I can’t believe I’ve been living here a full month now! With my lease having started in October, that means only 22 months to go!

My first month here has been wonderful. 🙂 I know, I know, I’m in the honeymoon period and the glow is going to wear off, yaddi yadda, but, really, it’s been great.

The house is very comfortable, even with it not being fully set up yet, and it doesn’t seem immense at all. It really doesn’t feel like I’m rattling about in a half-empty mansion, although some spaces are echoey. I am pleased that I am making use of most spaces and enjoying all the perks the house has to offer. I was a bit afraid that having lived in small spaces or a few rooms for so long that I would end up spending all my time here in one room (namely my office), but nope!

My landlord is stopping by on Saturday to give me a primer on the water system that I should have asked for before moving in. I’m pretty sure I figured it out on my own after running out the other day, but it will be good to get confirmation that I know everything. I love having potable water in that I can rinse my veggies and my toothbrush in it. I still prefer to use the water from the jugs for actual cooking and drinking, but I’ve gone so far as to rinse my rice with the tap water and not had any issues.

I am disappointed with the hot water system in that there is no hot water to the kitchen and it takes ages and ages to get hot water to my shower. It might make more sense to pay to have a “regadera electrica” (hot water on the demand thingy) installed in my bathroom, but I’m waiting to see my next water bill before I make any decisions. My host in Chelem suspects that the water here is not metered and if that’s the case, then running the shower to get hot water won’t be as much of an issue. Yes, I need hot water at this time of year! It’s really brr in the shower in the evenings. 🙂

The electrical system has been working fine and my surge and brownout protector appears to be doing its thing. I’m expecting my first real power bill any day now and that should be revelatory.

As for the internet, oh my goodness. 🙂 I had one outage, early on a Sunday morning, and Izzi dealt with it in minutes! I’m getting the promised speeds and I have good coverage on the ground floor. Needless to say, I’m super happy. I will be getting a WiFi extender so I can get service upstairs as it is non-existent to poor (not a surprise). I thought I’d be able to live without WiFi upstairs, but I’m setting up my hobby and craft area in the landing and I like to be able to check my emails first thing to see if I need to rush or can take it easy.

I also really appreciate my landline and being able to call Canada and the US as well. The landline is so much more comfortable than talking on my iPhone, plus I don’t have to worry about signal strength.

As expected, air flow in the house is fantastic and between the doors, windows, and ceiling fans, the ambient temperature has been very comfortable and not super humid. It will be interesting to see the difference next summer since we’re definitely going into winter, with the nights sometimes actually being cold!

Now that the rooster situation has been dealt with, I’m finally sleeping well. I’m still using the little twin bed and it is very comfy and definitely easing the pressure of getting a new mattress.

I’m learning my neighbours’ routines and adapting my own to theirs. For example, the mechanic next door tends to work late and can be very noisy between about f0ur to as late as ten, depending on the day. My street, being a rare two-way thoroughfare, gets a surprising amount of traffic. Deliveries tend to start around ten and are quiet through the Mexican lunch hour. So I do my work that needs the most quiet first thing in the morning and in the middle of the afternoon.

The location is just as good as I expected. I have nearly all the convenience of being in centro and none of the headaches, like infrastructure problems, parking, noise, and being surrounded by expats. Just about everywhere in Mérida is near to me and I’m slowly expanding my use of buses.

I am getting a true immersion experience since there are so few expats in this neighbourhood and the few that are here are like me, here to actually live in Mexico and are therefore proving to be a good resource. One gave me a bunch of links to community Facebook pages so I can know what is going on and learn about various nearby services. I’m slow to get on the Facebook pages bandwagon, but starting to realise that many, many businesses use those in lieu of a website and it’s worth looking for a business page if only to get their hours of operation.

