Getting Groceries and Running Errands in the Pueblo and Beyond.

Getting Groceries:

The fruits and vegetables, and meat found here in the pueblo is usually local, and therefore organic. Don’t be afraid of buying raw chicken or fish from someone selling it on the side of the street. It is fresh, safe, and less expensive than the supermarket. Follow your nose. If it smells bad, then there is bacteria growing and you should avoid. However, the way things are cooked here, such as deep-fried whole fish and pit barbeque chicken and pork in citrus juice and salt destroys the ‘bugs’. Yes, the stomachs of the locals are more resilient than yours for most things, but they cannot handle the Trichinosis (pork), or Salmonella (chicken) either; so most everything is safer than you probably think. For canned-food and sundries, SuperWilly’s across the street from the palacio, or Duno-Susa in Conkal near CFE is your best option, or simply take a trip to Merida and shop at the Soriana in Plaza Fiesta.

If you can’t find it in the pueblo, take colectivo to Merida and get off at Plaza Fiesta bus stop. It’s inside the periférico, but not all the way to the centro. After you see the arches that enter into the city, you can start looking. There are signs that say: FIESTA, and the shopping center is just one block off Avenida Yucatan, which is the main route into the city. There is a big fountain on the other side of the avenue with a modern-shaped ‘eagle’ extending over the lanes going back to the pueblo, and SAGARPA on your right, or just ask the bus driver for Fiesta. You can however go all the way to Centro Merida for the same bus fare cost ($16 pesos each way) and find a Supermarket there, not far from the Sitio Chicxulub at Calle 52 x 69 y 71.

Medicine:

               There is a pharmacy here in the pueblo, and a medical clinic; but if you need something more you can go to Conkal to the 24 hour pharmacy. It’s 5km by van ($8pesos) or even a mototaxi ($50) will take you. There is also a doctor that will help you fill just about any prescription for $35 pesos, but you kind of have to know what you want first. They will not usually diagnose your problems, but will take your pulse and fill out a prescription you take next door. The dentist is on the main road in the block just past the palacio, next to laundry. Closest hospital is in Merida.

Running Errands:

               Banking: There is one ATM in Chicxulub Pueblo, and one in the SuperWilly’s in Conkal across the side-street from the palacio; or you can exchange $300 US Dollars for Mexican Pesos each day at the Elektra next to Dunosusa in Conkal. They are open from 9am to 9pm. Otherwise, you can find an ATM or Casa de Cambio in Merida around the Main Plaza.

Internet: There is a USB Broadband device available for $350 pesos and about that much for 3GB inside a month so you can get 3G dialup at the property (we are still waiting for some kind of service to arrive); or you can get free wifi in the central park of Chicxulub with your own laptop; or simple visit one of the three internet cafes here for full speed service for only $10 pesos an hour, and there is much appreciated air conditioning inside. Sorry, no coffee.

Laundry: To do laundry, you can do it in a bucket here with laundry soap and hot water, followed by line drying your clothes; or you can ask the neighbor lady in the handmade house next door (who also has fresh fruit ‘paletas’ or ‘popsicles’ for 3.50 pesos); or simply take your bag of dirty clothes on the Colectivo Van to Conkal and get off in the first block after the Palacio. There on your right hand side past the pizza place is the laundry. They charge $7 pesos/kg and it takes less than hours, but they close at 6pm. If you arrive late, you can ask at the pizza place but only in an emergency.

          Eating  out: There is a better selection of restaurants the closer you get to downtown Merida, but costs certainly increase with proximity. In Chicxulub there are authentic food stands serving local cuisine at economical prices; but there are also other kitchens around town that serve meals; and never will you find any meal costing more than $50 pesos with all the trimmings and a drink. Try the wood-fire pizza place on the main road past downtown a couple blocks on your right. You can get your meal cost down to around $25 pesos if you are on a budget. In Conkal, there are is more variety when it comes to eating out. There is an excellent Chicken Rotisserie near laundry with whole chicken and sides for $85 pesos, which feeds three or four regular people; or you can frequent La Porteña, which is an Appetizer/ Beer bar on the corner behind the cathedral museum as you are headed back to Chicxulub Pueblo. Oversized forty ounce beers are served in a glass accompanied by rounds and rounds of appetizers. Here there must be food on the table at all times so they can keep their licensing costs low. So, as long as you are drinking, you are eating. They also offer a full meal of breaded pork or chicken with all the fixings for $35 pesos, though you are obliged to buy a forty!  

