May 19, 2024 • 39 mins
Imagine stumbling upon a new life in the sun-drenched Riviera Maya, complete with vibrant music, transformative art, and the thrill of underwater exploration. That's precisely the journey Canadian-born Natalie Novak Perez took, and in this episode, she takes us through the twists and turns of her incredible expat experience. From serendipity in love to becoming a local icon through her melodic and artistic prowess, Natalie's story is as colorful and inviting as the murals she's helped to splash across Akumal.
Strap in for a ride through Natalie's eclectic contributions to the local music and art scenes, where her accidental foray into community projects gave rise to a festival that left the town awash in unity and beauty. The harmonious chords of her life extend to her music career, as she recounts her evolution from hesitant soloist to a seasoned performer with an array of bands and venues. Natalie's narrative is a symphony of life's unexpected compositions, a reminder of the rich tapestry woven from our passions and pursuits.
Our finale hits a crescendo with 'Que Padre, Que Malo,' where the peaks and pitfalls of expat living in Mexico take center stage. As Natalie and I trade tales of personal victories and shared concerns, we invite you to dive into the warm community waters of Mexico's music and culture. Whether you're an expat, a traveler, or simply a dreamer of distant shores, join us for a conversation that promises to leave you inspired, connected, and perhaps ready to find your own mural to paint in the canvas of life.
We are incredibly thankful for engagement and stories from our listeners, who have found their own sense of 'home' across the globe. Stay tuned as we continue to share the wisdom and wanderlust of those who've charted their unique international courses. We'd love to hear your comments and questions. Email them to expatslikeus@gmail.com
For more information and content, follow Expats Like Us on Facebook and YouTube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've always just gone out and shown up and asked to
share a stage and I let lots ofpeople go up that I don't know
online.
I had the Kansas center to theother day, right, like,
especially if you're on vacation, like you can control who has a
video of that.
You're going to get better.
They're working with morepeople, so go up and and try,
(00:22):
and that's how you meet more andmore musicians.
Most often it is by getting outand getting up there.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome to Expats Like Us exploring the world of
US expat life in Mexico.
In each episode we'll meet newpeople and hear their personal
stories.
We'll also learn more about theexpat life and get a few tips
on everything from making yourmove to settling in and living
your dream.
Let's dive in.
I'm your host, bob Busse, andI'm Chris Kamalski.
(00:56):
Today.
We're thrilled to be talkingwith our friend and part-time
expat, natalie Novak Perez.
When Sherry and I first movedhere a couple years ago, one of
our new friends invited us to gosee live entertainment at one
of the beach bars nearby.
She said it was a special nightbecause Natalie was performing
that night.
(01:16):
We were introduced to Natalie'samazing talent and have seen
her perform quite a few times,since Natalie's a popular
performer.
Besides her musicalperformances, she's also an
artist who works on some of theamazing murals we see around
Acomal and, if that wasn'tenough, she's a very active
diver.
Natalie's here to share herexperience in moving here, at
least part-time to the RivieraMaya and adapting to life here.
(01:39):
We also want to hear about howshe discovered and perfected her
talents.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Thanks for coming, Natalie.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hey, tell us about your life before Mexico and how
you ended up coming here.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I was finishing up university when I was in Canada
before I moved here and I met myhusband when I was on vacation
oh cool.
And I actually lived in Belizewhen I was in high school a
little bit, and just before Istarted university I did my dive
master course in Belize andthen I was going to university
(02:13):
and then I met my now husbandand visited him on my way to
Belize and never made it toBelize.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Have you been to Belize since then?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We did go, and visit my friends there later, on,
years later.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
How many years ago was that?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh gosh, more than 15 .
More like 20.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Okay, very good.
When you did first come here toRiviera Maya, what brought you
to this specific place?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I came to Acoma the first time when I was six or
seven, on a vacation with myparents, and there was like
nothing there, like Playa delCarmen.
Had one hotel and one phone andyou would pay by the minute to
use it and we called mygrandparents mid-vacation
between the two weeks to tellthem we were alive, like it was
like that, right, but I hadn'tbeen since.
(03:04):
Alive like it was like that,right, yeah, but I hadn't been
since, um.
And then we decided to go on afamily vacation when I was in my
20s, which we really hadn'tdone since I was a teenager.
And, uh, that was when I methyven um, my husband and um.
He was a lot of fun and veryoutgoing.
And then I was going to comeback and and go back to Belize
(03:25):
again in the summers, because Iwas managing a hotel and spa
there in the summers fromuniversity and I was a
backpacker and Cancun was acheaper flight.
So I visited him on my way andthen he showed me the area and
it had grown and it wasbeautiful and convinced me to
stay.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Very cool and the rest is history, as they say.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Snuck up on me.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So what was it like to adapt when you first got here
?
What are the things that youhad to adapt to?
One of the themes of thispodcast is adapting to life in
Mexico.
What are some of the thingsthat you had to adapt to?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
When I first got here , staying here was remarkably
complicated.
There was a point when I wasworking managing the Akumal Dive
shop and they were doing mypaperwork, where the
instructions were.
Your paperwork is now finished.
What you need to do is you needto go to this store a
(04:22):
papilleria buy three copies ofthis form.
Then go to this store apapilleria.
Buy three copies of this form.
Then go to this hallway andfind this one guy who owns a
typewriter, who is the onlyperson who is allowed to fill in
this form.
Then you need to take that tothe bank.
Then you need to give thempesos.
If you need to do an exchange.
You have to go through the linetwice and then you have to be
back here in an hour.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's like a scavenger hunt.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
That is kind of quintessential doing business in
Mexico, isn't it that a lot ofa lot of the expats figure that
out after all, but that's almostan extreme case right there 15,
20 years ago.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, afterthat I'm a lot more patient when
some things take longer.
But it's also amazing thethings that happen faster here
too that you don't see coming.
So you can be surprised in bothdirections.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, what's an example of something that
happens faster here?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
My husband renewed his passport in like two days or
a day or something.
Mine takes considerably longer.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Happy hour is over quicker, exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And then it's sad time.
Yeah Right, it's, it's sad time.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah Right, it's non-happy hour.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So, in your opinion, what are some of the most
important things people shouldthink about before making the
move to the Riviera Maya oranywhere else?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I think people often arrive thinking really long term
, really long-term, and you needto be here a little while
before you start thinking reallylong-term, because I've seen a
lot of people come and arrivesaying I'm going to live here
forever and most of those peopleare gone really quickly,
whereas the people who are like,oh, I'm going to check it out
for a month and then see where Ilike and then figure it out,
(06:00):
they usually stay longer.
They kind of don't approach itwith an all or nothing.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If you approach it with all or nothing, you're,
you're all in, and then you'renot, because you find out.
It's not what you thought itwas going to be you know, yeah,
yeah, and we, we meet peoplelike that all the time yeah so
what sort of unexpected thingsthat maybe surprised you when
you got here.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It was long ago.
Things keep surprising me nowyou know Um I'm I'm surprised at
how fast everything is growing.
Right Um and I've beensurprised for a very long time,
while it's continued to grow,and I mean with progress, I mean
(06:57):
on one side.
Pardon me, should be rootingfor tourism, because I'm a scuba
diver and I'm a singer andthose things are easier with
people On another level.
I'm rooting for the reef andthe jungle.
So yeah, the rate at whichthings have gotten bigger and
are more accessible.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Every time I go to Tulum I'm like what there's like
a burger cake on the mainstreet.
We both, chris and I, have bothbeen here three years this
summer and, yeah, I was justremarking the other day in Playa
del Carmen how things havechanged just in that short a
time.
You come here and you thinkit's just going to be like that,
but there's always growth andnew places, and old places you
loved are gone and new placeshave popped up.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I feel like people expect it to be the same because
it is their vacation.
So when anything changes inAcoma, there's a whole bunch of
hopes about how it's not how itwas.
