Steve - My bad...its just as you and I spoke of many times Cancun is a great place if one can get over the culture....I never could. I just have more respect for my fellow man and their property and the locals seems to have.
Gene is right that you often feel that in Cancun it's "every man for himself." Especially when it comes to driving. I've never had my car get hit in a parking lot before, but here it's been hit 3 times. It's really common. Lots of people here can't drive, or park. Another reason to shop at Costco which has the largest parking spaces in the city!!
Gene-I think the first thing you need to do is update your profile to reflect the location of the Utopia you've obviously returned to, since you're no longer in Cancun. As to your perception of respect, having lived in New York, and having worked in Los Angeles, Rome and London, my perception of the amount of respect I get from my Mexican friends and neighbors seems to be at odds with yours. I got bumped on the streets of New York far more frequently than I do here, with the added attraction of having to wonder if my pocket was being dipped into as well. As far as repect for property, the number of door dings and bumper shots I got in the garage of our "DeLuxe Condominium" in New York, inflicted on my cars by my upscale neighbors, about equaled the Walmart dings I've gotten here. Now, I just park away from everyone and walk a bit. I will concede that the line jumping that goes on here would get you shot in New York, but that's a cultural difference and not "bad" behavior. To the contrary, I find most Mexicans to be patient beyond measure (i.e. the bank lines on Friday afternoon) and polite. I will also concede that if Cancun is not the "real" Mexico, the Hotel Zone is not the "real" Cancun, and the defference that we expats that live here in the ZH receive may be beyond the norm. Nevertheless, the examples of kind and considerate behavior I've received far outweigh the line jumpers. As an example; Driving my friend to the airport, I experienced a flat tire. During the time it took to change the tire 3 vehicles stopped with offers to help. The best one was a bus driver, who seeing the luggage on the side of the road stopped and asked if I needed him to take my friend to the airport. In New York or LA, they would have probably just stolen the luggage. In Rome they would have stolen the luggage, emptied our pockets, changed the tire and stolen the car. As I said in my previous post, and as you seem to understand, if you cannot embrace the culture and language and parse the differences in what is considered "normal" perhaps you will never be able to make the adjustment.
Cancun is like a bucket of crabs: If one is about to make it large, the others will simply do whatever it takes to drag this fellow back down :shock: One thing that simply amazes me here: If someone pulls up in a new car, parking at their respective work-parking lot, it only takes until after lunch and this new car has been keyed/scratched... This has happened sooo many times and I know places where they have a 100% record (1 new car - scratched within 2 days... 7 new cars - all scratched within 2 days etc.) Sad really, but I hardly blame it on Mexico - these places hire approx "half and half" regarding nationalities... Sad and retarded nonetheless :? The one thing that has made me last so far is the ocean :lol: Regardless if ones experience has been/is negative, there are ALWAYS good things to learn. The lack of respect towards animals and environment is what ticks me off the most - before arriving I read things such as "eco-paradise" and "eco-tourism heaven" etc. but that facade came down pretty fast... If Mexico were to overhaul their to-the bone corrupt system, then this country could truly be paradise. The laws are there - just reinforce them :?
Mix...your point is well taken. For me...I spent 26 years in the USMC...lived in and was assigned to 8 differnt countries and who knows how many states in the U.S. I just found the people of Cancun to be the worst I ever come across...and that includes 13 months in Viet Nam when all hell was breaking loose. On the average, or at least my experience, with the people of Cancun was so far below anything that I have ever come across. I found the people to be rude, can't drive, can't park, don't care about anything but themselves and in general seems to have an attitude of "lets see how much we can rip off the gringo". Surprislingy It seemed to be worse in SM15 where I lived. Now that really surprised me because that is one of the more up scale areas....of course not as much as you down in the HZ. Take for instance the monthly maintenance fee that most condo/apartments have. Try to get the owners to pay on time....its like pulling teeth...and those funds only go to improve or maintain their own property! I just found the people of Cancun to have no respect or concern for anything but themselves.
Well, it clearly doesn't sound like Mexico was for you. And you didn't find that things improved as your Spanish improved? People's attitudes can definitely be a self-fulfilling prophecy...if one expects rudeness and starts an interaction with a chip on one's shoulder, one can hardly expect the other parties involved to work so hard to change the interaction around to a positive one.
My (Mexican) husband was talking yesterday about how much more attractive this area would be to tourists if people here (and the Government here) would ACTUALLY protect the environment. Tourists aren't dumb. They notice right away that the whole eco-tourism thing here is a big fat lie. If a hotel here is "eco" it usually means it was built off the grid, it doesn't mean the owner even recycles his newspaper. If there was true respect for the land here then claims of eco-anything would be convincing and a lot more people would want to come here. The same goes for public safety. The correct perception many tourists have is that Mexico largely ignores public safety. And what is it that scares tourists away?? Fear for their own safety! Ask anyone here who markets to tourists, they will tell you that combating safety concerns is the toughest part of marketing this area to tourists. If Mexico could truly shore up public safety, in a convincing, honest way, then this area would attract more tourists. Many of the things that make it hard for me to live here and issues that, if solved, would make lots more people want to visit here. There's a deserved image problem here.
RG well said....as you and I talked about at Scott's parties its just different and not for everybody. I went there with an open mind and tried my best to get along. But after 3 years there just got fed up with it all. The jungle across the street from my apartment is a prime example of the eco you refer to. Lots of wild life there but the locals used it as a trash dump. I can't count the times I saw taxi drivers and even the police stop....walk into the jungle pulling thier pants down along the way, and come back get in the car and drive away. I just could never get over how badly the system and the locals screwed up paradise.
