# Smaller towns?



## ashtin (Mar 31, 2013)

Hi! I'm looking at moving to Quintana Roo after I finish my bachelor's degree, and I was curious about if there are any nice, smaller towns in Quintana Roo. I love Cancun but I don't think I could live in a city quite as big as that. I was looking at Isla Mujeres, does anybody live there?


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

ashtin said:


> Hi! I'm looking at moving to Quintana Roo after I finish my bachelor's degree, and I was curious about if there are any nice, smaller towns in Quintana Roo. I love Cancun but I don't think I could live in a city quite as big as that. I was looking at Isla Mujeres, does anybody live there?


The Mexican immigration regulations changed at the end of 2012. Have you reviewed the regs to determine if you will be able to meet the residency visa requirements? And, how do you expect to support yourself financially? Thanks.


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## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

Longford said:


> The Mexican immigration regulations changed at the end of 2012. Have you reviewed the regs to determine if you will be able to meet the residency visa requirements? And, how do you expect to support yourself financially? Thanks.


Mr. Longford, why would ask that type of a question? You do not know if this indvidual has anything lined up, is independently wealthy or might want to just stay for six months to start. It is a shame to discourage someone wanting to travel and brighten their horizons at such a young age. All this person wants to know is if anyone lives in the area he or she mentioned and what they thought about it. Dad always told me that traveling opens doors in your mind that you never thought existed.

I like Merida. Smaller than Cancun and much more rich in cultural.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

"I like Merida. Smaller than Cancun and much more rich in cultural."

Cancun= 628,306 
Merida = 970,377 

as of 2010 census

The OP could check out Puerto Morelos, Progresso, Laguna Bacalar or Villadolid......and yes people do live on Isla Mujeres........


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## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

chicois8 said:


> "I like Merida. Smaller than Cancun and much more rich in cultural."
> 
> Cancun= 628,306
> Merida = 970,377
> ...


I have been on this forum less than 24 hours and I am finding out that people love to discredit others. Many comments are refreshing, but others force the reader to think twice about making any comments.

I should have said it is smaller building wise. There are not the high rise hotels and restaurants that attract immature youngsters that only want to drink and then find someone of the opposite sex or same sex to sleep with. Are those figures the metropolitan area or outlying areas as well. Since Cancun is bordered by water on one side it would have far less towns surrounding it. I certaintly never felt the traffic as bad in Merida as I did in Cancun and Cancun is far, far louder than Merida. My apologies to both the author of the thread and to chicois8 if I mislead anyone. Just the cultural advantages of living in Merida out weigh anything Cancun has to offer.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

PanamaJack said:


> I have been on this forum less than 24 hours and I am finding out that people love to discredit others. Many comments are refreshing, but others force the reader to think twice about making any comments.
> 
> I should have said it is smaller building wise. There are not the high rise hotels and restaurants that attract immature youngsters that only want to drink and then find someone of the opposite sex or same sex to sleep with. Are those figures the metropolitan area or outlying areas as well. Since Cancun is bordered by water on one side it would have far less towns surrounding it. I certaintly never felt the traffic as bad in Merida as I did in Cancun and Cancun is far, far louder than Merida. My apologies to both the author of the thread and to chicois8 if I mislead anyone. Just the cultural advantages of living in Merida out weigh anything Cancun has to offer.


Some of us, indeed, are sticklers for accuracy. Don't take it personally. I haven't been to Cancun, the Cancun airport was close enough for me. But I did spend several days in Merida once. I liked it there and can easily believe that it is culturally and esthetically superior to Cancun.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

He's 18 and just starting at the university. Things can change between now and when he is graduated. Perhaps a semester abroad will give him a broader insight into life in Mexico and the Yucatan.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> Some of us, indeed, are sticklers for accuracy. Don't take it personally. I haven't been to Cancun, the Cancun airport was close enough for me. But I did spend several days in Merida once. I liked it there and can easily believe that it is culturally and esthetically superior to Cancun.