I'm like.
Neither is my hometown inCanada.
Everything is growing, so it'sa surprise and I'm surprised by
both when they change, I'm stillone of those people on the
inside going oh my God, it's nothow it was.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I can't part of it too.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, we're going to takea break and we'll be back.
(08:43):
We're back with Natalie.
By the way, you are a personhere you're the only person I
know in Mexico who isrecognizable by one name.
It's like in the in the States.
It's like Elvis or Liberace orsomebody like.
That is one name here.
If you say Natalie, everybodyknows who you're talking about,
right, have you noticed?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
that.
Has anyone ever told you thatbefore?
Yeah, there's two parts to it.
One I moved here before myparents.
When they arrived they becameNatalie's parents not their own
people for a bunch of the time.
Now they seen in years, stayedin the Serenis Resort, which is
just down the road from Akamal,and said to the concierge oh, I
(09:29):
want to go to Akamal, why, I'mlooking for my friend Natalie
and he's like I could get hernumber from my brother and I get
a text message.
Someone from my hometown ishere and they want to see you.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's almost in that way.
It's almost like living in avery small town in the United
States or Canada or somethingyou know like a really small
town, like 50 people town.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
And I actually live in the Pueblo, not on the beach
side and not in a gatedcommunity, so I I walk my dog
twice a day and most of thepeople who work everywhere like
know me.
So I mean I had friends whowere like, oh, come to our
all-inclusive and I was likethat's okay.
They're like, oh, we have anextra bracelet and I'm like that
would never work they'd see youa mile away.
(10:16):
Yeah, but that would never workbefore we even think about that
.
So yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So you are well known throughout this area, Also
besides just being someone who'sever present in the Acomal
Pueblo, but you're known foryour musical performances.
Describe how you came torecognize your own talent and
how did you develop that talenthave music around me growing up,
(10:51):
and that was that was lovely.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Dad, um plays saxophone and mom has always
sang and loved musicals.
Um, when I was six, I was onstage for the first time as a
backup singer for a children'ssinger, and that was just luck.
The manager of that singer wasa friend of my parents and a
bunch of kids got to be in inthat.
And then, when I was seven, Iauditioned for a very difficult,
very technical choir that I wasin um until mid high school, um
(11:15):
, and both of those gave me alot of training and also
required me to do a lot oftraining when I was younger.
But then I realized I wasn'texcited about teaching music and
I really didn't join bands,even though I was in musicals in
high school, and so when I wasin university I had three jobs
(11:37):
and two majors and I fell out ofsinging and I took one music
course in university and it justit was nice to be in a choir.
There's something about the way, the vibrations of everybody
hitting the tones in the sameroom and bouncing off of the
right design room coming back,it is really uplifting and
beautiful.
But I just didn't.
It wasn't doing anything for mein terms of scholastically, so
(12:01):
I kind of fell out.
And then I actually, when I wasliving here, I would hop up on
stage and do one song and theneventually two and then three.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Was karaoke involved in this?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I had done karaoke, but no.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Okay, all right.
Was there a guitar player orsomebody that was playing?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
There was a place called Captain Dave's and it was
on 10th and it was full ofexpats and there was a bar that
it was just a bar, like not onfifth that people played in and
I got to know the musicians andI'd asked and I did what's up,
which is one song I think zombiewas like.
The second maybe give me onereason was the third.
I don't remember what the nextsongs were after that, but came
(12:45):
and then, um, a friend of uh,the guitar player from the band,
said you should learn the bluesand uh and mentored me and we
just once a week worked on theblues and then I joined the band
okay.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So where did you first start playing around here,
other than just that thatlittle bit?
Where did you start as aregular performer?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
um, there was a bar on Fifth Avenue called Bourbon
Street, and Zenzi is also stillexistent in Playa del Carmen,
and the bands played in thoseplaces that I was in when I
started singing regularly, andback then it was just once a
week a lot of the time, and theneventually it just expanded and
I got to the point where I wassinging six nights a week, but
(13:29):
it was with the same band, um,doing the same songs, and we had
very limited time to learn newsongs and I was diving.
And then I um, I went onvacation for a couple of months
and I came back and, uh, Irealized I didn't want to go
back and my replacement foundout I was back and called me and
(13:52):
I was like, yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Because you were too interested in other things, or
it was was it monotonous?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It was the same songs for the same people every night
.
So now I do sing, sometimes six, eight times a week, but in
different combinations withdifferent songs, with different
people, and it's just moreinteresting to explore the music
that way eight times a week,but in different combinations
with different songs withdifferent people, and it's just
more interesting to explore themusic that way, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And besides different songs and song configurations
and whatnot, we've noticed thatyou, in addition to the solo
performances, you work with avariety of musicians too as well
.
Tell me about what it's like toadapt to varying styles of
playing with different peopleand singing with different
people.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Well, what I think makes live music most
interesting is that it's not arecording and that you don't
inherently know where it's goingto go.
You don't know the mood thateverybody's in.
You don't know if you're goingto crescendo.
You don't know if yourdrummer's having a bad day.
We're going to go on this one.
We're going to go on thisjourney, right, like it's
totally a thing, right?
Or me, I could have somefrustration from traffic and I
(14:56):
get to get out of my system withsome of my big Genesee songs or
whatever.
We might do an extra verse hereor there, right, and that is
different with everybody that'splaying, with every combination
of people that's playing.
The longer you play with people, the more you get a feel for it
.
But it's not the same every dayand I think people may not
necessarily have words for it orbe aware from it, but they
(15:19):
don't inherently want to hear arecording, because when they
hear live music they reactdifferently.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, I would agree with that as a live music fan.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
One thing that's definitely different here in the
States, and probably Canada, itseems like you're in a band and
those five or however manymusicians that's all they play
with and they go out and gigtogether and that's it.
But here it seems like everymusician collaborates with each
other at some different levels.
So you may have 20 musiciansand there's basically 20
(15:49):
different bands because they allmix up and work together, which
is it's different, but it'spretty neat.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, it's also just a transient place and musicians
are transient by nature often.
So, yeah, we tend to recombinemore often here.
I did a similar thing because Ido sing some in San Francisco
and there's a wonderfulcommunity of professionals that
do pro jams for fun and a lot ofpeople moving in and through,
(16:17):
and that's where I learned todirect and work with bigger
bands.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So how is it different singing for a crowd in
San Francisco as opposed to inAcomal, or in Puerto Aventuras
or Playa del Carmen?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I mean your sound system and the number of people
you can reach can vary a littlebit, but to me it's not all that
different whether there's justa guitar with me.
It's always easier to danceonce you have drums, and that
changes the vibe once people aremore likely to dance.
Darkness and drums are abeautiful combination Darkness,
(16:52):
alcohol and drums.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
My bad.
The trifecta of goodperformance.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Should dancing be one of your goals?
Those are essential parts.
I mean, people do dance onnights when it's just me with
acoustic here and there, but ittakes more work.
Me with acoustic here and there, but, but but it takes more
work.
and, uh, and my guitar playeractually faked a little bit by
um, looping a little bit oftapping on this night to get a
little bit of beat somewhere inthose layers, right, so there
(17:19):
are tricks you can work around.
I personally can't do a drumtrack or a backing track,
because then when the liveperformance takes over and you
actually start to go somewhere,you're trapped, you're right, it
confines you, yeah yeah, sothat's where.
That's where I would rather havenobody, or, and then a cajon
(17:41):
and then a drum, if I have thatcombination.
But, um, every musician isdifferent and every day is
different, and that's what makesan adventure when I get there
and when I, um, when I got toplay that last night after the
gig you were, I had not met theguitar player I was playing with
before my other guys onvacation, so well, that's got to
(18:04):
be a new experience for forboth of you it definitely was we
knew a lot of the same songs.
That's good to be a newexperience for both of you.
It definitely was.
