Chetumal is a city located on the boarder of México and Belize, in the Yucatán Peninsula. Spanish is the main language spoken by the people of Chetumal, but many native families and older generations speak the traditional Mayan language of the tribes that lived in the Yucatán originally. There are also many visitors from Belize who come and speak Kriol and English.
México uses the peso as their national currency. There are paper bills ranging from 20 pesos to 1000 pesos, and you will see prices written similarly to the United States: $150 MX, for example is 150 pesos. It is also very popular to use coins in Chetumal, which are called ‘monedas’, and they can be from $10, $5, $2, and $1 MX to ten centavos (cents).
A bottle of water costs about ten pesos in Chetumal. If 20 pesos is around one U.S. dollar, than that makes a bottle of water… 50 cents!
This week when I was traveling, I got to try a traditional Yucatec dish called Papadzules. They look similar to enchiladas, but with this meal a corn tortilla is filled with hard boiled eggs, baked and then covered in a sauce made of pumpkin seeds.