Weekly Schedule in the Pueblo:

There is a regular weekly schedule in the pueblo, though unexpected vendors show-up in the pueblo going around announcing their arrival to the plaza in the centro to sell their wares, with some going door to door. Every few days, the Propane Gas Truck passes through and you can always recognize it with its high tone girl voice recording singing “Flete, flete el gas!”; and Once in a while, Fruit trucks pass by announcing their fruit for sale, but you gotta catch’em though! Otherwise, most everyday Jorge the juice guy shows up around 10 or 11am with fresh juice if he knows you are there and will buy. He charges $11 pesos/ litro. Friday is Drinking Water Delivery Day and this is the best way to exchange water bottles (garrafón) for just $10 pesos, otherwise you have to go to the store and pay $22+. The regular water truck passes through everyday, but charges $45! Friday is also the first day for Cochinita Pibil in the plaza and is available through Monday. You can get Tacos or Tortas, or by the Kilo. Fridays there is also a fresh fish vendor in the centro near the mercado; Listen for moto-taxi announcements for other specialties of the local area! Saturday is the best day to go to Merida, but colectivos stop running at 9pm. If you want to stay later, it’s cheaper to rent a hotel room than pay for an actual taxi to get back to the pueblo! There is limited Colectivo Taxi Service to and from Mérida, but you can find Relleno Negro de Pavo at 28 x 19 in the morning to make for a nice Sunday meal! Tuesday there is Fresh Fruits and Vegetables @ Joe Louis’ Frutería on the Main Street near to the Palacio Municipal.

Making Conscious Choices and Accepting Consequences that May or Maya not Make Sense

               Customs and habits are very different here, and you just have to go with the flow. You are the visitor and nothing you are going to do is going to change a lifestyle that has endured thousands of years. People are inherently kind, and don’t necessarily want anything from you other than some of your time. Remember, you are an ambassador for your country, and your behavior reflects on me and how they view Americans. Don’t forget: you are different, and that’s okay! That said because you can afford to travel away from home, you also seem to portray the vision of money that is going to be spent. In Merida they realize this in and around the main plaza, but the further you get away from the city that changes quickly. Whereas there will most-likely be a ‘gringo-tax’ when shopping in tourist zones (only because you don’t know how to negotiate a better price… yet), in the pueblo this hardly exists. Prices are very economical, but service and sanitation can be a test of your will.

               While you are here in the pueblo, or anywhere else for that matter, make conscious choices! You are not in the comfort of your home even while you are within the walls of the property. Though you can let down your guard quite a bit while you are relaxing, be conscious of your surroundings and stay focused in your situation. For sure, enjoy life while you are here; just do not put yourself in a vulnerable position because you were not prepared. Daily reality is very tranquil in the pueblo, but anything can happen at any time to put a damper on the situation. Relax, sleep in a hammock for hours, but keep one eye slightly open, or at least an ear. Also, remember you are in control of your choices and must bear the responsibility of your actions and the circumstances that follow. There will be no helicopter to rescue from out of the jungle where you just fell down the face of a pyramid, and if there is they will require payment up front.

If you find yourself in trouble with the law and order, first try to talk your way out of it. Explain you are a traveler in broken Spanish, and don’t really understand the customs. If that doesn’t work, offer up a couple hundred pesos for a ‘refresco’ as a bribe to get you out of a jam. If it seems really bad, offer up a $500 peso note, undercover of course. They say that it’s better to deal with problems on the street than have to argue your case later in front of a judge or from behind bars. Even if you are not in the wrong and are faced with a police threat, they say that a $500 pesos pay-off there at the scene is better than the $5000 the judge will expect, and I'm inclined to agree; or perhaps you would prefer the $50000 you will have to pay the warden to get out of jail. If you do find yourself in handcuffs, don’t say anything more than to ask for a translator. Remember: you are guilty here until proven innocent. Act accordingly.

