By Frida Nahuat Gómez

Felipe Carrillo Puerto is a small city in the state of Quintana Roo, is a great place to ride a bike or go for walk, there is not a lot of people or cars or pollution, there is fresh air and a lot of hot as well but in this essay, I am going to talk about what is like to live in Carrillo from my perspective, how is like to move from place to place, how is the food, some festivities and comment some experiences that I lived. 

I have been living in Carrillo for almost 16 years … yes, my whole life , and I have to admit that I actually like living here, I like to go to track on my bike with my friends, walking  back home from school with them or jog in the streets as my sport routine, in my mind all of this can be possible because of how small this place is, considering I am a teenager I think that if I live in a big city I could not do all of this stuffs because there will  be a lot of cars or trains or my house will be so far from where I am .

First of all, a good thing that I like about living in Carrillo is that all the places are near to each other so it takes you 5 minutes to go somewhere. When I have to go school I set my alarm for 6:10 am and it takes me 40-45 minutes to get ready to go to school and even if I am done getting ready at 6:55 I can get to school at 7:01 which is early taking into consideration that I left my house 5 min before my enter hour, this is possible not only because my house is close to school, but it also has to do with the fact that there is no traffic like in a normal Monday in a big city, that the whole streets  are full of cars going to  work or taking their kids to school. Also, you can go on your bike if you don’t have a car or just if you like to, without caring if someone is going to run over you, I know all of us are exposed to this but I think here we are freer for that to happen.

On the other hand, I want to talk about the food,  the central park is a good place to go to eat some snacks, I like to go for an ice cream,  it has a different flavor from the ice creams that we bought in the supermarket, I feel it more homemade, or you can eat esquites that is a bowl of raw corn kernels and toppings that you decide what do you want to put on, but the most usual combination is with sour cream, fresh cheese, a spoon of hot homemade sauce and I like to add some chips like Takis or Cheetos on the top, I am also a fan of marquesitas which is a dessert in a form of a rolled crepe stuffed with lechera or Nutella, strawberry jam, a cheese called queso de bola or you can make a combination, my favorite marquesita is with Nutella and queso de bola. This dessert is not made in every state in Mexico, so we have the luck that people make it  here and we can eat It whenever we want to.

Also, I want to talk about one festivity that a lot of Mexicans make that Carrillo has, on November first we celebrate the “DÍA DE MUERTOS” and it’s a big festivity that the town celebrates where people give offerings to their loved ones who no longer accompany them, they make a big altar full of flowers, food, toys for kids, candles and more that just make it look attractive and full of joy. Most families make tamales that is a typical food here or make pozole that is a traditional soup with corn kernels that I like, this festivity is great to spend time with our family, in my case my whole family meets in my grandma’s or auntie’s house we eat lunch together, tell old stories or anecdotes of those who are not with us or just catch up.  

I have good memories of this festivity so I get excited every time we will see each other for this, that is why I think this type of traditions makes family more united and it does not matter if you don’t have a family living here, your friends will make you part of their family and will take you with them and spend a great time as well, because here the people love big parties so you will have a place to go. 

In conclusion Carrillo Puerto is a good place to live, I like to stay here while am I teenager, I can go out and do many things because it is calm, small and people recognize you or know you, so they will see if you are  okey, I spend a good time with my friends or family every time I see them, even we don't have as many places to go as the city has, you can have a great time with the people you love, and that is something that I realized through the years, so many good people lives here and you will have a great company like I found, so Carrillo it is a nice place to stay for a while.