What's up tangerineys! We spent two years living in the mexican caribbean and today we're going
to be telling you why we would never live there again. This is something we're trying out it's a
10-minute tangerine tuesday segment. So shorter videos than we normally put out on saturday,
that's what we've been doing, posting a video every saturday for all of 2020. if you want to
see more videos about living and traveling in mexico please subscribe to our channel.
Now let's get into it. A little bit of background, so we did live in the riviera maya or the mexican
caribbean for two years in a small beach town called puerto morelos. That's between
cancun and playa del carmen. There was a lot that we loved about living there, in fact, we made tons
of videos on all the things that we loved - like the beautiful caribbean sea, all the activities
you can do in the area, and going to places like isla holbox, isla mujeres, cancun, playa del carmen,
Tulum, Bacalar, Cozumel, like all over the place. So today is a little bit of a on the other side of the coin
why we probably would go back to visit there but not live there long term. By the way we are in the
state of veracruz right now and masks are required here so we're pulling them down to do segments of
this video because i think it's really impersonal to be talking with a mask like this, you can't even
see half my face. But anyway, so first reason is, why we would not live in that area again long term, is
because it has a huge lack of culture and history. Quintana roo is a state that's on the caribbean
and it's a very young state which means it doesn't have a lot of things that we really love about the
rest of mexico like big beautiful cathedrals, and different cultural events, and celebrations,
and holidays, and typical food, and dances and like the list goes on and on. It doesn't really have
all those things. What it does have to offer is a lot of beautiful nature which attracts
tourism and that leads me to our next one. The riviera maya, the mexico caribbean, their economy
doesn't produce any oil, any silver, any agriculture, there isn't... I heard egg-riculture, it doesn't produce a
lot of eggs either. There isn't locally made handicrafts that they sell, that they export.
The economy is almost 100% based on tourism. So that comes with a lot of negatives at least for us
wanting to live in the place. For instance, despite living in Puerto Morelos for two years
almost every day on our way to breakfast, we'd be asked "tours? tours? honeymooners, do you want to go
snorkeling? Do you want to take a tour to chichen itza?" No we're not honeymooners, we've walked past you every day for
the last 700 days. Bro! You've seen us every day. I've said politely "no, i don't want to take your tour"
but that's still something we would have to deal with and puerto morelos doesn't even have as much
tourism as its neighbor cities. That's one of the reasons why we chose puerto morelos because it
didn't - it avoided a lot of those things that come with heavy tourism. But we're gonna break
the topic of tourism down a little bit more later on in this video. Something that people love about
the riviera maya is the beautiful bluish green water there. Turquoise, crystal clear, i mean when
you think of vacation in your mind, you're probably picturing a white sand beach with
that exact water and a cocktail on your hand. But every year, lately, when the temperature heats up
comes the sargasso, the seaweed, across the atlantic from africa.
And this stuff piles up on the beach, not only does it not look cute, but it smells awful and it
fills up the water and i don't know about you guys but i don't like when mysterious stuff is like
tickling my legs i like being able to see where my feet are, and see if there's fish, or sharks, or
whatever [chuckles] like the boogeyman down there in the water. But when they're seaweed you can't see that.
So if i wanted to live on the water in mexico, i think i would probably choose like the gulf side,
or the pacific side, some place that doesn't get that sargasso. The next thing is i don't
think it's any secret that i hate the humidity. I've said it in live videos, in previous videos.
I was born and raised in phoenix, arizona, it's like the driest place on the planet,
And after living in puerto morelos for two years and traveling that area i realized i hate the
humidity. But as it turns out, we're here in the state of veracruz and it's 80 humidity right
now. I love this weather! So it turns out the only thing i really hate is when you heat it up. Yeah
but it does especially all throughout the summer in that area, it is absolutely miserable feeling.
It's sticky, and gross, and the heat the uv index is higher, so not only are you like feeling ick
but then you also get sunburned super easily. But even though it's super hot and humid in the summer
if you're oceanfront, that makes all the difference in the world having that ocean breeze coming off...
Coming to you all day. But in the riviera maya it is really really expensive to live oceanfront.
Oh yeah compared to what we were paying on the colonia side it could be double or triple the
price and that's especially if you're looking at ocean front not just beach side. Yeah. But anyway
that leads us to the next one and this has to do with humidity, and that is mold. I personally am a
very sensitive person to mold of any kind and if you put yourself in a climate where it's
really humid, it does rain quite a bit, and it's hot, that's like the perfect recipe for
cooking mold all over the place. And we've stayed in several places in that area that had major
mold problems, so that that's been a serious issue for us and one of the big reasons why we wanted
to get out of there. Because we did notice since we were traveling while living there, that was our
home base, we noticed that when we went elsewhere our health would get better, when we went back
our health would get worse. You were noticing it as well so... But just humans in general, mold is not
good for us, so that's a reason why i would never live there long term again as well. One thing that
appeals to us about living in mexico is the low cost of living and although it can be lower than
in the us if you're living in the riviera maya, the mexico caribbean, it's not that much cheaper there.
Yeah and in some cases the prices can even be higher than the us, like tulum for instance, if
you're on the beach side of tulum, whoa buddy, like those are some sky high prices, some of which
are even higher than food and drinks that we would pay for in phoenix. The prices are much higher
than most other parts of mexico. Like we just had breakfast this morning, granted it was one of the
cheapest breakfasts we've had in all of mexico, but it included our plate of our choosing, plus
sweet bread, plus coffee, and fruit, all for 35 pesos. Less than two dollars. So we really missed
these prices of non-touristy mexico. Maddie, why don't you tell me how much you love mosquitoes?
So much. It's my favorite bird. I'm just kidding. [Laughs] Yeah that's another thing that we really really
despised about the riviera maya area - are the mosquitoes. Especially like after a nice long
hot day where you sweat your booty off. In the evening when it starts to cool off, you want to
go outside and go for a walk or whatever, that's when all the mosquitoes come out in swarms. And
i am personally a mosquito magnet so that's kind of not the greatest for me. Not only is
it annoying that you've got itchy bites all over you but then you also have the concern of dengue.
Dengue is a horrible thing that you can catch from mosquitoes and there's really no treatment
for it you just have to suffer it out until you get better. I thank the heavens that
i did not get dengue in our time there but that definitely makes me not want to go back and live
and risk getting it. Something else that comes with a place whose economy is based on tourism
is tourist traps, scams, and people looking at you like you're just a walking checkbook.
That was kind of something we felt like we always dealt with no matter what city we were in,
less so in puerto morelos than more popular cities like tulum and playa del carmen, but it was still
there and that's really really annoying where you constantly have to feel like you're on guard.
And i don't think it would be quite so bad if you were there on vacation but since we were living
there it's just something that was happening all the time, so much so that we actually made a
couple videos on scams. So if you're planning to come to this area cancun, puerto morelos, Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, Isla Mujeres,
any of those places, we're gonna link that video on the end screen so that you can prepare yourself
before you come so you can have a more stress-free, scam-free vacation. Please let us know what you
thought about our 10-minute tangerine tuesday in the comments below. And don't forget to subscribe
to our channel if you want to see more videos just like this one more thing before you go
Gong that bell! So you will be the first to be notified whenever we release a
new video and we will see you on saturday morning.