We knew a lot of the same songs.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
That's good.
Everything here is kind ofloosey-goosey.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, transient the way we move.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Very cool.
So, in addition to music,you're also a talented visual
artist and I've seen youcreating a mural in Acomal for
the Arts Festival.
Mural in Akamal for the ArtsFestival.
Tell us about your backgroundas a visual artist and your
involvement with that festivalor with visual arts in this area
in general.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Well, the Art Festival is mostly produced by
Jen from Turtle Bay and there'sa lot of people that put a lot
of wonderful work into it.
But if I list them all, we'llbe here, we'll be done.
But she was sort of the heartof starting it by accident
because she wanted to put lightson the way across the bridge
for her?
Um employees when they go home.
(18:58):
And then it cascaded intomaking it nicer and painting the
bridge and then over a hundredmurals with all the other
festival kind of came togetherreally big and beautiful thing.
I I was actually traveling forpart of it but I had helped Jen
when I was getting my businessoff the ground.
She was coordinating weddingsand I ended up coordinating
(19:21):
weddings with her for a littlewhile.
So I'd been her right hand inthe past when she was putting
some of these events together.
It was easy to hop in and givea hand and make things go and
help.
On the production side I?
I had painted before but afterum the first or second festival,
there was a space left in thepueblo and I?
(19:42):
Um asked jen if I could have it, because during the festival
producing I didn didn't havetime to paint and I had a vision
of wanting to do a turtle, likein that space, and so I did it,
but I hadn't painted on thatscale before and it took me a
remarkably long time, but Ifinished it and the festival
(20:02):
after that.
She asked me to do a lionfishbecause I'm one of the lionfish
hunters and it's important toget the message out about the
invasive species and the harmthey're doing to the reef.
And that was terrifying becauseif you ever see a lionfish,
they are complex.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, they look very spiky and dangerous to me.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Stripey and all of that.
So I did base the one that Ipainted off of some photos that
we had taken underwater and thepainting is some live coral,
some dead coral, a sea fan, thelionfish, a spear coming right
about to get the fish and thefish is about to eat four
(20:44):
cleaner fish, because the heartof our lionfish removal.
Cleaners of the reef isactually poor women.
So, um, that was the.
That was the theme when I didthe painting and it was a lot of
fun.
I also do some um visual artinstallations at Burning man and
a couple other festivals.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh, okay, yeah, Very, very cool.
So how would you describe theart scene here in this area of
Mexico?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I have seen since we did the art festival that there
are a lot more murals in general.
Playa del Carmen has a lot more, and we do have an excess of
blank cement walls in general.
In this area, however, therewas a series of canvas.
I think this is a good spot forthat, so I like that.
I'm seeing a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I fell into it by accident just wanting to add
this one turtle.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And it was a beautiful experience painting
because people would come by andoffer to get me a cold drink or
whatever while I was paintingand at one point somebody
actually vandalized thepaintings at the bridge, but the
Pueblo literally chased theperson and got the police to
come and got them in trouble andI was part of the group of
(21:58):
people who fixed the paintingsafter that and lots of people
came out.
So it was nice to see thecommunity behind the art that
makes the community.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Yeah, absolutely Very cool.
And the murals for people thatdon't know it, the murals really
put Akamal on the map.
You know, I don't know.
I imagine that a lot of peoplecome here just to see the murals
and would never otherwise gointo the Pueblo, but they come
here to see the murals.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And there's more tucked Like it just continued on
and on into, so like you findmore, and like there was one
done recently on the bridge.
So we haven't had a fullfestival in a while, but there's
still painting going on and Idon't know when the next one
will be.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
We mentioned earlier that you're an avid scuba diver
and dive master and you kind oftouched on when you took that
class.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
But tell, us a little bit about what got you into
diving and how that became apassion.
I've always been a swimmer.
I've always loved the water andmy grandparents loved the beach
and my parents loved the beach,so that was always beautiful.
I was lucky enough to live inBelize for a little while, for
(23:16):
couple of months when I was 14,and I did my open water course
there.
And then, um, and I really didlove scuba diving.
And then, um, I finished highschool just um a half a semester
early um, cause it's some extrawork I had done and I went to
Belize and I did my dive mastercourse when I was 18 because you
had to be 18 to do it.
And then I fell back out ofdiving until I was living in
Playa del Carmen and, although Iwas staying with my husband, I
(23:42):
went back and redid my divemaster course and started diving
again.
I lived here and it's amazingbecause we are Cozumel is world
class and it's right there.
Akamal is amazingly relaxing,beautiful, easy, famous for
turtles right here, and thecenotes are incredible, so we're
surrounded with moreopportunities to dive than
almost anywhere else I've everheard.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Right?
And what does being a divemaster mean for those of us who
don't scuba dive?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Well, a dive master is the entry level of being a
professional in scuba diving, soa dive master is somebody you
can lead other certified divers.
Um, so I'm actually aninstructor and I make dive
masters, and so an instructorcan teach right from the
beginning.
And then there are upper levelsof what you can teach.
There's a master scubainstructor who teaches
(24:30):
specialties and all that kind ofstuff.
But after I got into diving Iended up teaching my husband to
dive as well and then he becamea dive master as well and he
became an instructor as well andbeen teaching for more than 15
years now okay, yeah, we'regonna take another quick break
(24:52):
and we'll be back and I'll thinkabout all the things.
(25:26):
What?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
to do.
All right, we're back withNatalie.
I recently saw on a socialmedia post and you mentioned
earlier, but I know your fatherbecause I play pickleball with
him in the Pueblo and so I'mfriends with him on Facebook and
he posted a picture and it wasyou and he in dive gear with a
(25:50):
bunch of lionfish.
Tell us about the lionfish.
You said you're part oflionfish hunters.
What is that?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
about, and why is that so important?
Well, lionfish are an invasivespecies, so they're native to
the Indo-Pacific and they arenot naturally occurring here.
The challenge is that they eateverything.
I have picked up a lionfishboth the size of my hand, and
then picked up one almost twicethat size in my container, and
(26:21):
then, when I poured it out, thebigger one had almost finished
swallowing the smaller one.
They will even eat their own.
Wow, they are voracious eaters.
Whenever we've done anydissections with any of the
universities, they findeverything in their stomach, but
they find a lot of the fishthat would clean other fish and
the reef.
So you're going to change thelandscape of the reef.
(26:42):
If you eat all the things thatwould eat the algae, you get way
more algae.
And then that algae stranglesout other plants, but you also
take off the fish.
That would take the parasitesoff of other fish, while you're
just kind of stripping theenvironment of anything that'll
fit in their mouth.
They are voracious eaters andthey reproduce very quickly
without any natural predators.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
And so the way to get rid of them is spearfishing,
yeah they are venomous.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah okay, so I'm clear.
I am not advocating.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Don't go up and grab the first lionfish you see.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Nature makes things spiky and brightly colored as a
way to say no.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So yeah, I'm not saying anybody else should do
this on a regular basis, andthere is always a chance we will
get stung, and getting stung isremarkably painful and probably
not deadly and awful.
Um, but all the same, we do usea hawaiian sling, so it's just
elastic on one end, threepr-pronged generally.
On the other end.
(27:42):
The goal is to have enoughpower to almost grab the
lionfish without hurting thesensitive reef that they like to
hang around, and they like tohang around cleaning stations.
They like to hang around wherethere's live coral and lots of
small fish, so they're usuallyin a delicate spot when they're
there.
So like, at one point theecological center actually gave
us spear guns, but you're goingto end up all sword in the stone
(28:03):
.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
And then on top of that we have a container that we
carry them in.
We actually had put togetherour containers before there was
something commercially available, but they ended up looking
roughly the same and it's a tubewith funnels that have been cut
so that you can push the fishthrough and then pull it out.
There are other versions withtrap doors and such, but
(28:27):
essentially it has to becontained so you can't be in
contact with the spines.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Okay.
