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Viewing 1 - 9 out of 26 Blogs.
When Yolisto first started in January 2007, it was, quite simply, a clone of the popular classified listing site Craigslist. At the time, there was no classified listing service in Yucatan, no way for Spanish-limited buyers and sellers to connect and interact. At the same time, and completely coincidentally, the real Craigslist introduced an honest-to-goodness Yucatan section of their listings website, which to this day, no one really uses. But that's neither here nor there. If Yolisto was going to survive, our services were going to have to expand.
 At the time, the now-defunct Merida Insider was the central hub for the online community here in Merida and Yucatan. With years and years of information, and an incredibly passionate, loyal member base, the research available to those interested in a move to Yucatan was unparalleled.With an eye toward the then-popular MySpace and still-popular Facebook , we wondered if there might be an opportunity to expand on the idea of a forum-based website. Though we could never match the years of collective experience in Merida Insider's forums, we wondered what would happen if we added photos, videos, event listings, and the ability for our members, any of our members, to contribute articles of interest, and to build a website themselves, out of content they created. Two years later, here we are, with nearly 2,000 Yolisters actively using the site, with over 1,300 photos uploaded, dozens of videos, and a business directory that is rapidly turning into a "go-to" source for anyone looking for an types of professional services. Our forums have grown and turned into not just a downright pleasant place to pass the time, but a place for newcomers and old salts alike to rub elbows and exchange information. Our Articles and Events sections allow anyone to get the word out about current news or upcoming events quickly and easily. And what is at the center of the site? You. Yolisto wouldn't exist if it weren't for our members, who are all working hard to share as much as we can about this land that we all love so, so much. We're not trying to sell you anything: there are no membership fees, no paid newsletters to subscribe to, or books to buy. We've never positioned ourselves as experts, who will share what we know for the right price. At Yolisto, we believe that by virtue of being here, we are ALL the experts, and by coming together and pooling what we know, we can continue to build a resource that can't be matched. Thank you, one and all, for helping to build Yolisto for the last two years. I am incredibly proud of the site we have built, and the community that supports it. And of course, as always, please let me know if there is anything we could be doing better. Your feedback has always been what has driven the development of the site, and what will keep it vibrant, changing, and improving in years to come.
One of my most vivid memories of being ten years old in the US Virgin Islands, is of walking to school under a bright blue sky, broken by the high limbs of gigantic tamarind trees. I would throw rocks at the fruit, or, on lazier days, pick non-rotted fruits off the ground, though this carried a greater risk of finding buggy or moldy fruit. After cracking open the shell, I was delighted by the sour, stringy, mushy fruit inside. The taste varied depending on the ripeness (or rottenness) of the fruit, but that strong flavor, mixed with a tree barkiness, was something I really enjoyed.
Later, I tried tamarind that had been a little more processed, into candies sold in plastic sandwich bags on the street corner. This time, the fruit had tons of granulated sugar added, and the seeds removed, but I didn't find this enhanced the experience much, for me. I wanted that knockout sour flavor, not some kind of processed, namby-pamby mellowing of flavor.
Tamarind flavoring hasn't really caught on in the States, and so it would be twenty years before I had anything tamarind flavored. On moving to Mexico, I was immediately drawn to the tamarind candies that lined supermarket checkouts (though lately, these have been turning more and more into Snickers, Twix, and other, more generic "Northern" candies). Whether in fruit, lollipop, or chewy candy form, these tamarind candies all had one thing in common: they were dipped in chili powder, as is common for many fruits, here, including apricots, mango, and more. Yucatan LOVES this sweet/sour palette confusion.
Though Tamarind Crush gives a satisfying fizz when you open the bottle, the first thing I noticed is that it almost immediately goes flat, when drunk straight from the bottle or, in my case, from a glass over ice. The color is also not immediately enticing...though it is reminicent of the fruit, and even has a slight cloudiness that I would expect from a soda made with this fruit.
The taste is stunningly sharp and tart, first electrifying the tip of your tongue, and then causing a rolling blackout all the way to the back, before finally sizzling down the back of your throat. It makes the lack of carbonation make a little more sense...if this soda were extra fizzy on top of this super sour flavor, it would probably make your face fall off. The tamarind flavor (the result of natural and artificial flavorings) does come through, and I was very happily surprised to detect a barky aftertaste, but the soda is so nauseatingly sweet as to make drinking more than a few ounces of this soda unrealistic.
