hi everyone and welcome to saturday i hope you're doing well i am doing reasonably well i've had
quite a productive week this week i'm in Durango still um i've been here for about four weeks now
and i thought today i would just sit down and do a sit-down talking video with shots over the top
so you don't have to look at my face for the old thing really in um talking about a subject
that i was kind of thinking about while i was walking along yesterday coming home from oxo
with an oxo hot dog in my hand they are the best by the way it's a subject that has been asked on
numerous occasions since i've been here is it difficult to travel and live in northern mexico
yes i've only been to durango so far but um what's the word spoiler i'm going to sinaloa
and chihuahua in the next couple of months i'm going to be in northern mexico for a few months
basically and this kind of topic like it's first impressions if you like after four weeks of being
here i will probably readdress this i'll come back to it later on in the future because you know
impressions change over time shockingly but this today are is my impressions i can't speak anymore
of whether i think it's difficult to live and travel here the first thing i'll say is i think
the word difficult is kind of subjective because it very much depends on your level of experience
traveling and living in mexico if you're someone like finn's travels
northvan Dan even the tangerinies you're not gonna have a problem because honestly things aren't that
different it's not like this enigma fantasyland with cowboys running around it's mexico you know
things work the same buses work the same oxo is the same people are pretty much the same yeah
they're a little bit more grumpy actually but that's good because i'm a bit grumpy if you are
someone that hasn't been to mexico before i wouldn't probably recommend coming here because
at least for a first attempt at mexico because it will be a bit daunting it will be a bit not scared
that's the wrong word but it's so far out of your comfort zone in comparison to places like i can't
believe i'm going to say this cancun puebla guanajuato san miguel guadalajara mexico city
it's different and the thing i'll talk about first is language i can speak a bit of spanish it's
not that bad i can get by on a daily basis right but i've lived predominantly in southern central
mexico for a long time and coming here there have been a couple of adjustments i've had to make
namely in terms of listening i don't know what it is is it the accent that's a bit different i'm
not sure let me know in the comments if you know because i find it very difficult to differentiate
accents in mexico they all just sound the same to me similarly how you know people who aren't
from the uk can't tell the difference between a london accent and a manchester accent for example
for me that's very easy but for many it's not is it the accent is it the speed of speech
is it the fact that idioms are being used that aren't used in the south or
things like that or just the way of saying things so a silly example is like when i
go into oxxo or starbucks and you you pay for everything and they say algo mas anything more
i don't say that here it's something something something todos like is that everything and then
of course your answer changes to yes rather than no you don't want anything more silly things like
that it's a little bit more challenging i have to say the other thing with language is that
previously i've been able to get by with kind of broken spanish if you know what i mean but here
i've been in a couple of situations including one yesterday when i had to change a bus ticket
more on that in a second when i kind of had to really explain something in detail i have
to have more conversations here so that's a positive because it's kind of developing my
spanish is developing my confidence basically what happened yesterday i meant to be in today torreon
right now but my airbnb cancelled because they didn't have any water
really so that's now next week so anyway i have to go back to the bus station and reschedule the bus
blah blah blah but yeah that language thing it definitely takes you out of your comfort zone and
into a kind of new world of just having to what happened with my camera then of just having to
get by with oh that's really distracted me now do you know what i mean it's a little bit more
challenging with language the next point is about the fact that no one comes here and as a result
travel research can be tough so the last videos i've filmed in durango have been
not that difficult to plan because they've kind of been in the center or they've been
typical tourist destinations like paseo de viejo oeste the wild west place but subsequent videos
are kind of obscure and kind of remote so finding information in english about those places is tough
even finding information in spanish is tough because even though you might find something in
spanish quite often things are lost in translation when you translate them on google translate
or that information that you're finding is incredibly out of date i'm talking like eight
out of eight hours ago eight years ago that's it so you know is that relevant so you kind of
do have to go with a bit of blind faith if you know what i mean i just spat all over the camera
blind faith and just hope for the best you know but that's what i enjoy i quite enjoy that style
of travel where you don't really know what's going on and where you're going the thing about
durango and possibly the rest of northern mexico is that there's a major difference
so when i go to places like san luis or puebla or those places i mentioned before
i will get inundated with messages on instagram on youtube in youtube comments
saying oh you've got to do this you've got to do that i recommend this i recommend that does
that happen with durango no it doesn't happen at all well a little bit but not to the same degree
because i feel like even mexicans don't know anything about durango or northern mexico
and why should they because do i know everything about the uk have i been everywhere in the uk yes
it's a smaller country but now i haven't have i ever been to manchester newcastle never i haven't
got a clue so why would you expect mexicans every mexican to know everything about every single
place in mexico it's just not gonna happen it's unrealistic so it's no surprise the thing about
um this and what i think why people think that every mexican knows everything is the fact that
and this kind of ties in with an english lesson i have i have had i have someone in mexico city
she lives in texas and she was telling me about how for her at least this might be different if
you're mexican the education when she was growing up around geography and history of mexico was
immense whereas when i compare that with the uk it's like london world war ii henry viii
that's it and it does feel like you know a lot of mexicans know a lot about everywhere
in mexico sometimes but when it comes to northern mexico it's not necessarily the case
so you do have to kind of feel like you're on your own a little bit i do feel quite distant
from the rest of mexico which is a bit of a weird feeling it's distant in a way that is positive
because i'm exploring i'm you know venturing out into the wilderness in a way but at the same time
you know i can't have conversations with someone that's living in i hate san miguel de allende or
somewhere like that because they've never been to durango they would never go to somewhere like
this because of that whole danger safety is mexico safe shocked rhetoric thing but yeah so in summary
yes it is challenging to be in northern mexico in comparison to other places in mexico but would i
do this again yeah well i've only just started doing it would i continue on further north yes
i am i'm going to sinaloa in chihuahua in not very long next month basically in june
and i'm excited to explore i'm excited to come further out of my comfort zone is it farther
because it's more about destin whatever yeah i'm excited to explore over the next few months
even though you know these places in mexico they don't get searched for on youtube i could quite
easily do a video about san miguel de allende and get millions of views no one searches for durango
but is that a motivation for me in life no it's not i would rather go to places that i really
want to go to and hopefully kind of set the bar or the precedent that's it it's been a busy week
this week for you know mexico travel that you can go to places like this that it's not dangerous
safety blah blah blah it's just mexico and you know somewhere like this offers just as much as
those other places other places i'm just going to give up now because i can't speak i was gonna say
one last thing so as you know my last video the travel one my drone shot up like a rocket i was
gonna call it a scud missile into oblivion i think it's orbiting mars now but good news is it crash
landed on a building i haven't been able to get it but dj i have said i can have a replacement
so they're going to send it so you should see the return drone mark 2 coming in future videos
bloody brilliant so um yeah next up is a video from a pueblo it's kind of a replacement video
for a place i was gonna go to but i couldn't find any information about as i was saying before so
you kind of have to play it by ear that's it so um yeah thanks for watching and let me know what
you're up to this weekend where are you planning to go in mexico this year if you are planning to
and that would be great lovely i'm gonna have a [ __ ] now
a cigarette not homosexual i'll see you soon catch you later