Donas Donuts, our first time in. 22 pesos each. Hello, how are you? Good, thank you! What can you recommend to me? This is a chocolate donut. This is a blackberry donut. And this is vanilla. And this? This is cream filled. I would like one (cream filled). One bite. [Laughter] What's up Tangerineys! What's up guys? So as you guys know, we are here in
Ajijic, Mexico right now. We've run into so many of you guys who said "I'm here
because of you" or "I'm here partially because of you." And that just reaffirms
how we want to always be completely honest with you guys, and not only share
what we love about a place, but also the downsides! And we understand that that's
sometimes not what people want to hear. But we think if someone's
making big life decisions, like moving here, or planning an expensive trip, that
they should know the full story. So we're not gonna delay this anymore, we're gonna
get right into the list of the ugly details about Ajijic. This might be somewhat of an obvious one. People do typically talk about this a lot, and that is the traffic. There is one
main road that goes through all of the towns on the shore of Ajijic, or no, on
the shore of Lake Chapala, and that's the carretera. We are walking by this right
now. And sometimes it can get pretty congested. We are in the offseason right
now which means there aren't, there isn't as much traffic, but it's still pretty
noticeable. And if you wanted to try to avoid that, you've got the side roads
which are very cobblestone-y and not as ideal. And not very many of them go all the
way through either. Exactly, that as well. So We've talked to quite a few people here,
and it seems like a very common theme that people are having a lot of trouble
finding a place to rent! There's a lack of rentals and the prices are going way
up! So people are venturing outside of Ajijic and looking in Jocotepec, or
Chapala, or where we're at right now in San Antonio. Which is - All these
little towns are right along in the same strip. But even still, venturing outside
of there, they're still having a lot of trouble. And the same thing is true with
house prices. We have heard of multiple times where a house is listed for a
certain price and people are having to go way above that price just to get the
house that they want. And we hear it's very difficult. There aren't many houses available under a quarter of a million dollars in
Ajijic. There is definitely a shortage of rentals right now and homes for sale
too, but there's places like this behind us that are being built right now because
of that shortage. And we've also talked to plenty of people who are taking the
opportunity to refurbish, revamp places and rent them out. So another thing that
we've been hearing a lot is "stop telling people to come here" "Don't make Ajijic
seem too great, we don't want people to ruin it." This is something that we said
we were gonna talk about, like the other side of that, or kind of what we think
about that statement. And we get it, it's really nice here! The people are friendly
and sociable. It's a really great atmosphere. What people are kind of saying is they don't want assholes, they don't want people being douchebags and
bringing everyone else down. And we've seen this a little bit. We walked by
this restaurant and this lady, this total Grinch, had ordered a hamburger and she
got it, and it was just a plain hamburger. So she holds up the plate in disgust
like "Uh tomato? Lettuce? Onions? Hello?!" And It was just, in English too. In a
restaurant here, which is just like That's what people don't want. They don't
want people that are closed-minded, that are jerks coming here and ruining it. So
although that's the exception to the rule, most people are super great. There
are people coming in that are kind of like that. If you're coming just for
price, like you should have a lot of other reasons you want to be here, other than just, it's cheaper retirement. Exactly, or you're probably
gonna be disappointed that it's not the exact same culture that you're used to
and you might have to learn a new language. Oh! [Laughter] So this kind of relates to heavy traffic, but with heavier car traffic
also comes more people, and with more people, it's very difficult to get a seat
on the bus. Particularly in the high season. We've heard that complaint and it can get really bad! This kind of ties into a
question we get asked a lot - "What can people do here to make money?" Well, with
every one of these problems is an opportunity to make money if you come
here with the right entrepreneurial mindset. For example, with traffic or not
enough seats on the bus, Someone could start up a luxury mass
transportation company that charges like 20 pesos instead of 10, but it's a much
nicer seat, you have more room. Another idea you had was that people could start
utilizing the lake over here because there's no water taxi services that we
know of. Yeah, and there's a gigantic lake that could have a ton of boat traffic on
it that no one's using. And hey, you could make it more luxury and serve
margaritas or glasses of wine. And if that's the case, sign me up! [Laughter] I'm a tree! What's up! [Laughter] Alright, so
the next thing on this list is kind of a hot issue right now. What's the hot issue? It is the Sun and the temperature, no I'm just kidding. [Laughter] What's that? Random dude: I recognize you from your videos. [Laughter] We're actually shooting one right now. [Laughter] Random Dude: Don't put me on. I'm a wanted man. Oh, well I better turn this off then, we were just rolling. Okay, so this hot issue. Hot, hot, hot! What's the hot issue? This hot issue is prices, and we
mentioned this briefly in the ten dollar challenge, but we really can't talk about
how the prices have changed over time. Because obviously we haven't been here
that long. It doesn't seem too much like they're like exorbitantly higher than
other cities, for most things, there are exceptions to that. But one thing that we
do want to mention is that, people, for gonna sakes, stop saying "Oh this is only
this?" or "Oh my gosh, this is just x pesos?" Because the more you say that, the more
prices are gonna go up in instances where it's kind of like a monopoly-type
deal or niche market, where there's like maybe one person selling the thing. You
were saying how we can't talk about prices going up because we haven't been
here this long. But we can talk about what people have told us who have been
here, and even over the past year they've Seen prices going up at restaurants and
such. And obviously that's not the only reason prices are gonna go up because
people are saying "Oh that's only this?" But there are cases where that
definitely affects the prices. This is what I like to do: They tell you
price and I try to conceal my emotions, whether I think it's too high or too low.