I've never been to Cancun, but I did once spend a wonderful week in Mérida while on vacation. It's a city with a proud history going back to 1542 and enjoys a vibrant cultural life in the present. I might consider living there but for the hot and humid weather it has most of the year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mérida,_Yucatán#Climate


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## Lorij (Jul 8, 2012)

If you want to live near the beach I suggest some of the ones in Oaxaca. Puerto Angel, Puerto Escondido, Huatulco and Zipolite are beautiful!


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## ashtin (Mar 31, 2013)

I'll definitely look into Merida and some of the other places mentioned. Living near the beach is not a necessity, but I definitely want to live near Cancun, as that is the only place in Mexico in which I have friends, and it would be nice to not be starting out alone. I like Cancun a lot for a vacation, but I think the noise and the pace of things there would drive me crazy after about a month. I am planning on studying abroad for a semester so that I get more of an experience of actually living in Mexico vs. staying for a vacation. Who knows? I might change my mind.

Also, I have looked at the new immigration regulations. But it will be years before I am at the point at which I have to worry too much about permanent residency.

Thank you all for your help! Also, not that it's important, I'm female, not male. I understand that my name is misleading.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

ashtin said:


> Also, I have looked at the new immigration regulations. But it will be years before I am at the point at which I have to worry too much about permanent residency.


I sense you've misunderstood the immigration regulations. They pertain to everyone, in varying categories.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Longford said:


> I sense you've misunderstood the immigration regulations. They pertain to everyone, in varying categories.


Ashtin wasn't referring to the immigration regulations in general, just permanent residency.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Just a detail but Merida is not in Quintana Roo and the OP wanted a small town in Quintana Roo


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> Just a detail but Merida is not in Quintana Roo and the OP wanted a small town in Quintana Roo


Here's a map of the Yucatan Peninsula: 

http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/maps/jpg-2006/487303-mp0401yucpen.jpg


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Isla Verde said:


> Ashtin wasn't referring to the immigration regulations in general, just permanent residency.


Thanks. :ranger:


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## geaaronson (Apr 4, 2013)

Actually here in Valladolid there is a language school that is looking to hire an English teacher for about 12 hours a week. They do want someone who speaks Spanish as the students will be primary school children.

The pay is a miserable 40 pesos, and includes saturday work, but this is not the best time to be looking for work.


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## geaaronson (Apr 4, 2013)

I live in the yucatan, Valladolid and have travelled extensively throughout the area. There is a lot to be said for it which is why I want to stay here for life. Isla Mujeres is delightful and a boat ride away from Cancun, offering the diversions there without the hassles. I´ve heard good things about living there on the island from ex students and I have visited it thrice. Puerto Morales is also a possibility. Bacalor is the rave at the present as I am hearing the swims there are refreshing. It´s a lagoon/cenote with great fresh water beaches.
Chetumal is the pits. I was there last week for the first time and was disappointed. It has a great underrated Mayan cultural museum but short on good restaurants or internet cafes. It´s highly disappointing as a state capital but might be a good place to hang ones hat as it is so close to scuba diving areas of Belize without having to pay the high rents in that country.
Isla Holbox is a very undeveloped Isla Mujeres, the latter coming close to tourist saturation. If you plan to stay for a long time, I wouldn´t invest my residence in Isla M. In five years it will be another Acapulco.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Anyone familiar with the Yucatan Peninsula knows that, within Mexico, there are three political jurisdictions that comprise the peninsula. Campeche State, Yuacatan State and Quintana Roo. The southern tip of the peninsula actually ends in a place known as Cayo Amergris in Belize, the old British Honduras. What is known by the Brits and Belizians of today as Ambergris Cay is actually the final extension of the Yucatan Peninsula rendered an island by an artificial canal from Chetumal Bay to the Caribbean built by the Maya many years ago in prehispanic times for trading access to the Caribbean long before there was a Mexico or a British Honduras. The southern tip of the peninsula rhat extends into Belize is separated from the Belizian mainland by the Bay of Chetumal and that artificial canal. 

