Long before I knew about home exchanges, I used to like staying in a friend’s home, with or without them. When I was with them, they were good company; alone, I felt a sneaky kind of freedom, as if I had been given permission to be an intruder.

If you like hosting friends, you may be a candidate for home exchanges. My husband Barry and I joined homeexchange.com about 15 years ago and have since enjoyed house swaps in the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Germany, Colombia and Ecuador, as well as in San Francisco, Portland, New Orleans and Breckenridge, Colorado. 

We would have exchanged homes in Mexico too, but so far, most people we’ve approached want to swap for only two or three days, and we prefer a week or more.

Home exchanges are only one way to stay for free when you’re traveling; another popular option is housesitting, and in this article, I’ll discuss both.

Home exchanges

For about US $230 a year — the average membership fee for most home exchange organizations — you can take advantage of three types of swaps: simultaneous, nonsimultaneous and point exchanges. The point system means you can accumulate points to use for a future home exchange.

Home exchanges require preparation. You need to decide how to handle such issues as: 

Guest information: We have a detailed guestbook providing information about Wi-Fi, contact and emergency numbers, utilities, how to use our solar-heated shower, garbage, neighbors, the cleaning schedule and nearby food stores, restaurants and transportation.

Home maintenance: Who will make sure the house is ready for guests? Our Mexican cleaner puts out fresh towels and leaves a welcoming bottle of wine on the kitchen table.

Use of amenities: Will you allow guests to use your car, bicycles etc.?

Private storage area: If you have personal belongings, valuables or foodstuffs in the house, you’ll need to put them away in a secure storage area. We feel annoyed when we stay in homes where the owners leave us no space to put our stuff.

We’ve found being proactive pays off. For example, since Barry’s British family has a reunion in England every two years, we reach out to home exchangers somewhere relatively close to enjoy a mini-vacation in a new area.

We love the personal connection woven into many home exchanges. In Brittany, for example, we had gotten off the train from Paris and were on our bikes when it started to rain. Our hosts drove 30 miles and picked us up! Meanwhile, in Prague, we enjoyed not only the couple whose home we rented but also their neighbors. A year later, the neighbors visited us in Guanajuato.

Be sure to carefully vet not just the home but the neighborhood where you exchange before committing. We were excited when a couple from Colombia invited us to stay at their home in Medellín. We knew they lived in the suburbs but didn’t realize how gated, bland and empty their neighborhood was. The only upside was that we’d hire an Uber driver daily, and our rides became a highlight of the day. The drivers were eager to share their stories and tell us how much had improved since Medellín’s infamous drug cartel era. 

Housesitting

Everyone we know in Mexico who housesits does so through the home and petsitting organizations House Sit Mexico or Trusted Housesitters. With these platforms, just as with home exchanges, you pay an annual fee: US $79 for House Sit Mexico and starting at $129 for Trusted Housesitters. 

One Guanajuato couple we know has housesat so many times in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, that they have become friends with several owners and now housesit informally, rather than pay a membership fee. They also housesit regularly in San Miguel de Allende and Vancouver, British Columbia, where they lived before moving to Mexico. Another woman we know — currently housesitting in Costa Rica — lives in Tepotzlán, Morelos, and usually stays at homes in different parts of Mexico.

Everyone agrees it’s important to ask the owners a lot of questions before making the decision to housesit. Find out how much time is required to take care of any animals the house may have, so you know how much freedom you’ll have to come and go during the day.  If you don’t want to drive the owners’ car, ask if the neighborhood is walkable and near public transportation, or be willing to take taxis.

It’s crucial to ask about the weather. “Our hardest housesit was at a home on the Nayarit coast in June,” says Rachel, a Canadian. “The home was near the jungle with no air conditioning. Lots of mosquitoes, and the humidity was grueling! It was a long three weeks!”

Rachel also points out that housesitting as a couple is easier because if there’s a problem, one can get help while the other stays with the animals. 

So take your pick. Whether you choose home exchange, housesitting or both, each is not only a bargain, but you get to know a new area and will probably make new friends along the way.

Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are available on her website, authory.com/LouisaRogers

The post The fun, friendly and frugal way to travel within (and outside) Mexico appeared first on Mexico News Daily

We belong to a home-exchange organization, and an American who owns a condo in Cuenca had stayed at our Guanajuato city home a year ago while we were in California. Now, it was our turn to stay in his home.

I’m always curious about other international cities in which U.S. citizens retire. What would it be like had we chosen this town or that one instead of Guanajuato? Cuenca — along with Cusco, Peru and Medellín, Colombia, to name a couple of other South American cities — is a frequent retiree choice. In fact, Cuenca is so popular with expats that I thought it might be Ecuador’s answer to Mexico’s popular San Miguel de Allende.

Barry and I are so smitten with Guanajuato, though, that it’s hard to find other cities that come close. We love the friendly, warmhearted Mexican people.  We love color, and Guanajuato is the most vibrant city we’ve ever seen, with houses of every color imaginable — turquoise, magenta, orange and on and on.

The city’s pedestrianized areas, with much of the traffic underground, are ideal for us. Plus, the winding streets force the aboveground traffic to go slowly.

We can hike right from our front door, but when we want to range further afield, we love the fact that we can take a plush bus to other nearby beautiful cities like Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Aguascalientes within half a day. Similarly, we can fly to Puerto Vallarta or Cancun, where we can visit Maya ruins dotted around the Yucatán Peninsula, in an hour.