I think about it for a moment "hmm okay" And then maybe I'll go ahead with the
purchase or I'll walk away. Sometimes you'll see that the price drops pretty
fast when you decide to walk away. But anyway! It's that prices are fluctuating
right now, so that may be a consideration, Especially if you're thinking this is
going to be a very affordable place for you and you need the prices to be XYZ. Something to keep in mind. They're trending up. Trending up, yeah. People are talking about this becoming
another San Miguel de Allende where it's almost impossible to live here and to be
able to afford things. And that goes for the gringos moving here, and also the
Mexicans who no longer can eat at the restaurants that they always did. So it's
not trash day today, but this is the corner of our our place where people put
all their trash, and that's three days a week. Basically, the system is just put
your bags of trash here, and the trash Feries come and pick it up. Thankfully, we
have these neighbors here that sort of educate people not to put it there
throughout the week, otherwise it would Just be one big trash pile that is a an
eyesore. But that's kind of something that happens in Ajijic everywhere. There aren't dumpsters, people just put the trash on various street corners or on the
sidewalk, which it's kind of a dirty solution. There are cities that are a
little bit cleaner about it, like we didn't really notice that being the case
in Guadalajara. And there were cities that were even worse we thought Puerto Vallarta was the worst. And there are some right around here that,
just like San Antonio (La Floresta, actually). We were just there And they have big barrels that you go
put your trash bags in, which is a much better solution, and it's a very cheap
solution to take care of it. Someone once commented on our channel saying that we
better watch ourselves, and we better watch what we say, or we're gonna end up
in a dumpster. And this is a ridiculous comment on multiple levels. Yes. We've
maybe seen like a handful of actual, legit dumpsters in all of Mexico. And
that's nothing bad about Mexico but there's just a different trash system and that's not it. But anyway, the point that we're trying to
make about the trash is that if you're coming from somewhere like the US, I had
never seen anything like this before, so I might have been a little bit put off
by that - Moving somewhere and then having there be trash everywhere. It's
not the most beautiful thing but that's just the way it is until someone comes
in and changes it. [In a southern accent] So how's the internet in these here parts? [Laughter] The internet leaves
a little bit to be desired. We originally had Telmex at our place and it was super
super slow for uploads! It was usually Good enough for watching Netflix, but we
ended up having to get another provider to upload our videos. So our upload times
went from like 36 hours to an hour. Or less. Yeah, so it's much better now
and that's pretty common for people around here to have two internet
providers. Because our internet goes out pretty frequently. Although it's usually
only for a few minutes, but it's, it is nice to have another provider to just go
over to when one goes out. We've also asked around, and people have said that
it is the internet is better in some parts of the lake versus others. And then
also at sometimes times of day versus others. So that around 7 p.m. or so when
everyone wants to get on and watch their favorite show or movie on Netflix, the
internet might slow down a little bit. You might have more outages but it
really seems like it fluctuates throughout the day and throughout the
area. Having a YouTube channel, naturally we need internet, and we need it every
day. But, what was I gonna say? Nothing has Ever been so bad, like an outage, or the
speed, or anything, that it has prevented us we're doing what we need to do. So this
is something to keep in mind. It's probably not gonna be the laser fast
internet speeds that you might have where you're moving from,
but it's not the worst ever, and you can easily overcome that with two service
providers. Which is still probably going to cost you less than you're paying for Cox
or what are the other ones? I don't know, It varies throughout the country. And other ones throughout the country. [Laughter] For example, AT&T Internet en Casa, it's
three hundred and fifty pesos a month plus the cost of the modem. So the next
one on the list isn't exactly an ugly side of Ajijic, but it is kind of a sad
one. And that is that there are a lot of stray dogs. So this is something I
personally have a big soft spot for and we've kind of made a point to buying,
made a point of buying food or something for dogs whenever we see them. Or trying
to get them water but there are a lot of strays. The good thing though is that
they have a very mild temperament. They're not aggressive, most of them, and
so it's not really - I don't consider this a huge problem. Like if you have pets, it
might not be a huge deal. It's something you would want to look out for.
