Mañana.....Cultural Expectations Regarding Time

Anyone who is from Canada or the USA who has lived in Mexico is aware of the different attitude towards time. Mexican culture is fascinating and so different in many ways. A glaring difference is how time is viewed. I am always on time because I was raised with the belief that life functions better when everyone follows through on matters of timing. However, in Mexico time is never rated above the needs and customs of the people.

For example, we recently traveled a considerable distance to get our car serviced at a dealership. Traveling several hours from home where we live in Mexico is a big deal because it is not wise to travel at night. Topes (laying down police) are hard to see even in the daylight and one risks ruining your vehicle if not crashing if inadvertently launched driving over one. That fact plus that one never knows when people or animals might be walking along the narrow roads make night driving treacherous. So for those reasons let alone the safety factor of not wanting to be in the wrong place at the right time.....we generally do not drive at night.

However, we were forced to when our vehicle was not ready as promised. What really amazed me is when the promised 1 o'clock time passed on to 2 p.m. all the staff disappeared! Found out it was the lunch break from 2 to 4 pm so all work stopped... deadlines promised or not. Now this would not be a big deal if we lived in the same town but we didn't so it cost us another hotel room stretching from 1 night of hotel to 2 all adding up to the cost we had​ to cover. What made me so upset was that I queried the timing carefully to make sure we had enough time for driving. Mexican people are essentially very polite and wish to avoid conflict so it seems they often say what you want to hear rather than upset you with the truth. This is what happened as the service guy could not really make a promise.... he like us had to wait and see how long it actually took the mechanic to complete the work.

Thing is I need to adjust my expectations as there is no changing an existing culture. Really as a guest here, it is not my place to expect others to accommodate​ my wishes. So another lesson learned.... relax and go with the flow... expect things to take twice as long so as not to set myself up for unnecessary frustrations.