Sixth, León’s international airport can fly us direct to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Los Angeles and  Tijuana, among other cities. It’s hard to top that! 

Our first hint that Cuenca might not be like San Miguel de Allende was just getting there. We flew from Mexico City overnight to Quito, Ecuador’s capital, where we stayed for a few days, and then flew directly to Cuenca. Quito is a long way from the United States or Canada, and Cuenca is even more remote.

Unfortunately, Cuenca didn’t meet our expectations, although we enjoyed a couple of its assets: a river with tree-lined paths on both sides, and the city’s hot springs, one of my favorites in the world, with pools of different temperatures and a eucalyptus-flavored steam room. 

Still, Cuenca, with a population of over 600,000, is much larger and busier than we realized. Drivers honked a lot, while buses seemed to careen down the city’s narrow streets, their fenders veering into the sidewalks, making even me — famous for my casual attitude towards oncoming traffic — shudder with anxiety.

Nor is Cuenca’s chronic rain like Mexico’s “monsoon” season, where a huge violent thunderstorm will last for a couple of hours and then clear the air. Cuenca’s spring weather is more like the U.S. Pacific Northwest: persistently damp and chilly.  

Ecuador is one of four Latin American countries that Barry and I have visited in the last ten years. The others were Panama, Colombia and Peru. 

Panama 

A small and easily navigable country, Panama has many hillside towns which, though charming, are too small or too far from an international airport to work for me. Boquete, for example, a popular coffee town in the north of the country, is seven hours from Panama City.  Also, as lovers of ruins, we were disappointed that the only archaeological sites we saw were right in Panama City.

Finally, Panama is heavily influenced by U.S. culture due to the construction of the Panama Canal; we want to live in a culture that feels significantly different from the United States.

Colombia

Colombia is our favorite of the four Latin American countries we’ve visited, and Medellín is the city we’d probably have picked if we’d moved. It’s a fascinating city with a once-traumatic history and creative, award-winning transit solutions to isolated, marginalized communities high in the hills around the city. We liked Medellín, but had to take taxis and Ubers everywhere, whereas we much prefer to walk as we can in Guanajuato. 

We were charmed by the Pueblos Patrimonios (Heritage Towns), Colombia’s equivalent to Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos, especially the nearby coffee towns of Jardín and Jerico, part of the state of Antioquia. But with a population of 2.4 million, Medellín is way too big and sprawling for us.

Perú

Our trip for my nephew’s wedding was not our first time in Peru. In 1985, Lima was a much smaller city, but today, its exhausting traffic makes that of Mexico City look like a small town.

Because we hiked the four-day Inca trail to Machu Picchu in the 1980s, we decided to forego Cusco and the nearby Sacred Valley region this time around. As my nephew’s father-in-law said to me, “Don’t worry about going to Machu Picchu if you’ve already been. The only thing that has changed there since 1985 is the number of tourists.” Indeed, my sisters said the crowds were overwhelming. 

If we’d moved to Peru, we might have picked Cusco to live, but my sisters told us that the traffic there is also horrendous. Plus, there’s the issue of flights to Lima. Several flights my family members had booked were delayed or cancelled outright, making connections very tenuous.

For Barry and me, the other Latin American countries we’ve seen, interesting as they are, simply don’t meet our criteria.  Still, I recommend that any foreign resident living in Mexico and interested in Latin America visit; it’s a much faster hop from Mexico City to any of these South and Central American capitals than from the U.S.

As Mexico News Daily readers know, Mexico has it all. Kind-hearted people, culture, archaeology, access — you name it. I’m forever grateful we found a home for ourselves in this magical country.

Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are available on her website, authory.com/LouisaRogers

The post I’ve seen Latin America, but Mexico’s still my favorite country for retirement appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Each morning, I lie in bed for a few moments, looking out at the Guanajuato night. Then I slip silently out of bed, careful not to wake my beloved. The early morning, my solo sanctuary, is my favorite time of the day, and not to be disturbed by anyone other than birds.

Downstairs, I turn on the coffee, then settle into my comfy armchair in our sala to read inspiring literature, listen to Spanish podcasts and write in my journal.

This time of day was known as matins or vigil in ancient Christianity. The Tzeltal, an Indigenous people who live in the Chiapas highlands, view the predawn darkness as a holy time, when the veil between the human and supernatural worlds thins. I feel I’m in a private, intimate world all my own. I sometimes remember my sister saying that when she nursed her firstborn at this gentle time, she felt like a doe with her fawn.

When people ask me why I get up so early, I explain that it’s not my choice so much as my innate biorhythm. A person’s sleep schedule preference is closely tied to their circadian rhythms, the natural physical process that follows a similar cycle every 24 hours. I used to worry that I wasn’t getting enough quality REM rest, but my sleep pattern doesn’t affect my energy level during the day, especially because Barry and I have a lie-down on our sofa almost every afternoon.

Barry and I divide our lives between the city of Guanajuato and Eureka, California, and I wake at the same time in both places. But in California — which is part of an early-rising culture — I wake Barry around 4:15 a.m., whereas in Guanajuato, at 6:30 a.m. because the cafe he likes doesn’t open til 7:30 a.m. 

In both towns, we take a stroll around the neighborhood, then I drop him off at the cafe, where he’ll stay for an hour, while I return home.

When we’re traveling, we sleep in, but not much by other people’s standards. Last March, for example, Barry and I stayed at a small hotel in Tepotzlán, near Mexico City. We loved the hotel — other than the breakfast time.

