Paul and I are adults, and know our likes and dislikes pretty well. So why is it so hard to establish what our requirements are for a new Mexican home?

Here are the things that are non-negotiable:

• It can’t be extremely hot and humid for long periods of time. But then again we don’t want it to get too cold in the winter, either!
• It needs to be a place where there are good places to walk.
• The city needs a zocalo or central gathering place that feels good.
• It needs to be urban enough that there are multiples of things…such as coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. We think probably over 30,000 people.
• It needs to be a fairly simple trip from the West coast of the US.
• It can’t be in a gringo-land community.

Here are the things we’d like if possible:

• A view, preferrably of the ocean.
• An easy trip to Mexico City to visit Adam and Martha.
• A few gringo amenities like an English-language library.

Paul and I have traveled together to a number of possible new-home locations, and I have traveled around a fair bit with Adam in the years he lived there before Paul and I met. But we still don’t have a clear idea of where we will settle, except that it would be great to be able to live on the coast since that is pretty much out of our reach financially in the US.

The feel of a place is extremely important, and that’s one reason we fell so hard for Zihuatanejo on our visit there earlier this month.

We’ll figure it out as we go along, but it feels a bit strange to be working towards a goal that hasn’t taken shape fully yet.

-Nancy

We have actually been talking about this Mexico move for 2 or 3 years now, so we have done a mountain of research in books, magazines, and mostly on the web.

The best resources for giving an actual feel for moving, finding a place to live, and adapting to life in a new culture are blogs of people who have already done it. See the links section on our page for the blogs that we find most informative and entertaining. The list keeps growing as we find more. We hope our blog will provide the same as it grows.

Frommer’s Mexico Guide 2005 has been a really useful book for general information about cities and towns in Mexico. And of course, everyone needs the People’s Guide to Mexico by Carl Franz, the original bible for Mexico dreamers.

Our son and his wife live in Mexico City and are our best resource of all for information and ideas.

Hasta Luego
Paul