It is snowy here and the news is full of snarled traffic and 20 hour commutes in the sudden icy weather. I am very glad I’m not working now…no worries for me about a commute. But the cold weather – it’s about 20 degrees out – makes me long for Mexico.

We’ve booked our next trip – in early February. We’ll spend a week in Mazatlan and a week in Queretaro. We’ll be staying in B & B’s. Our plan is to try to visit these towns as though we actually live there. Have our normal walk in the morning as though the dogs were with us…find a coffee shop, the best grocery store, etc. I’m sure we’ll do some touristy things, too…but we are really going to try to evaluate them as actual places to live.

Paul has never traveled by bus in Mexico, so that should be fun for him. We plan on flying from Mazatlan to Mexico City and then taking a bus to Queretaro. We will probably also visit San Miguel de Allende and we’ll travel there by bus, too.

Queretaro is close enough to Mexico City that I imagine we’ll be able to convince Adam and Martha to drive up and visit us! We have plans to visit them when we return to Mexico City to head home, but it would be neat if they came to Queretaro, too. You might wonder why we don’t just stay a few days with them – but we feel strongly that we need a week to really know a place so we don’t want to cut our time too short.

If any readers have comments or suggestions about things we shouldn’t miss doing or seeing, we’d love to hear from you.

-Nancy

I have a dirty little secret. I still crave cigarettes. I have been a non-smoker more than a smoker for the last twenty-five years or so, but I know I am still under their spell.

Every time we we go to either Las Vegas or Mexico I struggle with the demon. Sometimes I do fine (like our last trip) and sometimes I buy a pack and make myself sick.

I worry that once we move there for good I will have trouble overcoming the urge.

-Nancy

One of the issues that has been a challenge for us is that we know we want to move to Mexico but we haven’t decided WHERE! We now realize that it is very hard to work towards a goal that isn’t specific.

So, we decided to try to get specific…identifying our top four choices. Our next two visits will be for two weeks each, with one week in each location. That should really help us narrow it down.

So, our top four are: (in no particular order)

Colonial Mexico – Queretaro
We originally started out thinking we’d go to Morelia, but it is a pretty big city and we would prefer to be somewhere smaller. Queretaro is a historic city that is a World Heritage site. It is about two and a half hours from Mexico City – which would be nice not only for the ease of air travel but also because that’s where Adam and Martha live. The weather in Queretaro is springlike year round – it’s at about 6,500 feet so there could be a chill in the air in the morning but not too cold or too hot!

The North Coast – Mazatlan
Both Paul and I have always dreamed of being able to live on or near the beach. We really can’t afford it here in the US, so we want to investigate our options in Mexico. It can get hot there but for the most part there is a breeze, which would help. Mazatlan is a resort town, and many cruise ships and tours go there, but it is also a traditional Mexican fishing town…and the two are pretty separate geographically. That’s good, because we don’t like that resort stuff. There is even a 17 mile long malecon where we can walk the dogs! And another thing, my grandparents loved it there, visiting almost every winter for a couple of months.

The South Coast – Zihuatenajo
We visited Zihuatenajo in October 2006 with Adam and Martha. We stayed at a wonderful B & B on the hill (see pictures here) but we didn’t really get a sense of what it would be like to live there. We went out with a realtor one day for a couple of hours and saw a fixer beach house and a fixer view house but need to stay there longer to really feel like we know it. The overall feel of the town was wonderful, and next time we go we want to stay at a B & B right in town and walk around just like we live there. There’s also a nice malecon and the beaches are wonderful!

The Yucatan – Merida/Progreso
The Yucatan has an almost mystical pull for Paul and me. The weather there is way hotter than we would normally consider, but every time we cross it off our list it comes back on. The incredible Mayan history and people, and the pyramids…the pyramids…we have to go there! The gringo community in Merida seems a good fit for us – adventurous, articulate, and fun. We love the colonial architecture in Merida but we are also attracted to the idea of living on or near the beach in Progreso. We definitely need to visit.

So that’s our top four locations! We are planning a two week trip in February to visit Mazatlan and Queretaro. We have rooms booked in Mazatlan already and once we talk to Martha and Adam we’ll firm up the rest of our plans. We intend to fly from Mazatlan to Mexico City and take a bus to Queretaro. But we want to stay with Martha and Adam in Mexico City for a day on one end or the other of that leg of the trip.

Now the hard part will be waiting for February to get here!

-Nancy