Wednesday, November 30th, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Puerto Vallarta is situated on Mexico’s pacific coast at about the same latitude as Mexico City. At this time of the year, the weather here is just wonderful!

I have been here for almost a month now and with the exception of one cloudy day, it was just a blast of sunshine day after day. In addition, the temperature is pleasantly warm throughout the day without being particularly humid and while it cools down a bit in the evening, it still remains warm enough to comfortably sit outside with a t-shirt. It’s just perfect. To top it off, I love sunsets and the way it is situated on the west coast provides amazing sunsets every day!

Viva México!

Mexican culture has many admirable features.

When I go to a new city, I always like doing long walks instead of going through the trip-advisor tourist-spot checklist. I enjoy this kind of exploring a new place and getting a feeling for it much more. Especially since Mexico has a lot to offer: There are so many colorful and interesting things to be seen all around and occasionally you can even accidentally witness some traditional customs. And the Mexican food is amazing — even for a vegetarian.

One blog described the culture as “rich, colourful and vibrant” . I think this description pinpoints it precisely.

Also, I have heard a lot of concerns about Mexico being a dangerous country. But so far I can say, that I didn’t encounter any situation in which I didn’t feel safe.

Having been traveling a lot, I would say that the basic rule applies here just as anywhere else: Behave with some common sense and things will be fine.

Aspectos negativos

One of the negative aspects here is that the concern and awareness for personal health is quite low. I am generalizing of course, but people don’t really seem to care a lot about implementing a healthy lifestyle.

The amount of obesity, was literally the first thing that me and my friends noticed upon arrival. When we were contemplating about why that is, food was of course our number one culprit.

And indeed, just going through a big supermarket provides the necessary proof.

Right when entering the supermarket, the first thing that catches the eye is a big pack of 12 donuts for 30 pesos (about $1.50). Besides that, while there are also plenty of affordable healthy vegetables and fruits in good quality available, the marketing is definitely aimed towards the junk foods. Standing in the checkout line, a glance in the shopping trolleys ahead confirms the presumption — most of them are filled with garbage. 🫣

On the other hand:

• The smoking rate is very low.
• I see many joggers in the evening and morning time and many of them have a surprisingly good running posture and speed, given their (slightly overweight) body frames.
• There are a lot of gyms and I see a lot of people who are fit, but still have a belly.

→ Case in point: Nutrition accounts for 80% of our health.

A special culprit here in Mexico is Coca Cola!

It is literally everywhere.

Passing by restaurants in the evening you can see the coke bottles on EVERY single table.

Furthermore, when we were driving through Yucatan, we also noticed that even in small townships there are often “Coca Cola” commercials on the walls of buildings.

It is really astonishing to me, how popular this sugar-infusion drink has managed to become here.

According to a Yale University study from 2019, Mexico has the highest soft drink consumption among the most populated countries:

The consumption of Mexico, and to a slightly lesser extent also the U.S., dwarfs the consumption observed in the other countries.

634 servings of 8 ounces results in a total of 5,072 ounces per year. For other Europeans like me, who have no idea what an ounce is, that’s 150 liters.

Thus, on average Mexicans consume almost half a liter of soda a day. That’s a lot!

And I am pretty sure that most of it is coke.

I highly recommend to follow Cristiano Ronaldo’s example:

Definitely one of his best moves ever! 😂