hi everyone and welcome to september the 13th 2021 i hope you're all doing well wherever you
are in the world in case you didn't know already i am now in belgrade in serbia
once again for about the fourth time what is this mexico and today is a sit-down talking video
before we get started take a moment to listen silence right there are no mexidogs attacking me
there are no motorbikes going past at ridiculously unreasonable volumes there are no unexplained gas
explosions in apartments above me and more than anything there is definitely not any
'We buy mattresses' that's because yeah i'm not in mexico anymore i left a month ago actually
a month ago today crazy time flies when you're lying in bed watching cat videos
anyway as i said it's a sit-down talking video with some shots over the top i did a video many
moons ago or more accurately four months ago in durango in northern mexico called first
impressions of northern mexico and yes you guessed it today is final impressions of northern mexico
obviously there are going to be some things i'm going to refer to that i mentioned in that video
so you can check out the original video somewhere up above and yes i look a bit like commander riker
from starter at the next generation now brilliant so on that note let's get going
of course the point in this video is to encourage you to consider northern mexico as a possible
travel destination for the future rather than only considering areas in the south or beach locations
areas with a lot of colonial architecture because there is a lot more to mexico than that i know i'm
a little bit biased having spent four months there but i really do think northern mexico
has an immense amount to offer and i'm going to go through seven points which will hopefully help you
in learning more about northern mexico i'm going to start off by telling a bit of a story about
why i went to northern mexico in the first place let's go back to april 2021 i was in Iztapalapa
in mexico city i was about four months into a five-month youtube break which by the way was the
best thing i ever did and i went to guanajuato or WANNAH-WAH-TO as an expat gringo would say i don't
know why i'm taking the piss i can't pronounce it either and i went to guanajuato because i
wanted to go somewhere that i was comfortable with somewhere that i'd been before i'd been
there twice before and i felt like it would just be an easy option you know get some work done
easy life lovely but about two weeks into it i was sitting on my step this is why this story is
called the guanajuato step storyline i was sitting there right having my cafe ole in the morning
which is like a morning ritual go to Oxxo drink it have a [ __ ] cigarette and i suddenly realized i
had an epiphany right that i was miserable and i couldn't work out why but then very quickly i did
realize why it's because i was in a place that i didn't find interesting challenging in terms of
travel and coming out of my comfort zone so that's exactly what i decided i needed to do i got on a
bus via zacatecas to durango northern mexico had always been on my list since like day one right
but i never felt i was in the right position to do it in terms of my mexico experience if you know
what i mean so off i went off to durango now over the course of the next four months i spent that
time in durango coahuila sinaloa and chihuahua yes chihuahua and coahuila were really only one city
but durango and sinaloa i explored much more in detail which brings me on to my first point
see what i did there point number one is don't underestimate the size of the states in northern
mexico obviously i didn't go to northern mexico thinking oh i can just pop down the
road and i'll be in another state i knew they were ginormous i knew that travel distances would be
absolutely immense and they were but i've got to say i think they were larger than i did anticipate
in terms of time particularly yes you can travel to places on buses of course wonderful mexican
buses going between city to city and smaller buses as well local urban suburban buses that you can
use to get to small towns and pueblo mexico's the time was ridiculous you know i'd have to take a
whole day out to get a bus if you know what i mean um so if you are thinking of going to northern
mexico just make sure you plan in terms of your time actually maybe double the amount of time that
you think you're gonna need one thing i would say an amazing tip but not really this isn't exactly
an invaluable mind-blowing tip but just rent a car i couldn't because my license was in poland it's a
long story of course if you're from a state like texas or something new mexico you can drive into
mexico probably i don't know how that works and use your own car but it will just make your life
so much easier particularly if you want to visit places that are much more off the beaten track
for example puente de ojuela mapimi mexiquillo where else lots of other places i went to that
proved to be incredibly difficult it was like a ridiculous conundrum every time around how i was
going to get to these places if you haven't got a car think outside the box you know be prepared to
hitchhike be prepared to speak to ransoms so you going in that direction do you mind if i jump in
yeah that's fine amigo look at facebook as much as i hate facebook and i haven't used it since
like 2012 i mean who does now except like karen's that complaining walmart i found a guy on there
that was a taxi driver in um where was he in tony on that was it and he took me to puente de ojuela
and if it wasn't for him i wouldn't have been able to film that video so you do have to think outside
the box yeah you might have to risk your safety at times jumping into backs of cars and stuff but if
you're happy to do that and i am then that's great just don't walk 17 kilometers to pizzeria de los
arcos the less said about that the better point number two is a point i mentioned in the first
video about the fact that there just isn't any useful information online about northern mexico
i think as i went along i realized that there actually kind of was some information but the