So even after it's dead, can itsting you?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
If it touches a spike .
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I've seen somebody drop one on their foot and get
stung.
I actually got stung because Iput the lionfish in the
container, pulled the spear outbecause there was a second one
and there was a small chunk ofthe lionfish with the spine not
attached to the lionfish.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Oh geez.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And that was enough.
And it was still in my spearnear the tip.
So when I lined up I stabbedmyself with it and got stung.
It still had all the pain andswelling that comes with venom.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So where did these things come from?
You said they're an invasivespecies.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
How did they get here yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
They spread out from Florida.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So humans?
The short answer is humans,okay, most likely in fish tanks.
They can't actually evenreproduce in fish tanks.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
It was humans that brought them here because
they're pretty so somebodyreleased some fish from their
fish tank when they didn't wanttheir fish tank anymore, or
whatever probably.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I mean the kindest version I've heard was like a
fish restaurant, close to thewater, like in a hurricane, like
, maybe they like, but you knowyeah it took a few to start
producing and then that wasenough to cascade.
And there's actually graphicsby Noah where you can see them
spreading out from over time,like the rat of the sea.
(29:53):
Yeah, and they they reproducequickly, they eat a lot, but I
do see a marked difference wherewe dive often and remove them,
and that we do that in the areain Akamal, specifically because
we worked with the ecologicalcenter and they made a no
fishing zone where nothing elseis supposed to be fished, and we
(30:14):
also worked with them and andIvan and I in the hotel Akamal
Kar, caribe, were part ofcreating a coral restoration
program and that program startedcoral gardening.
So the idea was to removelionfish where we're growing
coral, where they're not fishingother things.
And having all of that happenin Alcamal is a project that we
(30:36):
started more than 10 years ago,but the lionfish hunting is the
thing that we've continued nowthat the Ecological Center has
taken over the coral project.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
So far.
There are other groups like youalong the coast that do it, you
know, in Playa and PA andPuerto Morales.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
There are hunters.
There's lionfish huntingcertifications.
I haven't really heard of otherlocal groups.
I know that Mahowal was payingdyers for the lionfish and
actually freezing them and usingthem.
We tried to work with theFisherman's Union here, but we
may get none or very little byweight because we're trying to
remove them, which means we'lltake tiny ones out.
(31:12):
We're not waiting for the bigones.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
You're not waiting for the big trophy lionfish.
We tried.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
We actually did have one lionfish hunting contest and
to encourage people to get themall, we gave a prize for the
biggest, because you kind ofwant to.
We gave a prize for thesmallest and that was almost as
big as the prize for the biggest, and we gave a prize for the
most by weight to make everybodytry to remove as much as they
can.
But they are venomous fish andthere are liability issues and
(31:39):
you want people not to get, likeyou know, too fixated or get
stung.
So right having a dedicatedgroup of people who um have been
diving together for a long timeallows us to focus specifically
on hunting, and then we canclear out areas more often, okay
, how many days a week do you goout and hunt them?
(32:00):
We often did like both weekenddives.
But if things are busy the divecenter's there.
If parts of the team are away,we could go a month or two and
not dive at all or there mightonly be two people in town.
And also when I'm diving, whenI'm with divers or when my
husband, ivan, is with divers alot of the time now we can hunt
For a long time.
(32:20):
We couldn't, because if yourguide gets stung they're not
much of a guide at that time andit could end your dive and it
might not make things relaxingfor the people with you, right.
But all of the people whochoose to dive with me, I give
them a choice and they're happywith me hunting and if they're
at a level where I can take mycue, I will.
So I get to hunt regularly thatway, so probably hunt a couple
(32:45):
times a week between the groupor diving with my people okay,
very, very cool.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So, in changing topics a little bit, do you have
tips for musicians and artistswho may be considering the
riviera maya as a place to spendsome time, either temporarily
or permanently?
What advice would you give them?
Speaker 1 (33:12):
That is a good one.
Um, I've always just gone outand shown up and asked to share
a stage and I let lots of peoplego up that I don't know online.
I had the Kansas center to theother day.
Right, like, especially ifyou're on vacation, like you can
control who has a video of that.
Like, especially if you're onvacation, like you can control
who has a video of that.
You're going to get betterworking with more people, so go
up and try, and that's how youmeet more and more musicians.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Most often is by getting out and getting up there
.
They have an open mic night atsome of the places in Playa.
I know, yeah, and they've got adrum set and guitars and all
that.
You can play whatever.
No, I love that Naughty Burrowhas one.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
They've got a drum set and guitars and all that.
You can play whatever.
No, I love that Naughty Burrowhas one.
So in Porto Aventuras there'slike on Monday nights very often
that one has one.
So I've definitely gone upthere even as like between songs
or with people.
I know that's how I discoveredone of the musicians I'm working
with right now is going onstage there, so definitely.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Very, very cool.
So in each episode of expatslike us, we play a game we call
Que Padre, que Malo, and itdescribes one thing that we love
most about living in Mexico,and that's Que Padre and Que
Malo is one thing.
We don't say we hate it, butsomething that we're still maybe
adapting to or haven't fullyadapted to.
So could you give me one KPadre and one K Malo?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I think the K Malo is watching things become
privatized around me, watchinggiving ID twice to get in here
or once to go in North York malland, like I, I think that
accessibility is important, andone of the things that makes
Ockham Hall magical is that ifpeople are from this state, they
(34:52):
are able to show their ID andaccess the beach, and access to
the beach is supposed to be areal thing that is supposed to
exist for everybody all the time, and there are a few accesses
in North Ockham Hall after that,stop that.
They could say no to you at,which is questionably okay.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And, like Porto Aventuras, has some accesses,
and there's also the same thingthere where they could, in
theory, turn you away.
So watching things that aresupposed to be public become
difficult to access, I think Ihave issues with that.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
And what do you have for Cape Padre?
What's the thing that you lovemost about living in this area,
or one of the top things thatyou like?
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Well, I'm a water baby and having diving right
there with a five-minute boatride and a beautiful ocean is
really unusual.
Boat ride and a beautiful oceanis really unusual when I've
been anywhere else as a diver.
If it's any closer, you have toswim out from shore, which is a
lot of work, and if it's anyfarther, you're in a boat for a
long time.
There is a beautifulcombination that is right here
(35:54):
that I have treasured for a longtime.
And also just I like singing inAkamal because people know me,
and so it's a lot of fun to beat my home stage at Lola.
We're in Porto Aventuras andclose by in the smaller
communities where I'm workingwith this, but it's also nice
that I can go all the way toPalaya for my bigger band and my
(36:15):
louder later shows.
Having all of those thingsclose together is very cool.
I appreciate it.
Okay, chris, you got any otherquestions?
I don't think I do.
All right, yeah, being havingall of those things close
together is very cool.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
I appreciate it.
Okay, chris, you got any otherquestions?
I don't think I do.
All right, I think we've takenup enough of your time.
Natalie Novak Perez, thank youso much for sharing your story
of moving to Mexico and pursuingyour passions, and for the
great tips and insights youprovided.
Thank you, thank you Instead.
(36:58):
This is a term used primarilyby Mexican-Spanish speakers.
Today's word is Chela Chela.
I think I know what that is.
I think I'm familiar withordering a chela now and then.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Yes, chelas are beers .
That comes from the beercocktail.
Michelada Micheladas are beer,lime, chili and tomato juice.
Okay, and chela is the beercocteau.
Michelada micheladas are beer,lime, chili and tomato juice.
Okay, and chela is the beerportion of that.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yes, chela chela.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
That makes sense to me.
Thank you so much.
Well, let's go have a chela.
Let's do it.
Gracias, erica kowalski from mivida.
Margarita, we'd love to hearyour thoughts on today's topic.
Just look up Expats Like Us onFacebook or send us an email at
expatslikeus at gmailcom.
