We Moved to Mexico!

  Hey people, 

I know I haven't updated this blog in...oh...8 years, but I might have a bloggable life again.  So let me catch you up:

We stayed at the commune a few years until I got back on my feet financially.  I switched from writing novels to writing computer games and started making a decent income.  I wasn't quite back on my feet yet, but there was a new depression treatment I wanted to try and I needed to move to a bigger city for it.

So, despite having only one month pass where I could afford an additional $900 monthly rent on top of my $650 RV payment, we moved to Las Cruces New Mexico, an hour or so from the commune, so I could take part in a Spravato trail to see if that would help my treatment resistant depression.

It didn't work for me.  In fact it just made me extremely irritable as well as depressed.  

But the good thing was that it got us out of the commune (which had become oppressive for us, and my mom hated it there) and into a city with amenities...RIGHT IN TIME FOR COVID!

So, we quarantined in an apartment in Las Cruces where our packages and license plate were routinely stolen.  Even had a food delivery stolen once.  But honestly, it was better than the commune.  The dust storms there gave my mom asthma, and commune bickering and politics had us hiding in our tiny RV all the time and not 'communing' with anyone.

While in quarantine I built up the video game business.  I kept telling my mom I wasn't sure if I would make enough money to pay rent every month.  I was worried.  But needing money for rent lit a fire under my ass to work work work and my income grew dramatically.  Like to six figures after a year.  

While in quarantine I found that I didn't have the strength to stand long enough to take a shower.  My legs gave out under me.  I didn't want to go to the doctor during covid, but I was in rough shape.  My heartrate at rest was 145.  Something was really wrong with me.

I had developed a new disease:  Graves disease.  And I had congestive heart failure from it and was forced to stay in a hospital at the height of covid.  I walked through the hallway to my room and the bodies were lining the corridors, covered in sheets, waiting to get to the morgue which didn't have room for them.  This was every floor.  There were signs, 'Please do not lift sheets, give the dead the dignity they deserve'.  Argh.

Behold, my goiter. Left side there. Very annoying.

But I got the treatment I needed and reversed my heart condition fast. It was at the early stages. I also wanted to deal with my bone cancer in my leg and the doctor said that if I wanted to keep walking and wasn't going to do the amputation I should try physical therapy.

I had a physical therapy right across the street from my apartment so I did it.  And it didn't work.  I had nerve damage from the surgery and no amount of exercises were going to fix it.  The therapist had me really try harder.  It was an exercise where I curled my back.  He said to really jerk it to see if we could finally get it to work.  I did.  I injured my back.

I had horrible back pain for months where I couldn't walk more than ten steps without having to sit down due to the pain.  So I went to pain management, where I should have gone in the first place for my bone cancer leg pain.  They burned out the nerves in my back with some procedure so I could do exercises that would strengthen my back muscles so the pain wouldn't return when the nerves grew back.

I know this is all boring old lady drama (I was in my late 40s by now) but let me tell you: my depression was out of control with this back pain.  When I got up after the nerve operation (which six nurses held me down for because it was so fucking painful and I was literally screaming) and didn't feel the horrible back pain, I cried.  I cried tears of joy.  And I was able to go to a grocery store and actually walk through the whole store and shop.  It was an ordeal to do that operation, but it got my life back to normal.

We saw that home prices were going up during the low prime rates of the pandemic, and like I said, my income recovered to 6 figures.  We decided to buy a house in a larger city than Las Cruces so we could access better medical care.  I couldn't find an endocrinologist for my Graves disease in Las Cruces and my mom needed a cardiologist.  

We bought a mobile home in a gated community in a larger city.  Since we still own this home (we're selling it right now) I won't say where, but it's a large Southwest city.  

We were happy in this home.  We had our own space.  It was only $900/mo for the mortgage, same as our old rent.  We had a carport and giant shed attached.  The community was safe.  Packages would sit out for days without getting stolen.  It was quiet.  I never made any friends there, but our house was SO nice.  

