In this video, I'm going to share with you
some things that you've been told about Mexico
that just aren't true.
The first myth is that all cops here are "federales"
I grew up in the US and my whole life
anytime someone referred to a Mexican cop,
they always called them "Federales".
Well, those are the federal police,
there's also state police and municipal police.
There's various kinds of military,
the National Guard, the army,
all of these look like police cars driving around.
There's also transit cops,
so it's much more than "Federales".
And the second misconception is
that cops always
want a bribe.
Now, I'm not saying this doesn't happen,
but I think the perception
as to how often it happens
is way blown out of proportion.
I've been living in Mexico for about five years now.
I've been to almost every single one of the Mexican states
to over a hundred cities throughout the country.
And in that time,
I've been pulled over 50+ times
and not
a single time
has a cop tried to get a bribe out of me.
Now, you're much more likely to experience a shakedown
if you were actually doing something wrong.
I'm generally trying to follow the law.
So that has helped me out.
And there are a few parts of the country
where this corruption is more prevalent.
For example, places near San Diego, near Tijuana,
those areas.
Also around Mexico City
and also in the Rivera Maya around Cancun.
But outside of those areas,
I think you're pretty unlikely
to experience cops trying to get a bribe out of you.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen
because it does,
but it's way blown out of proportion.
"Americans can't own property in Mexico."
I've heard this myth so many times
that I wanna rip my hair out whenever I hear it.
It's at least once a day
in the comment section of Tangerine Travels.
But the truth is,
Americans and other foreigners can own property in Mexico.
But there's a couple things you need to know about it.
First, there's a restricted zone
and a non-restricted zone.
The restricted zone is within 50 kilometers
of a coastline or a hundred kilometers
of a country border.
So if you're in that restricted zone,
which is a very small part of the country
you do have to take an extra step to buy property.
But if you're outside of that restricted zone,
you can buy property anywhere, in your name.
And you can own it outright.
But if you're in that restricted zone,
well then you have a couple of options.
The most popular option
is to buy it through a land trust.
And with a land trust,
there's also a myth about this
and that is that it's a lease.
It is not a lease.
The trust controls the property
and a bank holds the trust,
but the trust lasts for a long time,
and it's renewable.
It's not a lease.
You can have it forever.
It's just not directly in your name.
And the second way is you can start a Mexican corporation
and have the corporation buy the property
in the restricted zone
and the corporation can be 100% owned by foreigners.
Hollywood would have you believe
that Mexico is just comprised of beaches and desert.
But this is far from the truth.
Mexico, believe it or not,
has every type of landscape you could imagine.
It has mountains and desert and prairie
and rolling hills and pine trees
and all sorts of stuff.
It even has jungles and rainforests
and of course beaches and desert as well.
But that is by no means the extent of it.
The next misconception,
I'm a little bit ashamed to admit
that I actually had this misconception
when living in the United States
and that is that
any wealthy Mexican
is a narco.
And honestly,
that couldn't be further from the truth.
And why did I think this?
It's because it's what I heard!
It's what I knew!
What I "knew" was that Mexico was poor,
the whole country was poor,
but there were some very rich people
and they were all Narcos.
But the truth of the matter is,
yes, there are some rich Mexicans
who come from dirty money,
whether that's Narcos
or being in a political position
or earning their money in other nefarious ways
like kidnapping-for-ransom,
that kind of thing.
But the vast majority of wealthy Mexicans
have earned their money legitimately
from legitimate businesses.
So who are the wealthy Mexicans?
They're the ones who make the economy run.
They're the ones who started
all the businesses you see around the city,
the home builders, the restaurant owners,
and all the ones providing all the services
that people use in their everyday life.
That's the vast majority
of the wealthy Mexicans, not Narcos.
The next misconception is
that the whole country is super poor
and everyone living in Mexico is living in poverty.
Now, are there a lot of people living in poverty here?
Yeah. But, there's also a pretty large middle class as well.
And before coming to Mexico,
I had this ignorant idea in my head
of what the cities look like.
And I pictured a lot of homes built out of pallets
with metal roofs or something like that.
Like, basically the cheapest way
you could make a structure to live in.
But the truth is that
in any one of these population centers
here where I live in Queretaro, Mexico City,
Guadalajara, or where the vast majority of Mexicans live,
even the poor people still live in homes
that look like homes,
not like shacks.
So there's that.
But also I had this idea that
there wouldn't be really nice neighborhoods
or something like that.
However, here where I live in Queretaro,
it's a city of about about a million people.
And I don't know the whole city,
I haven't been everywhere.
But in my estimation,
I would say there's about 30 neighborhoods,
that's three-zero, around the city
that the average American would say,
"hey, this is a really nice neighborhood."
Another myth is that if you leave the resort,
something terrible will happen to you.
The number of times I've heard,
"oh, you're going to Mexico, be careful!
Don't leave the resort!
I don't wanna see anything bad happen to you."
So,
that's a myth.
Is that the truth?
Not even close.
I'm not trying to say bad things don't happen here
because bad things do happen here.
But at the same time,
is it way overblown by the US media?
Absolutely.
So,
come here,
enjoy it.
Keep your wits about you,
don't do stupid stuff,
and you're probably gonna be fine.
"If you have a business here,
you'll have to pay the cartel protection money."
The number of times I've heard this,
I can't even count.
However, is there truth to this?
I mean, it happens,
but again, it's something that's way overblown.
In my five years here,
I've met many many different business owners
and I've talked to a lot of them about this.
And not a single one of them has said
that they've had the cartel try to shake them down.
Something that does happen though
and this is actually pretty common,
is that people will pretend
to be a part of the cartel, wanting you
to give them money every month.
And this is a scary part,
not knowing if it's an actual threat or not.
And this happens,
but more often than not
it's actually someone calling from jail
trying to get funds for them to live a better life
while they're in jail in Mexico.
Another common belief that foreigners have about Mexico
is that it's hot everywhere here.
The number of times I've seen in my common section
like, "how could you live there without a pool?"
Or "how dare you take your husky to Mexico!
It's so hot there."
Well, is it hot in a lot of the coastal destinations
the places that a lot of people vacation in?
Yeah.
But the vast majority of Mexico,
the vast majority of the country
sits at 5,000 feet of elevation or above.
It's a very very mountainous country.
And what that means
is that in most of the country
it has a very moderate climate year round.
Thanks for watching!
If you liked this video,
click on this one next and I'll see you over there.