Information Central

I get quite a few emails from people asking various information about what they have read. I guess they landed on the blog by doing a search on one of the engines.
Lot's of times because of some keyword or phrase that I have placed into a sloppily prepared and edited paragraph.

I know that's how I found a few of the blogs and from that found a few more and finally selected a handful of ones that I read regularly and interact by email or by person with their authors. I have built kind of a relationship with some of these folks, kind of like walking down to the general store and sitting around the warm pot bellied stove, while whittling down a piece of scrap pine or other wood.

Before I got to reading blogs there were a few bulletin boards, or BBS that had stuff on Mexico. IN fact pre AOL days there was a company called CompuServe that had the largest selection of BBS's and Usenets.

Usenets are still around, but it has probably been 4 or 5 years since I bothered looking one up. The have a variety of usenets or usergroups with tons of information both correct and incorrect. The usenets also had the problem of being mostly un-moderated so there was a lot of pretty weird stuff on them.

After a while they seems to have been populated with useless postings of various sex or other pretty tasteless stuff.
At least with the present blogs what I have seen has been decent non confrontational other than tongue in check from a few expert tossers of BS.

There are tons of experts and expats on the blog world.
Many questions that are asked of me are basic ones like how's the weather there?
Or can you find Stokley's VandeCamp BBQ beans, which mayonnaise is sold, Best Foods or Hellmans ?

There are lot of other more basic questions about TV Satellite reception or Internet access since some of the search engines have latched on to my profile description and may explain why I get asked some of those never ending queries.

But for the most part the questions are about simple south of the border info that is around but sometimes hard to find.
If you look at some of the people that write blogs you will find a large wall of knowledge from personal experiences and education. Information from immigration applications and getting the FM3's to how long they have to wait to get them to where the best place to pick up a bottle of whole Italian style stewed tomatoes.

That's probably why I love the blogs and they enjoy the people that write them.

Here are a few of the ones that if you haven't found yet, you should take a look at.
What I have found is not only do these writers have information, but if you double click on the listings that they have and refer to it will send you to a wider web of valuable information which is the salvation of the Internet, contrary to what the business who run Canadian Pharmaceutical mail order companies want you to believe. In addition to the information you will often find awesome photographs of their locations and snapshots into their experiences.......

Here are a few that you should have in your arsenal.

If you happen to enjoy Food and Cooking with a crusty baker, look at http://mexkitchen.blogspot.com it is written by Don Cuevas, who also dabbles in great restaurant reviews and hotel information. on his other blog called Surviving La Vida Buena. http://cocinamexicana.blogspot.com
He is a local Patzcuaro resident and has been enjoying the highlands and Mexico travel for years.
Great cook too!

If you have some hankering for basic good Mexican soul food the kind that is consumed by families then look no further than at Leslie's blog: http://www.lacocinadeleslie.com
Her cooking and recipes are what I reach for when I just want to makes something tasty and simple without all kinds of hoopla and I know it will be a great finish.

And finally on the cooking circuit that has tons of local Michoacan information is Mexico Cooks, at http://mexicocooks.typepad.com It is written by Christina and the neat thing about her blog is that she adds tons of local history mixed in with great resource material of local food.

Enough for food.......

Local Color and Life

Another local Patzcuaro resident is Felipe Zapata, a professional newspaper man, who has traveled the Continent in search of the perfect scoop. He as a few blogs and has a must read nonsense blog called Peeks at Mexico go to: mexicopeeks.blogspot.com

He is probably the reason that I started writing down my thoughts, kind of an inspiration of someone who is a magnificent writer, enjoyable to read whatever he happens to scribe. He has several blogs but his main one is called Tales of Zapata, tzuru4.blogspot.com
There is an information central with added benefit of a vast research of history into Mexico. This railroad troubleshooter who grew up in the Windy City up North, now resides in Guanajuato which is in the highlands of NorthCentral Mexico.
Mexico Bob is an Renaissance Man, a history researcher, who is taken up doing art painting and best of all his blog topics explore the history and interaction of his newly adopted country. He has been an influence in me wanting to delve into more than just the first page of a topic. Check out his blog at: Mexico Bob mexicobob.blogspot.com/

I have a fellow blogger who resides in the coastal town of Mazatlan. She recently did a quick synopsis of a plethora of common questions and answers that I think all of us who have spent more than a month or two have been asked. Nancy is a local in Mazatlan who has taken the task of purchasing an old house and remodeling it to it's past glory. Check out her blog especially her latest information post at: www.countdowntomexico.com She has a great quick review that anyone thinking of visiting or even retiring in the Mazatlan area will find valuable.

And lastly but not in the least there are bloggers that simply share their daily on going adventures, from how they purchase their daily milk and seafood, to writers that share their retirement escapades of adventures ranging from broken ankles to unrecognizable bugs in their abode while fending off limb eating crocodiles. There are blogs of families that have ventured into Mexico for a year or two, uprooting their kids in order to provide a learning experience for them. There are blogs of single women, single men, gay, straight , in between and almost anything your mind could imagine.
One of my projects will be to assemble a small guide to topical bloggers that have some words to say in Mexico. One thing that is easy to do is check out the people that comment on the blogs you read. You will be surprised of the variety of folks out there.