We had a washer and dryer, two full baths.  Three bedrooms so the master for my mom with a walk in shower for her to be safe.  And I had an office and bedroom, and even room for a treadmill.  

We sold the motorhome.  That life was over.  We needed a stable home for our medical problems.  It was also too exhausting for us.

When I tell you it broke our heart to leave that home...yeah.  But November 20th, 2024 we realized we could no longer be happy in the USA.  So after three years in what we thought was our 'forever home' we went to the Mexican Consulate in that city to apply for residency in Mexico.

I got the residency easily due to my high income.  I was then able to add my mother on a family visa.  

These visas are still in our passports right now with our FMM forms.  We left our home, empty and for sale for $100k more than we bought it for, and we left to visit family before leaving the USA forever.

The border crossing was easy because it was right before Mexico started enforcing making Americans fill out a form to get into Mexico leading to crazy long lines to get in.  Like...we literally snuck in 3 days before that happened.  Just by the skin of our teeth!

They put health warnings on junk food here.

We had our car full of everything we owned after selling all our furniture and giving away or selling everything.  We were told that we would have to open every box and unpack everything for them to inspect.

We had to get rid of our grocery stash.

Well, we didn't have to.  We just told them what we had and paid $140 in import costs.  It may be because we're two old ladies who don't look like drug mules, or because my mom is fluent in Spanish and everyone she meets warms up to her.  I don't know.  But that part was easy.

We had tried to get our cat her shots and everything before we crossed, but we showed up to the vet only to be told they don't honor appointments people made online. You have to call.  -_-  wtf.  

We found out that you don't need documentation if you have your cat inspected at the border.  So we did.  They opened our carrier.  Glanced at her.  Pet her.  (Didn't take her out). And said she was good to enter.  EASY PEASY!

We got our visa and FMM forms stamped which is something you must not forget to do, or they'll send you back to the border at the first military inspection you get to.

So now we had to drive through the border down to our Air Bnb deep in Baja California Sur.  We're in the Baja Peninsula, so we're allowed to drive with our US plates, and don't need a temporary import permit for the car.  As long as we have valid license and registration in the US we're okay to drive here.

I didn't want to take the car.  I wanted to sell it in the USA and buy one here later.  I wanted to fly to San Miguel de Allende and live in the large expat community there.  But my mom said she would have to give up too much to get her life into the suitcases.  I tried to compromise.  I'd buy extra luggage.  We'd have luggage for our cat since we'd have to buy a ticket for her.  No go.  So we agreed to settle somewhere we could drive to, at least for the first year.  

We got a bike rack to take her two walkers.  A plastic carrier box to put on our roof rack--which didn't survive.  We had to get straps to hold our exposed boxes on the last 200 miles.  and we filled up the back of the car with all we could fit.  

We had to get rid of so much stuff we wanted to keep.  For me:  Our floor ellipticals, the only way my mom could exercise safely and a great way for me to exercise while I worked during the day.  For her: her surplus toilet paper.  -_- She wouldn't let me hear the end of it.

I was told that the police might find a reason to pull us over and try to get a bribe, which is an unfortunate problem here.  So we got a camera for our car to deter them.  But, alas, we did end up paying one bribe.

It wasn't to the police, it was to a soldier at an inspection station.  He said we had to pay 20 pesos to continue due to having a cat with us.  With a smile, because we were friendly and joking with him before this.  And with a wink.  Because obviously, there is no such fee.  

But 20 pesos is $1.  So...yeah.  We paid it.  I'm sorry if you think less of me for this, but things would have gone from friendly and joking to angry and dangerous if we didn't, and it was only $1.  Except it was actually $1.50 because I only had a 50 peso note and he only gave me a 20 in change.  Oh well.

We weren't stopped by police the whole way down and we were speeding.  Probably.  I don't know how to switch my cars odometer to kilometers.  But I know I was going 70mph in a 70kph area so...

