Why Mexico?
Ok – so we wanted to take time away from work, from life, to do something different – to do, as this website promises, find a way to explore (again). There’s no guide for how to do this, no top ten list of ways to ‘get away for awhile.’ You might stay at home; might get a cabin in the woods, take a month backpacking through eastern Europe, or rent an apartment in Florida to see what’s the fuss with hurricane season. Adventures in Mexico is an option, but certainly not the only good one. So what’s the deal?
There is a short answer: it’s inexpensive and with little fuss to enter and exit. The country is also big enough to offer up a wide range of things to see and do – plenty to occupy a few months on the road. Consistent warm weather is another obvious draw. Oh, to live everyday in t-shirts, to swim freely in the ocean, to fuel those internal solar cells. Mexico is a known entity in many ways. We’ve been to the resorts, drank the beer, learned some useful phrases, have come to terms with many of the things that are foreign. From a practical standpoint, it’s a good candidate.
Of course, there a plenty of negatives to consider as well, not least of all the stories we hear in the news. Sadly, there is truth to a lot of what you hear – there are real problems of violence in this country and you may not be prepared to welcome those odds into your life. And there are other chronic social issues Mexico grapples with. Treatment of women here is abysmal. Don’t research it if you don’t want to ruin your day. I really struggle with the trash. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans go in the trash without care, plus all that is discarded on the streets. How can a place have so little regard for their own environment? The traffic is wild, the sidewalks intermittent, laws flexible, tap water undrinkable, the list of troubles big and small goes on.
It’s enough to make someone think hard about a roadtrip through the Mexican hinterland. Flying to a resort is one thing, driving to all four corners of vast country, quite another. Which, for me (and I do the planning so I usually get my way here), is the only way it can work. A degree of ‘I don’t know what to expect’ is essential. That, balanced with a touch of familiarity, is the catalyst for discovery. I know some things about this place already, now I want to peel back the next layer, test how far my expectations and experiences extend.
If you’ve been following along, you will know that I have a soft spot for Latin America, tenuous infrastructure and rule of law be damned. Some days (most days) I am just exhausted by living in Canada. Everyone is so precious. One day it will be a complaint about us running on a public walkway, the next about a new crosswalk placed in a slightly inconvenient location. Everyone is perpetually worried of committing offence, or, even worse, boldly offending in the name of freedom and such and such. In the evenings, we return to our devices to recharge before doing it all again the next day. There is a vitality here, even as it comes with dogs barking, motorcycles revving and all the rest of it. Mexico is still becoming, and I find this very intriguing.
Today, I am writing from a rented apartment in Zihuatanejo. It’s hot. I have ceiling fans going and the deck door open wide where I can look across at the roof of the building opposite, exposed concrete and rebar, waiting for an expansion perhaps that will never come. A man straddles his scooter with his new purchase of bagged ice watching a street dog wander into the bodega he just exited. Down the hill comes a van, one of a seemingly endless stream of them. If you want a lift into town, you stick out your hand and pay the fare of a couple pesos, pennies back home. We ran some errands today: dropped of a load of laundry, found the store that fills up bottles with purified water, got another month of minutes and data – about fifteen dollars for all of the above.
There’s no good, tidy reason to come and spend five months driving around Mexico. It’s often stressful, expensive, hard work. Instead, you have to be willing to take the chance. Be ready to live with a bit of mystery and open to the journey. We’re 30% into this crazy thing and I’m still excited for what’s coming next. Go find your Mexico.