I haven’t done nearly as much exploratory walking as I expected to have done, but I do go out for short strolls at different times of day right in my immediate neighbourhood to see what is open when and to slowly figure out a logic to everyone’s schedules and to find out what food is available at what time of day. Tonight’s walk took me a few blocks south of home where I found a torta/hamburger/hot dog place that I’d like to try and, improbably, an authorised Apple repair store! I just checked out their website and it’s not clear if they do work on the actual computers or just software stuff, so I’ll give them a ring to ask if they do simple things like repair keyboards. It sure would be more convenient to walk a few blocks than to go to Gran Plaza or Altabrisa!

I appreciate living somewhere that I can get things easily delivered. I could have set a clock by the water delivery guy today — he told me last week that he’d be by at the same time today and he was! I’m enjoying getting food delivered some nights, especially from places that are open when I want to eat and that locals aren’t eating since service is super fast and the food arrives hotter and fresher. I ordered a pizza the other day and it was out their door in under five minutes and to me in under twenty! I have no idea how they pulled that off, but, yes, it was absolutely fresh and piping hot. I am going to want to try other places just to get a comparison, but with their current deal of a huge one with three toppings for just $100 (plus a $10 tip) and their really good crust, I’m in no rush. 🙂 I also like getting tacos delivered as I get enough for two full meals and a snack for $70 + $10. I haven’t ordered sushi yet for delivery since I’m two blocks outside of their delivery zone and I have to order $125 worth of food. Their prices are low enough that that would mean leftovers and I don’t have a fridge I’d trust with sushi. So I’ve walked over there for a few lunches. 🙂

My goal for the end of December is to have my fridge and a pantry built up. That will leave a stove and island for me to call the kitchen done. The stove I want is on mega sale all month at Home Depot so if I have any surprise influx of cash, I may figure out a way to get it, but I’m not holding my breath since the holiday season could be very slow. Frankly, I’m more eager to get my washing machine! The expat lady who sent me the Facebook links gave me some really good fridge buying advice and I’ve decided where I’m going to go look next week once my PayPal payments for this week land in my bank accounts. One thing that I figured out on my own is to not get a fridge with the built-in water dispenser. As it turns out, the pump to make it work with the 5-gallon jugs costs over $3,000! I can get a separate cold water dispenser for less than $1,000!

Once the big stuff is sorted, I’ll be able to start getting the little bits that turn a house into a home, like wall art, rugs, and plants. It will be lovely to be able to go stroll through a market and to buy something that catches my eye rather than saving that money to put towards a more expensive purchase. Speaking of markets — the city of Mérida got good news recently. The market in centro is getting cleaned up! Hopefully, it will become a place that I enjoy shopping as it would be a great place to look for cool things for my house.

I’m still a little breathless at being here a full year earlier than planned, but I’m glad that I didn’t have that year in limbo after all as I have one happy month down and many more to go. I cannot wait to see what other secrets my colonia gives up and to start taking advantage of all that Mérida has to offer.

In September, I updated the comment policy for the blog. I blocked one specific person from commenting and just happened to stumble onto his vitriol while cleaning out spam comments. I don’t use that word lightly. This person is someone whom I met on Isla and who is a close friend of several of my RVing Mexico friends. His name is Chris Bauer and he writes a blog about boondocking and living in Mexico.

Here are the nine comments that my spam filter caught. He made them full intending for them to be made public so I’m sure that he will be super happy to see this post!

1): Mexico Is Tightening Supervision of Foreigners’ Visas and Local Income

“You need to check with an accountant or a lawyer. Mexico wants part of what you earn just like the U.S. wants part of what I earn. Mal informada y seguro que vas a eliminar el post.”

No, I am not misinformed and I did get informed prior to coming here. Chris is unfamiliar with a little thing called NAFTA. I am still considered a Canadian for tax purposes. As long as I’m working for clients outside of Mexico and that my money is coming into Mexico from outside sources, I continue to pay my taxes to Canada. At some point, I will start earning income here and paying Hacienda tax on that income while continuing to pay Canada tax on my other income. The day will likely come that I will end up not being a Canadian for tax purposes, but it is not in the near future.