The meal wasn’t served til 8:30 a.m. Clearly a challenge! To fill the waiting time, we went on an early morning walk every morning. Not a bad choice — it was calm and cool at that hour — though I’d have liked the option to have good coffee first. My solution was to carry a portable hot water immerser, a plastic mug and instant coffee — a shabby substitute for the real thing, but así es. 

After returning from our walk, we’d have liked nothing better than to enjoy a dip in the pool, but no such luck, as the staff didn’t remove the pool cover til 10 a.m., and there was no way to sneak under it. Believe me, I considered it.

It turns out, not only do individuals have biorhythms, but so do cultures. According to the World Population Review, countries like Switzerland, Australia and Germany are examples of early-morning cultures, while Mediterranean, southern European and Latin American countries tend to have night owl patterns. 

A nation’s location influences its culture, with countries closer to the equator (like some in Latin America) having more natural light throughout the day and a tendency to be more active at night. There are exceptions, though. 

One is Colombia, the world’s earliest-rising country, where households often start their day around 4 a.m., although, according to El País, that doesn’t make them more productive. The second earliest-rising country is Indonesia (6:55 a.m.), while Mexicans, along with the Japanese, rise at 7:09 a.m. Americans get up at 7:25 a.m.

Weather contributes too. In the ’80s, when Barry and I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I steeled myself to get up early to write before I went to work, dreading it because it was so cold. To save money, we didn’t turn the heat on til; later in the day. 

As for shopping, in Guanajuato, the only stores that open at 8 a.m. are La Comer supermarket, Waldo’s (Mexico’s Dollar Store), and another supermarket, Bodega Aurora, which I avoid, as it’s owned by Walmart. But I love my walk to La Comer. 

It takes me about 15 minutes through one of the city’s tunnels to reach the supermarket, which is calm and uncrowded at that hour. I wish more Mexican stores would open that early. ¡Ojalá! Many of the stalls in the Hidalgo Mercado aren’t even open at noon. And the department store La Marina doesn’t open til 11 a.m. The nerve!

I also wish the weekly Guanajuato symphony would start earlier. It used to begin at 8:30 p.m., past my bedtime, but at least it now starts half an hour earlier.

Still, I feel fortunate to be a natural early riser, perky even at 3 a.m. Some studies show that people who wake earlier are less likely to develop depression, anxiety and other mood disorders, probably because early risers have more access to daylight, a natural mood booster. 

Biorhythmically challenged as I am in Mexico, my unending fascination with its ancient culture, coupled with the country’s many beauties and friendly people, more than make up for later opening hours. Whatever time shops open, it is an honor and a privilege to live here.

Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are on her website, https://authory.com/LouisaRogers

The post How an early riser survives in Mexico’s late-night culture appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Several obstacles lie in the way, the main one being age. Barry’s 82, I’m 73, and as my mother-in-law used to say, “You’re not getting any younger.” 

What is a Pueblo Mágico?

The Pueblos Mágicos program, launched in 2001, promotes tourism in towns that offer natural beauty, cultural richness, history, archaeology, cuisine and the arts. Mexico’s federal Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) — in charge of permitting a town to don the moniker — is raising the bar this year for obtaining and maintaining Pueblo Mágico status, with upgraded standards set to take effect this year.

I’m happy to hear this, because we were disappointed by a couple of the towns, unclear why they deserved the designation.

We live in the city of Guanajuato, which is surrounded by the states of Querétaro, Jalisco, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, and Michoacán, so we’ve been to many pueblos mágicos in these states. Every January for years, before my father died, we’d visit him in the U.S. and fly back to a different city in Mexico.

In this way we were able to easily explore other more distant pueblos mágicos, like the coffee towns of Coatepec and Xico in the state of Veracruz. Here are a few of our favorites:

Valle de Bravo 

Valle de Bravo is a town built around an artificial lake, about 2 1/2 hours by bus from Mexico City, with a generous plaza and red terracotta-roofed whitewashed houses. It has a café ingeniously located right in the middle of a traffic circle, every window showing a different view — of virtually no traffic.

On the weekend, Valle gets busy with wealthy escapees from Mexico City who have second homes there, but during the week it’s tranquil.

The town offers plenty to do, from walking around the lake and kayaking to visiting the monarch butterflies and climbing the nontechnical Nevada de Toluca and hiking around its volcanic lake.

Nearby are also two spiritual centers of different types: About 45 minutes from town is a Tibetan Buddhist temple, said to be the tallest in the Western Hemisphere. We arrived in the middle of seemingly nowhere to find a huge white stupa with brightly-colored Tibetan prayer flags, an intricate awning, and a golden Buddha. Another spiritual structure on the edge of Valle is Marantha, a 1970s Carmelite sanctuary, with three chapels and stained glass windows. Its serene grounds include landscaped gardens, fountains, benches, and religious sculptures. 

Jalpan

The town is the gateway to the Sierra Gorda, a mountainous area a few hours from the city of Querétaro. Picturesque Jalpan is built around a plaza and home to one of the five Franciscan missions built in the 17th century. The intricate and detailed mission is well worth a visit, but there’s much more to do around Jalpan, like visiting the other missions and the nearby Tancama ruins, which are among the most important pre-Hispanic settlements in the Sierra Gorda. Occupied between 200 and 900 C.E., the ruins are situated in a beautiful setting at the base of the Cerro Grande mountain. 

