First of all, we love it here. It was not a mistake to leave the USA and we feel it was inevitable that we would have left. With dark-skinned family and visible accents our safety was at stake (and still is for my family still there).
We love our local seafood restaurant.
We never really discussed the decision to leave. The day after the election when we woke up to the horror I said to my mom, "That's it. We're going to Mexico."
Instead of my mom saying, "Are you sure? Let's think about this." or "But I love our house here." She said, "Yep. There's no choice."
And so, I proceeded to the consulate and got our visas. At no point did my mother become the 'voice of reason' (because I've always been crazier and more impetuous than her) so we left.
Now we've lived here for 6 months. It's home to us, but I'll admit we didn't explore all that much yet due to my hectic work schedule.
I can drive around without GPS and speak easily to store clerks in Spanish, constantly apologizing for my mistakes. They say you learn the language fast when you live in a Spanish country. Yes, it's true, because you kind of have to.
It's in a palapa, an open grass hut. $30 for an extravagant lunch for 2.
There are so many benefits to being in Mexico. The prices, the kindness, the easily made friends, the walkability, the freedom. But there are, of course, things that make us crave the systems we took for granted back home. For instance:
We ran out of propane. We couldn't shower. In the USA there's a website, or a phone number, or something. Here, it's begging someone on WhatsApp. Never getting a straight answer for when they'll be there. Having to learn how to send your GPS coordinates from one App (GoogleMaps) to a different one (WhatsApp).
It took 8 days to finally get our tank filled. At one point he asked me to take a picture of our tank and I said NO. It's on my roof. I'm not doing this. And I complained to our landlord who said he would take care of it, but in the end, I had to be the one begging the company every day to please just come and deliver our propane.
The next issue:
Mercado Libre is the Amazon.com of Mexico (never mind we have Amazon.mx also, Mercado Libre is where you usually go). Just like the USA Amazon, independent sellers can post products to sell there, using their payment set up and shipping direct to buyers.
Yeah. Great. Except it's clear that a lot of people are buying broken stuff "fixing it" (not really) then reselling it. Here's what we've experienced:
1. An Alexa that you had to fiddle with to get it to connect to power until it finally just broke.
2. My mother's 'Refurbished' computer that overheats when it's supposed to be idle. We had to lift it off the desk with thread spindles to give it airflow because the stupid fan is on the bottom, and I've had to struggle to get the 'Bitconnect' or whatever code after two catostrophic failures. This computer wasn't cheap either! It was over $700USD!
3. My mother's TV which is her computer monitor because her vision is bad had the remote control break. You'd think this was a simple thing to remedy, get a universal remote, right? There's no universal remotes that work with "Sansui 32 Smart Model". We had to fight to get the manufacturer to send us a new remote, and it involved going to a local bank and putting money in their bank account and then sending them a receipt to prove we'd done this. And it still took another two weeks for them to actually send it!
In the end I will go to the Sams Club and buy a guaranteed new computer directly from the store the next time I need it, and yes that means paying an exorbitant price (especially for Mexico) because they are imported from the USA.
But, yeah, these are minor inconveniences. We love it here and it is our forever home.
Recently a kitten dropped into our backyard. :sigh: We had to save the little twerp so now we have two cats, but what can you do? He's adjusting well from feral life to house kitten. Hopefully someone will adopt him from us soon.