2) Precautions Against Moving to Progreso, Mexico

“I know you’ll delete my post but I think that if someone were moving to Progreso they would have checked these things first.”

HA. I cannot believe the number of people who do not do their homework or who rely on someone like Chris to tell them what Mexico is like.

“And as you told me, you work in Canada legally so you are not paying any property tax (which is minimal or next to nothing), income taxes, tenencia or taxes for plates and tags on your car.”

No, I was not. I was still a resident of the community and contributing to the local economy in other ways. I was also at one point considering living in Progreso, which would have meant having to pay for local services like water and garbage pickup. I like to make informed decisions.

“Funny that you complain about the internet and then say it is better than Canada.”

I fail to see how that is a contradiction. It is easy for internet to be much better than in Canada, but still lacking.

“You’re not doing a service to Mexico, in fact, you talking it down.”

Unlike you, I treat Mexico like a real place, not some mythical perfect land. Loving a place and being aware of its flaws are not mutually exclusive.

3) Current Mood: Teal

“Mexican products just don’t cut for you, do they? Your comment on Berel paint for example, ” Berel is a Mexican brand of paint of decent quality (as per reviews I’ve read).””

Ah, so Chris has the mentality that you should always take it at face value that a Mexican brand is going to be fantastic and worth spending money on! I’m frugal. I like to get my money’s worth. I don’t care what nationality a brand is as long as it’s good value. I’ve bought Mexican brands of small appliances and electronics and since I tend to shop at little local markets rather than the big supermarkets, I’ve made the switch to a lot of Mexican food brands. I’ve never cared about brand. I care about product quality.

4) Already Feeling Like Home

“Whacky “Mexican” power fluctuations occur because home owners do “whacky” things. The electric coming in from the CFE is a perfect 127v, a bit higher than the U.S. so it really isn’t whacky. Mine stays exactly the same without any fluctuation and I live in a rural area. It’s all about the wiring in the house, the breaker panel, and the changito the owner may have installed in the house to lower the rates. Again, another negative comment about Mexico.”

Funny how to Chris, sharing the truth about life here and giving people a heads up about things to be prepared for is “negative.”

5) A Good Fit

He was so desperate to get his comment for this one out there that he tried twice!

a) “I guess in Mexico you really need to be vigilant. Mexico is known for scamming and ripping people off.

Your take on Mexico is hurting not helping, and unfortunately, in most cases you are wrong.

You’re here because Mexico is cheap.”

b) “It’s obvious you have a fear of being ripped off in Mexico. Sad, isn’t it?

Face it, you’re here because it’s cheap.”

There are two things to address here.

First of all, if I was afraid of getting scammed and thought Mexicans were scammers and cheaters, I wouldn’t be trolling the classifieds for used things and driving all over Mérida to meet complete strangers to buy goods from them.

Second, Mexico is not “cheap.” There are many things about living here that are much more inexpensive than in Canada and I can definitely have a much better of quality of life here for a fraction of the money, but I could have gone to many other places that are much less expensive.

Mexico’s primary appeal to me was that it is a Spanish-country that is super easy to get to from Canada. Then, I got here and saw what it’s like and I fell in love with its dichotomous nature — the extremes of poverty and wealth, of peace and violence, of a laid back attitude while still being some of the hardest working people I’ve ever encountered, and more.

Chris is one of those hateful expats I can’t stand. He’s at the opposite end of the spectrum from those who make zero effort to actually live in Mexico, but is equally awful. He wrote a vitriolic post recently that I won’t link to in which he denounces any expat who basically don’t “go native” as he feels it should be done. One thing that Chris doesn’t get that I finally do (thank you, Bulgaria!) is just how much courage it takes to move to a country where you don’t speak the language and that for some folks, just getting here is as much courage as they have.

He wrote something that did make me have a realisation about my expectations for my life here: “…they want to buy American/Canadian products (I truly believe that cheddar cheese is a religious sacrificial offering).”