               Life here is raw and mostly-unforgiving for those who don’t look out for themselves, but on the other hand if you just grasp hold of the situation and squeeze it for information that you can carry away with you, those moments will surely be impressive. As you walk and talk your way around the pueblo, you are vulnerable with every step you take; but at the same time this opens you up to the potential for participating in a reality that does not come with ribbons, bows, and shelf-paper of what you may be used to living elsewhere in the world. However, this is how most of the world encounters their daily existence. There is no safety-net, and no Uncle Sam to bail you out of a jam; only the kindness of others and what you invest into that reality. You are at the mercy of a crude reality and must approach each moment more profoundly than you might in the safety of your own country, where you understand exactly what is to be expected. By coming here to Chicxulub Pueblo, you are taking a risk, but taking it will bring you face-to-face with the real world as you have probably have never seen it, expanding your concept of true life on this planet and how privileged some of us really are.

Cross-cultural Adaptation to Life in Chicxulub Pueblo

General Adaptation:

               It’s okay to screw-up, being the weird one in the crowd; you are, and it’s just part of the travel game we must play. You will probably get strange looks, but certainly it’s not racism here in the pueblo. They are just confused why you would want to be here rather than in the city; and perhaps why you have come to the pueblo. Speak Spanish to them! And if that doesn’t work and they laugh at you, don’t take it personal. You are the weird one here already. Accept the reality that you are totally different; get over it as quick as possible; and begin to enjoy the fact that you only have to be your true self.

Many people will engage you as you wander the streets of the pueblo with at least a ‘buenos días’ in the morning, while others will want to truly get to know you through conversation. You bring something new to their reality, and like most people they are curious. They hear and see so much through TV, film, and through their smart-phone devices, which presents the advancements of the Western world that they are scarcely a part of here in the rural parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. People here are certainly connected to the global community, though grandparents and older parents are out of the loop from burgeoning technology like anywhere else, though it’s just more extreme here in a pueblo that still doesn’t have cable. There are satellite TV providers that offer service at reasonable prices, even for locals; but at the same time, landline phones have mostly disappeared from the scene giving away to rampant cellular phone use making sporadic internet access a subtle form of censorship.

Getting Around Chicxulub Pueblo

Getting Around:

Every city or town is essentially laid out the same, in that all roads lead to the centro plaza and then take off in four directions from there, just like the buses. There will be road-signs on the corners directing drivers. If your destination is one of the other two directions (besides where you are coming from and where the bus is going), you will have to get off the bus and head to another corner to find another bus like a transfer, but you have to pay again as all buses run independently and are usually driver-owned.

               In the Chicxulub Pueblo hay moto- y bici-taxis that will take you anywhere for $5pesos y $2pesos mas if you want to make a stop. You can find them at the bus station in the centro, and run all of your errands for less than $20. To get picked up at Posada Chicxulub, call Wilfrido, he is our neighbor and my good friend. He knows most everybody in town and can take you there, but he doesn’t speak a word of English. Feel free to tip him. Others don’t expect tips ever, unless you want to share a slice of your pizza. Otherwise, walking or riding a bike is the preferable mode of transportation here in the pueblo. This makes your stay much more personable and puts you in direct contact with the real-life. Often, people go to the park in the main square for the very purpose of watching the people as they travel to, from, and through the pueblo.

Chicxulub Pueblo Overview:

Pueblo Overview:

First of all, ‘Un pueblo’ does not mean ‘a town’. It means: ‘a group of people living together; a people. The people in Chicxulub Pueblo are much like a tribe with several extended families whose pride is in the history of their shared cultural code, and stretches back much farther than any family story-telling will endure, bounding it together as one greater entity; a pueblo. Once in awhile, a group of foreigners will pass through the middle of the (official) congregation, but scarcely take notice of the fact that their presence is mostly obtrusive, as they never stop to greet their hosts no matter how short their stay. You, on the other hand, will be welcomed into the people slowly but surely; unless you do something unforgiveable.