The roads were empty on the way down, which was good because they were precarious with no shoulders.  Lots of huge potholes to watch for.  The best way to drive was to catch up to another car and watch where they swerved.  

They say you'll be safe if you stay on the toll roads.  And that's true, in Tijuana and near the border. But there isn't a choice usually the deeper south you go in Baja. There's only one road to get through the desert and there's no toll.  But we didn't feel in danger at any time.  It's empty desert highway.  Just a military inspection here or there, but basically empty with just a few trucks to pass.

One stretch of road has 9 hours of nothing.  No gas stations.  No restaurants.  No nothing.  And I had to use the bathroom on the side of the road because I was dying.  It was...an experience.  But the signs were there that many other cars had to stop in the same place for the same reason.  What can you do?

When there was places to stop for the bathroom, you often had to pay 5 pesos ($.25) or 10 pesos ($.50) when they flushed for you.  This did not include toilet paper.  So it was good my mother snuck some rolls into the car.  They don't want us flushing toilet paper in Mexico, so they just don't provide any.  -_- But yeah, we had our own.  Or sometimes they'd give us some too if we asked.

You're probably wondering why we would need someone to flush the toilet for us, to the extent that we'd pay them for it.  By flush, it means the toilet has no water.  You do your business then the attendant pours a bucket of water for you.  This was only in the remote desert areas.

Before we left I had tried to book hotels along our journey so we'd have places to stay that allowed pets.  But we had to cancel everything in Mexico.  This is because the office that inspects the cat wouldn't be open until Monday.  

In hindsight, I think we could have crossed on Sunday, because the office was still closed that morning when we arrived on Monday.  We left at 7am thinking there'd be a line to get across, and there wasn't.  The office didn't open until 8am.  But the custom agent who was there just looked at our cat and let us through.

The day delay made me cancel our hotels and I'm glad I did.  Because I'd planned to stay a night in Tijuana.  The horror story of having to unpack for them to inspect stuff and then repack made me think we'd be at the border for hours.  We weren't.  It took less than a half hour and we didn't have to unpack.  

So we got out of Tijuana and started down to the peninsula.  We just found hotels along the way.  Most...not so great.  I had to sit in the lobby to get internet in one.  The same place only had half a roll of toilet paper in the room.  (Again, my mom's squirreled away rolls saved us).

The beds are hard.  I had a mattress on it's way out in the USA so anything was an improvement to me, but my mom suffered and insisted she got to pick which bed she slept in.

We also did not had hot water in any of the hotels we stayed at.  I didn't know that was something I'd have to give up in Mexico.  Apparently only the bigger chains or resorts offer hot water on demand.    

I saw very few cities on the map along our journey.  And that's how it was.  Basically, once you descend from the border into the peninsula there's one largish city, San Felipe, and then microscopic "towns" until you get to La Paz.  Just a gas station, hotel, and restaurant.  Sometimes there's 'colonies' made by gringos here or there, but only one was open for us to stop and have lunch in.

We never felt in danger anywhere.  Our walkers were zipped tied to the bike rack and could have been stolen easily if anyone was so inclined.  Our car topper carrier thing could have also been rummaged through if anyone wanted too, and I had a portable solar generator in it.  Nothing was touched.  Nothing stolen.  We worried about this for nothing.

Though, when we were toward the end of the journey I thought someone had ripped open the car carrier topper thing.  That someone was just the wind.  Nothing was stolen, and again, my portable solar generator was what got exposed.  An easy and expensive thing to steal.

After 7 days of driving we finally made it to our Air BnB!

It was $1,200 for one month and is tiny.  We wanted two bedrooms to have our own space,  finally, after sharing hotel rooms for days.  The rooms are big enough for the beds only.  The bathroom is so narrow you don't have the room to stand up to wipe.  I've had to use my mom's bars (which we took on the bike rack) to get up.

And there is hot water here, but only once a day.  Not sure when.  The concrete entrance is uneven and I fell while bringing in groceries.  Thank God it was me who fell instead of my mom, but still...check out my bruise!

