Finding my tribe in Mérida-Yucatan

Two years ago after a ten year long trip into China and southeast Asia, I paid a visit to the Mexican Peninsula. To my surprise I didn’t expect Mérida in the state of Yucatan was going to become my new favorite place in Mexico, an entire compilation of elements that add up to the vault of perks that make this city, its housing state, and its surroundings a mythical place historically and geographically. Shaped like a heart, built like a pyramid. Looking at the map, you can see the heart shape of the state, solid as a rock. There are dinosaur stones all over the place, and there are plenty of pyramids, too. Mérida encapsulates a robust combination of Mexican culture that is put into practice day in and day out with its gastronomy, folk music and dance, as well as natural biodiversity. Home to one the oldest and most remarkable ancient architectural wonders in the American continent: Chichén Itzá, the first churches and colonial buildings in Mexico’s mainland, as well as a vast assortment of mixed traditions that borrow from The Maya, the Spanish colonizers, and to a lesser extent the influence of tribal groups in the Meso-american region living in pre-colonial times.

In my trips out and about I’ve come across people from all walks of life, long term travelers, digital nomads, entrepreneurs, writers and creators doing remote work for a living and for pleasure. Most of them have a random agenda for how things should unfold when they visit a new place and embrace new experiences, in essence, taking advantage of the time in the most efficient way possible. For me, it is still a random pursuit but I mostly spend time learning about the place in an inquisitive way. For instance, I like to take a taxi and give a tour around the city on wheels.While doing this, I ask all kinds of questions to the driver, things like how is business going on today, how much money you make on a weekly basis, do you like your job, what is the weirdest thing you have experienced with a passenger on board, can you recommend interesting places and things to do in town. It becomes a very natural exercise that allows me to practically learn in a nutshell about a new place’s current state of things from the inside out. And what a better way to do so than to ask the people who have tons of social interaction as part of their daily trade and lifestyle.

Every city, town and village, has a very intricate story to tell from a personal angle. Reality is multi-dimensional and so the experiences you get from a place like Mérida-Yucatan whether you are a foreigner, a local, or a mix in between, can be perceived in entirely different ways and that is perfectly fine. My own learning from this province is that it is pretty slow paced, yet it contains enough diversity to keep you focused and decompressed when you most need it. On my first few days of stay, I immediately felt a welcoming vibe unlike other resembling cities in the north of Mexico. This is coming from a guy who has turned hundreds of stones in more than twenty states and provinces in the country in the last twenty years of non-stop traveling for fun and profit. I have to thank and blame my dad for such picky ambitions, hmm, I think him like myself have ground over and over our internal curiosity for most things a la Mexicana. Now, Mérida and some of the smaller towns in the state have plenty of modern life conveniences: fast food joints, markets in the Mexican and American style, access to multiple choices in grade education and more advanced learning institutions, as well as a vast selection of hospitality oriented businesses to cater to the hundreds of thousands of national and foreign visitors year round.

Multiple visits into the Yucatan region have taught me something of great value. The place is rich for everyone to see it without having to pay top dollar for it. To be specific, it is possible to spend pennies on the dollar for pretty much anything that is truly representative of Yucatan’s heritage. Compared to prices and cost of living in other parts of the country Yucatan’s main city Mérida and its surroundings is still very affordable. In more than two thirds of the year you can visit and expect humanly acceptable heat, humidity and internationalism that when combined make up for a pleasurable sabbatical, the short or the long kind. Mérida stands for splendor and diversity, its weekly dancing folk dance parties in Plaza Central are a must go to social gathering. Last February while doing a field trip with Fede and I, my partner and collaborator at La Hackería— our new experiential coding bootcamp in Mérida, spent a several days attending local festivities: carnaval parades, music gigs, hostel parties, street dinners, yes those are the best, you get to choose from a tremendous selection of local cuisine restaurants, and also the well-known international food establishments for those who are not as adventurous.

Just to give you a clue of what the local food is like in the state you can picture tacos but more sophisticated, but what does that even mean? It means you also have tortilla on the table but this time it is fried; it means you can put all kinds of meats and vegetables on top of the tortilla ideally shredded versions; it means you can top it all up with varieties of sauces, but people in Yucatan prefer not to eat the very spicy ones most Mexicans eat in the north when preparing tacos. ‘Los Yucatecos’ as they are known in the Spanish language are more taste-tuned to mild sauces traditionally made out of beans and local seasonings. That can be considered an important difference I have come to encounter when ordering the Yucatan menu.

