Coming to you live from the Cancun International Airport this week. And still very much on Mexico time…

I’ve been finishing off the summer drinking margaritas and palermo’s this week so I really haven’t paid much attention (read: cared) to what has been going on in the world.

So this week we’re switching things up.

We’re all learning about Mexico.

This week's issue is a 3 minute read:

🇲🇽 A whole lot of Mexican things

Avocados

You can’t talk about Mexico without mentioning guacamole, made from the green gold itself, avocados. Mexico produces something like 2.7 million metric tons a year of avocados, and 81% of it goes to the US. The majority of avocados are grown on the west coast of Mexico in Michoacán. According to the Mexican government, about 80% of the orchards in Michoacán were established illegally, while cartels extort farmers, forcing them to pay for protection or lose their crops altogether.

Meanwhile local police are hired as private security for the farmers to protect themselves from the cartels.

You know it’s bad when you have to HIRE the police.

With Michoacán being historically a hostile battle field between warring cartels and locals alike, there’s a decent chance that your next Mexican avocado has gone through a cartel in some shape or form.

Crocodiles

They’re not necessarily everywhere like iguanas are, but in talking to locals, it is not uncommon to run into a crocodile on a beach like our beach above.

They fish in the morning and tend to come up on shore from the local mangroves that surround a lot of the resorts in the Cancun area and then by the afternoon they’re long gone.

But ask me if I went into the ocean when I couldn’t see the ocean floor or my feet at all. I joked around with a local about this and he was deadass serious about not going in the water when you can’t see your feet.

Yeah, no.

Tequila

How can you go to Mexico and not “stumble” into tequila of some sorts??

Did you know the only place you can legally make tequila in Mexico is in the state of Jalisco?

If you produce “tequila” outside of Jalisco it has to be called something else, which is why you may often times see bottles of agave liquor on store shelves alongside tequila.

What’s the difference you may ask? No clue. It all mixes well in a margarita though.

Hot Sauce

Mexicans don’t play around when it comes to sauce. And they really put that sh*t on everything.

While indulging in several margaritas at the swim up bar, I got into a deep conversation with the bartender about hot sauce and salsas. Firstly, habanero chili pepper is the most commonly used pepper in Mexican sauces, at least that’s what I came out of the conversation with.

Secondly, El Yucateco is THE sauce locals use in Mexico. If they aren’t mixing their own green tomatoes up with onion, avocado, habaneros, etc to make their own sauce at home, El Yucateco is the sauce they’re using, and they put that on everything - tacos, steak, eggs, you name it.

DISCLAIMER: This is the opinion of margaritas mixed with food talk at a swim bar in a resort.

Mexican Snow

No - not that stuff, real snow! Who knew parts of Mexico will actually get snow during the coldest months of the year?

When you think of Mexico you think of heat. Hot. SUN. And you probably think of these things even more during the dead of winter. But during the dead of winter in parts of Northern Mexico, they’re getting snow too.

Particularly in areas like Chihuahua, Coahuila, Neuvo León, and Durango, where elevations increase, it’s not uncommon to see snowfall during the months of December to February. And you can even go skiing in San Antonio de las Alazanas, where they have a resort that runs all year round with real snow in the winter and fake snow in the summer.

Ski in the morning and then a 5 hour drive later, you can be at a beach in the Gulf of Mexico. Who knew?

Spain & Mexico

In walking through the airport in Cancun, there was one gate where you had to pinball off of people just to walk through. It was for a flight to Madrid. The Spanish love Cancun, with Spain being one of the top contributors to tourism in the city.

It’s no wonder Spain is the second largest investor in Mexico after the US. Well that and Spain ruled over the country for 300 years before Mexico’s independence in 1821. But even then, both countries still hold strong ties culturally, economically, politically, and socially.

Back to Cancun airport: depending on what stats you’re looking at, it’s around the 10th busiest airport in the world for international traffic. So yes, the gates being a mess make a lot of sense. But for being that “busy”, the place is super small compared to the likes of other major airports.