(37:51):
You can also see the videoversion of today's discussion
and all of our discussions onour YouTube page Follow, like,
subscribe and leave us a review.
Thank you to today's guest,natalie Novak Perez.
Thanks also to my co-host,chris Kowalski, and co-producers
(38:14):
Erica Kowalski and Sherry Busse.
Most of all, thank you fortuning in to Expats Like Us and
thank you for interacting withus on social media.
Next time, we'll bring you morefirsthand information about
your international move.
Until then, remember our homesare not defined by geography or
one location, but by memories,events, people and places that
(38:35):
span the globe I don't want noone to squeeze me.
Oh they might take away my life.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, I don't want no one to squeeze me, they might
take away my life.
Yeah, I want someone to hold me, oh, and rock me through the
(39:09):
night.
I've always just gone out and shown up and asked to
share a stage and I let lots ofpeople go up that I don't know
online.
I had the Kansas center to theother day, right, like,
especially if you're on vacation, like you can control who has a
video of that.
You're going to get better.
They're working with morepeople, so go up and and try,
(00:22):
and that's how you meet more andmore musicians.
Most often it is by getting outand getting up there.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome to Expats Like Us exploring the world of
US expat life in Mexico.
In each episode we'll meet newpeople and hear their personal
stories.
We'll also learn more about theexpat life and get a few tips
on everything from making yourmove to settling in and living
your dream.
Let's dive in.
I'm your host, bob Busse, andI'm Chris Kamalski.
(00:56):
Today.
We're thrilled to be talkingwith our friend and part-time
expat, natalie Novak Perez.
When Sherry and I first movedhere a couple years ago, one of
our new friends invited us to gosee live entertainment at one
of the beach bars nearby.
She said it was a special nightbecause Natalie was performing
that night.
(01:16):
We were introduced to Natalie'samazing talent and have seen
her perform quite a few times,since Natalie's a popular
performer.
Besides her musicalperformances, she's also an
artist who works on some of theamazing murals we see around
Acomal and, if that wasn'tenough, she's a very active
diver.
Natalie's here to share herexperience in moving here, at
least part-time to the RivieraMaya and adapting to life here.
(01:39):
We also want to hear about howshe discovered and perfected her
talents.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Thanks for coming, Natalie.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hey, tell us about your life before Mexico and how
you ended up coming here.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I was finishing up university when I was in Canada
before I moved here and I met myhusband when I was on vacation
oh cool.
And I actually lived in Belizewhen I was in high school a
little bit, and just before Istarted university I did my dive
master course in Belize andthen I was going to university
(02:13):
and then I met my now husbandand visited him on my way to
Belize and never made it toBelize.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Have you been to Belize since then?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We did go, and visit my friends there later, on,
years later.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
How many years ago was that?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh gosh, more than 15 .
More like 20.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Okay, very good.
When you did first come here toRiviera Maya, what brought you
to this specific place?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I came to Acoma the first time when I was six or
seven, on a vacation with myparents, and there was like
nothing there, like Playa delCarmen.
Had one hotel and one phone andyou would pay by the minute to
use it and we called mygrandparents mid-vacation
between the two weeks to tellthem we were alive, like it was
like that, right, but I hadn'tbeen since.
(03:04):
Alive like it was like that,right, yeah, but I hadn't been
since, um.
And then we decided to go on afamily vacation when I was in my
20s, which we really hadn'tdone since I was a teenager.
And, uh, that was when I methyven um, my husband and um.
He was a lot of fun and veryoutgoing.
And then I was going to comeback and and go back to Belize
(03:25):
again in the summers, because Iwas managing a hotel and spa
there in the summers fromuniversity and I was a
backpacker and Cancun was acheaper flight.
So I visited him on my way andthen he showed me the area and
it had grown and it wasbeautiful and convinced me to
stay.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Very cool and the rest is history, as they say.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Snuck up on me.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So what was it like to adapt when you first got here
?
What are the things that youhad to adapt to?
One of the themes of thispodcast is adapting to life in
Mexico.
What are some of the thingsthat you had to adapt to?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
When I first got here , staying here was remarkably
complicated.
There was a point when I wasworking managing the Akumal Dive
shop and they were doing mypaperwork, where the
instructions were.
Your paperwork is now finished.
What you need to do is you needto go to this store a
(04:22):
papilleria buy three copies ofthis form.
Then go to this store apapilleria.
Buy three copies of this form.
Then go to this hallway andfind this one guy who owns a
typewriter, who is the onlyperson who is allowed to fill in
this form.
Then you need to take that tothe bank.
Then you need to give thempesos.
If you need to do an exchange.
You have to go through the linetwice and then you have to be
back here in an hour.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's like a scavenger hunt.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
That is kind of quintessential doing business in
Mexico, isn't it that a lot ofa lot of the expats figure that
out after all, but that's almostan extreme case right there 15,
20 years ago.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, afterthat I'm a lot more patient when
some things take longer.
But it's also amazing thethings that happen faster here
too that you don't see coming.
So you can be surprised in bothdirections.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, what's an example of something that
happens faster here?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
My husband renewed his passport in like two days or
a day or something.
Mine takes considerably longer.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Happy hour is over quicker, exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And then it's sad time.
Yeah Right, it's, it's sad time.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah Right, it's non-happy hour.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So, in your opinion, what are some of the most
important things people shouldthink about before making the
move to the Riviera Maya oranywhere else?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I think people often arrive thinking really long term
, really long-term, and you needto be here a little while
before you start thinking reallylong-term, because I've seen a
lot of people come and arrivesaying I'm going to live here
forever and most of those peopleare gone really quickly,
whereas the people who are like,oh, I'm going to check it out
for a month and then see where Ilike and then figure it out,
(06:00):
they usually stay longer.
They kind of don't approach itwith an all or nothing.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If you approach it with all or nothing, you're,
you're all in, and then you'renot, because you find out.
It's not what you thought itwas going to be you know, yeah,
yeah, and we, we meet peoplelike that all the time yeah so
what sort of unexpected thingsthat maybe surprised you when
you got here.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It was long ago.
Things keep surprising me nowyou know Um I'm I'm surprised at
how fast everything is growing.
Right Um and I've beensurprised for a very long time,
while it's continued to grow,and I mean with progress, I mean
(06:57):
on one side.
Pardon me, should be rootingfor tourism, because I'm a scuba
diver and I'm a singer andthose things are easier with
people On another level.
I'm rooting for the reef andthe jungle.
So yeah, the rate at whichthings have gotten bigger and
are more accessible.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Every time I go to Tulum I'm like what there's like
a burger cake on the mainstreet.
We both, chris and I, have bothbeen here three years this
summer and, yeah, I was justremarking the other day in Playa
del Carmen how things havechanged just in that short a
time.
You come here and you thinkit's just going to be like that,
but there's always growth andnew places, and old places you
loved are gone and new placeshave popped up.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I feel like people expect it to be the same because
it is their vacation.
So when anything changes inAcoma, there's a whole bunch of
hopes about how it's not how itwas.
I'm like.
Neither is my hometown inCanada.
Everything is growing, so it'sa surprise and I'm surprised by
both when they change, I'm stillone of those people on the
inside going oh my God, it's nothow it was.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I can't part of it too.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, we're going to takea break and we'll be back.
(08:43):
We're back with Natalie.
By the way, you are a personhere you're the only person I
know in Mexico who isrecognizable by one name.
It's like in the in the States.
It's like Elvis or Liberace orsomebody like.
That is one name here.
If you say Natalie, everybodyknows who you're talking about,
right, have you noticed?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
that.
Has anyone ever told you thatbefore?
Yeah, there's two parts to it.
One I moved here before myparents.
When they arrived they becameNatalie's parents not their own
people for a bunch of the time.
