What I did not expect about living in Mexico…part 1
When people in the US talk about Mexico, you can usually hear some common themes such as how you should not drink the water, how dangerous it is, and how things tend to take longer. And, of course, all or some of that is true, depending on what you have experienced, where you have visited, and who you listen to.
My husband and I fell in love with Mexico during the Covid shutdown when we had an opportunity to spend several months in the Baja, thanks to my husband being able to work remotely. We had visited the area before on our vacations or for conferences, but those trips tended to be ten days or less spent in a hotel or Airbnb. Spending those months living in a small casita in a quaint fishing village, we experienced for the first time what it would be like to live here, and we realized quickly that the lifestyle would suit us. During the same time, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came up for us to own a one-and-a-half-acre oceanfront parcel in Cerritos Beach, a small surf town we had been checking out and had fallen in love with.
So at the end of last October, we packed 700 pounds of our most prized possessions into ten suitcases and moved to Cerritos Beach, where we are now developing and building an oceanfront community. You would think that having lived in the area for several months would have given us a pretty good idea of what to expect, but there is still a big difference between visiting and actually living here. One of the very first lessons for us was that everything here does take longer, but not because of the attitude of the local population; it is just that Mexico is very much a culture where everything still has to be done in person and is inherently bureaucratic. Whether you are trying to buy a car or get all of your required documents as a permanent resident, there is not one task that does not require you to attend in person, and it always involves a bunch of paperwork, in hard copy and with original signatures. Your electric bill is the most surprising, almost comical item required for everything. That is your only proof that you have an address; you need it to get permanent residence, buy and register a car or get a cell phone. Well, when you first move here, you will not have an electric bill, as you are likely renting, so that pretty much stops all activity until you can get that item figured out. And so it goes.
Expats living here for a while have learned that just because you have an appointment for something, whether for a car repair or getting your tax ID, it will usually take more than one visit and probably more than three hours at a time. So they plan for it and schedule enough time. By the way, this also applies to pleasant things such as getting a pedicure; my favorite local nail technician takes her time and it results in the best pedicure I have ever had, but I do need to remember to bring something to drink, a snack and a book to read as it can take up to three hours!
I think the best way to describe the local sense of time is "old-fashioned". For those of us growing up before cell phones and computers, there was no "instant" anything. Everything required talking to a real person, and all the important interactions were in person, paperwork in hand. Once you get used to this way of doing things, it can start to feel quaint, and suddenly time takes on a different flavor. Even though we run a business from here, we are not hurrying from appointment to appointment as we were used to back in the US. Every trip we have to take to meet with officials or our team in either in La Paz or Cabo San Lucas turns into a daylong adventure, and we make sure to plan for lots of extra time and, of course, having lunch at one of our favorite restaurants.
One of the other big surprises for us living here has been the ease with which we have met people and made new friends. In an environment where no one is in a hurry, everyone seems to have time for socializing and connecting. The people who have been drawn here from all over the world share an adventurous and generous spirit. We joke about it being the "Wild West", and it is a bit like in the frontier days: it takes something to be here and that also brings people closer together.
What I did not expect about living in Mexico, was how much it reminds me of growing up in a small town in Germany and how quickly it felt like home to me.