We just got here a few days ago.  We already signed a lease for a nice 4 bedroom apartment for $700/month.  It's unfurnished so we'll be dealing with that over the rest of the Air Bnb stay.  On Friday we have our appointment with Immigration to get our residency cards.  

We're finding both things we like and don't like here, but the things we like are more.  Pros so far:

• We got a vet to come to the Air BnB and treat our sick cat (the trip gave her some severe respiratory issue) for $35 and $10 of that was a tip.
• We walked into some random optical store and got eye exams ordered new glasses on the spot.  This was $680usd because we need a lot of special stuff and got multiple pairs.
• We bought the following for $15USD ($305 Pesos) At Chedraui-
• A liter of 2% milk
• 5 liters of soda water
• 2 six packs of diet coke (the tiny cans)
• a case of bottled water
• cheese slices
• cookies
• almonds
• splenda
• granola cereal
• beef of some sort
• fish sticks
• fish patties (we think it's fish, not sure)
• 6 yogurt cups
• loaf of bread
• pineapple fig newtons
• We bought a 35" TV and new Android cell phone for $250 at Chedraui
• People drive around the neighborhood selling and setting up the water jugs. They have speakers on top of their cars and go around every day.
• People also go around selling ice cream and strawberries and other things.  It's fun to buy stuff at the house.  Four pints of strawberries for $5
• We got approved to rent the house extremely easily and with little hassle.  Just 3 months bank statements, an application, copies of our passports and visas.  Getting the keys tomorrow.  And it's a lovely place with a big carport sort of thing in front where we can lock the car inside behind the gates. 
• Getting glasses and eye exams without an appointment and VIP service.
• It's fun to experience the new country and culture.  Grocery shopping is lots of fun.
• Super nice people.

Cons:

• Life is easier for us with a fluent Spanish speaker, and I was taking Spanish lessons while I exercised for fun before, and speak it so-so, enough to get by.  But you should learn as much Spanish as you can before coming or go to Puerto Vallarta or Ajijic where they all speak English.
• The roads and sidewalks are treacherous for my poor mother...and me.  (See bruise).
• Police are corrupt, but like I said, we haven't experienced that yet and we're driving a lot. It's a problem in theory, but I don't know how much they really pull people over.
• Water is not drinkable and you need to use jug water for cooking.  They say you should use it for brushing your teeth too, but we've just used tap for that.
• You can't flush toilet paper.  A small con.  Just have a waste basket in the bathroom.
• You need to always have cash because smaller stores/restaurants don't take cards.  Grocery stores and gas stations usually do.  

Cons Specific to us, and not Mexico's fault:

• Our Garmin didn't work here.  Probably my fault due to not updating it with Mexico?  I don't know. We lost the cord so I'm stuck.  But the Mexican Android phone is working fine for us now.  (It was a nightmare trying to find my way home when our USA phone had no connection).
• AT&T Phones DO NOT work here.  They lied to us.  They said they had a connection.  I don't know what we need to do, because we aren't getting any data.  Maybe we need a new sim card or something.  But we can use them on wi-fi so we can still log into banking etc.  Just get a Mexican phone ASAP.  They sell them at the Chedraui grocery store.
• Walmart is just as expensive at the USA it seems.  And not as good as the local Chedraui or Sorianan stores.  Just shop local.
• We can't withdraw money from our US Bank ATM card anywhere.  Thank GOD I have multiple bank accounts. My tiny local bank ATM works, but not US Bank?!
• Lots of International conversion bank fees and stuff.  Banco Santander ATMS are terrible and will have a 'hardware issue' and not give you your money.  -_- Thankfully it didn't deduct from my bank in the end.
• We need to give cash for the Apartment deposit.  So many daily ATM trips.

I'm sorry I didn't have many pictures.  I wasn't thinking about this blog as I traveled.  I doubt anyone will see this, but it's a good record for myself.  I'm on a new adventure and want to catalog it!

If you see this please comment if you want me to keep updating.