Yorch Place

On monday the canadian government established that starting July 14th all mexicans needed visas to visit Canada, that's their right to do, but just one day notice!

The reason was that many mexicans ask for a refugee status upon arrival in Canada, and most where fraudulent, why? because we are not at war, not a dictatorship, just economic issues, and some clever dude is "helping" some people to move to Canada and having full rights pretending to be refugees.

The Canadian refugee program is the most naive in the world, they accept petitions from any country even those that have "good country" status, like the UK or the USA, it is funny also that they better affect the tourism than solve the real problem, just add mexicans to a list of "not eligible for refugee status" and don't affect the tourism that leaves (only from mexicans) $300 million dollars every year, many of my friends visited Canada because they didn't needed a visa.

But the damage was done, so the canadian government was prepared to the visa process... Sadly no!

The staff at the Canadian embassy is not prepared, they don't have the man power, nor the facilites to provide the required visas, so on tuesday morning thousands of mexicans arrived at the canadian consulates and embassy to ask for the visa, only to find out that the only consulate giving them is located in Mexico city, we are a large country and with many international airports, so if you live in Cancun you have to travel to Mexico city to get a visa, that is $300 us dollars for a plane ticket plus all other expenses or 20 hours of driving plus all expenses, and consider that Canada has a consulate in Cancun.

Also the embassy staff is asking to leave all your documents in original including passport in a box at the entrance of the embassy, they don't give any receipt for the important documents, so if they lost them, you are screwed.

How I would had handle this...

If I were the canadian prime minister I would ask for visa to all the traveler that buy tickets after July 14th, people who already has tickets don't need visas, also I would announce this in off season, not at the start of tourist season, in order to not affect the industry. Plus enableling all canadian consulates to give visas, not just Mexico City's consulate, and with a clearer process, the US has a really good process and handles way more people in a more efficient form.

So Canada, I agree that people were abusing you innocent refugee program, but visas aren't the answer, just a revision of the program and a creation of list of countries that can ask for visas.

On thursday the company I work for sent me to Morelia, the city is located 120 kilometers south of Queretaro, but due to poor infrastructure you have to drive north first then go south, so in time, it is far, 3 hours by bus.

Morelia is the capital of the state of Michoacan, one of que poorest in the country, but very rich in culture and natural resources.

Morelia was a very important city in times of the viceroyalty, so it has a magnificent historic district.

Lucky for me my hotel was located just across the cathedral and the main plaza. So even though I arrived at midnight I could see some touristic spots and buildings.

Last time I went to Morelia that part of the city was full of street vendors and dirt, not anymore, is clean and pretty, well lit, and so far safe, at least I felt safe, the amount of people around help me feel safe.

Here some photos...

The National Geographic Traveler Magazine has a rating for all touristic places and Queretaro was ranked as 13th in the world, 2nd in latinamerica and 1st in Mexico.

This rating is not based in the number of visitor per year, but instead for what the place has to offer and the quality of everything.

You can check the rating in: traveler.nationalgeographic.com

For work reasons I went to the city and port of Veracruz, it is, in my humble opinion, the best beach city in Mexico, is not touristic, which in Mexico means it is a real city, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, any other beach town you think of is like Disneyland, fake, great but fake, why, well everything is about the tourist, the mexican food is so fake in those places, over mexicanized, while this city is large, like a million people, and the economy is diversify, industry, port, tourism, commerce, petroleum (pemex) and other stuff too.

I stay in the metro area of Boca del Rio, 10km from the downtown, I walk that one day thinking it was a shorter distance.

I truly say that of the beach towns and cities this is the only one I could live, because it is a real city, with all the things yo need of a city, and an affordable price (Cancun, Pto Vallarta and others are so overprice)

Visit it if yo can, it is a good place to be.

After a week in the city of Puebla, which is like "the door to the south" of mexico, from Puebla you know that already are in the south of Mexico, but still near the center or in the center.

A fountain near my hotel, in a park, the design of the fountain is great, the architect used tiles (something emblematic of Puebla), a little dirty, but still can be pretty, creepie at night (not enough light)

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