I came to Mexico to broaden my horizons, not close them. I’m always going to be someone who enjoys a wide variety of foods so in a given week, I might have Yucatecan salbutes, Sinaloan-style tacos, curry, burgers, pizza, and Chinese! There is room in my fridge for cheeses from all over the world and for mustard, relish, and ketchup as well as a variety of Mexican sauces. Mexicans are not an insular people and it is incredibly insulting to portray them as such by rigidly defining what is okay and not okay for an expat to look for here or where it’s okay for them to shop.

It’s rather funny how Chris seems to think that I am failing at building my life here in Mexico and representing the country in a poor light when I am absolutely thriving here, which says nothing but positive things about Mexico. Fluency in the local language gives me so much freedom to interact with people and to truly understanding not just how, but also why, things are done a certain way here.

My posts are full of stories about the joy of small accomplishments, of eagerly taking on challenges, of figuring out how I am going to fit in here. I’m busy and productive and happy and content in the life I’m building for myself as I meet so many wonderful people and settle into my new community. It’s shocking to me that there is any negative to be found in that, but the above comments show that there is. I invite you to take as much stock into that as I have.

There are a number of companies that sell water in door-to-door in Mérida. I’m partial to “Cristal” brand as I find it has the best flavour. So I bought two 5-gallon jugs of it when I moved here and figured that it shouldn’t be that hard to get a truck to come and replace them with full ones once a week.

Slight hiccup, I haven’t seen a single Cristal truck in my neighbourhood (despite there being numerous Cristal water sellers) and a Google search turned up nothing.

Driving in a different part of town the other day, I finally saw an elusive Cristal truck! I made a mental note of the very easy to remember number and called them up. Turns out that that was a national number and I got caught in a phone loop that was hard to make sense of. But I did figure out who makes Cristal water (Bepensa). A quick Google search for that made me realise that the Coca-Cola trucks running around the neighbourhood have Cristal water. So I decided to flag one down next time I saw one near my house.

But Bepensa also had an email address so I decided to try that, explaining that I’ve been trying to get water delivery and giving my address and phone number.

Well, just minutes after I posted my last post, I saw a red truck with bottles go by my house. I would never have seen it if the exterior office door hadn’t been open. I was fumbling to put on sandals to go chase after it when my phone rang. It was the guys in the truck trying to find me! I’m amazed by how hard of a time people have finding my house when my street is so clearly marked and there is a plaque with my address by the door.

Anyway, after confirming my address and what my house looks like, at the guy’s suggestion I went to the street with an empty jug. There, I saw the red truck somewhere down the next block with a guy standing by it talking to me on the phone. 🙂 I waved him down and he drove backwards all the way back to me!

He said that he comes by my house every Monday and Thursday around four like clockwork. So with my having one nearly full jug now and a brand new one, I should be just fine with a once a week delivery of one jug as I go about 10 to 11 days on two jugs depending on how much I’m cooking. I therefore asked them to stop on Thursdays and told them that I’m home working and it’s guaranteed that I’ll be home. Perfect. I also got a number and name in case I won’t be home or that I need Monday delivery as well.

My current water routine has been this:

-Convince the garage doors to open;

-Squeeze Moya out of her parking bay;

-Convince the garage doors to close (was advised to not leave them open even just going on a quick run);

-Drive about eight blocks to get to the Extra convenience two blocks away (dang one ways);

-Wait for the gal at the convenience store to wait on me;

-Drive two blocks home;

-Convince the garage doors to open;

-Squeeze Moya back into her bay (harder when I approach from that direction);

-Convince the garage doors to close.

Cost of the water that way: 26 pesos.

Cost of the water to have a guy drop it at my curb: 28 pesos. That’s what I’d call a no-brainer.

So there’s another thing sorted only because I’m not terrified of the phone anymore. I think I’m doing quite nicely at getting myself settled in. 🙂