Canadians and Americans travel to Mexico every day - thousands of them. For this reason, you can tell people "I'm going to Mexico" - and they'll shrug and say, "oh yeah." If you say, "yeah, we're renting a car, and driving away from Little America" - they'll look at you in shock, shake your hand and say "well, it's been nice to know ya." I've never gotten sick in Mexico, but when we went into a Meridan groceria, I saw something that made my stomache turn, and thought "wow, I'm surprised I'm alive after all those Caesar Salads and Huevos Ranchero's."
Yes! Those are eggs on a shelf - an unrefrigerated shelf! For the record, whenever we ordered Caesar Salad, the waiter would prepare it in front of us, with the raw egg and all....we never got sick. Despite what we are used to in North America, I have been assured that eggs don't need to be refrigerated, so long as they haven't ever been in a fridge! Shocked us for sure...
I think I should mention something many may not know: Caesar Salad was invented in Mexico!
Here was yet another scene where Leanne and I thought: "Huh?" I mean, for one - you'd never be allowed to strap anything on your car this way, in Canada - and avoid getting pulled over for safety implications...but we didn't even notice that until we got home and looked at the picture again. We were just wondering what the heck this guy had on top of his car! Google is amazing:) It turned out to be a modern water tank, made by "rotoplas." I've since learned these are used all over Latin America. We then observed we had pictures of them in street photographs - but hadn't noticed!
Aside from many things that catch the eye in a foreign country, we were also shocked at the lack of safety regulations in Mexico. Sometimes I wonder why we need so many regulations in Canada, but some things lack common sense...
Leanne took this incredible photograph in Izamal. She snapped it quickly, as they went speeding by.
I'm sure there are many other things we've seen along the way, but didn't have the chance to photograph. Either way - when you explore Yucatan, be on the look-out for strange details and parts of daily-life that may be very different from anything you've seen before :)
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