Also, this is Chicxulub Pueblo and not Chicxulub Puerto! Everyone will expect that you are going to or coming from Puerto. Chicxulub Puerto is 20 kilometers north of Pueblo, sits on the Southern part of the Gulf Coast, and skirts the Port of Progreso where giant cruise ships come in once or twice a week on their way to the Caribbean-side from Florida or Texas. Here, expatriates from the US, but mostly from Canada, have purchased most of the seafront property there. You may even have to explain three or four times that you do not want to go to Chicxulub Puerto, but rather Chicxulub Pueblo. Essentially the difference is that Puerto is on the rim of the sea, and Pueblo is at the center of the crater than killed the dinosaurs 65 million-years-ago. Pueblo is also the site of a great Ceiba tree that anchors the town and its people to the past, who drinks from an ancient well that covers up the past with its central kiosk, just like it does the language of its antecedents.

Experience Yucatan Language Tours at Posada Chicxulub Pueblo, Yucatan

¡Hola Amigos! 

ExperienceYucatán.com is now offering TWO-WEEK Language Tours beginning December, 2014 upon request. Trip for Four Includes 14nights, 3meals/day, 20hrs instruction, excursions to Uxmal, Chichen Itza & several other tours are part of daily schedule: $2400 per person/double occupancy + air; All-inclusive, including airport pickup in Mérida. ($1800  for current students with ID.)

Experience Yucatan also offers language tours to Chicxulub Pueblo, Yucatán, México and beyond, for students of all ages. Tours include 7 nights lodging, two authentic meals each day, 20 hours certified language instruction, excursions to Chichen Itza, Uxmal, & Puerto Progreso, for $1200 per person/double occupancy + Air. ($800  for students with ID.) All-inclusive, including free pickup in Mérida (Cancun pickup $200 extra). Tours beginning March 15, 2015.

Pues, vengan con nosotros a La Península Yucatán para escalar pirámides, bañarse en los cenotes antiguos, conocer la cultura Yucateca, y aprender el español en México. For more information, Like our Facebook @ExperienceYucatan.com or Visit our website: www.ExperienceYucatan.com , or call Chris  directly in the US @ 541 632-4156 , or in Mexico @ cel: 9992703295

Introduction to "La Vida Tranquila en Posada Chicxulub"

¡Hola y buenos días!

     My name is Chris, and I am a Highly Qualified Second Language Teacher and licensed here in Oregon to teach Spanish at the Middle and High School. I have been teaching Spanish in traditional classrooms for the past 10 years, and have adapted my approach to a more progressive alternative for teaching Second Language, which is quite effective in the production of oral language and listening comprehension skills. 

     Through the multiple contributions to this blogspot, I intend to bring forth the intersection of language and culture as it comes to the surface in Chicxulub Pueblo, Yucatan, Mexico. A small bilingual pueblo of less than a thousand families, the people here speak very, very little English, if any. And while most everyone prefers to speak Spanish in public situations, muchas hablan maaya en casa. Through the posts found here, you will surely come to know the people of Chicxulub Pueblo through an insider's perspective.

     Currently, I am offering beginning through advanced Spanish Language classes in anticipation of hosting small groups of language learners at my private home this Spring 2015 at Posada Chicxulub in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. As an formally-trained Anthropologist, Linguist, and experienced Second Language Learning Educator, I offer a straightforward program that takes advantage of the immersion-induced venue of Chicxulub Pueblo. So, if you are interested in more information about our small Private Language Tours, I can send you a Presentation Disk, or would be willing to make a presentation to a larger group at your site or host small groups here in Eugene, Oregon at my expense. 

     With a focus on interpersonal communication in an authentic setting, participants engage enthusiastically in the acquisition of Spanish, or Mayan; but this real-life skill also contributes to effective communication in the learner's first language, invoking greater personal confidence through daily accomplishment. This is primarily due to high student interest in the material as presented through conversational practice around the pool, followed by actual participation in the skills that open the door to authentic communication activities in our immersion setting, such as buying daily items and contracting necessary services.

You can contact me at director@experienceyucatan.com; 

or visit me on Facebook @ExperienceYucatan.com; 

or visit my website: www.experienceyucatan.com

 Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon,

                                         Chris Eidemiller, Director@ExperienceYucatan.com