Destinations
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Working Gringos We recently visited Puerto Morelos, a seaside village along the Riviera Maya that doesn’t get a lot of press but impressed us anyway…
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Byron D. Augustin Sunrises and sunsets… a beautiful part of any day in the Yucatan. We all have memories and photos of our favorites. In this article, Byron Augustin tells us where to see the best ones on Isla Mujeres…
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Working Gringos Are you noticing that there is a growing incidence of torn-up streets in the downtown area? This is just the latest phase of a renovation project that has been going on for years, but is said to be almost complete…
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Michael Lewis Ever wonder what its like living on an island in a tourist town? Photographer Michael Lewis gives us his insight into what life is like living on Cozumel…
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Working Gringos If you are looking for a place to escape the Merida heat this spring, consider a short trip to the nearby state of Oaxaca. Alvin Starkman gives us an up-close-and-personal account of a cooking class there…
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Dr. Steven Fry Thinking about driving from the USA or Canada to Merida? This article will help you decide where to cross the border and how to get to Merida the safest and quickest way possible…
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Byron D. Augustin A museum in a former church with a lot of fascinating local history documented and displayed… yet another attraction in the colonial city of Valladolid…
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Alvin Starkman One of the best parts about living in Yucatan is getting to travel easily to other wonderful parts of Mexico. Since so many of you are interested in Oaxaca, we invited an expat from Oaxaca to give us his advice on what to see over a long weekend…
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Working Gringos Yes, there are shopping malls in Merida, more now than ever before. In Merida and in Mexico in general, malls have come to provide the modern social equivalent of plazas in years past…
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Working Gringos The three cenotes of Cuzama have become a very popular tour… but did you know that the same tour is available from the village of Chunkanan? Here’s why you should know about it and what to do once you know…
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Working Gringos In nine years as residents of Yucatan, we had never stayed in a bonafide all-inclusive on the Riviera Maya. We had a chance to do that recently, and we went for it…
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Working Gringos On a sunny Yucatan day, we were picked up in a private van and escorted to some very special places outside of Merida. We’re not usually tour people, but we were pleasantly surprised…
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Dr. Steven Fry Governor Ivonne Ortega has big plans for Chichen Itza and the surrounding area. One of Yucatan Living’s intrepid reporters attended the meeting and tells us all about it…
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Working Gringos Campeche is both different from and similar to Merida, and is another interesting and increasingly popular option as a place to live and retire on the Yucatan Peninsula…
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Heather Rath If sleeping with a legend is something you’ve always wanted to do then Genesis Retreat, an eco-oasis near the Mayan archaeological zone of Ek Balam, just may be your cup of herbal tea…
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Catharine Lyons King It’s not quite an octopus’s garden, but researchers at the Sisal campus of Mexico’s national university, working closely with local residents, may be about to establish the world’s first commercial octopus farm…
Merida will soon have both a zoo and an animal park called Animaya, which is about to be opened in honor of Mexico’s Bicentennial. We were lucky to go along on a preview tour…
A drive to the Puuc hills in search of reproductions of ancient Mayan art unearths the craftsmanship and passion of local artisans…
You never know what you might find around the next bend. On the way from Valladolid to Tulum, it was La Casa de Las Mariposas that caught our eye…
Have a free weekend? Planning a trip here? Want to know what is going on out in the countryside? Here’s a list of all the fiestas of the year…
One of the biggest ecological preserves on the peninsula was the site recently of a unique survey designed to map and understand the flow of fresh water underground. Scott Wallace reports from Laguna Bacalar…
Merida is a city of a million people… and hundreds of different neighborhoods. Where to live? Where to buy? We can’t possibly talk about all of them, but maybe this will help…
Wondering what to do for Christmas and New Year’s Eve? Here’s our annual rundown of what’s going on… Happy Holidays from Yucatan Living!
