Student Essay: What is like to live in Felipe Carrillo Puerto
By Ana Plasceres Orozco
Felipe Carrillo Puerto is the heart of the mayan culture, it is located in Quintana Roo, Mexico. It was founded around 1850. Here is where I have been living my whole life. It is a nice place to live: quiet and safe, it is a small city with more than 30,000 people. If you are thinking to move from your country to another place, keep reading because I will talk about three topics of what is like to live in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the people and enviroment, the traditional food and some of the turistic places you can visit.
First of all, my city is a safe place to live. Most of the people are friendly so you can feel comfortable for example with your neighbours, they are kind and help each other, you can knock on their door and I am pretty sure they will help you and give you an advise in case you need it. Carrillo Puerto is surounded by small towns called comunidades, most of the people speaks maya, so, if you like to learn new things, besides Spanish, you could learn the mayan dialect. The people there, are very generous regardless if they have a little or a lot to give you. Many students come from comunidades to study high school and university. Here in my city, there are many children that go to school by themselves either walking or riding their bicicles. Some parents have a custom of bringing breakfast every morning to their schools.
The traditional food is known for its spicy and hot flavour. We have a very typical pepper that is called habanero, this is very hot and people cooks it in different ways. One of my favorites elements in mayan cuisine is masa (it is a dough made of corn). I really love eating different types of dishes made of masa, such as empanadas: they are like quesadillas but the difference is that, when the masa is raw, you fill it (with cheese, meat or chicken) and you fold it until it is completly closed, then you fried it in a pan. You can eat them in the downtown market, in restaurants or in other places around Carrillo. The name of another typical dishes are relleno negro, cochinita pibil, panuchos, salbutes, tamales and brazo de reina. There is a traditional snack, I guess is my favorite, marquesitas, they are like creppes completely rolled and filled with a region cheese (called queso de bola), you can also order it with other stuff like Nutella, condensed milk, jam or Hershey’s chocolate, they are sold in the evening at the central park of Carrillo Puerto, it is eaten by all ages, you really want to try it!
On the other hand, Carrillo is very well located geographically speaking because it is between the capital of Quintana Roo (Chetumal) and Cancun, therefore you can move to many turistic places, for example: Tulum and Mahahual that are beautiful beaches where you can do snorkel and water activities, if you like boating adventures and nature, I recommend you to go to a beautiful tour in a small town named Punta Allen, it is around 2.5 hours away from Tulum, where you will see dolphins, turttles and birds in their natural habitat: the blue marvelous ocean of Quintana Roo.
Another sites to visit can be Bacalar (a very beautiful lagoon where you can go by yourself or hire a boat tour and there is also an historic place called Fuerte San Felipe), archeological sites (such as Muyil, Cobá and Chacchoben), the ecotourism centre Siijil Noh Ha, and variuos cenotes (they are sweet water wells), its name stands for the mayan word Dz'onot wich means cavern with water. I could mention more wonderful turistic atractions around here but it wouldn’t fit in this essay.
In conclusion, if you like to live in a quiet city I definetely recommend you Felipe Carrillo Puerto. You can learn Spanish and the mayan dialect at Na’atik Institute of Languages and Cultures, my English school. You need to try the different flavours of the mayan cuisine, as well as visit the gorgeous places around here that I mentioned you before. You can feel safe because there is quite a difference between living here and living in a big city where you could find much more violence and insecure areas. If you come from a big city and you are not sure of living in a small city, come visit us and make your decision. You are always one decision away from a totally different life!