It's as though the flavor of tamarind has been brought to its ultimate possible level, by way of science, and the results...aren't good. For me, I think the circumstances around eating tamarind will always be what gives me fond memories of the fruit...whether it is being ten years old and eating them on my way to school, or being 31, picking up fallen tamarinds and eating them straight off the ground on the Paseo de Montejo. This electrified, jacked-up soda version just isn't for me.
But, I am going to try adding vodka to it. Tags: Reviews
From the U.S. Consulate: On Monday, December 14 at 7:45pm a consular officer from Merida will hold a U.S. Citizen Town Hall Meeting in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico. This meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn Chetumal – Puerta Maya, Salón Salvador, Avenida Heroes 171, Col. Centro, Chetumal, Quintana Roo, 77000, telephone 983-835-0400. U.S. citizens are welcome to attend the meeting with any questions or concerns. Please be prepared with photocopies of documentation related to any case you wish to present to the consular officer for possible action or follow-up.
This meeting will be preceded by a presentation to Mexican citizens regarding a new visa form that will soon be required for all nonimmigrant visa applicants. Nonimmigrant visas are for Mexican citizens who wish to travel to the U.S. on brief pleasure or business trips. U.S. citizens are welcome to attend this presentation as well, which will start at 7:00pm in the same location. Please note this presentation will be in Spanish. For more information on the new visa form you may also visit Consulate Merida’s website at http://merida.usconsulate.gov/visas.html.
If you plan to attend the meeting if you could please reply to this message with your full name. An RSVP is not required, but we would like to get an idea of how many U.S. citizens will attend. If you know an American who has not registered with the Consulate please encourage them to do so (see instructions below) in order for us to include their email on our distribution list.
We look forward to meeting you!
For the latest security information, Americans traveling abroad should regularly monitor the State Department's Internet web site at www.travel.state.gov where the current Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, Travel Warnings and Public Announcements can be found. Up to date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the United States, or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). The State Department’s main line can be reached at 1-202-647-4000.
American citizens traveling or residing overseas are encouraged to register with the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate on the State Department's travel registration website at www.travelregistration.state.gov. By registering, American citizens make it easier for the Embassy or Consulate to contact them in case of emergency.
The U.S. Consulate in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, has responsibility for the Mexican States of Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Campeche. The Consulate can be reached during its regular business hours (M-F, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) by telephone at 999-942-5700; by fax at 999-942-5777; and by email at consularmerida@state.gov. After hours, for emergencies involving U.S. citizens, call the Consulate’s main number and follow instructions to be connected to the Merida duty officer.
There are Consular Agencies located in Cancun, Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Consular Agencies handle routine and emergency U.S. citizen cases only. Please note they do not process visas and cannot answer questions about visas.
CONSULATE MERIDA (Calle 60 No. 338-K x 29 y 31, Colonia Alcala Martin, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico) Main switchboard dialing from the US: 011-52-999-942-5700 Main switchboard dialing from outside Merida but within Mexico: 01-999-942-5700 After-hours duty officer dialing from the US (Nextel): 011-52-999-305-1417 After-hours duty officer dialing from outside Merida but within Mexico (Nextel): 045-999-305-1417
CONSULAR AGENCY CANCUN (Plaza Caracol , second level, no. 320-323, Boulevard Kukulcan, km. 8.5, Zona Hotelera, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico) Office dialing from the US: 011-52-998-883-0272 Office dialing from outside Cancun but within Mexico: 01-998-883-0272
CONSULAR AGENCY COZUMEL (Plaza Villa Mar en el Centro, Plaza Principal, (Parque Juárez between Melgar and 5th Avenue) 2nd floor, locales #8 and 9, Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico) Office dialing from the US: 011-52-987-872-4574 Office dialing from outside Cozumel but within Mexico: 01-987-872-4574
CONSULAR AGENCY PLAYA DEL CARMEN ("The Palapa," Calle 1 Sur, between Avenida 15 and Avenida 20, Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico) Office dialing from the US: 011-52-984-873-0303 Office dialing from outside Playa Del Carmen but within Mexico: 01-984-873-0303
In our old lives in New York, if you needed to go to the DMV for any reason whatsoever, you had to take the day off from work. The location in Midtown was a huge, auditorium-sized room, where you would take your number and sit for hours while you waited for someone to bother to help you.
