Culture Shock

Okay, so I’ve been a little MIA. Here are my excuses: had a little Montezuma’s Revenge; moved to Valladolid; moved to Merida and then spent a few days getting familiar enough with the area to find food supplies.

We spent two days wandering Valladolid; which is a city of about 60,000 people. Our hotel was on the central square. For folks who may not know, all towns and cities we’ve visited so far are laid out in a circle. They create a public square in the middle of the urban center (even Ek’ Balam a village of 400) as a park and all roads lead away from that park or around that park. If you Google Map a Yucatan city, it looks like a spider web.

Morning view in Valladolid

Keep in mind that I’m walking around with Canadian eyes, so what I notice is what’s different from my experience as a Canadian in Canada. Here in Mexico, I’m really noticing how many shops are dedicated to one thing. We found grocery stores, but they don’t sell produce. Produce is at the market, so is meat.

In among the shops, you also find vendors selling a few items of fresh fruit and vegetables; sometimes in an alcove shop and sometimes from an upturned crate on the sidewalk.

Sidewalks! Just this week I checked in on the Calgary Herald and saw an article about how only 25% of Canadians are happy with the urban services provided by government. The other 75% should come check out the sidewalks in Mexico.

This is one of the areas where I’m experiencing a pretty high degree of culture shock. First of all, I just spent most of my time over the past 15 years living in a Canadian village of 475 people.  It was extremely quiet with prairie wide vistas and fresh, breezy air.

In both Valladolid and Merida, the streets are narrow, the sidewalks unpredictable and the traffic fast. One misstep could cost you your life and that is not an exaggeration in the slightest. It is not always so, but at times it is so true that a person naturally gravitates toward the inside edge against the buildings at the sound of approaching cars.

During rush hours, the pedestrian traffic is as thick as the vehicle traffic. I feel a little awkward because I’m sure there is some system for the locals to make sure they are not pushing each other into that traffic or inadvertently holding up the flow. I haven’t quite got the system yet, but we just try not to go into the heavy traffic zones during those times.

Merida is the capital of the Yucatan province and a city of almost a million people - all of whom seem to be downtown Friday night.  http://yucatantoday.com/en/topics/merida

It’s pretty hard to miss the police presence in urban Yucatan. In Cancun, we saw police pickup trucks with officers standing in the box behind sturdy guard rails with mounted long guns. I don’t know enough of about guns to tell what kind. In all three cities we’ve seen police everywhere. Sometimes it looks like they’re just driving around with lights flashing to say, “We’re here.” In a few parks, I’ve seen little kiosks where an officer sits looking connected to a network and available to the public. Officers are everywhere on the streets. They direct traffic at busy intersections, stand on street corners and walk through crowds. Maybe this is why Merida is a globally acknowledged safe city and Yucatan ranks very high as a crime free region.

I’ve also noticed that they take free speech pretty seriously down here too. While having dinner the other night, a marching band went by the restaurant and stopped beside a park on the road. A woman climbed into the back of the pickup truck with a microphone and began talking. Around her and the truck was the band of school kids.

Not long after, a police car showed up and an officer got out. He left his car lights flashing in the lane the pickup truck was blocking and began directing traffic around the obstruction on the roadway. They were all still there when we left. I so wish I spoke Spanish at times like that.

This is one of our neighbours - visits in the afternoon.