problem is a lot of that information details the key destinations or the key attractions that you
can see in places northern mexico is one of those areas of the world where the only way of knowing
things is by speaking to locals because those locals are the only ones that are going to know
those things that's why it was such a challenge that's why it was tough and difficult at times but
i'm glad that i kind of in the end kind of developed relationships with people and was
able to find some really hidden gems in certain places the thing i will say i think thank you
to all of you who have taken the time to leave comments in all of these mexico videos we've got
this incredible resource now so you can just go into any of my old videos read the comments and
you've got an endless list of suggestions and recommendations from locals so that's bloody
brilliant onto the third point which could be incredibly controversial the food is the best
in mexico and i can already hear the keyboards going it's not the best oaxaca is the best
whatever i've been to 20 states right in mexico i haven't just been to cancun and obviously i've
eaten food in all of those so i have some degree of experience and i've got to say in my experience
my opinion northern mexican food is the best obviously taste in anything
is subjective we're all entitled to our opinions karen's um but for me i felt northern mexican food
was the best because it just had this extra degree of flavour it was so flavoursome and
it's i think with food you can have food that's like yeah it's great it's lovely but then you can
have orgasm food as i'm calling it um that food that kind of gives you that oh my actual jesus
what just happened feeling and even places that you might not think would be amazing like that
mercado i went to in gomez palacio that had the gorditas discada oh my god or is it i never
remember i know some people said oh they're not the best gorditas but as i said best is subjective
i enjoyed them and that's the main thing don't let people tell you like oh you must go to this
food place because it's the best make up your own mind we all have different tastes you know
there are other lots of other lots of there are other great dishes in northern mexico of course
launches i know there are tortas elsewhere in mexico but french bread um hello that's the best
bread ever and it's what's the word i can't think of it it comes from originates in tony on right
and it's just magical you have mulitas in durango you have oh there's just so much and i could go on
forever about food in northern mexico the thing i will say about food is arena flour tortillas
does anyone watch mexican moms on i think it's a facebook thing where there's these two women
um i think they might live in the u.s but they'd like try out food from certain places and they did
one i think it was a taco bell one and one of the ladies was saying oh flour tortillas that's not
mexican clearly she was from the south but there is the tortilla line which i kind of christened
did that did that exist already or did i make it up i don't know it's kind of between durango and
sinaloa i would say anything south is corn but anything north is flour and i must admit i'm
not the biggest fan of flour tortillas because they kind of remind me of you know when you go
to a mexican restaurant in some random country but it's not mexican it's tex-mex fajitas chimichangas
what the [ __ ] are they pardon my french and it just gives me that feeling of lower quality and
i read in the comments of this video that a lot of people were angry that she said
that well flower tortillas aren't mexican but the thing is apparently the reason they aren't
eaten a lot in the north is because corn doesn't grow well in deserts mind blown right so you know
flower tortillas as much as i'm not keen on them they are equally part of mexican cuisine as corn
tortillas so don't let anyone tell you otherwise hunsokay i've decided to put points four and five
together into one and that is no history nothing to do bollocks there is an incredible amount of
history in northern mexico just because an area of mexico doesn't have those houses daubed with
bright colors colonial history or aztec and mayan ruins or sexy beach resorts doesn't mean that it's
any less than anywhere else northern mexico has a crazy history there was a story arc stretching
from concordia to matamoros the whole french thing i didn't know anything about the french invasion
of sinaloa and northern mexico but i did gradually as i went along there were murals in concordia
that were telling the story of some of it all the way up to matamoros where there was that
cave where benito juarez hid the national archives during that attempted invasion that didn't really
work out napoleon habsburg someone i can't remember now watch the old videos also in today
on you know jorge hola amigo the guy who showed me around the theater told me more information
about northern mexico than i could ever learn from anyone or anything anywhere in such a short time
arab history chinese history there's a mosque there's a temple you name it it's insane and when
we think about durango things to do and i'll use that as an example because i spent the most time
there you've got puente de ojuela as i mentioned before the bridge with the mine you've got
mexiquillo which was completely shocking i was shocked as an expat gringo traveling in mexico
when really they're just sitting in one place you had those rock formations it was like another
planet you had millions of different landscapes in such a small area you had nom de dios el saltito
the cancun place eating scorpions the list goes on i won't mention the pizza again point number six
is the people and i know i've banged on about this before but it's true the people in northern mexico
are my kind of people they're straightforward maybe they're all aries maybe everyone has aries
as their zodiac sign they're straightforward they don't take no [ __ ] you know people walk
past you and don't say anything it was like a relief that i didn't have to do that anymore
