- (Jordan) Hello Tangerines,
from the very breezy Queretaro, Mexico.
- (Maddie) This is our very first time in the city.
We're so excited to make a vlog here soon
but today we're going to be telling you things
that nobody told you about Mexico.
- The first thing nobody told you
about Mexico is that the country is so large.
And so mountainous that if you flattened out the country
it would be the size of Asia.
- The next thing is the capital of Mexico is Mexico city.
That's no secret to most people
but the fun fact here, well, maybe it's not a fun fact
but Mexico city is sinking at a rate of 10 inches per year.
It used to be the seventh highest capital city in the world.
And now it has literally sunk down to be the eighth.
- Something else they didn't tell you about Mexico,
is there's a surprising amount of wealth here.
There's actually 173,000 millionaires living in Mexico.
And by that metric
it makes it the 25th richest country in the world.
That's ahead of countries like Finland, Israel
the United Arab Emirates.
- I'll be honest though.
I find that a little bit hard to believe
especially the United Arab Emirates one
because I'm constantly getting emails
from princes and royalty or wealthy people there
wanting to share their riches with me.
So I just don't understand, but you know, we'll
we'll go with the data on this one.
- Like the United States of America,
in Mexico, it's Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
or which translates to the United States of Mexico
and the country is comprised of about 30 different States.
It's kind of funny that we've told people, Oh yeah
we live in Quintana Roo and there'll be like,
Oh, I've never heard of that.
I'd be like, Oh yeah, it's a
it's a small town that we're living in
halfway between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.
And they're like, Oh, I go to Cancun every year
but they've never heard of the state.
- So you see this here, what I'm holding,
this is a can of worms
and I will be opening it with this next one.
So let me lay it out for you.
Like Jordan just said in Mexico
it's Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
People are called Mexicans or Mexicanos.
In the US, Its the United States of America.
So it makes sense to call yourself American, right?
Wrong, you'll piss off a lot of Mexicans and a lot
of Latinos for that matter to call yourself American.
Because by their argument, there's North America
Central America, South America, all Americans.
I maintain that I'm from the United States of America
and in English the only word we have for ourselves
is American but you will definitely get the arguments
go and get the engines rubbing.
If you call yourself American in Mexico
it's like a whole thing.
So with all that said, hi, my name is Maddie.
I'm an American.
I'll see you in the comments section, fight me.
- Something else they didn't tell you about Mexico is
that there are over a million Americans living here.
If you're one of those that are thinking
about moving to Mexico, one of the best things you can do
for yourself is to start learning Spanish.
I know it's a really overwhelming thought to
learn another language, but you just start with the basics.
And then you learn from there.
Our favorite course to learn Spanish
is called Rocket Languages.
And right now this weekend, they're running a great sale.
It's 60% off, but only for the first thousand courses sold.
So if you're interested in that head on over
to TangerineSpanish.com, that's our affiliate link.
And it will take you right there.
Again, TangerineSpanish.com
- By the way, this gorgeous tree that was right behind
Jordan the whole time is called a Jacaranda.
They're in bloom right now in Queretaro and Oh my gosh.
So pretty, it's just lilacy purple all over the city.
Something else nobody told you about Mexico
is that within the confines of the country
you can transport anything and everything on a motorcycle.
And for many Mexicans, this does seem
like they take it as a personal challenge.
We've seen like six people, an entire family
on a motorcycle where it looks like the toddlers
the one driving, somebody shared a picture of
with us that had a rooster, a dog and a guy on a motorcycle.
We've seen people carrying massive, like 12 foot ladders.
They're in the center of the ladder
and they're driving the motorcycle.
It gets pretty crazy, but it seems like you're in Mexico.
You're good to go.
That's okay.
- Something else they didn't tell you about Mexico
is that it's an archeologist Wonderland.
This is the home of the Aztec and the Mayan empires.
And there are ancient ruins throughout the entire country.
- Many of which haven't even been fully
excavated, excavated.
- Or even partially.
- Or even partially, for instance
we're here in Queretaro
and there's a partially unearthed pyramid.
You can see one quarter of it just about,
and it's pretty large.
If you look across the way
there's another pretty large round hill mountain.
And we learned that even though you can't tell
and there's houses built on top of it
there's actually a pyramid below.
So the world may never get to see that one
because there's neighborhoods built on top of it
who they probably didn't even know at the time.