Puente de Dios, the “Bridge of God,” is a beautiful two-mile walk along a riverbank, crossing the river several times on small wooden bridges. It leads to a limestone grotto and three waterfalls that flow down from the roof of a cave. The current from the three waterfalls is so powerful that thick floating ropes have been installed to help anchor swimmers. 

Cuetzalan

A sleepy remote village about two and a half hours from Puebla, Cuetzalan is famous for its weekly market and the Nahua people, who still wear native dress. On weekends, voladores climb a 100-foot pole in the central plaza, tie themselves with ropes, and spiral down, twirling around the pole. One remains on the top of the pole, unanchored, dancing and playing a flute and drum, before he also spirals gracefully down. The spiraling is a ritual ceremony that began in pre-Hispanic times and has since been incorporated into Mexican Catholicism. 

Near the village are waterfalls, natural pools, caves, woods, opportunities for ziplining, and a ruin. An American missionary couple we met told us we were the first foreign tourists they’d seen in two years. Indeed, I felt very far away from the modern world there.

San Sebastián del Oeste

A 17th-century mining town, the village is perched high in the Sierra Madre mountains at 1,400m (4,600 ft), about 45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta. With its old colonial church, restored haciendas, and cobblestone streets, San Sebastián is often cited as a prime example of well-preserved colonial architecture in Latin America. 

When Barry and I joined the local vaqueros in their cowboy hats sitting on the porch of the old historic hotel, I felt like I was in another century. We drank raicilla, the spirit cultivated locally from the agave plant, as we watched the festivities at the Saturday market below.

One of the reasons I like all these pueblos mágicos so much is that we saw almost no other tourists — Mexican or foreign. This is probably because we visited the towns midweek and because they’re either unknown, especially to foreigners, or not easily accessible. 

Now that I’ve described them, I have a strong urge to return. But didn’t I just say our goal was to visit every pueblo mágico? We should be going to new ones, not revisiting ones I’ve seen. So many pueblos mágicos, so little time! This is what I call a delicious dilemma.

Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are on her website, https://authory.com/LouisaRogers

The post Countdown: Our goal to visit every Pueblo Mágico appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Take crime, for instance. Given the cartel violence in Mexico, I would have expected Mexico to be far more dangerous than the U.S. And in certain areas, it is, but not everywhere. Miami is more dangerous than Mexico City. According to the website Howsafeismexico.com, Mexico City’s homicide rate is 9 per 100,000, while Miami’s is 15 per 100,000.

I’m not alone in believing some of the stereotypes. According to 2024 data from the Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Mexico. If you’ve made the same mistakes I did, here are six facts about Mexico that may surprise you.

1. Guns

Mexico has only two gun stores in the entire country, both on military bases, issuing fewer than 50 gun permits a year. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of arms in the country, because every year, more than 200,000 guns are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S., many of them ending up used by drug cartels. 

Ironically, the flow of weapons southbound is empowering the same organizations that smuggle drugs north across the U.S. border.

2. Mexican higher education 

Some universities in Mexico are world-class. In 2024, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) ranked 93rd of 1,300 universities in the world, according to the journal Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). In Latin America, it ranked second that year only to the University of São Paulo in Brazil, which ranked 85th. 

Meanwhile, for the last eight years, the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico’s MIT, has been ranked in the top 200 out of 1,673 prestigious universities in the world.

While public university students in Mexico have to pay for add-ons like housing, food, textbooks, and their actual diplomas, tuition itself is free; in fact, the Mexican constitution forbids public universities from charging tuition. Wouldn’t debt-ridden graduates in the U.S. dream of that?

Not only that, but the Mexican government is very generous with becas, or scholarships. Several of our Spanish teachers spent a couple of semesters studying in Europe or the U.S., fully paid for by the Mexican government.

3. Mexico’s economy

The 10th largest country in the world, Mexico has an economy ranked in the top 15 globally, according to the World Bank, which classifies Mexico as an “upper middle income economy,” along with such countries as Turkey, Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Colombia. 

Unfortunately, while Mexico has a large and relatively diverse economy, it also has growing income inequality.

4. Attitudes towards gay and reproductive rights 

Mexico supported gay rights long before the U.S., decriminalizing sodomy in 1871, 124 years before the U.S. in 2003. Mexico City was the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010, and same-sex marriage is now legal in all 32 states of Mexico.

As for abortion, in 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide, that is, no one can be imprisoned for having an abortion. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, however, abortion is still considered a criminal offense in 18 states where state legislatures have been slow to decriminalize it.

5. Average age and gender of top government leaders 

Age was clearly an issue in the last U.S. presidential election. If Americans prefer younger candidates, they should move to Mexico! At 62, Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, is 16 years younger than President Donald Trump, who is 78.

The same holds true in the Mexican legislature. The average age in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies is 48 years old (six years younger than their counterparts in the U.S. House of Representatives). Meanwhile, the average age of Mexican senators is 54 — a full 10 years younger than the average age of U.S. senators, which is 64.3. 

As for gender, more than 50 percent of the seats in the Mexican Congress are held by women, one of only six countries in the world holding that status. This places Mexico among the world’s leaders in gender equality in politics. In the U.S., only 28%, or 155 women, serve in the House and Senate.

6. Immigration 

While I wasn’t surprised that the largest immigration group in Mexico is U.S. citizens, I didn’t expect the second largest to be Guatemalans. Other large immigrant groups include people from the Spanish-speaking world — Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba, Spain, El Salvador and Argentina. 

