first half of this year in colombia and in peru and i had to learn spanish i was in so many awkward situations in colombia uh less so in peru because peru came after colombia where
i just didn't know what they were saying and i kept asking i don't understand oh and eventually i picked up eventually i picked up on a lot of the different things words that i'd use in communicating with accommodation
staff and restaurant staff and trying to to let them know uh this is the kind of beverage i'd like and etc etc and so being able to go back there and being able to say you know para aqui
i'd like that meal for here or para var i like that meal to go um buenos noches good evening these kinds of things just go such a long way when you're d when you're dealing with people when you're
you're coming to them uh i feel like some people i know that i talk to that english isn't their first language they feel so self-conscious and it like breaks my heart uh because they're trying so hard with english
english is such a difficult language it's so hard to learn and uh so i like to like kind of reverse the roles and and come to their try to learn their language try to speak their language a bit
and uh say hey i'm you know i'm gonna put myself out there i don't expect youtube but like i know you've probably been in a situation where you felt like you had to and if i i get to
create that for somebody that's that's really really special to be able to uh yeah meet somebody in their element and it's not super complicated like i i found spanish was really boring when i i was in school they
were trying to tell me learn this and that all related to like school related stuff like backpack but yeah uh these these kind of mochila i think it's mochi yeah mochiya uh or mochiyo anyway uh words that aren't
necessarily things that we uh are gonna use frequently but when it came to like learning how to communicate with weight staff like oh yes i'd like a drink please or oh could uh could i have this dish on
the menu like vegetariano uh was a big thing when i was in medellin it i remember like i remember all those things and so being able to go down there to the riviera maya and communicate with wait staff
and be able to communicate with all the people that i'm going to be meeting with confidence is is going to be really really exciting and i think that that's something that will be really helpful in content creation down
there and and um asking people like hey is it okay you know if i record this interaction for youtube to share with you all and i do have footage from peru and columbia that i haven't been able to
get into because i've been really busy with everything else i have going on but hopefully one of these days i'll crack more into that footage but fortunately i do have equipment this time going into mexico to record i
didn't record much when i was down there before and so this will be really really exciting so anyway i think i'm going to wrap up in the next few minutes if there are any other questions i really appreciate
you all joining tonight it's been so nice to have this full-on live stream i wasn't expecting to be able to do it but i thought what the heck and now we're almost almost at an hour and i'm gonna
try also uh to film the process of me flying down there i will have to get a pcr test to fly back so a day before i fly so the following saturday um oh no that's christmas day well
i'm gonna have to do some planning because i i think that uh i'm gonna need to get like a rapid pcr test uh sunday morning because i'm going to be flying out of mexico uh sunday evening and that's
going to be the day after christmas and everything is going to be closed on christmas day which [Music] this is gonna be fun this is gonna be interesting uh anyway thank you all so much for watching tonight uh
if there are any other questions i think i'm gonna go and wrap it up i hope you have all all have a really wonderful winter holiday enjoy spending time with people that care about also maybe doing some planning
denise says so glad i came across your channel i love to travel but i've been staying close to home since co-wood for now i'll live vicariously through you thank you so much denise that's really thoughtful i i really
appreciate uh that you enjoy my channel and uh i can respect that you want to stay close to home kobe is a real serious thing and unfortunately a lot of people have become very seriously ill had life-changing effects
some people have even passed away so i definitely absolutely respect your decision to stay close to home and to avoid an unnecessary travel i normally i'd i'd be a bit more uh cautious but in this case it is
a medical thing but hopefully uh sacrifice will be worth it and i'll be able to share everything with you all so anyway i hope you all have a good evening and i'll talk to you soon