Now they seen in years, stayedin the Serenis Resort, which is
just down the road from Akamal,and said to the concierge oh, I
(09:29):
want to go to Akamal, why, I'mlooking for my friend Natalie
and he's like I could get hernumber from my brother and I get
a text message.
Someone from my hometown ishere and they want to see you.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's almost in that way.
It's almost like living in avery small town in the United
States or Canada or somethingyou know like a really small
town, like 50 people town.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
And I actually live in the Pueblo, not on the beach
side and not in a gatedcommunity, so I I walk my dog
twice a day and most of thepeople who work everywhere like
know me.
So I mean I had friends whowere like, oh, come to our
all-inclusive and I was likethat's okay.
They're like, oh, we have anextra bracelet and I'm like that
would never work they'd see youa mile away.
(10:16):
Yeah, but that would never workbefore we even think about that
.
So yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So you are well known throughout this area, Also
besides just being someone who'sever present in the Acomal
Pueblo, but you're known foryour musical performances.
Describe how you came torecognize your own talent and
how did you develop that talenthave music around me growing up,
(10:51):
and that was that was lovely.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Dad, um plays saxophone and mom has always
sang and loved musicals.
Um, when I was six, I was onstage for the first time as a
backup singer for a children'ssinger, and that was just luck.
The manager of that singer wasa friend of my parents and a
bunch of kids got to be in inthat.
And then, when I was seven, Iauditioned for a very difficult,
very technical choir that I wasin um until mid high school, um
(11:15):
, and both of those gave me alot of training and also
required me to do a lot oftraining when I was younger.
But then I realized I wasn'texcited about teaching music and
I really didn't join bands,even though I was in musicals in
high school, and so when I wasin university I had three jobs
(11:37):
and two majors and I fell out ofsinging and I took one music
course in university and it justit was nice to be in a choir.
There's something about the way, the vibrations of everybody
hitting the tones in the sameroom and bouncing off of the
right design room coming back,it is really uplifting and
beautiful.
But I just didn't.
It wasn't doing anything for mein terms of scholastically, so
(12:01):
I kind of fell out.
And then I actually, when I wasliving here, I would hop up on
stage and do one song and theneventually two and then three.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Was karaoke involved in this?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I had done karaoke, but no.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Okay, all right.
Was there a guitar player orsomebody that was playing?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
There was a place called Captain Dave's and it was
on 10th and it was full ofexpats and there was a bar that
it was just a bar, like not onfifth that people played in and
I got to know the musicians andI'd asked and I did what's up,
which is one song I think zombiewas like.
The second maybe give me onereason was the third.
I don't remember what the nextsongs were after that, but came
(12:45):
and then, um, a friend of uh,the guitar player from the band,
said you should learn the bluesand uh and mentored me and we
just once a week worked on theblues and then I joined the band
okay.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So where did you first start playing around here,
other than just that thatlittle bit?
Where did you start as aregular performer?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
um, there was a bar on Fifth Avenue called Bourbon
Street, and Zenzi is also stillexistent in Playa del Carmen,
and the bands played in thoseplaces that I was in when I
started singing regularly, andback then it was just once a
week a lot of the time, and theneventually it just expanded and
I got to the point where I wassinging six nights a week, but
(13:29):
it was with the same band, um,doing the same songs, and we had
very limited time to learn newsongs and I was diving.
And then I um, I went onvacation for a couple of months
and I came back and, uh, Irealized I didn't want to go
back and my replacement foundout I was back and called me and
(13:52):
I was like, yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Because you were too interested in other things, or
it was was it monotonous?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It was the same songs for the same people every night
.
So now I do sing, sometimes six, eight times a week, but in
different combinations withdifferent songs, with different
people, and it's just moreinteresting to explore the music
that way eight times a week,but in different combinations
with different songs withdifferent people, and it's just
more interesting to explore themusic that way, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And besides different songs and song configurations
and whatnot, we've noticed thatyou, in addition to the solo
performances, you work with avariety of musicians too as well
.
Tell me about what it's like toadapt to varying styles of
playing with different peopleand singing with different
people.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Well, what I think makes live music most
interesting is that it's not arecording and that you don't
inherently know where it's goingto go.
You don't know the mood thateverybody's in.
You don't know if you're goingto crescendo.
You don't know if yourdrummer's having a bad day.
We're going to go on this one.
We're going to go on thisjourney, right, like it's
totally a thing, right?
Or me, I could have somefrustration from traffic and I
(14:56):
get to get out of my system withsome of my big Genesee songs or
whatever.
We might do an extra verse hereor there, right, and that is
different with everybody that'splaying, with every combination
of people that's playing.
The longer you play with people, the more you get a feel for it
.
But it's not the same every dayand I think people may not
necessarily have words for it orbe aware from it, but they
(15:19):
don't inherently want to hear arecording, because when they
hear live music they reactdifferently.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, I would agree with that as a live music fan.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
One thing that's definitely different here in the
States, and probably Canada, itseems like you're in a band and
those five or however manymusicians that's all they play
with and they go out and gigtogether and that's it.
But here it seems like everymusician collaborates with each
other at some different levels.
So you may have 20 musiciansand there's basically 20
(15:49):
different bands because they allmix up and work together, which
is it's different, but it'spretty neat.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, it's also just a transient place and musicians
are transient by nature often.
So, yeah, we tend to recombinemore often here.
I did a similar thing because Ido sing some in San Francisco
and there's a wonderfulcommunity of professionals that
do pro jams for fun and a lot ofpeople moving in and through,
(16:17):
and that's where I learned todirect and work with bigger
bands.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So how is it different singing for a crowd in
San Francisco as opposed to inAcomal, or in Puerto Aventuras
or Playa del Carmen?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I mean your sound system and the number of people
you can reach can vary a littlebit, but to me it's not all that
different whether there's justa guitar with me.
It's always easier to danceonce you have drums, and that
changes the vibe once people aremore likely to dance.
Darkness and drums are abeautiful combination Darkness,
(16:52):
alcohol and drums.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
My bad.
The trifecta of goodperformance.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Should dancing be one of your goals?
Those are essential parts.
I mean, people do dance onnights when it's just me with
acoustic here and there, but ittakes more work.
Me with acoustic here and there, but, but but it takes more
work.
and, uh, and my guitar playeractually faked a little bit by
um, looping a little bit oftapping on this night to get a
little bit of beat somewhere inthose layers, right, so there
(17:19):
are tricks you can work around.
I personally can't do a drumtrack or a backing track,
because then when the liveperformance takes over and you
actually start to go somewhere,you're trapped, you're right, it
confines you, yeah yeah, sothat's where.
That's where I would rather havenobody, or, and then a cajon
(17:41):
and then a drum, if I have thatcombination.
But, um, every musician isdifferent and every day is
different, and that's what makesan adventure when I get there
and when I, um, when I got toplay that last night after the
gig you were, I had not met theguitar player I was playing with
before my other guys onvacation, so well, that's got to
(18:04):
be a new experience for forboth of you it definitely was we
knew a lot of the same songs.
That's good to be a newexperience for both of you.
It definitely was.
We knew a lot of the same songs.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
That's good.
Everything here is kind ofloosey-goosey.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, transient the way we move.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Very cool.
So, in addition to music,you're also a talented visual
artist and I've seen youcreating a mural in Acomal for
the Arts Festival.
Mural in Akamal for the ArtsFestival.
Tell us about your backgroundas a visual artist and your
involvement with that festivalor with visual arts in this area
in general.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Well, the Art Festival is mostly produced by
Jen from Turtle Bay and there'sa lot of people that put a lot
of wonderful work into it.
But if I list them all, we'llbe here, we'll be done.
But she was sort of the heartof starting it by accident
because she wanted to put lightson the way across the bridge
for her?
Um employees when they go home.
(18:58):
And then it cascaded intomaking it nicer and painting the
bridge and then over a hundredmurals with all the other
festival kind of came togetherreally big and beautiful thing.
