Bring your computer!

If you are under 30 you may skip this section. You already know it all - head over the Mexican Slang.

Back home you have a TV, a telephone and a stereo. When you are traveling your computer is all of these things and more.

What to bring:

We all like to travel light - and now they sell little travel computers under 3 pounds. Some of them just get internet while others have Windows XP so they can do everything - much better. The only thing missing on the travel computers is there are no CD or DVD drives - so if you want to watch movies or listen to CDs, bring your regular laptop. If you want to make phone call, bring a headset. If you are a real music buff and plan on staying a while, bring a small set of speakers. By the way, if you are English speaking you will not want to buy a computer in Mexico. Although you can install in English, it will be a Spanish keyboard and you may never figure out where the question mark is.

In any city there are multiple wi-fi zones so you can connect to the internet just about anywhere.

Telephone:

I use Skype for my phonecalls. Go into www.skype.com and download and install Skype. Click on 'my account' and put in $10. This goes a long way. Calls to the US are 2 cents a minute - to Mexico - 9 cents a minute. To dial, click on the bottom box and for the US type +1 followed by the area code and phone number. For Mexico type +52 followed by the area code and number. Dial all numbers as if you are in the US. For 800 numbers, dial +1 800 followed by the number. For Mexican cell phone calls dial, +521 followed by the area code and number. For US cells phones just dial +1 plus the number. Obviously you can call any country using the appropriate country code. You can call Skype to Skype for free with friends that have Skype installed. You can even use a webcam so they can see you live as you speak. If you want people to be able to call you, or leave a message you must sign up for Skype-In at $6 a month.

Music

Obviously you can use your computer to play CDs but my preference is ITUNES where I can download my favorite songs for 99 cents a piece play them jukebox style. Other prefer to listen to the radio - there are hundreds of internet radio stations to choose from. Try www.radiotower.com for a list of some of the radio stations.

Movies and TV

You can watch the nightly news at www.msnbc.com as well as many of the political shows offered on MNSBC. Also check out BBC and CNN. Youtube offers a wide variety of videos and comedy skits. You can rent movies and use your DVD player but be a little careful here. To protect the copyrights some computers make you specify a location - and you are only allowed to change the location twice - so if you watch movies in Mexico you might not be able to watch them when you go home. If you prefer to listen to the radio, NPR (National Public Radio) is good.

Reading

There is a new hand held device called the Kindle for reading. Although I never thought I would read a book on a LCD screen I can see where it has certain advantages for traveling. You can download as many books as you want - perhaps put your travel guides there. This is really good for people who read alot but want to travel light. Also in many small towns it is difficult to get good books in English. Plus you can read when there is no electricity and you can read at night with the lights off so you don't disturb your traveling companion.