Now, does the OP want to know what small towns are attractive as places to live in Mexico on the Yccatan Peninsula or is the OP interested alternatively in geopolitical nitpicking among those attempting to appear more knowledgable than others responding hereabouts. Is the OP interested in seaside living or living back in the infamous, hot and humid scrub forest that compises most of the peninsula. A land os squalid villages inhabiled by the desperately poor who are assured to exhibit no interest in your presence as a foreign, exotic newcomer with no serious business to attend to there.

The reason that Chetumal is the capital of the Quintana Roo territory only designated a state fairly recently is because until the Mexican government decided to create a resort at Cancun in the 1970s, nobody but the most poverty stricken and irrascable indigenous people lived there anywhere except Chetumal and the insurrectionist indigenous town of Filipe Carrillo Puerto and all the indigenous folks living anywhere in the territory were of no interest to the central govenrment in Mexico City or the quasi colonial powers in Yucatan State. 

Existence without family precedent or political or economic influence in rural areas of the pennsula is akin to premature death whether on the beach or out in the scrub forests. Do not do it.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=geaaronson;1115872]I live in the yucatan, Valladolid and have travelled extensively throughout the area. There is a lot to be said for it which is why I want to stay here for life. Isla Mujeres is delightful and a boat ride away from Cancun, offering the diversions there without the hassles. I´ve heard good things about living there on the island from ex students and I have visited it thrice. Puerto Morales is also a possibility. Bacalor is the rave at the present as I am hearing the swims there are refreshing. It´s a lagoon/cenote with great fresh water beaches.
Chetumal is the pits. I was there last week for the first time and was disappointed...._

I cannot think of more disparate communities than Valladolid, Yucatan and Puerto Morales or Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo. Not that there is anything wrong with the inland colonial city of Valladolid or the beachside communities of Puerto Morales or the island of Isla Mujeres but these are not similar lifestyles. As for Bacalar, I was there once several years ago in the then quest to perhaps move there and, despite the beautiful, cenote fed lake, I could not wait to get out of there. 

Be careful where you settle in the flat, hot and sultry land of pencil thin scrub pines and rough limestone terrain of the Yucatan. This land is not suitable for all immigrants.


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## baregil (Apr 7, 2013)

I live in the Yucatan peninsula inland, in a small safe and strategically placed Maya town, where price of property in unbelievably inexpensive. I bought land there and now have a farm, where I grow my fresh produce and raise farm animals. I am mere 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Cancun airport.
The area surrounding Cancun and the so called Riviera Maya is very expensive and not safe and you don't want to live there unless you are looking for the spring break life style: drunkenness, wild sex and drugs.
[Deleted]


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

baregil said:


> The area surrounding Cancun and the so called Riviera Maya is ... not safe and you don't want to live there unless you are looking for the spring break life style: drunkenness, wild sex and drugs.


The above comments strike me as more than a simple exaggeration. But I'm willing to be educated on the points raised. Some substantiation?


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## baregil (Apr 7, 2013)

What seems an exaggeration to you? If you have specific questions, I am willing to give you specific answers with data and information.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Ashtin, the young woman who started this thread, has told us that she wants to live near Cancún because she has some good friends there. I'm sure that she would be interested in knowing some details about "the spring break life style: drunkenness, wild sex and drugs" that baregil, our newest poster, assures us characterizes life in Cancún.


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## geaaronson (Apr 4, 2013)

Spring break is like spring break wherever. As long as you avoid the revellers and their foolishness, you won´t have to suffer their idiocy. If you are going to be teaching to foot the bills, remember that you also have a vacation during semana santa, which I believe is the same week as spring break and at that time you can go and absent yourself from Cancun on a nice little exploratory tourist package. My friends in Merida hate CARNIVAL as the city is tied up for days on end and they come to Valladolid, Bacalor, and other points where they can visit friends and move about town without any hindrance.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

baregil said:


> What seems an exaggeration to you? If you have specific questions, I am willing to give you specific answers with data and information.


You made the statement and have read the follow-up questions ... and now, it's time for you to substantiate your allegations. That's how I see it.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Looks like longford is looking for an another argument...