Over 2.5 million people of African descent, who came to Mexico as slaves, live primarily in the coastal areas of Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. Another million people of Chinese descent live mainly in Mexicali and Mexico City, while about 9,000 Koreans live in Mexico City. 

Mexico has one of the largest Lebanese diasporas in the Americas, somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 people, living primarily in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. They began arriving in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking economic opportunities and fleeing religious persecution. Well-known Mexicans of Lebanese descent include business magnate Carlos Slim and actress Salma Hayek.

As these facts attest, Mexico not only is endowed with rich traditions, cuisine, art and music but also is a forward-thinking, diverse, increasingly egalitarian and progressive nation.

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Here are some of the things I miss about Mexico when I’m in Eureka:

The ease of speaking Spanish

Of course, I can speak Spanish in California, where 40% of the state’s residents define themselves as Latino. Plus, in Eureka, we live minutes away from a Mexican restaurant whose waiters are mostly native Spanish speakers. But speaking Spanish is just not as automatic for me in the English-language culture of Eureka. I rarely think about it, unlike in Mexico, where Spanish is almost as natural to me as English because it’s so easy. 

In Guanajuato, I walk down our street and start talking to a neighbor or chat with the guy who runs the mini-grocery three minutes from our home.

The friendliness of strangers 

The warmheartedness of the Mexican people inspires me. Friendliness is contagious; when I’m in Guanajuato, I become friendlier, too. 

In California, I try to remember to greet people I pass, but it’s more of an effort. I’m afraid I revert to my American persona — focused and goal-oriented, with things to get done. Or so I tell myself!

An abundance of pedestrian areas

Guanajuato is very walking-friendly, but it isn’t alone in that way. Many Mexican towns we’ve visited have extensive pedestrian areas, especially in their historic centers and tourist areas. They offer plazas, benches, landscaping, arches, arcades, narrow walkways, interesting architecture and public art.

Because the streets are so inviting, they’re full of people, which fosters a sense of community and is another reason why Mexicans are so friendly. The U.S. is far more car-centric than Mexico, where folks are likely to walk or use public transportation.  

Eureka’s winters are damp and chilly, but in the summer, the city hosts a popular car-free Friday night market with vendors, music, food, open shops and hordes of people. It’s what Guanajuato looks like every day of the year! 

An ineffable sense of spirit

Mexico maintains a separation between church and state like the U.S. does, but the gulf between the secular and the spiritual does not seem as wide.

Whereas in the U.S., faith tends to be practiced privately, Mexicans often express their spirituality in a very open, public and unembarrassed way. Their exuberance used to seem weird to me. But I’ve come to appreciate the way people unabashedly chant, sing, kneel, crawl or cross themselves when they pass a church and stroll around town with ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday. 

One afternoon many years ago, Barry and I were sitting in a church on a hill in the city of Zacatecas. As we sat quietly, a mother and daughter in front of us spontaneously broke into song. I was transfixed, and a shiver ran through me. I can’t imagine crawling on my knees across a church floor, but I’m deeply moved in the presence of faith, even when it is not my own.

Accessible hiking with incredible views

Guanajuato is one of the few cities I’ve been to where you can leave the center on foot and be hiking within 20 minutes. The fact that you don’t need to get in a car, take a bus, or even ride a bicycle to reach a trail is one of the city’s greatest gifts. On top of that, you don’t even have to walk very far before you’re rewarded with spectacular views of the city’s colorful striated layers of houses and the surrounding hills.

Once or twice a week, Barry and I take advantage of this opportunity. 

Mexican ruins

After years of living with a man who loves the magic and mystery of ancient archeological sites, I’ve gradually become a fan of ruins, too. I’m not a collector of facts; I read the history and data displayed, but I don’t retain the information. But I love ruins, and Mexican ones in particular. 

The ancient sites here in the land of the Maya, the Aztec and the Olmec offer a unique kind of enchantment because they harmonize so beautifully with the surrounding landscape. Although they were built by humans, they feel as natural to me as trees and flowers.

A few years ago, Barry and I visited Las Ranas, a small archeological site in the state of Querétaro. I wandered around, mulling on what stories lay embedded between the layered stones, while a dreamlike sense of timelessness came over me. I felt a sense of place greater than the sum of its crumbling rocky parts. 

What a country! Mexico, a rich, sensory collage of tangled history, colors, flavors, dreams. I’ll never tire of it. Wherever I am, Mexico is always in my heart.

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Nor was it just about work. In Eureka, where Barry and I live, the apartment we rent is only a block from a bay, where we explore its eddies, sloughs, pylons and marinas, me on my paddleboard, he on his kayak. Plus, we love the outings we take in our camper van throughout northern California and southern Oregon. 

Barry is now 82, and I’m 73. Our lifestyle still works — but for how long? Guanajuato, with its steep callejones, or alleyways, is not really elder-friendly. I figured we weren’t the only people with these questions, so I asked other part-timers how they perceived the pluses and minuses of this lifestyle. 

The advantages of two places

Richard and Reggie have lived in their Seattle home for 39 years, and despite the city’s many changes, they love it. But they’re glad to be in Guanajuato during Seattle’s long, dark, wet winters.

“Color, culture, weather, the kindness of people,” says Richard. “I see more kids on the street in a week than I see in a year in Seattle… God forbid they should be on the streets without guardians.”

Meanwhile, in Guanajuato they rent — like Barry and me, owning one home is enough for them — and have a great social circle. 