Valladolid is a town famous for many things most of us have never heard about. For so long, it has been stuck halfway between two important cities (Merida and Cancun). Now that fact may become its claim to a well-deserved fame…
It used to be hard to find an accurate map of many places in Mexico, especially the hinterlands of the Yucatan Peninsula. Nowadays, the Internet has changed all that. There are accurate maps of most of the inhabited places in Mexico, and a few fun things to do with maps as well…
Getting ready to drive to the Yucatan? In the past, it was difficult to find an accurate map of almost anywhere in Mexico, especially the Yucatan Peninsula. The good news is that the Internet has finally changed all that! Now there are all kinds of maps at your fingertips…
A friend and fellow writer from Playa del Carmen recently visited the Jungle Place, a place where fellow extranjeros provide shelter and a new home for abused and neglected spider monkeys…
Take a tour of the local factory, set in a beautiful hacienda, that makes the delicious Xtabentun liqueur which is only made in the Yucatan…
On a quiet weekday during Easter week, the staff at Yucatan Living tried to eat lunch at Hacienda Temozon, but ended up at Hacienda Ochil, a sleepy little hacienda restaurant… or so we thought! See how Hacienda Ochil has grown…
Deep in the Yucatan jungle but close to the Mayan Riviera lies a magical place, the Mayan ruins of Coba. Coba may not be one of the New Wonders of the World, but you can still climb the pyramid there…
Mérida is a great city; life here is more relaxed and slow-paced, but once the sun goes down, one thing is for sure: Yucatecans know how to party, and they’re good at it…
La vida tranquila is a wonderful thing, but once in awhile, we need to experience big city life. When Merida was filling up with holiday visitors, the Working Gringos traveled to Mexico City…
Like a modern-day Stephens and Catherwood, the Working Gringos set out to explore the seemingly sudden and quite welcome appearance of spas in the Yucatan…
Have you been to the new Merida City Museum? Take a tour with us while we take a tour at the center of Merida’s history. Then take our Merida history pop quiz…
You’ll probably notice it if you’ve been here more than a week or two: stone is used in almost every house in Yucatan. We visit the popular stone carving town north of Merida to see why…
Before there were shopping malls and video games, Merida’s children always had a special place to go for fun, the Parque Zoologico del Centenario, also known as the Merida Zoo…
Generations of adventurers have been discovering Yucatan since the first European set foot here. Now and then, we get to think we’re making a “discovery” ourselves…
One of our favorite things to do with guests on a day trip is to take a tour of some of the local haciendas. Just one more thing we love about living in Yucatan…
A modern Mexican beach princess, with a cell phone in one hand, a shopping bag in the other and soft white Caribbean sand between her painted toes…
What can we say about Cancun that hasn’t been said a brazillion times already? Plenty…
The quintessential Yucatan eating experience is attained somewhere outdoors. The view isn’t great. The tablecloth (if there is one) is oilcloth atop a cheap plastic or metal table donated to the restaurant by Coca Cola. The food is dripping with sauce, hot and tasty…
An ode (or is it an aria?) to the best little opera house on the Yucatan Peninsula: the Teatro Jose Peon Contreras…
The Nest Hostel is no longer in business. But there are plenty of good choices for budget accommodations…
The Working Gringos were working in Cozumel today. Yes, we really were. This week, we are researching Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum to update a travel guide for this area…
If you’re leaving from Valladolid and heading for the coast, or looking for the fastest way to Tulum from Merida, this is your route…
After the devastation of Hurricane Wilma, there’s no lack of activity or money pouring into the Mayan Riviera…
Okay, this article is not strictly about the Yucatan, but when you finally see the big mountain that’s always been there, you take a picture…
Yesterday we played host to a few friends from the States, one of whom is thinking of writing about Merida…
During our recent working tour of the Mayan Riveria, we were lucky enough to “discover” Hemingways…
Remember the old days when people used rope? Remember that it was called “sisal rope”? Well, it’s called that because back in the heyday of the Yucatan, the rope that was made from henequen was shipped out of a port on the Gulf of Mexico called Sisal…
Working Gringa was lucky enough to be invited out to Hacienda Yunku yesterday for lunch…