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chicois8 said:


> Looks like longford is looking for an another argument...


Nothing wrong with civilized, well-reasoned arguments . . .


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

baregil said:


> What seems an exaggeration to you? If you have specific questions, I am willing to give you specific answers with data and information.


Could you share your data on the "wild sex?" I've experienced the "no sex", and am curious about this "Spring Break lifestyle" I hear so much about.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Wait! Wait! Did someone mention wild sex and drugs? I'm packing my bags right now.


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## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

joaquinx said:


> Wait! Wait! Did someone mention wild sex and drugs? I'm packing my bags right now.


Going or leaving?


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

conklinwh said:


> Going or leaving?



I'm so old, I forgot the reason for packing.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

joaquinx said:


> I'm so old, I forgot the reason for packing.


I'm so old I thought you sad "parking"


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

sparks said:


> I'm so old I thought you sad "parking"


My parking is pretty sad too.


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

There are students on spring break who go to places far from home in order to participate in "wild sex" and drunkenness.

There are also students on spring break (which, in the US, anyway, has nothing to do with Easter) who want a break from studying, but not by risking arrest/pregnancy/STDs/rape and or other assorted unhappy outcomes. They want fun, not criminal behavior.

While there are certainly downsides to living in an area where spring breakers traditionally come, there are also reasons they come there--beautiful beaches and mild weather in the middle of March are among the most obvious.

My daughter in law grew up about an hour's drive from South Padre Island in TX. Her mom told me that the locals were happy to leave it to the college kids during spring break. Used the the nearly bathtub warm temperatures of the water during the summer, they couldn't understand why all those northern kids would want to swim when it was "cold", anyway.

I agree with Isla and Longford, all jokes about the desirability of wild sex aside. If one make a provocative statement about a place or a person, one ought to back it up with, at least, a couple of anecdotes, if not real data.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

mickisue1 said:


> There are students on spring break who go to places far from home in order to participate in "wild sex" and drunkenness.
> 
> There are also students on spring break (which, in the US, anyway, has nothing to do with Easter) who want a break from studying, but not by risking arrest/pregnancy/STDs/rape and or other assorted unhappy outcomes. They want fun, not criminal behavior.
> 
> ...


If some people post derogatory statements about our youth they need to rethink what their problem is. 

By taking samplings of things in this way and coming to the conclusion ALL youth are doing this leds to prejudicial thinking not rational thinking on their part and should be seen for what it is. IMO Alan


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Exactly, Alan.

One of my first cousins once removed (translation: cousin's son. Blame my mom and her relationship accuracy fetish) has been married for, let's see, 15? 20? years to the woman he met his senior year of high school on spring break in TX. They met in line for the plane home. Amazingly, neither had been a wild thing, just soaked up the sun while there was still snow on the ground here in MN.

Both honor students at different area Catholic high schools. Both ready to attend college, which they did, and now are living in CO, where he's an aeronautical engineer, and she is temporarily off the job market, being a SAHM.


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## MitaMs (Feb 7, 2013)

He doesn't even live here, he's from Chicago.


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## Yellow Rose (Mar 5, 2013)

ASHTIN -- Don't be discouraged!!! you are right to want to experience something different for at least a semester. Merida is beautiful and the capital of the State of Yucatan, so you will find everything there and it is safe, but it is a good 3 hr by car to Cancun. For a smaller town atmosphere try Progreso. Isla Mujeres is a beautiful place, but being an island you will have to rely on the ferry to get across to the mainland to visit your friends in Cancun. If there is bad weather ferry service is cancelled. 

The Riviera Maya (Playa del Carmen) also has a small town atmosphere and is closer to Cancun, but it's definitely a tourist center. Have you thought about checking into living with a Mexican family for a full cultural immersion and experience? I know there are sites for exchange students you can check. Just a thought. 

Don't give up, experience life at its fullest and I can tell you by my own experience that you can learn a lot more by traveling than by reading a book or watching a program about all the wonderful places the world has to offer. 

Go for it girl!


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