100 Reasons Mexico is the Greatest Country on Earth – Part 2

Continued from Part 1

38. 38. Fresh fruits and vegetables all year around! Oranges cheap enough for you to affordably make your own juice!
    39. The Mexico City Metro – In spite of all of its (considerable!) maintenance issues, it’s one of the largest metro networks in the world, and for 5 pesos ($0.25) US you can go pretty much anywhere you want within the city centre
    40. The Cineteca Nacional, an art and foreign cinema multiplex(!) in Mexico City, with 10(!!!) screens showing mostly non-commercial films, plus book stores, cafes, and a lot of really cool people
    41. Eating avocados everyday without feeling like a pretentious white person
    42. 20 peso ($1 US) chamber music recitals at the gorgeous Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, across from the equally lovely Alameda Central park
    43. Museums, so many museums – many of them housed in gorgeous old Spanish colonial buildings
    44. Cactus (cactuses? cacti?)
    45. Eating chili-and-lime flavoured crickets on the sidewalk in Puebla or Oaxaca – A handful a year are plenty for me, but I’m still glad to have them around!
    46. The fairly solid non-alcoholic options at most Mexican bars (for a teetotaler like me) – Clamato with spicy seasoning hits the spot if you don’t mind smelling like clams while trying to impress women, or there’s always a steady supply of sparkling water
    47. If you dance really, really badly (which I do), nobody seems to mind very much
    48. An entire karaoke bar full of drunk locals all belting out “Ahora Te Puedes Marchar” by Luis Miguel in unison
    49. Mole
    50. Widespread acceptance of international credit cards, even in midrange establishments
    51. Wonderful-sounding words and place names that start with “ch” – Churros, chimichanga, Chabacano, Chilpancingo
    52. Pollo asado
    53. Reasonably generous immigration policies
    54. Being able to see two dudes making out in random public places without anyone giving a shit (at least in Mexico City)
    55. The widespread presence of signs like this one (“In this establishment we do not discriminate against anyone for reasons of race, religion, sexual orientation, physical or socioeconomic condition, or for any other reason. But we do demand respect for this business and those who frequent it.”)

        

    56. General lack of burning hatred within the hearts of the local people
    57. The way people sing when they talk
    58. Well-lit public streets at night (at least within major cities)
    59. People’s – or at least, middle-class young people’s – nearly total lack of interest in religion
    60. I bought the most insanely durable pair of earbuds in my life for 25 pesos ($1.25 US) from a sidewalk vendor near the market in Merida. Generally, the way I mistreat my earbuds, I’ll lose sound in at least one side within two months, no matter how much I paid for them. As far as I can tell, this $1.25 special will never, ever die. And they sound pretty good, too!
    61. People’s surprisingly intense love of art and culture, and their overall intellectual curiousity
    62. Mexican men in cowboy hats look way cooler than white guys in cowboy hats
    63. All those manly-sounding men’s names – Luis, Jorge, Miguel, Manuel
    64. All those classy, sexy-ass women’s names – Daniela, Fernanda, Alejandra
    65. Fairly solid Internet speeds and reliability
    66. People adding -ito to every noun to make it more polite, like asking for azucarito (sugar) for your cafecito (coffee). To foreign ears, it doesn’t sound any more polite, just adorable.