“I choose part-time living in San Miguel [de Allende] because we also love our Northern California home, where our five acres provide us with the outdoor work we love as gardeners. Plus, our son and granddaughter live next door,” says Susan, a retired realtor who spends about five months a year in San Miguel with her husband, Jack.

Maureen is a consultant who researches the history of local buildings in Long Beach, where she lives. It’s a job that requires face-to-face interactions and combing through physical archives. But she loves Guanajuato, where she spends four to five months a year. A self-described “alley” person, she enjoys exploring the city’s twisty streets.

For her, the pleasure of Guanajuato is that she can enjoy all the best parts of the city without the pull of responsibility.

“I hike more often, read more often, eat simply and live simply in Guanajuato,” she says.

She could do these things in Long Beach, but she doesn’t.

Diane, from Calgary, Alberta, is the person among these respondents who is the most immersed in Mexican culture. She rents a house in an improbable area, a working-class neighborhood in the city of León, Guanajuato, in the neighborhood where her “wonderful, caring extended Mexican family” lives.

“They adopted me almost 20 years ago,” she says. “I feel thankful that I’ve had the chance to be a part of their lives for all this time.” 

“I have the best of both worlds,” says Martine, a part-time Guanajuato resident from Vancouver. ”I love the nature, wildlife, and the ocean in [British Columbia]. But I also love the sun in Mexico because I have SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder] during the Canadian winters.”

The disadvantages

For people who rent one or both homes when they’re not using them, a big minus is the hassle of putting their personal belongings away whenever they leave. 

Such is the case with Spike, a retired audio equipment designer, and his wife, Jacquie. Because they split their time between Bend, Oregon, and Guanajuato, another issue they deal with is the exhausting journey back and forth.

“It takes 12 to 14 hours door to door,” he says. “Plus, we take our cat with us, and she clearly does not enjoy the trips.” 

For Martine, cost is an issue.

“It’s expensive to fly back and forth with two dogs all the way to Vancouver and start from scratch every six months,” she says.

Another dilemma is that she’s still taking care of her mom in Quebec, and she’s very close to her daughter in Victoria.

One of the minuses for Vivian and Jeff, who split their time between Guanajuato and Bellingham, Washington, is that they miss out on the potential to volunteer for some of the organizations that do good work in Guanajuato. 

Part-time to full-time

A few folks have made the leap from part-time to full-time. Rachel, who moved to Guanajuato from Vancouver, loves not owning a car.

“Daily walking as a lifestyle is freedom, and the over 340 stairs on our street help keep my legs strong and able.”  

On the other hand, she misses the ocean, theater and, especially, the long-term friendships.

“There is something irreplaceable about close friendships that have lasted more than three or four decades, she says. “I had no idea I would miss my friends so much.”

Lee, from upstate New York, also misses her friends, along with her children, granddaughter, canoeing on the Hudson and biking in the lovely countryside, but “I don’t miss the cold or the high cost of living.” 

She has no regrets.

“I love studying Spanish and am part of a Tai Chi community,” she says.” Lee also appreciates the opportunity to contribute. “For seven-and-a-half years, I edited a literary journal and am the mentor of a wonderful, intelligent college student as well.”

We’re not getting any younger

Then there’s the question of aging.

Lee chuckles. “I’m 87, so I’m already an elder.”

“We expect we’ll stay in Bend full-time when we start to age out, because it’s a better place to be decrepit in and is better suited for possible eventual mobility issues,” Spike says. “Of the two locales, our place in Bend will be more comfortable when we’re older.”

Jack, Susan’s husband, isn’t so sure about the back-and-forth lifestyle.

“For now, splitting our time is good, but as we inch towards our 80s, what we do will depend upon our health and healthcare.”

He thinks they may move to Mexico full-time to access less expensive elder care, pointing out that there is a good, affordable retirement home near San Miguel. 

The U.S. political climate

Several residents mentioned the political climate in the U.S. as a reason to permanently move to Mexico.

“We’re leaving our options open,” Jack says. “With the ugly changes in our country, we’re adopting a wait-and-see attitude.”

As for me, I’m not sure I’m any clearer about my decision than I was before. But as Barry says, things are changing so rapidly — technology, politics, demographics, healthcare — that it’s impossible to predict what life will be like even 10 years from now.

For now, Guanajuato is a great place to be active and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and that’s good enough for me.

Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are on her website, https://authory.com/LouisaRogers

The post The pleasures and pitfalls of part-time residency appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Although my siblings and I were brought up by parents from the U.S. Deep South who placed a high value on courtesy — much as Mexicans tend to do — we were not raised in the South. And because I grew up during the countercultural 1960s, I thought the focus on manners was superficial and silly. It was not until I began spending long periods in Mexico that I realized that courtesy might be an important social glue. 

During my 20 years living part-time in Mexico, I’ve adopted a lot of that social glue. Here are some examples.

Greetings

When we first bought our home, I was unaware how important courtesy is in Mexico, and in retrospect, my to-the-point communication style embarrasses me. Thankfully, I have since softened my style, and, in fact, have grown very fond of the gentle niceties that Mexicans use. If, for example, I’m entering a shop, I know to first say “buenos días” or “buenas tardes.” Similarly, when getting on a bus, I always greet the driver and my fellow passengers. 

When leaving a restaurant, I’m sure to say “buen provecho” when passing other diners. And if I’m ending a conversation or departing a shop, I’ve adopted the phrase I hear Mexicans use: “Bonito día!”