I I was actually traveling forpart of it but I had helped Jen
when I was getting my businessoff the ground.
She was coordinating weddingsand I ended up coordinating
(19:21):
weddings with her for a littlewhile.
So I'd been her right hand inthe past when she was putting
some of these events together.
It was easy to hop in and givea hand and make things go and
help.
On the production side I?
I had painted before but afterum the first or second festival,
there was a space left in thepueblo and I?
(19:42):
Um asked jen if I could have it, because during the festival
producing I didn didn't havetime to paint and I had a vision
of wanting to do a turtle, likein that space, and so I did it,
but I hadn't painted on thatscale before and it took me a
remarkably long time, but Ifinished it and the festival
(20:02):
after that.
She asked me to do a lionfishbecause I'm one of the lionfish
hunters and it's important toget the message out about the
invasive species and the harmthey're doing to the reef.
And that was terrifying becauseif you ever see a lionfish,
they are complex.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, they look very spiky and dangerous to me.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Stripey and all of that.
So I did base the one that Ipainted off of some photos that
we had taken underwater and thepainting is some live coral,
some dead coral, a sea fan, thelionfish, a spear coming right
about to get the fish and thefish is about to eat four
(20:44):
cleaner fish, because the heartof our lionfish removal.
Cleaners of the reef isactually poor women.
So, um, that was the.
That was the theme when I didthe painting and it was a lot of
fun.
I also do some um visual artinstallations at Burning man and
a couple other festivals.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh, okay, yeah, Very, very cool.
So how would you describe theart scene here in this area of
Mexico?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I have seen since we did the art festival that there
are a lot more murals in general.
Playa del Carmen has a lot more, and we do have an excess of
blank cement walls in general.
In this area, however, therewas a series of canvas.
I think this is a good spot forthat, so I like that.
I'm seeing a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I fell into it by accident just wanting to add
this one turtle.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And it was a beautiful experience painting
because people would come by andoffer to get me a cold drink or
whatever while I was paintingand at one point somebody
actually vandalized thepaintings at the bridge, but the
Pueblo literally chased theperson and got the police to
come and got them in trouble andI was part of the group of
(21:58):
people who fixed the paintingsafter that and lots of people
came out.
So it was nice to see thecommunity behind the art that
makes the community.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Yeah, absolutely Very cool.
And the murals for people thatdon't know it, the murals really
put Akamal on the map.
You know, I don't know.
I imagine that a lot of peoplecome here just to see the murals
and would never otherwise gointo the Pueblo, but they come
here to see the murals.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And there's more tucked Like it just continued on
and on into, so like you findmore, and like there was one
done recently on the bridge.
So we haven't had a fullfestival in a while, but there's
still painting going on and Idon't know when the next one
will be.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
We mentioned earlier that you're an avid scuba diver
and dive master and you kind oftouched on when you took that
class.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
But tell, us a little bit about what got you into
diving and how that became apassion.
I've always been a swimmer.
I've always loved the water andmy grandparents loved the beach
and my parents loved the beach,so that was always beautiful.
I was lucky enough to live inBelize for a little while, for
(23:16):
couple of months when I was 14,and I did my open water course
there.
And then, um, and I really didlove scuba diving.
And then, um, I finished highschool just um a half a semester
early um, cause it's some extrawork I had done and I went to
Belize and I did my dive mastercourse when I was 18 because you
had to be 18 to do it.
And then I fell back out ofdiving until I was living in
Playa del Carmen and, although Iwas staying with my husband, I
(23:42):
went back and redid my divemaster course and started diving
again.
I lived here and it's amazingbecause we are Cozumel is world
class and it's right there.
Akamal is amazingly relaxing,beautiful, easy, famous for
turtles right here, and thecenotes are incredible, so we're
surrounded with moreopportunities to dive than
almost anywhere else I've everheard.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Right?
And what does being a divemaster mean for those of us who
don't scuba dive?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Well, a dive master is the entry level of being a
professional in scuba diving, soa dive master is somebody you
can lead other certified divers.
Um, so I'm actually aninstructor and I make dive
masters, and so an instructorcan teach right from the
beginning.
And then there are upper levelsof what you can teach.
There's a master scubainstructor who teaches
(24:30):
specialties and all that kind ofstuff.
But after I got into diving Iended up teaching my husband to
dive as well and then he becamea dive master as well and he
became an instructor as well andbeen teaching for more than 15
years now okay, yeah, we'regonna take another quick break
(24:52):
and we'll be back and I'll thinkabout all the things.
(25:26):
What?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
to do.
All right, we're back withNatalie.
I recently saw on a socialmedia post and you mentioned
earlier, but I know your fatherbecause I play pickleball with
him in the Pueblo and so I'mfriends with him on Facebook and
he posted a picture and it wasyou and he in dive gear with a
(25:50):
bunch of lionfish.
Tell us about the lionfish.
You said you're part oflionfish hunters.
What is that?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
about, and why is that so important?
Well, lionfish are an invasivespecies, so they're native to
the Indo-Pacific and they arenot naturally occurring here.
The challenge is that they eateverything.
I have picked up a lionfishboth the size of my hand, and
then picked up one almost twicethat size in my container, and
(26:21):
then, when I poured it out, thebigger one had almost finished
swallowing the smaller one.
They will even eat their own.
Wow, they are voracious eaters.
Whenever we've done anydissections with any of the
universities, they findeverything in their stomach, but
they find a lot of the fishthat would clean other fish and
the reef.
So you're going to change thelandscape of the reef.
(26:42):
If you eat all the things thatwould eat the algae, you get way
more algae.
And then that algae stranglesout other plants, but you also
take off the fish.
That would take the parasitesoff of other fish, while you're
just kind of stripping theenvironment of anything that'll
fit in their mouth.
They are voracious eaters andthey reproduce very quickly
without any natural predators.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
And so the way to get rid of them is spearfishing,
yeah they are venomous.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah okay, so I'm clear.
I am not advocating.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Don't go up and grab the first lionfish you see.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Nature makes things spiky and brightly colored as a
way to say no.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So yeah, I'm not saying anybody else should do
this on a regular basis, andthere is always a chance we will
get stung, and getting stung isremarkably painful and probably
not deadly and awful.
Um, but all the same, we do usea hawaiian sling, so it's just
elastic on one end, threepr-pronged generally.
On the other end.
(27:42):
The goal is to have enoughpower to almost grab the
lionfish without hurting thesensitive reef that they like to
hang around, and they like tohang around cleaning stations.
They like to hang around wherethere's live coral and lots of
small fish, so they're usuallyin a delicate spot when they're
there.
So like, at one point theecological center actually gave
us spear guns, but you're goingto end up all sword in the stone
(28:03):
.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
And then on top of that we have a container that we
carry them in.
We actually had put togetherour containers before there was
something commercially available, but they ended up looking
roughly the same and it's a tubewith funnels that have been cut
so that you can push the fishthrough and then pull it out.
There are other versions withtrap doors and such, but
(28:27):
essentially it has to becontained so you can't be in
contact with the spines.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Okay.
So even after it's dead, can itsting you?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
If it touches a spike .
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I've seen somebody drop one on their foot and get
stung.
I actually got stung because Iput the lionfish in the
container, pulled the spear outbecause there was a second one
and there was a small chunk ofthe lionfish with the spine not
attached to the lionfish.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Oh geez.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And that was enough.
And it was still in my spearnear the tip.
So when I lined up I stabbedmyself with it and got stung.
It still had all the pain andswelling that comes with venom.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So where did these things come from?
You said they're an invasivespecies.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
How did they get here yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
They spread out from Florida.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So humans?
The short answer is humans,okay, most likely in fish tanks.