Another example that we saw was back in Cholula, Puebla
where we saw the pyramid there
which is the largest by volume in the world.
And it's almost completely unexcavated excavated
but that freaking word I cannot excavate it.
It's almost all but unexcavated
it hasn't been excavated.
It has only been partially excavated.
And there's actually a church built on top of it.
- Something else you probably didn't know about Mexico
is they have abundant natural resources.
For example, Mexico is one
of the largest exporters of oil and silver in the world.
It's a significant part of their economy.
- Something else you probably didn't realize about Mexico is
that there is an extreme diversity in appearance here.
And that's probably because Hollywood portrays Mexicans as
like handlebar mustache with a sombrero, riding a donkey
through the desert is tumbleweeds blow by.
But there is a crazy variety.
For instance, there's Afro Mexicans, which are about
as dark skinned as you can get.
There's a really light-skinned Mexicans, even lighter
than me.
If that's even possible
we noticed this first, when we were
in Jalisco, we were in Guadalajara at a restaurant
and there were all these white people around us.
And we were like, Oh, we picked a real gringo
restaurant here, but then we heard them speaking
fluent Spanish, come to find out there's this place
called Los Altos de Jalisco
where very, light-skinned Mexicans come from and elsewhere
in the country as well.
There's tall Mexicans there's really short Mexicans
often of Mayan descent and really everything in
between also related to the diversity and appearance.
It actually gets a little bit deeper and more complex
than that because Mexico is home to a lot
of indigenous populations.
So although the country's, the country's main language
is Spanish.
There's a lot
of these populations that speak their native language
- In our travels around Mexico.
We've actually been talking to some people
on various occasions, and then they look at us
like we have four heads not understanding what we're saying.
We're like, I could have sworn.
I said that, right?
But then we learned that since a lot
of these people don't speak Spanish, obviously
that's why we're not able to communicate with them.
- And the unfortunate truth of the matter is
because of the language barrier and other factors
indigenous communities are among some
of the most disadvantaged in the country.
This makes me personally pretty sad because some
of the most beautiful art dystonias and some
of the aspects of culture that I love the most
in Mexico actually come from these indigenous communities.
- Something else that I didn't tell you
about Mexico is there's a 16% national sales tax.
And this tax is already included in the item price.
So for example, let's say you're
at a home Depot shopping for a refrigerator
in the US there's that the refrigerator's price.
And then something like 8% tax is going to be added
on to the price of the refrigerator.
When you actually go to purchase it.
In Mexico that same refrigerator might look expensive
but that's probably
because the 16% tax is already in the price.
- The next thing that most people don't realize
until they get to Mexico is
that the Tex Mex or Mexican food that you're familiar
with probably will not exist at least
in the way that you think it will in Mexico.
For instance, I had so many chimichangas back
in the US and I think I've seen that on a menu once
in the three years we've traveled all across this country.
Something else like sour cream that was typically put
on enchiladas and nachos, another Tex Mex foods like that.
I've never tasted sour cream, there's crema
and different varieties of cheese, but not sour cream.
So there's a lot of that.
That's a little bit like this was I really ever
eating Mexican food, or also in terms of food.
You'll probably be surprised to know
that Mexican food varies regionally by state and even
by city, each place has its own unique food culture.
And we've mentioned this before
so I'm not going to get too much into it.
If you're curious what we're talking about
watch just about any other video that we've made any
of the other 300 videos
because eating Mexican food
is an important pass time of ours.
- Something else nobody told you is that pizza is one
of the most popular Mexican foods.
Or should I say one of the most popular foods for Mexicans
literally everywhere we go in Mexico, even
though the food culture is way different
in every state and every city, no matter where we go
pizza is one of the most popular foods.
- The next thing that I highly doubt anyone has told you is
that if you're driving in Mexico
and you're taking a toll road
which is recommended by the way
when they give you that proof of purchase receipt
you should definitely hold on to that, at least until you're
off that toll road, because that acts as insurance.
So if you get in an accident, somebody hits you
or something crazy happens that will cover you
while you're on that road.
We are so stoked to make an actual vlog here
in the city of Queretaro.
So if you want to see that hit that subscribe button and
(bell ringing)
and gang that bell so you'll get notified.
The next time we release a new video next Saturday
every Saturday, we release a video.
- In the meantime, on the screen here
you can see our binge-watch everything playlist
where you can watch all the videos we've ever made in Mexico
in order from the beginning.
- And we will see you next Saturday.