One day, I happened to pass a neighbor twice. The second time, I said “Hola,” though I realized afterwards that I rarely hear Mexicans use that word. I asked my teacher what I should have said. The answer? “Buenos días” or ”tardes” or “noches,” no matter how many times I see the person within 24 hours!

Even on WhatsApp, unlike  in the U.S., where text messages can be haiku-like in their brevity, Mexicans tend to begin with a greeting. My Spanish teacher always starts her messages with “buenos días” or a similar greeting. I’ve learned to follow suit, though I occasionally forget, like recently, when I messaged my neighbor and began with just his name. When he responded with “buenas tardes, Louisa,” I realized my error.

Asking permission and expressing gratitude

Barry and I visited Guanajuato several times before buying our home. One year, we rented a room from Rebeca, a woman who is now our neighbor, and we would meet with our tutor in her living room. When Juan would leave, if Rebeca was nearby, he would say, “Con permiso,” later explaining that the phrase is a polite way to signal you’re departing and asking for permission to leave. It’s also a way of asking someone to make way for you when squeezing past them.

Anyone can say “muchas gracias,” but I started adding “muy amable” (very kind) after hearing other foreign residents say it. The phrase adds an extra note of warmth, and sounds less rote than just “gracias.” 

I’m surprised at the situations in Mexico where I don’t expect to hear “gracias,” like when passengers get off a bus and thank the bus driver. Any opportunity!

Indirect communication

To preserve harmony, many Mexicans avoid making statements that might be perceived as negative. Instead of saying “no,” for example, they might say, “I’ll think about it.”  I’ve learned that if I speak bluntly in Mexico, it can be misinterpreted as rude and offensive, since it clashes with a longer and more diplomatic communication style. 

In writing, Spanish texts are longer, even in a direct communication style. If you look at an English-language paragraph and translate it into Spanish, the Spanish version will typically be about 20 to 30 percent longer because it uses more words to convey the same message. 

Forms of address

My parents taught me at a young age to use the titles “sir” and “ma’am” when addressing older people. In Mexico, too, forms of address are an important sign of respect. One year, while my then 90-year-old father was visiting us in Guanajuato, I invited Rebeca, who was 75, over for a drink. Using the formal version of “you,” Rebeca addressed my father as “usted.” To me, they were both old, so what difference did it make? Meanwhile, at 59, I considered myself a mere “chica” compared to them! I address Rebeca informally because many years ago, she gave me permission to use the pronoun “tú” with her.

I still can’t bring myself to use the word joven (young man or woman), which Mexicans use to address a waiter, because when I was growing up, “boy” was the put-down my racist uncles used to address an African-American of any age. Instead, I say “disculpe” or “perdón.”

In Mexico, I’ve learned that courtesy, far from being superficial, as I once thought, is a kind of social lubricant that silkens interactions. After many years of living in Guanajuato, I find that the unexpected ways Mexicans express respect and courtesy still surprise and delight me.

The post How Mexico taught me to mind my manners appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Noise is obviously subjective, and the same sound can be annoying or pleasant, depending on context. Usually, for example, I dislike the sound of traffic, but if I’m approaching the end of a long, tiring hike, the thrum of a car engine is a welcome sign that the end is near.

I noticed that the noises I objected to didn’t seem to bother most Mexicans, so it wasn’t their job to change, it was my job to adapt. While I loved Mexico, I needed to find ways to satisfy my need for silence.

Fortunately, Guanajuato is quieter than many Mexican cities, thanks to its layout. Because it’s built in a valley with steep sides, it doesn’t have the grid pattern typical of many Mexican cities. Cars can’t speed, since the streets are narrow and windy. Guanajuato is also laced with callejones, narrow pedestrian alleys that snake their way up to the Panorámica, the road that partly circumnavigates the city. 

Still, Guanajuato has plenty of noise. Here are some ways I’ve found quiet in Mexico.

Wandering along the city’s callejones

I fancy myself a flaneuse — a French term meaning an urban walker — and I love exploring Guanajuato’s serpentine alleys, where I can still get lost, even after knowing the city for 25 years. They look like a Middle Eastern souk to me, with a Catholic twist. Every so often I come upon altars, shrines, mosaics of Our Lady of Guadalupe and even the occasional chapel. Occasionally I’ll hear music coming out of a house, but usually I feel a heady mix of quiet, lung-pumping exercise, and appreciation for the city’s eccentric character. 

Seeking out green space and hiking areas

Guanajuato does not have as much green space as I’d like. Its tiny plaza, Jardín Unión, is crowded with restaurants, and the city’s two parks are located at opposite edges of the city, each about a half hour’s walk from our home. But a few months ago I realized I had overlooked another green space: a dry riverbed less than ten minutes away. 

People don’t use it much because its access is difficult to find and its paths aren’t well-established. Yet this area has become a secret hideaway where I can lie on mottled leaves and gaze dreamily up at the branches and clouds, entirely alone; not an easy thing to do in a country where most urban parks discourage visitors from lying or even stepping on the grass. 

As for hiking, one of my favorite aspects of Guanajuato is that Barry and I can walk out of our front door and, without getting in a car or bus, be in the hills within 20 minutes. We always look for hiking opportunities when we visit other parts of Mexico, too.

Sitting in churches

Unlike in the United States, many Mexican churches remain open all day. We enjoy sitting in a different church for 15 or 20 minutes every day or so, taking in the quiet, the cool and the musty smell. I also sometimes dip into a church for a break between errands, allowing myself to write in my journal, but not check my phone, which seems disrespectful to me. 