It was with this impression, then, that we were absolutely dreading going to the motor vehicle department here to get our driver's licenses. If the process was that notoriously bad in the States, how could we possibly hope for anything better in a country so obsessed with bureaucracy and paperwork? What a pleasant surprise, then, to be in and out of the DMV next to Chedraui in Merida Norte in less than an hour, with fresh new driver's licenses in our hot little hands. Indeed...Mexico has figured out how to make a functioning, highly efficient department of motor vehicles. The whole process isn't unlike the way fast food restaurants work. The DMV (your license is actually issued by the "Gobierno del Estado de Yucatan Secretaria de Seguridad Publica,"but we'll continue calling it the DMV) is staffed by about 15 people, who all have just one job to do in the process, before passing you along to the next person. Sure, it takes an army of staff to run the office, but the whole thing is smooth, and you never feel like you are waiting, since you are constantly moving through people. There is a lady at the window to do a preliminary check of your paperwork. We didn't have enough copies of our FM3s, a requirement for getting a license here, so she passed us to the copy girl. 8 pesos worth of copies later, we were handed over to a third person, who filled out our forms for us. Moving down the counter, we next met a doctor who performed an eye exam. Next to her, a nurse pricked my finger to determine my blood type, on-site. Then, we were led into a small examination room and given the written test. It's on a computer, in English, and is pretty common-sense stuff, with three multiple choice answers for each. There are ten questions, and you can get two wrong and still pass. I did get two wrong (something about where to put out cones in the event of a breakdown, which, coming from a less cone-crazy country, I didn't know the answer to), but that was good enough. I was ushered outside for my "road test." It is still kind of astonishing to me that people are cut loose on the highways following this test. The entire test consists of parallel parking, on your left side, between two cones. I got it on my first try, but it's my understanding they will let you take a few passes at it, pushing the cones farther apart each time. That was it! Park the car, go back inside, pay your 203 pesos at the desk, get your picture taken, and poof...you're a Yucatecan Licensed Driver, First Class. Start to finish, the entire procedure took less than an hour, and we wondered why we had waited so long. In fact, when we woke up this morning planning to get our licenses, we never imagined that the day would actually, um, end with our having licenses. With a smooth, painless morning, the USA could take a lesson from the Mexican DMV.
During the norte last Tuesday, the transformer in front of our house got knocked out of commission. We lost power, and in spite of frantic calls to CFE, 24 hours later, our power had still not been restored.
On Wednesday night, with about an hour of daylight left, a slowly-warming refirgerator filled to bursting with Thanksgiving food, and my family arriving the next day, we realized we were going to have to make other arrangements. With only three or four houses knocked out, we were not going to be high on CFE's priority list, and if we wanted to pull off this Thanksgiving, we were going to have to take matters into our own hands. Earlier in the day, Jillian had shared our tale of woe with a sympathetic audience at TACOMAYA, where she was using their free WiFi service to try and get online. Everyone really listened, and tried to offer advice. Jillian remembered being offered a generator by "a man with a beard," who's name we won't mention, in case he doesn't want to be inundated with generator-loan requests. I feel I should also add that this man does not, in fact, have a beard. That wasn't really enough information to track down this mysterious, generous gentleman, but we knew who would know. We whipped over to Roadie's house, convinced she could help. Within moments, Roadie had made a few phone calls and was escorting us to Generator Man's house, where he stopped what he was doing to load his 7500 watt bad-boy into our truck. By sundown, we had the house back up and running. An hour AFTER sundown, our savior even swung by the house to make sure we had gotten everything set up smoothly. The next day, Roadie stopped by to offer to let us use her kitchen. We got private messages from people offering to give us missing ingredients to our recipes. We went and collected our succulent, 24-pound smoked turkey, thoughtfully prepared by lizard. Thanks to the efforts of the people in the neighborhood, we managed Thanksgiving, and we were floored. It was an amazing afternoon, made possible by the big hearts of the people around us, and it made me so, so proud to be a part of this community. Things can get a little crazy, living here, and we all go through crises like these from time to time. What is a wonderful thing to be able to count on, though, is that everyone goes through days like this sooner or later, and having the shoulders of your neighbors to lean on makes all the difference in the world. This Thanksgiving, Jillian and I were thankful for all of you. Thanks.
We are receiving reports from Telchac Puerto all the way to Chuburna of dozens of Portuguese Men O' War (or is it Mans O' War?) washing up on the shores.
