We have driven in Cancun for over 25 years; first as touristas for 2-3 weeks a year and now as expats living there, so I cannot speak to driving experiences anywhere but the peninsula and south. In the hotel zone, there are many, many traffic lights, and pedestrian crosswalks. It can be a real nightmare to drive the "Zone" during certain times of the day and on certain days. For the most part, drivers obey the traffic lights. It is mostly the native (Mexican) drivers that yield to pedestrians using the crosswalks. The tourists fly by even if someone has stepped into the crosswalk! And buses pulling in and out of bus stops have the right of way, as they do in the States. I don't think I have ever seen a tourista yield to a bus yet. And we saw a terrible accident where a tourist driving an SUV ran right into the middle of a bus that was pulling out. It was tragic and we saw the tourists being taken into police custody.
Cancun has grown so massive that traffic can be a nightmare simply because of volume. The main hotel road (Kulkekan) is always busy and the traffic lights are completely "uncoordinated" (if you are an American you'll probably understand this.) And if you are taking Kulkekan downtown anytime after 3:00 pm be ready to sit, sit, sit and wait and creep along. Just WAY to many cars for the road. From Pok ta Pok to downtown can take over an hour after 3:00, while it takes just a few minutes during normal traffic times. As far as driving in el centro, it is just a matter of YOU being a good and courteous driver and not expecting the same from anyone else. It isn't so much that they are bad drivers, they just watch out for themselves and not so much for others. So if you are a good defensive driver, and know the correct horn signals, you should be fine. If you get pulled over by the police, it will "cost" you at least $200.00 pesos to avoid having your license and/or license plate taken to the police station, if you catch my drift.
So, in the city, just drive with AWARENESS and you should be fine.
Now, if you are going to drive south towards Playa, you need to be really careful of non Mexican drivers (yes, Americans and Europeans). It seems like they think that since they are in Mexico, driving is a free-for-all and you can make up your own speed limit... just nuts!
So, in the Yucatan peninsula if you just drive defensively, like you have to in the states, you should be fine. The 3 accidents we have seen in the past 2 years were all tourist related.
Monday, April 4, 2016
Cancun ExPat.Com blog post by Terri Lane
I'm late to this party, but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents...
We have been living in Cancun for 2 years now. My hubby is here year round and I get down at least once a month (yay for cheap fares).
Santander has been great for our bank. We have timed our deposits well when the exchange rate is in our favor. It was much easier getting our cell phone as well. Without a Mexican bank account, Telcel would have required a hefty deposit. So we have great cell coverage and now we can call and text to the US and Canada for free! You can always get a cheap burner phone without the visa, but you don't get the good deals at all.
If you are going to live here full time, it is worth it to get your residency visa. Yes it is a pain in the ass to do it. They require financials, and lots of other stuff to prove that we aren't going to be on welfare here, and it is not a fast process, but in our opinion it is WELL worth it. We get discounts when we eat at restaraunts, discounts and many stores and it was much easier getting our satallite, telephone and internet. We know quite a few expats that just use their Mexican friends to sign up for all of that. They also have their vehicles in their Mexican friend's name... I love my Mexican friends but don't want to burden them with any of that. So to have the car in our name and to get a license the residency visa is a must.
If you don't want/need a car, have no interest in owning the place in which you live, and don't want a Mexican cell phone, then just do the 180 day visa that you receive when visiting as a tourista. You must leave Mexico for a period of time but can come right back (not sure how many days are required). Like everyone else has said, in Cancun there is always at least one person that speaks English. That being said, we have found that even though we are FAR from fluent (basically beginners) in Spanish, it is far better to at least try to speak in Spanish than just to expect that someone can speak English. Just like in the States, where we believe that if you live in the States you should be able to speak English, we find the same attitude that if you want to live in Mexico you should be able to speak Spanish. Completely fair, in my opinion.
As far as how much you receive from Social Security, if you are applying for residency, they simply want to verify what you recieve. If you are not applying then it doesn't matter at all.
There are areas of El Centro that are absolutely beautiful, wonderful neighborhoods that are quiet and there is great access to all amenities. It sounds like Bassman11 is maybe living over by palapa park? That area of downtown is very busy and noisy, but there are many, many other parts of downtown that are not so. Maybe you should rent a bike and start exploring, so that you can find more areas that are less populated? Just a suggestion.
I wish you all the best in your adventure!
We have been living in Cancun for 2 years now. My hubby is here year round and I get down at least once a month (yay for cheap fares).
Santander has been great for our bank. We have timed our deposits well when the exchange rate is in our favor. It was much easier getting our cell phone as well. Without a Mexican bank account, Telcel would have required a hefty deposit. So we have great cell coverage and now we can call and text to the US and Canada for free! You can always get a cheap burner phone without the visa, but you don't get the good deals at all.
If you are going to live here full time, it is worth it to get your residency visa. Yes it is a pain in the ass to do it. They require financials, and lots of other stuff to prove that we aren't going to be on welfare here, and it is not a fast process, but in our opinion it is WELL worth it. We get discounts when we eat at restaraunts, discounts and many stores and it was much easier getting our satallite, telephone and internet. We know quite a few expats that just use their Mexican friends to sign up for all of that. They also have their vehicles in their Mexican friend's name... I love my Mexican friends but don't want to burden them with any of that. So to have the car in our name and to get a license the residency visa is a must.
If you don't want/need a car, have no interest in owning the place in which you live, and don't want a Mexican cell phone, then just do the 180 day visa that you receive when visiting as a tourista. You must leave Mexico for a period of time but can come right back (not sure how many days are required). Like everyone else has said, in Cancun there is always at least one person that speaks English. That being said, we have found that even though we are FAR from fluent (basically beginners) in Spanish, it is far better to at least try to speak in Spanish than just to expect that someone can speak English. Just like in the States, where we believe that if you live in the States you should be able to speak English, we find the same attitude that if you want to live in Mexico you should be able to speak Spanish. Completely fair, in my opinion.
As far as how much you receive from Social Security, if you are applying for residency, they simply want to verify what you recieve. If you are not applying then it doesn't matter at all.
There are areas of El Centro that are absolutely beautiful, wonderful neighborhoods that are quiet and there is great access to all amenities. It sounds like Bassman11 is maybe living over by palapa park? That area of downtown is very busy and noisy, but there are many, many other parts of downtown that are not so. Maybe you should rent a bike and start exploring, so that you can find more areas that are less populated? Just a suggestion.
I wish you all the best in your adventure!
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