Our First Six+ Months in Mexico

 Jalisco, Mexico

(Sorry for the delay on this story, it’s now over 7 months!)

Its been 6 months since we first unloaded our 6 suitcases in San Antonio Tlayacapan, Jalisco, Mexico and began our open-ended, semi-nomadic journey. We even read a story where someone called this approach to life “geo-arbitrage,” a fancy word for going places where you can live for a lot less and see more of the world in the process.

And…..so far, so good! We’ve enjoyed our time here, and our only real issues have been the lack of good wine and coffee, and good internet, which … in the big picture is not a big deal.

A brief recap:

Got here just in time for Dia de Los Muertos 

Followed fast upon by nearly 2 months of various celebrations – saints' days (or 9-day novenas), the lead up to Christmas, then Christmas, then Ano Nuevo, then The Three Kings

 Got our residente permanente cards, then got Mexican health coverage at 25% the cost of our US policy -- which we promptly cancelled with glee.

Bought a used car, and named her Lupita, after Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, a sticker of whom we found at the local Auto Zone. And got hit the 2nd day we had her, by the Cruz Roja van! (If you’re going to get in an accident….) (All’s well, just a little ding that we got fixed for $100.) 

Seeing local plays, many quite good! Went to Guadalajara to see the Chivas play and experience Lucha Libre (Mark getting more than he bargained for!)

Visits from Pamela and Bruce, then Ita and Sarah

Trips to Costco (many), Michoacan, Tequila….

Mark's 60th birthday in Cozumel with John and Randy









Explored a lot of restaurants, some quite good.


Found a local bar (down the goat path) where we have made some very good friends.

Volunteering to walk rescue dogs, hiking, taking Spanish lessons, kayaking...

And we have started planning the next 12 months, which will have a lot more nomadic components than these first six months as we got our “expat sea legs.”

All in all, we would agree it is the "fun side of the wall!"

Click here to see a photo album with more pics:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G89Z192BIEMSuLAf2

(abril 29, 2018 or 11 junio)

Bienvenidos to our Blog!

Welcome to the INITIAL post on our blog!
(Blogs seem so 2005, but there are some uses.. like keeping our friends and family updated!)

It will come as a shock to most of our friends and family that we are NOT moving to a tropical place with scuba diving. (Yet)

We do have a "travelling mascot" however! Our Marquesan tiki god! (See a poll to name him, below, if you have a write in name, add to comments on this post!)

TravelTiki Flying to Guadaljara

We are moving to the Lake Chapala area of Mexico, in Jalisco. It is just 30 minutes south of the airport in Guadalajara (2nd largest city in Mexico), and only a 3.5 hour flight from San Jose, California!

We plan to be here about a year, learning how to be expats "with training wheels" as there is a great support structure here, with warm locals willing to help us transition. We do not plan to stay here indefinitely. But who knows? This may end up being our long term home eventually. It is pretty great so far! (2 weeks in....)

Why "eventually?" because we plan to start travelling the world....slowly.... in order to better learn about a place -- its people, food, activities, and culture. Also because we are still working a bit. In the future, at this point we plan to spend 3 to 6 months in each place, alternating expensive locations with not-so-expensive locations. Trying out housesitting (with dogs, we hope?!) and longer stays in non-holiday priced housing to stretch the budget.

So please be patient as we work this blogging stuff out. (Doesn't help that we're severely challenged with internet at our house...argh!)

Abrazos! Linda y Mark (aka Marco)