Portuguese Men O' War are identified by their blue-colored inflated sacks that look somewhat like plastic bags. These sacks float above the water, where winds push the creatures along. Their tentacles hang below the surface, sometimes reaching lengths of up to 20 feet. Portuguese Men O' War pack a nasty sting, stronger than a jellyfish, and leaving welts that can last for days.  Our concern today is that usually, when you see a few washed up on shore, it means that there are many more in the ocean, since they are usually grouped by winds or currents into the thousands. With this in mind, we are suggesting Yolisto members stay out of the water for a few days. For more information, here is the Wikipedia entry on these beasts. Enjoy getting the shivers.
The new features just keep on coming, as today, we introduce the new Yolisto Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page!
One of the complaints we keep seeing arise both on our forums and other regional sites is a lack of one, common, permanent place to house the answers that inevitably come up again and again. Khaki and I have been hard at work for weeks getting a section of the site set up for this. In the future, we can include downloads for documents that people need, and much more. The questions that we have included are just to get the page started, and we hope we can count on many submissions from our Yolisters to help develop this section of the site into a "one-stop shop" for information about the area. Here's how it will work, for now. If you have a question, or if you know of a question that seems to get asked a lot, type it into the "ask" box at the top of the page. We'll research the answer, and get it added to the FAQ, usually in a couple of days. And if we can't figure out the answer, we'll post the question in the forums, for you to offer your suggestions. We hope you enjoy this new feature of the site, and will help us shape it into a great resource!
We are very happy to report that after nearly two years of being plagued by forum-related login problems, we have finally resolved them by changing the way our forum software works.
Though the new forum system may lack some of the features of the previous software, we are confident that all of the features that our members actually used have been replicated in a solution that runs native in Yolisto. This means that there will no longer be login problems related to using the forums, and the forums will more tightly integrate with the rest of the site. In addition to showing recently replied to topics on the home page, we are now also displaying your individual forum activity on your profile page. Cool, huh? In addition, we were able to preserve and migrate over all of the existing forum topics and posts. As you browse through the new forums section, you may see some artifacts from the old software, in particular, the way URLs and quotes were handled have left some weird code behind. The old forum software used specialized code to display these items, which was not able to be properly translated to work with the new system. We felt it was more important to preserve the existing posts and topics, and will be slowly editing posts by hand to remove these shreds of old code. (You can help with this effort...if you see one of your posts has junk code in it, please take a moment to edit your post to remove it.) This has been a big problem on Yolisto for a long time, and finding a solution, while preserving the original forum content, has been difficult. This project has been a long time in the making, and I hope you enjoy the changes.
Hello fellow Yolisters!
I am very happy to report that we have finally completed a major upgrade to the YOpages, our own directory of expat-friendly local businesses. This somewhat new section of the site has been pretty successful so far, and the changes and new features we have added should make this section of the site even more useful to anyone trying to figure out how to get something done, and for local businesses to get the attention they deserve. Here's a rundown of the major new things you can do: News Feed: Businesses can now publish news directly to the main page of the YOpages, eliminating the need to created forum posts or news articles about, say, an art opening, or a dinner special. Now you can post news about your business straight from your business listing page, and it will get added to the main directory page. Also, there is an RSS feed for business news, so people can subscribe directly to the feed for YOpages business news. Now, it's easier than ever to keep your customers informed about events, specials, or coupons. Claim System: If there is a business you really think should be included in the YOpages, but it isn't there yet, you can now create a listing for it with the tag that it is "unclaimed." Any unclaimed listings can be "claimed" by their actual owners, if they become Yolisto members, and then they can update their listing normally. Essentially, the listing you create gets "transferred" to their account. Business Documents: You can now attach several different file types to your listing. This is perfect for attaching restaurant menus, business cards, or coupons to your YOpages listing. Favorites: You can now add a business to your "Favorites," which will get saved to the Favorites tab of the YOpages for quick reference later. Small Tweaks: The features mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg...we've also made tons of tweaks and fixes to the search tool, layout, image handling, and much more. You're just going to have to check it out for yourself to see all the new features. And remember, creating your YOpages listing for your business is still totally FREE. Enjoy, and be sure to let us know what you think! |
The problem is, I don't, so much. Once again, further processing tamarind flavor, this time by both sweetening it AND adding spicy chili powder, wasn't satisfying those childhood memories of eating the fruit fresh from the tree. I'm not sure, then, what drew me to purchase the "Nuevo Crush Tamarindo" soda that I found in a local tienda. Surely, if over-processing of tamarind flavor was what I found to be such a turn-off, there was no way that the Crush soda people were going to do anything responsible with it. Have any among us, when craving either oranges or grapes, satisfied that craving with their Crush soda counterparts? I thought not.
