House Hunting Mexico

 I have this plan to (hopefully) buy a place in Mexico so I can spend the winter months in sunshine and good weather. This grand plan has had many bumps, especially lately, and honestly, I'm not entirely certain that I'll be able to pull it off. If I do, it still will be at least a year. That's a whole, long sob story for another day.

In the meantime, I've been visiting different areas to try to ascertain the best location. I have visited the Los Cabos area (Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo) and La Paz on prior trips. On this trip, I visited Cancun and Merida. I also decided to test how it would be to spend a longer period of time, since the game plan would be to spend three to four months a year. So I decided on two months for this test, split between Cancun and Merida. I will say it's kind of weird to be gone that long. Luckily, my phone plan includes Mexico, and of course there's always text and social media to stay connected. 

Because two months is a long time to pay for accommodations, I opted for Airbnb's in the "budget" range. I think my final place will likely (hopefully!) be a bit nicer than the places I rented, but they were perfectly adequate. Outside of resorts and hotels, a lot of the inadequacies are more to do with infrastructure in Mexico in general. I also opted to not rent a car - it would be terribly expensive to do so for a couple of months and since I probably won't have a car when I'm a snowbird, and I need to assess how easy or difficult it really is to not have a car. 

The first question most people ask me is whether or not I feel safe. Absolutely! I think people hear about the cartels and imagine all kinds of chaos, which I'm sure there is in certain locations. But the way I think of it is, their economy relies on tourism too much to "crap where they eat," so to speak. I have a separate note on the matter for Cancun, but in general I feel very safe. Uncomfortable, perhaps, because my Spanish lessons are going very slowly. There's nothing like a lack of language skill to make you feel like an idiot or a child. But people are for the most part patient, and there are, of course, translation apps.

CANCUN

I have been to Cancun several times, but always staying in very nice resorts. And that Cancun experience is beautiful - gorgeous surroundings, great beaches, good food everywhere. 

But that wasn't the experience this time.

As noted, my Airbnb was perfectly adequate. However, it was located on a very busy calle and was quite noisy. There were some great restaurants within walking distance, but groceries necessitated a car, which, as it turned out, was the major hangup in Cancun. 

When I had gone to both Cabo and La Paz, Uber rides were plentiful and cheap. Naively, I assumed it would be the same in Cancun. Unfortunately, at least during the time I was there, there was a major war going on between taxi drivers and Uber drivers, mostly taxi drivers trying to drive out Uber through intimidation. The first wind I caught of this was when I took an Uber to Walmart to stock up, intending to also take an Uber home when I finished. With my cart full of groceries, I called up an Uber ride. It said to meet the driver nearly a quarter mile away. I was confused, and of course not looking forward to pushing my groceries that far (and what if I got arrested for "stealing" the cart??). Before that drama could fully reveal itself, however, my phone died so I couldn't follow the directions to get to the Uber driver anyway. I resigned myself to having to use a taxi. I had been warned several times by locals that taxi drivers will absolutely inflate the fare if they think you're a tourist and because they don't have meters in the cabs, you can't plan how much it will be. Adding to the discomfort level is the language issue and being able to communicate where you're going. Even within the taxi world, there are rules about which taxis can pick up where. Even though there was a taxi parked not more than 30 feet from me, and several other taxis that went by, I had to wait in a line for specific taxis to come and service Walmart. 

I figured out that it worked okay to get an Uber to a place, but to return I would have to walk a distance away from the place to where it was "safe" for an Uber driver to pick me up for the ride home. I also would get in the front seat, so that the ride would appear to be between friends. There were even instances of actual violence (not to me personally), and Cancun officials ended up calling in the National Guard is to keep the peace. Luckily, my Airbnb owner had connected me with Israel, who was generous in helping me out with some of my transportation needs (to and from the airport, a Walmart run). Since I don't plan to have a car when I'm staying for three or four months at a time, safe, reliable and friendly options are a must. For this reason mainly, but also the fact that Cancun is a very big city and I would not be able to afford a place anywhere near the beach, I'm pretty certain it isn't the place for me. 