one thing i think about northern mexican people is that even in terms of among mexico
they're misunderstood people from the north or maybe seen as lesser than people from the south
this is definitely getting controversial and it's similar in the uk you know someone from the south
like me will look down on people from the north for no good reason and i think it's the same in
mexico when it comes to mexico i do sometimes feel as though there's a level of insecurity because
you know people think that oh mexico is so hard done by it's had a difficult past it's seen as
negative it's seen as dangerous and all that and as a result of that i think anyone that goes to
mexico particularly in terms of youtube feels like they need to be overly positive all the time and
that any ounce of negativity will be chastised and you'll be crucified for your honest opinion but i
feel like people in northern mexico don't give a [ __ ] about that they're like just be honest that's
what we're like whereas people in the south seem to be so protective over this polishing a turd
lark you know the whole painting of buildings to make areas look nicer than they actually are okay
my last point point number seven is about safety in mexico those dreaded three words you might
remember in the first durango video i specifically said that i wasn't going to talk about
safety in mexico ever again and i don't think i did until now right because i see personally
safety as a non-issue safety is not about the city or country you're in generally safety is about you
your behavior it's your responsibility to look after yourself wherever you are in the world it's
not the country's responsibility people say to me oh london must be so safe but if i'm gonna walk
down a dark alleyway at one o'clock in the morning with a rolex watch on display and i walk past a
gang of junkies i'm gonna get stabbed that rolex is going to get robbed and it's going to be sold
for crack in a millisecond it doesn't matter where you are in the world it's about your behavior and
your common sense however there is something that has come up in a lot of comments recently which
is an amazing point extremely valid i absolutely welcome these points from women i'm not female
despite some people thinking i am a transsexual um i have a penis by the way a real one
yeah obviously i can't comment on that because i'm not female and i wouldn't want to even try
to do that because you know mansplaining what do i know i need a woman here to talk to me about
their experiences of safety in mexico maybe i'll do something like that in the future but
of course for me it's not so much of an issue i can walk down a street anywhere and pretty much
know that i'll be fine but obviously for a woman it's more than likely going to be different there
are many more risks for a woman and i think that's definitely something worth considering one reason
i probably haven't spoken about it before is that pretty much since i started this channel five
years ago my audience has been predominantly male i think it's about 75 male where are you ladies
hello hans oh i just spat all over the table yeah so safety in northern mexico is a non-issue for me
but it might not be for you you know we have different risk tolerances that's what someone said
in a comment and i thought that was great in two words we all have a different tolerance to risk
and that's true but i never felt unsafe in northern mexico i think the fact that
i can kind of get by with spanish helped the fact that i was male the fact that i had i was gonna
say dark hair i had red hair for the entire time in mexico you know i didn't completely look like
someone from outer mongolia you know what i mean so um yeah safety just think about it
what does safety mean to you what is your risk tolerance when it comes to safety i
didn't find northern mexico any more dangerous than anywhere else in the south
lovely now overall my time in northern mexico was brilliant it was probably my most valuable
experience i've had in mexico today in like seven trips now i've been there the purpose
of the videos i made this year kind of half intentionally half unintentionally were all
about showing real life in mexico the hard-working nature of 100 99% of mexico because i'm sure there
are some that are not like that you know harsh conditions hot weather you know doing whatever it
takes to get by in life and i think these videos showed that and this is difficult for me to say
but i have imposter syndrome as probably all of us do you know everything is bad nothing
is ever good enough but i'm quite proud of the videos i made this year yes i just said that
um and i'm really glad i did because it was a valuable experience and i want to leave you with
a wonderful comment which sums up everything in this video i should have said it at the beginning
i'll put it on the screen and i'll read it out i really appreciate that you have visited the north
in general we are an under-flown region the centralism of the republic makes people believe
in the collective imagery that we northerners have no cultural value or history just because
we do not have hundreds of dancers with costumes of thousands of colors or we do
not have millions of indigenous customs we are as mexican as those from the south and we have
nothing to do with the aztecs nor do we want to we have our customs our way of doing things
our accent and of course interesting places and nature despite the fact that they are
not tropical beaches that everyone by force relates to mexico i'll leave that with you that
completely sums up everything i replied to that comment and said there's nothing else i could add
it sums it up completely i've got no more words to that it makes me quite emotional that comment
that's northern mexico more than likely i will be back in mexico in 2022 i hope this chair hasn't
been squeaking throughout that's gonna really annoy everyone thanks for watching this series
of course coming up will be videos from serbia and beyond um i'm going to do an update video
probably that'll be up next right so uh see you soon thanks for watching i'll catch you later