But they're not like gonna tear your dogs apart most likely. And they're
well-fed. And they're well-fed. People around here seem to have a similar mindset. Oh gosh! That was a bee! [Laughter] Similar mindset as us Where they try to feed the dogs as well.
And there seem to be a lot of organizations, or groups, or efforts in
place to combat that. Like getting them fixed or finding homes for them, things
like that. People on our Patreon know This really well. That we've pretty much
adopted a few dogs, and fed them, and what not. One of those named is named Maizy, which you saw
in the ten dollar challenge. Such a sweetheart! We were warned not to name
Street dogs but we did anyway. Oops! So at this point, some people might
be thinking "Wow, you guys are so negative, like can't you think of the
positive side of things?" And really, we just have so many people
telling us how they're making these big life decisions like planning a move to
Ajijic or something. And so it kind of feels like our responsibility to be the
eyes on the ground and share the - the whole picture of things. So yeah, not
everything is perfect with any place. Laska, what do you think of Ajijic? We have mentioned this before briefly but another dark side or undesirable side of
Ajijic are the cobblestone streets. And We've talked to people who think that
it's sort of charming, and gives the place character, and to a certain extent
it does. But at the same time, when you're walking around it's really easy to twist
an ankle! You're constantly having to look where
you're walking. We've heard that one of the most common injuries here are like
torn ligaments in your ankles. I find myself looking down the entire time I'm
walking on these streets, because you have to have every step right. For other
reasons as well like dog poop. But also I mean, if you're coming here, or you're
wanting... Woah! There's mud. If you're coming here in maybe a wheelchair or
something. Or you do have like knee or ankle problems, then this would be a
pretty big problem for you because there are sidewalks. In some
neighborhoods there's more than others. And some are better than others. And some, yeah, better, wider, more well-maintained. There, for the most part, are cobblestone
streets pretty much everywhere. So that could kind of be an issue for certain
people. Yeah, if I didn't, if I was confined to a wheelchair, and I didn't
have a really good power scooter, I don't think it'd be for me. We've
mentioned in past videos that one of the things we really like about Mexico is
that people are willing to work for their money. Whether that's washing people's windows or like doing tricks outside in the
intersection, or whatever it is. Just the odd job, even if they aren't employed. Or
even if it's like a handyman job or something, people work damn hard here for their money. They really have a lot of integrity and we appreciate that a lot
about Mexico! Yeah, and here in Ajijic we've noticed a lot more begging than
other places in Mexico. And along with that are people training
their kids to do the same thing. So we've noticed a lot of times where very young
children come up to the table mumble some inaudible thing, or potentially say
something to you, and they just stare at you! For, I mean they like stare at you in
your face, in your eyes, for like 30 seconds. And to be perfectly honest,
that's sociopathic. And it's kind of scary that there that
people are training kids at such a young age to do something like that. When it's
comfortable for a human to look at someone for no more than six seconds
unless they want to have sex with them or want to kill them. So I think that's
kind of a problem and a social problem too. Which is, I mean it's not a
great thing. Yeah. In society. I think that begging is here because it gets rewarded. True. So maybe to curb this behavior, for people who live here, or people who want
to live here. Just don't. I mean, buy Mazapans, from
people, buy lollipops from people. We have a kind of a daily budget for like
charitable spending, but we'd rather reward people who are actually selling
something than people, or trying to provide services because at least they're trying. Yeah, then people who are
begging and teaching their kids to just stare at you forever. So we never, ever,
ever give any of those people money. But what is the thing that you like saying? Oh, whenever someone comes up begging, I like to say "que vende," what are you
selling? Nothing? Si no vende nada, no tengo monedas. If you're not selling anything, I don't have any money. There's freaking cow right here! Eat more chicken! [Laughter] This has got to be the chick-fil-a cow. Moo! Come back! Aye, no! Oh my gosh! Mooo. Eat more chicken. [Laughter] So kind of just to wrap this topic up, our
personal opinion is: buy items from people who are selling and working hard
to make a living, but don't reward the begging. There's a lot of great things
about the city! So many! And if you've watched our other videos, you've seen that! But, there are some negatives too. And we like to point those out, because as we've been
traveling through Mexico, we realized with each city that there are some
things that are just huge deal-breakers! And they might just be a small aspect
like pollution (well, pollution is kind of a big deal), or cobblestone streets, or Kind of people's attitudes or something. So we think it's only right to share these things because so many people are
considering moving to Ajijic and many people are asking these questions like
"What should I watch out for?" "Is there anything negative?" So let us know what
you guys think. Did we get stuff right? Do you disagree? Let us know in the comments. Be nice. [Laughter] What don't you like about it? Is there anything that was not on our
list that you would put high up on your list? And if you liked this video, please
give it a thumbs up, and subscribe to our channel! We're putting out more videos in
Mexico every week! Lots of times during the week! [Laughter] And... GONG THAT BELL! To get notified the next time we put out a new video, and we'll see you there! Ahhh!