But I did manage to do a few fun things and eat at some awesome restaurants while I was there. 

One day I took the ferry to Isla Majeres. It was a fun ride over and beautiful weather. I wandered the

streets a bit and had lunch at a place overlooking the action and which featured live music. Then I hung out at the beach before heading back. 

Another day I took an organized tour to the Tulum ruins. I like to take tours - it's a great way to meet people, you get a lot of background info you wouldn't otherwise get, and, of course, if you're without a car it's pretty much the only way you can go. We went to the ruins, stopped by a Mayan village and also stopped at Playa del Carmen. 

MERIDA

Merida is about a 4 to 5 hour car/bus ride away from Cancun. In my research, it seemed that people were most satisfied with taking the premium ADO bus, at a cost of about $55. If you're not renting a car, your other options are flying (still have to get from and to your endpoints) or hiring a driver (expensive!). And honestly, that's the nicest bus I've ever been on. 

I had found a driver to pick me up at the Merida bus station through a Facebook group (great way to get recommendations - anyone who is mentioned multiple times is a good bet in my experience). Daniel showed me around Merida a bit. What a gorgeous city! I think it's probably as big as Cancun, but it doesn't feel like it (though I'm sure I saw only a small fraction). Then we stopped at Walmart for a big shop because I knew that my Airbnb was nowhere near a regular grocery store. Daniel even went in and helped me with my shopping! 

The place I rented is in Chelem, which is about 45 minutes away from Merida. I opted for a beach experience this time, and because Chelem is on a barrier island, the beach was just a few blocks away on both sides. My Airbnb was in a very local place, as in dirt roads and where locals obviously live. After a rain, vast pools would form on the roads, difficult at times to navigate around them (there was one walk where it proved impossible, resulting in wet shoes that nevertheless dried by the time I got back). I never did find a "beach" on the interior side of the island...just deadends into little coves with numerous old boats looking like they are seldom if ever used, with no beachfront. 

The other side, looking out onto the Gulf of Mexico, had numerous beaches but not fantastic ones. Small, with red seaweed seemingly a permanent feature, these beaches were limited in their size due to the number of houses that came nearly to the shore. But it made a nice daily walk to try to locate the best beaches in the area. 

The best beach I found by far was the Malecon in Progreso, another town on the barrier island about 10 kilometers away. I went there for the tailend of the Carnaval celebration. It was crowded and noisy, but after a nice lunch (coconut shrimp and margaritas), it nevertheless made for an enjoyable couple of hours to soak up some sun. 

I also went to Merida for one night, hoping to experience the Carnaval there. Unfortunately, I was misinformed as to the location of the festivities, which turned out to be about 25 kilometers from where my hotel was located. Taking an Uber there would not have been a problem, but I hesitated about whether I could get one back so far away, late at night. 

Another local attraction was Pig Beach. About two years ago, locals heard some strange sounds coming from an empty lot and upon investigation discovered eight newborn Vietnamese piglets (not sure how they know they're from Vietnam, lol) and their dying mother. The mama unfortunately didn't make it, and the Environmental Police began taking care of the piglets. 

One day the piglets were taken to a nearby beach, where they enjoyed swimming in the sea and chilling on the sand. So the local authorities had the idea to creat a tourist attraction similar to the one in the Bahamas. The first time I went there, I didn't know that the pigs are brought out on certain days at a certain time. So of course I had to go back. 

My goal this trip was to live more like the locals live, and I think it's fair to say that I accomplished that. It was a unique experience! I even found a condo that I really liked and had begun working on lining up the funding...but it turned out that the owners had, whether knowingly or unknowingly, underpriced it and would only honor the price it was at when I saw it for a week, which wasn't enough time to get anything lined up. BUT. It did show me that a suitable place is possible, when I'm ready with the money. I'm a believer in that things happen at the time they're supposed to happen.