Getting up early and doing errands in the morning

As madrugadores (early risers) know, quiet is not only a matter of place, but of time. I naturally wake by about 4 a.m. My early-morning hours are sacred, a time when I journal, read, do puzzles, edit articles and listen to birdsong. Later in the morning, if I have errands to do, the earlier the better, because the streets are quieter and less crowded.

Not all these options that I can enjoy are available everywhere in Mexico. Callejones, for example, are rare. On the other hand, many Mexican towns have bigger parks and more squares than Guanajuato does, because their downtowns aren’t confined by geography. When visiting other areas, I seek out libraries, museums, hotel lobbies and the local cultural center, the Casa de la Cultura. I particularly enjoy the ambiance of hotel lobbies, where I can sit undisturbed in an overstuffed chair watching the people come and go. 

It’s funny: I’ve become so used to the noise level in Mexico that when I go back to the U.S., it seems strangely empty and quiet. Too quiet. Where is everyone? Where are the mime artists, the street musicians, the guy selling tamales? Now that I can find quiet whenever I need it, the typical sounds of Mexican life rarely bother me anymore. In fact, they make me happy.

The post How I found quiet in a noisy country appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Residents of Chiapas drink more Coke than anywhere in the world, in a country that is fourth in the world in the consumption of soft drinks. Residents of San Cristóbal de las Casas drink more than two liters, or half a gallon, of soda a day on average. This consumption has been  tied to the water crisis in the state, where  just 7 percent of households believe their water is safe to drink, according to a 2023 Inegi survey. 80 of the state’s 124 municipalities lack adequate access to potable water, with Indigenous communities worst affected. The problem is exacerbated by corporate water consumption, a situation which has often been described as Coca-Cola selling Chiapanecans’ own water back to them as soft drinks. Not surprisingly, the mortality rate from diabetes in Chiapas increased 30 percent between 2013 and 2016, and the disease is now the second-leading cause of death in the state after heart disease.

While Chiapas is the biggest consumer of Coke, overweight is a health issue across the country. According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Surveys in 2021, over 37% of Mexican school age children were overweight or obese.

Diet culture and obesity in Mexico

The phrase “diet culture” refers to a system of beliefs and expectations that values thinness, creates an obsession around food and exercise and stigmatizes overweight. In the United States, diet culture often leads to anxiety and shame. I know this intimately, because my mother put me on the first of many diets when I was 11. Although I wasn’t heavy, she was anxious that I might gain weight, because she had been taunted as a teenager for being plump. While my mother’s obsession was extreme, today it’s just one of many examples of the bizarre diet culture that is completely normalized in the U.S. 

Although obesity is a serious problem in Mexico, the diet culture is much less prominent than in the U.S. On the list of the world’s top ten most diet-obsessed countries, Mexico, unlike the U.S. (#1) and Canada (#7), is conspicuously absent. According to my Spanish teachers, anxiety about being overweight exists in Mexico and has increased since the advent of social media. Nonetheless, Diet Cokes and Pepsis aren’t crammed on supermarket shelves; the media isn’t filled with one diet after another; and moms haven’t let go of the age-old custom of taking their kids to a “tiendita” after school to buy a treat.

Does Mexico’s more relaxed attitude help bring about weight loss?

While research shows that fat-shaming doesn’t help a person lose weight — in fact, quite the opposite — a relaxed, compassionate approach to a person’s obesity isn’t a complete solution, either. It turns out parents can be too relaxed. A 2016 study, for example, showed that while Mexican mothers correctly perceived their overweight children to be overweight, they weren’t concerned about it because they viewed it as something temporary that the child would outgrow. By and large, this is not true: One study found that 70% of kids who were overweight at age seven remained overweight as adults.

A 2015 study of 1380 low-income households in Mexico City found that childhood overweight was seen as a normal, even desirable condition: overweight children were seen as “taller, stronger, more of a leader, healthier and smarter than normal and thin children.” The study’s authors noted that mothers and grandmothers tended to define nutrition practices and that grandparents were strongly influenced by memories of a time when overweight children had better chances of surviving malnutrition and disease. 

Government action

Since 2014, the Mexican government has taken steps to address the overweight and obesity epidemic. That year, it launched campaigns to combat the obesity epidemic, including taxes on sodas and high-calorie snacks, successfully reducing sales of sugar-sweetened beverages. 

In 2020, three state legislatures in Mexico passed laws banning the sale of sugary drinks and high-calorie packaged foods to minors. Oaxaca was the first, followed by Tabasco and Colima. That year, the government enacted a law requiring manufacturers to mark the packaging of foods high in saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, sodium or calories with informational labels.

And as of April, schools in Mexico will no longer be allowed to sell any snack that has a warning label showing it has high amounts of salt, sugar or fat. Those that don’t follow these rules will be subject to fines.

These are a good start, but the complexity of the problem remains enormous. For example, the law prohibiting schools from selling “comida chattara” (junk food) does not apply to vendors outside the school grounds.  A recent report by the Education Ministry (SEP) found that 77% of schools had such junk food stands nearby.

I view the Mexican child obesity crisis with a mixture of anger, cautious optimism and compassion: anger at the self-serving greed of multinational corporations, optimism that the Mexican government is taking the initiative to address the issue and compassion for the challenges and complexity that Mexican parents face when they try to feed their children well.

Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles can be found on her website.

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