Not selling,not buying, just a post from my adopted country

First my adopted country is Mexico. After my late wife passed away I isolated myself in Cumbria. Around the late 90's the internet was becoming popular and with my retirement sum invested in one. There were just a few chat sites in those days and one in particular, ICQ, I believe it is still going. Anyway after a while I got into regular chats and had long conversations with a Mexican lady who was also a widow. After some months she suggested a journey to England and to cut a long story short after some time we became close and I moved permanantly to Mexico. Although I had travelled to many parts of the world the Americas was not one of them. I had visions of 3 drunken Mexicans sitting under a tree. drinking,sleeping and singing! When I arrived at Cancun that vision was 1000% wrong. We actually lived in the North at Monterrey (an industrial city) surrounded by very high mountains. It was spectacular.

Now part of the reason writing was was some observations I noticed. First, Mexicans are the most friendly people I have ever met. Obviously you cannot forget the headlines re the cartels, but unless you are either in with them, in the wrong area at the wrong time you are as safe as many other large cities. I believe the US still has more casualties than many other well known cities.

Whilst waiting for the Mrs to do shopping at Lidl I noticed helpers at the end of the queues to load etc. In Mexico every large supermarkyt has helpers who work in rotation, youngsters in the morning and the elderly in the evening (and vice versa.) These helpers are immaculate, extremely smartly dressed and would even carry your carts to your home if required (certainly to your cars). The stores pay them nada but provide smart uniforms. Now one day I asked the cashiers who earn decent money do they ever feel sorry for these people. She laughed and said they earn at least twice what she earned! It is tradition to give a tip and worth remembering that SM are open 7 days a week untill approx 11pm.

Health... there is a NHS for most, the general requirement is that one of your family should be employed. On most main streets approx every 5 offices are doctors who opted out of the NHS. They generally have a chemist adjoining. They are mainly for relative minor treatments and the cost is minimal, these chmists sell generic medicine which is not only allowed but saves the country millions. They have to follow a strict code and all in date. I had to have an exray whilst there and you guessed it there was an exray bullding nearby and again at a minimal cost.Of course there were private (mainly USA owned hospitals and GPs and cost a FORTUNE) N. Americans often travel into Mexico for med treatment and dentists costs.

NO non official guns.. caught = 10 years and a Mex prison you want to keep out of.

Corruption is rife but then is rife in many first world countries.

We taught English for a while, the discipline and cleanliness of even the poorest kids was a joy to see. I still cannot understand how youngsters who (some) live in shacks can turn out so immaculate.

One other rule I found helpful, if you stop at a red traffic light but wanted to go with the flow of traffic you could proceed carefully, if against the flow then you had to stop.

I had hoped to return in May but due to the corona have had to cancel for a while.

Sorry if long but if you haven time watch some of the vids on youtube, (quite a few by expats who love it)

Many other good things but this will do for starters.

:text-thankyou

:text-thankyou

Very interesting - thanks

Interesting post