Leaving Merida to live in Playa or Cancun ?

Not even, Cancunscorpio...I read her issues with Merida as being more about the people! And I guess that there was also "no point" to my living in Cancun as well! Never even lived closed to the HZ nor in a gated community and in fact, months could go by without my going to the HZ!

I can totally understand why one would feel suffocated by the insular Yucatecan culture and I've felt that across all class levels and one of the reasons that every time I go back to Valladolid and the villages around there I want to scoop my eyes out with a spoon!

 

First of all I am not a Spanish citizen, my kids and I are British and we own a villa in Spain and have done for 10 years but we are still Brits just with a visa like here.

Secondly I went to University in Malaga in 1984 (omg that long ago) and in addition Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola all those places you mention are on the Costa Del Sol, otherwise known as the Costa Del Crime !!!!!

As for Torrevieja I was lucky enough to sell my first house there in 1999 before the Russian Mafia took over the very severe and violent organised crime.

I have lived in Gibraltar, Estepona and Marbella, also I have lived and worked in Mallorca and those places are far more expensive than Cancun and that was 14 yrs ago and with the total meltdown in Spain now, its even worse.

I am an integrater, I speak Spanish, French, German and I did Russian in the Royal Air Force and all my friends in Spain are Spanish. Some of them who are professionals have not been able to get a job in the four years that I have been here.

My friend in Tenerife is taking a large Spanish company to court for not paying her for the las 8 mths of her job because they dont have the money to give her the wage and the beautiful Canary Islands that I know very well is suffering with illegal immigrants from the neighbouring coast of Africa.

There isnt a place that I dont know in Spain, it is part of me, I love the Spanish and the of coure the food but it is going through hell at the moment, petrol which was always low is now 26 pesos a litre and food has gone through the roof.

I have lived here in Merida in this one house for 2 years of the 4 years I have been here, its in a privada of 12 houses......do I know a neighbours name in 2 yrs, do they wave at me when I pass through the electric gate, have I been invited into 1 house out of 12 in 2 years........no no no and my daughter goes to the same school as some of them !!!!!

I am not basing a move on lonliness, I am basing it on boredom, lack of places to go, crappy beaches to visit, life exsists around the shopping malls and air con.

From Cancun you have a wealth of places to visit. Personally I would prefer to live in Akumal but as I have kids its not all about me.
I could chill out in Tulum or Akumal and be lonely at the beach than live in a city where ignorance is the height of intelligence.

As for courrption, you need to encounter the Guardia Civil that still reign the roads after Francos demise in Spain.

Also the corruption in Merida is thriving now that the Governadora has issued new driving laws and 49 new requisites for cars with fines up to 6000 pesos.

Now all over the place there are police stopping cars, checking them and scrutinising everybody so that they can get their piece of the pie rather than fining us large amounts, we have to carry fire extinguishers in the car, baby seats, strip lights above the car plack, its gone crazy, thankfully my car has everything apart from the fire extinguisher but look at some of the wrecks on the road.

I am realistic, I am not seeking perfection but a change would be nice.

 

OMG I READ about those new laws and decided that my foreign-plated car and my famdamily will stay over in QRoo, thank you very much. I mean, I GET the safety behind the logic but geez, my first reaction on reading them was "stops by transitos increase by 2000x".

I think you'd like Playa. We just got back from a looong weekend on Cozumel and I have a HUGE Desire to move over there but our needs are very different from yours. I think Playa would be much more to your liking than Cancun. There are a lot of families, ex-pats, from all over Europe in your age group. HUGE community via school. People do tend to move on here though. Not nearly the crime of Cancun and beaches. COL is higher than I remember in Merida though.

Jamie and I are on the verge of jumping across the channel to Coz - we loved it SO much more than over here, but again, our lives/needs are very different.

 

Stuff happens everywhere, its about how we cope with it really and for how long we put up with it too lol

I have had my 4 years of Merida and that will do nicely thank you, Gods waiting room is far too hot and humid

I miss the beaches of the Riviera and the selection of foreigners.

You know you are on a loser when the private school administrator tells you that there are many foreigners in the school, I ask what country are they from and they tell me the DF, I fell over laughing, what chance had we got.

I had one guy ask me where about England was in the world and he was educated.

I need a change, I would like a change, no country, town or city is ideal.

I would go to Akumal or Tulum tomorrow, but I have kids who have needs and are of the age where they want malls and cinemas and friends etc etc

I like Playa in general more than Cancun but I feel Cancun has more going on and I have heard better things about the hospitals there.

Even though I have good health insurance I was not overly impressed with Hospiten in Playa but I wonder if that had more to do with their financial greediness.

All in all I have a big decision to make between the two places and I have a son who doesnt mind if we stay or go BUT I have a 13 year old daughter who is friends with most of Merida and so I have a dilemma on my hands

I think all of you seem great and helpful and I thank you all x

 

Maria my daughter was 13 when we moved to Cancun - it was tricky but she adapated and made friends.
Let us know where you decide to start your new venture.
xxx

 

So just why is it that you come and post here...........I think you are just ready to jump at the chance of "SEE I told you so"!!

 

I think Hospiten and the hyperbaric chamber (the clinic we personally go to) are "good enough" but for anything serious we'd be headed to Star Media (Merida) anyway, so there you go. TJ even went to Merida for his chemo (right TJ?).

you have less than a month to decide (right? for school reasons?) - I think for community rather than stuff going on, Playa would fit you better. It sounds from most of your posts that your discontent with Merida is the lack of community. Playa is much smaller than Cancun and there is good and bad with that, but you will DEFINITELY have more community in Playa. The other thing that concerns me about Cancun with older teens is that there is more trouble in Cancun. There are more "important" people to piss off (even unintentionally) and as the kids get older pissing someone off gets more and more serious. I'd rather keep my kids away from that kind of enviroment. There are definitely people to avoid in Playa, but having not lived in Cancun, I can only say it "feels" like it is safer for our expat kids. can you try each for a couple of weeks?

Course, Cancun does have that amazing gym. Ask Kelly about it. Yummy!

 

My 13 year daughter has told her friends that her mum is thinking of taking her to Cancun to live and they have been horrified.
She has had everybody facebooking her with stories of how dangerous Cancun is.
Here in Merida the locals believe that Cancun is almost as dangerous as the North of Mexico, how true is this ? what exactly is going on over there ?
I do read Sipse news but according to locals here Cancun is on a par with the border towns and is about to get worse ???!!!!
What to believe.........

 

Definitely not that dangerous. More dangerous than Merida from what I hear, but so long as you don't get mixed up with the wrong people, it's a safe city.