They can't actually evenreproduce in fish tanks.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
It was humans that brought them here because
they're pretty so somebodyreleased some fish from their
fish tank when they didn't wanttheir fish tank anymore, or
whatever probably.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I mean the kindest version I've heard was like a
fish restaurant, close to thewater, like in a hurricane, like
, maybe they like, but you knowyeah it took a few to start
producing and then that wasenough to cascade.
And there's actually graphicsby Noah where you can see them
spreading out from over time,like the rat of the sea.
(29:53):
Yeah, and they they reproducequickly, they eat a lot, but I
do see a marked difference wherewe dive often and remove them,
and that we do that in the areain Akamal, specifically because
we worked with the ecologicalcenter and they made a no
fishing zone where nothing elseis supposed to be fished, and we
(30:14):
also worked with them and andIvan and I in the hotel Akamal
Kar, caribe, were part ofcreating a coral restoration
program and that program startedcoral gardening.
So the idea was to removelionfish where we're growing
coral, where they're not fishingother things.
And having all of that happenin Alcamal is a project that we
(30:36):
started more than 10 years ago,but the lionfish hunting is the
thing that we've continued nowthat the Ecological Center has
taken over the coral project.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
So far.
There are other groups like youalong the coast that do it, you
know, in Playa and PA andPuerto Morales.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
There are hunters.
There's lionfish huntingcertifications.
I haven't really heard of otherlocal groups.
I know that Mahowal was payingdyers for the lionfish and
actually freezing them and usingthem.
We tried to work with theFisherman's Union here, but we
may get none or very little byweight because we're trying to
remove them, which means we'lltake tiny ones out.
(31:12):
We're not waiting for the bigones.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
You're not waiting for the big trophy lionfish.
We tried.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
We actually did have one lionfish hunting contest and
to encourage people to get themall, we gave a prize for the
biggest, because you kind ofwant to.
We gave a prize for thesmallest and that was almost as
big as the prize for the biggest, and we gave a prize for the
most by weight to make everybodytry to remove as much as they
can.
But they are venomous fish andthere are liability issues and
(31:39):
you want people not to get, likeyou know, too fixated or get
stung.
So right having a dedicatedgroup of people who um have been
diving together for a long timeallows us to focus specifically
on hunting, and then we canclear out areas more often, okay
, how many days a week do you goout and hunt them?
(32:00):
We often did like both weekenddives.
But if things are busy the divecenter's there.
If parts of the team are away,we could go a month or two and
not dive at all or there mightonly be two people in town.
And also when I'm diving, whenI'm with divers or when my
husband, ivan, is with divers alot of the time now we can hunt
For a long time.
(32:20):
We couldn't, because if yourguide gets stung they're not
much of a guide at that time andit could end your dive and it
might not make things relaxingfor the people with you, right.
But all of the people whochoose to dive with me, I give
them a choice and they're happywith me hunting and if they're
at a level where I can take mycue, I will.
So I get to hunt regularly thatway, so probably hunt a couple
(32:45):
times a week between the groupor diving with my people okay,
very, very cool.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So, in changing topics a little bit, do you have
tips for musicians and artistswho may be considering the
riviera maya as a place to spendsome time, either temporarily
or permanently?
What advice would you give them?
Speaker 1 (33:12):
That is a good one.
Um, I've always just gone outand shown up and asked to share
a stage and I let lots of peoplego up that I don't know online.
I had the Kansas center to theother day.
Right, like, especially ifyou're on vacation, like you can
control who has a video of that.
Like, especially if you're onvacation, like you can control
who has a video of that.
You're going to get betterworking with more people, so go
up and try, and that's how youmeet more and more musicians.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Most often is by getting out and getting up there
.
They have an open mic night atsome of the places in Playa.
I know, yeah, and they've got adrum set and guitars and all
that.
You can play whatever.
No, I love that Naughty Burrowhas one.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
They've got a drum set and guitars and all that.
You can play whatever.
No, I love that Naughty Burrowhas one.
So in Porto Aventuras there'slike on Monday nights very often
that one has one.
So I've definitely gone upthere even as like between songs
or with people.
I know that's how I discoveredone of the musicians I'm working
with right now is going onstage there, so definitely.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Very, very cool.
So in each episode of expatslike us, we play a game we call
Que Padre, que Malo, and itdescribes one thing that we love
most about living in Mexico,and that's Que Padre and Que
Malo is one thing.
We don't say we hate it, butsomething that we're still maybe
adapting to or haven't fullyadapted to.
So could you give me one KPadre and one K Malo?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I think the K Malo is watching things become
privatized around me, watchinggiving ID twice to get in here
or once to go in North York malland, like I, I think that
accessibility is important, andone of the things that makes
Ockham Hall magical is that ifpeople are from this state, they
(34:52):
are able to show their ID andaccess the beach, and access to
the beach is supposed to be areal thing that is supposed to
exist for everybody all the time, and there are a few accesses
in North Ockham Hall after that,stop that.
They could say no to you at,which is questionably okay.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And, like Porto Aventuras, has some accesses,
and there's also the same thingthere where they could, in
theory, turn you away.
So watching things that aresupposed to be public become
difficult to access, I think Ihave issues with that.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
And what do you have for Cape Padre?
What's the thing that you lovemost about living in this area,
or one of the top things thatyou like?
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Well, I'm a water baby and having diving right
there with a five-minute boatride and a beautiful ocean is
really unusual.
Boat ride and a beautiful oceanis really unusual when I've
been anywhere else as a diver.
If it's any closer, you have toswim out from shore, which is a
lot of work, and if it's anyfarther, you're in a boat for a
long time.
There is a beautifulcombination that is right here
(35:54):
that I have treasured for a longtime.
And also just I like singing inAkamal because people know me,
and so it's a lot of fun to beat my home stage at Lola.
We're in Porto Aventuras andclose by in the smaller
communities where I'm workingwith this, but it's also nice
that I can go all the way toPalaya for my bigger band and my
(36:15):
louder later shows.
Having all of those thingsclose together is very cool.
I appreciate it.
Okay, chris, you got any otherquestions?
I don't think I do.
All right, yeah, being havingall of those things close
together is very cool.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
I appreciate it.
Okay, chris, you got any otherquestions?
I don't think I do.
All right, I think we've takenup enough of your time.
Natalie Novak Perez, thank youso much for sharing your story
of moving to Mexico and pursuingyour passions, and for the
great tips and insights youprovided.
Thank you, thank you Instead.
(36:58):
This is a term used primarilyby Mexican-Spanish speakers.
Today's word is Chela Chela.
I think I know what that is.
I think I'm familiar withordering a chela now and then.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Yes, chelas are beers .
That comes from the beercocktail.
Michelada Micheladas are beer,lime, chili and tomato juice.
Okay, and chela is the beercocteau.
Michelada micheladas are beer,lime, chili and tomato juice.
Okay, and chela is the beerportion of that.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yes, chela chela.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
That makes sense to me.
Thank you so much.
Well, let's go have a chela.
Let's do it.
Gracias, erica kowalski from mivida.
Margarita, we'd love to hearyour thoughts on today's topic.
Just look up Expats Like Us onFacebook or send us an email at
expatslikeus at gmailcom.
(37:51):
You can also see the videoversion of today's discussion
and all of our discussions onour YouTube page Follow, like,
subscribe and leave us a review.
Thank you to today's guest,natalie Novak Perez.
Thanks also to my co-host,chris Kowalski, and co-producers
(38:14):
Erica Kowalski and Sherry Busse.
Most of all, thank you fortuning in to Expats Like Us and
thank you for interacting withus on social media.
Next time, we'll bring you morefirsthand information about
your international move.
Until then, remember our homesare not defined by geography or
one location, but by memories,events, people and places that
(38:35):
span the globe I don't want noone to squeeze me.
Oh they might take away my life.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, I don't want no one to squeeze me, they might
take away my life.
Yeah, I want someone to hold me, oh, and rock me through the
(39:09):
night.
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