Colonial architecture is at your disposal everywhere you look at. Tourists and city dwellers alike are always interacting with the almost taken for granted organic beauty of facades both intricate, detailed, colorful, and full of historic value. Me thinking how did our Mexican ancestors put so much work together, how did they originally conceive so much in the relatively young creation of the Mexican state as we know it today. Yucatan screams authenticity product of a mix of sorts: the Spanish colonization, and with it, the arrival of European forms of artistic expression, recombination of natural materials for traditional and contemporary constructions, man made ecosystems leading to ever more complex trade deals and supply chains. Continuous fascination you can depict out of the hundreds if not thousands of colonial buildings scattered around the so called ‘Ciudad Blanca’ = ‘White City;’ its name has a historic connotation related to the segregation carried by the Spanish aristocracy living in the state as far back as the fifteen hundreds. They established a separation of social classes that were characterized by asking the locals to dress in white clothes and therefore let people know they were of inferior means and social status among them and their descendants. All in all, these distinctions have helped reshape the development of Yucatan for a better Ciudad Blanca.

French architectural designs from boutique hotels and old residential homes stand out in the main avenues like ‘Paseo Montejo’ in the vicinity of Mérida’s downtown; Spanish aesthetics in churches and government buildings; plenty of monuments, parks, and cafes that serve the purpose to help the city keep its cohesive balance between the old and new architectural developments.

What makes Yucatan a great place to start up in any of the sectors that are currently in development?

After spending several months exploring the city, embracing the lifestyle, and asking plenty of questions to others and to myself, I have come to realize that Mérida is in many ways one of the better conditioned cities in the country to help propel new businesses across multiple thriving industries nowadays. It goes without saying that Yucatan’s capital Mérida is the safest city in Mexico; it is home to some of the most welcoming people in the country, they are always helping you out. Few weeks ago while still working on the planning of La Hackería, our experiential coding bootcamp, Fede and I were constantly talking about the fast and growing population in the city. Most people moving down the south are nationals migrating from other parts of Mexico particularly so from Mexico City and the other large cities in the country. They are on the lookout for new opportunities, quality of life, access to a whole new selection of life choices, and of course, safety.

But what about digital-nomading, entrepreneurship in Yucatan, or indie-hacking for that matter. Like I mentioned above, the state is growing on many fronts, businesses are thriving, people are coming down to invest in a market primed for new ideas from everywhere. Since the beginning of 2020, I have been spending time learning about real estate investments in Mérida, because I like to think that I can become a pro investor, as a side gig, in the sector in the future. That is how much I believe in this place. Well, that was just part of the reason why I returned to Yucatan this year in an attempt to learn what to do in terms of work and lifestyle design the Mexican way. On that note, I also learned that local investors in collaboration with the government are supporting local and foreign visitors to invest in initiatives that help boost technology and innovation projects for the region.

There are over twenty universities and technology institutes in the state that are to some extent supporting the development of these initiatives. The pace of these organizations is slow due to several infrastructural issues, but there comes another reason of why Fede and I decided to tap on to Mérida’s current momentum, to help accelerate the implementation of ideas through our experiential coding bootcamp with software development and data science training, agile development techniques, and a design thinking approach to problem solving. Mexico in general does not have access to world class education in the quantities and varieties that are necessary to tackle local problems, therefore we come into the play to push forward, on side, an accelerated learning program/school we have named ‘La Hackería,’ to provide world class faculty, tools of the trade, funding strategy and all the necessary ingredients for the creation of collaboration opportunities for foreigners and locals alike. Thus, we are on a roll to keep making noise on the inter-webs and tell our story from our angle, that without discounting the natural rules markets the world around dictate and which are always evolving.

Back to finding my tribe in Mérida-Yucatan. The place is full of natural and social diversity in pretty much every direction. Towards the north Yucatan has beaches, open farmland and some golf courses; also, there are towns in which I have been doing crab fishing several nights in a row and for weeks on end. The verdict, fresh produce trumps the best restaurant cooked meal as long as you know how to cook nicely. If fishing or cooking is not your thing, then just sit by one of the restaurants and food stands near the port of ‘Progreso,’ located just 30 minutes away from Mérida’s downtown. The windy nights out there are priceless, so much so that you can just walk around and feel the breeze coming from the sea, an experience worth repeating. For the water sports enthusiasts, the people living in the beach towns by the Mexican Riviera offer plenty of adventures, personalized travel experiences; also, things like kite surfing, paddle boarding, and boating. I have been spending some time swimming with the dolphins just a few miles off of the coastline, wild and unexpected, full of adrenaline, and me waiting for the next opportunity to plunge into those salty waters full of life.

The south of Yucatan is less economically developed, but it houses a large cluster of little towns that combine rural life with historic sites, Cenotes, ruins, varied natural ecosystems, and a thriving community of farmers, mom and pop shops, and workers that cater transportation and hospitality services to local and foreign tourists. On our last visit to the south Fede and I hopped on a bus that took us down to a small village just an hour away from Mérida. We set out on a one week long trip to explore as many cenotes as time can allow, soon we learned there are hundreds if not thousands of these underground cavities filled with subterranean water currents. We could only cover a handful of them, rewarding nonetheless. Some cenotes are open to the public, others are being maintained to offer better facilities to visitors. That said, there are plenty to see for years if need be.

This is my third visit to cenotes land and I can’t get enough of the natural wonders the Mexican Peninsula has thousands to offer. The west side of Yucatan is another extension of land covered with vegetation for the most part; in the middle of it, you can come across Celestún, a town less crowded by tourists and people from the city of Mérida, marvelous in essence, turquoise waters, and surrounded by people who always put on a big smile regardless of the time of the day or the occasion for that matter. What’s more, if you come to the east of Yucatan, things get more and more interesting by going deeper into the local culture, colonial architecture without much renovation — meaning more exposure to the authentic remains of what used to be Yucatan back in the days but without adding too much modern touches to the cultural mix there encountered. The town of Valladolid encompasses much of what I’ve just described, a place full of color, history, small markets, and last but not least locals who are proud of themselves as they are being part of what makes Yucatan tick.

Urban life in Mérida-Yucatan is on the rise, most people want access to all kinds of commodities as per usual, in modern lifestyle. Mérida’s temperature typically varies from 65°F to 97°F and is rarely below 57°F or above 103°F. The summers are short, sweltering, oppressive, and partly cloudy and the winters are warm, muggy, and mostly clear. Thus, people find themselves in the need to purchase air conditioners, cars, home appliances to keep up with the heat in the summer, and a whole collection of other less necessary items that are creating an unseen before demand for shopping malls, modern facilities, and entertainment parks like those found in North America.

During the day most commuting happens by car or public transport; during the night places around downtown become pretty refreshing and comfortable. You can see foreigners and locals socializing in cafes and restaurants everywhere. People in Yucatan tend to start work really early during the day just like in most tropical places around the world.They resume work activities around 4 or 5 pm, then they head back home to prepare dinner, rest and follow on the evening activities. It is common to see local families spending time with their children around parks and attending baseball games. I did attend a board games club in the north side of Mérida, a cafe that brings travelers and locals to learn and play from a vast arrangement of games, and to help break the ice and connect with a community of like-minded people.

What about the youngsters, where ,what, and how they hang out. There are plenty of local bars with life music, mostly traditional Mexican music that is much appreciated by foreign audiences as well. The young people of Yucatan go to the immense variety of modern style sports bars playing rock and pop music; some others prefer to hang out at shopping malls with a diverse selection of restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops and cinemas. Life is good for the new generations living in a somewhat comfortable city that is also affordable to most people. This is one more reason for Fede and I to consider an interesting mix of Mexican traditional culture, a touch of modernity to make things convenient and accessible, and a place to form a team of world class talent at La Hackería to help turbo-charge our proposed learning experience away from larger and more complex Mexican cities. All of these things are possible in the state of Yucatan, at a lower cost for people who live in North American cities, and for those who want to break into tech jobs or tech entrepreneurship with a meticulously designed training program delivered by the Mexican Riviera.

Want to learn more? Send us an e-mail at info(at)lahackeria.com

Truly yours,

Arturo