To keep my days in the U.S. under 35 in 2024 for tax purposes, I spent a week in Cancun before flying back to visit my brother for Thanksgiving. I went fully “basic” — two different all-inclusive resorts, sun, sand, and cocktails. And honestly? It was awesome. There’s a certain crowd of travelers who dismiss all-inclusive resorts, seeing them as soulless vacation factories where people lounge around instead of exploring local culture or history. I get that perspective but this trip gave me a newfound appreciation for destinations designed purely for fun. When I arrived in Cancun, I hadn’t taken real time off work since my trip to the Seychelles two years earlier. Working for myself means every day off is a day without income, so I kept working a bit during the trip. But when I wasn’t working, it felt like a vacation in the best sense. The resort food was exceptional, the beaches in Cancun’s hotel zone far exceeded expectations (genuinely fantastic), and perhaps most surprising of all was the value. I can’t think of another international spot with such high quality at such a bargain. I did manage a day trip to Chichén Itzá, the famous Mayan […]
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Since I limit my stay in the USA to 35 days a year for tax benefits, I needed to leave the country for a week before returning for Thanksgiving. I had already spent more than three weeks stateside due to a week-long program at UC Berkeley, stopovers in Denver and Wyoming, and trips to Austin and New Orleans. It turned out to be an ideal opportunity to check a destination off of my queue, Playa Del Carmen. My friend Randy loves this place (he loves to party); however, other nomadic friends of mine are less enthusiastic about it, describing it as a typical vacation spot for Canadians and Americans, lacking a distinct identity beyond that, according to them. But I’m quite open-minded; I’ve learned not to pre-judge places I’ve never visited or carry specific expectations when I travel. Playa del Carmen is great! I could totally live here for a few months. There is a lot to do and explore, plenty of great food, accessible beaches, and friendly people. What’s not to love? I was only there for about a week, and during that time I was working constantly from my apartment. I only managed to escape to the beach […]
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Sayulita has been a Mexican vacation spot for Americans and tourists for a long time, and during the past ten years its popularity seems to have grown. I’ve wanted to visit ever since I saw beach and tacos photos popping up on my Instagram years ago and always had the idea that it could be a stop-over destination on the way to somewhere else or as a short vacation spot to accommodate a beach side work-style. And it did – I ended up staying in two other places as well, San Pancho, a smaller town about fifteen minutes outside of Sayulita which is a little less developed than Sayulita but still retains the same taco and beach vibes. The beach at San Pancho is better than in Sayulita and it seems a better place to stay and visit if you are in the market for a short Mexican getaway, though I also enjoyed Sayulita (and the gym that I used for a couple of days — no air conditioning, no water, 40 degrees and super sweaty). I also spent four days at the W resort in Punta Mita, Mexico which was a special splurge that was a lot of fun […]
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After leaving Mexico City, I spent a week road-tripping around Mexico. The first stop was San Miguel de Allende, a city of roughly 200,000 people, 170 miles northwest of Mexico City. Though I only had two nights in San Miguel, I managed to see and do a lot: exploring old ruins, horseback riding, visiting a Mayan Spa, and eating a lot of delicious food typical of the region. San Miguel is replete with small boutique shops selling hand-crafted goods as well as cafes and restaurants. The central square abuts the main cathedral and is currently the most charming place I’ve found in Mexico. I visited here on Easter Sunday, at night and watched and listened to mariachi bands performing under the stars. The cobbled sidewalks present a romantic pathway for a stroll through the colorful neighborhoods. San Miguel makes a great destination to visit for a weekend from Mexico City, and I think I could return some day to stay for much longer.
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Mexico City is similar to Bogotá here on my website in that I hesitate to add additional entries since I visit regularly. My time here feels increasingly comfortable and routine and more like a typical life than in other, new, or exploratory places I pass through. You will find other entries on this website where I talk about why Mexico City is a comfortable and appealing place to live. Other ex-pats agree seemingly agree as the Covid pandemic has made living and working internationally more accessible, and more foreigners are relocating to Mexico City. As much as I could live in Mexico City for an extended period of time — I don’t like the idea of sticking around for too long. I keep an open mind that I may change in the future because now it feels like a curse — that I need to continually explore, discover and experience new environments. I have seen too much to be content with a single something. That’s tragic in a way — if I like a place that meets my needs, why should I still desire to discover other, new places? Years ago I remember deciding for myself that if the environment […]
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This was my fourth time in Ciudad de Mexico and also the longest — five weeks. I’ve flirted with making Mexico City a regular on my list of destinations so this time around I booked an apartment for six weeks in the neighborhood of La Condesa as a formal audition. Replete with cafes, excellent restaurants, and more casual street-side taco venues, La Condesa affords tremendous value and quality for the price. For this reason, many extranjaneros make it or the neighboring barrios of Roma and Roma Norte their home away from home. I had avoided doing the same — comfort is dangerous! This time around, however, I wanted to absolve myself of logistical strains of new destinations to focus more of that time and energy on other pursuits — work and improving my Spanish. Thanks to a recommendation from my friend, Niraj, I found a great workspace to base myself on days when working from my apartment felt unappealing. I had two different morning commutes each workday. The first was to and from my gym at 6:30 AM. Charmingly simple, small, and inexpensive (75 pesos a day or 300 pesos for a 1-month membership), I learned to arrive earlier rather […]
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This expat-friendly beach destination is popular with surfers, Canadians and Europeans owing to the strength of their currency here. My international-friend group has been in my ear for the past year about it. After a short romance with CDMX last autumn, I decided that it was time to make time to explore Mexico so what better place to start than Puerto Escondido. I made a week-long recon trip to get my feet on the ground and get a taste of what it had to offer. It was great. The food was that classic Mexican fare that gringos like me envy and wish their mothers made them when they were children. The guacamole that I ordered beach-side, while supine on a restaurant-adjacent hammock facing the ocean one Tuesday afternoon came with flower petals on top. I learned that you can order not just micheladas but cheladas that are the equivalent to a michelada in Colombia — beer, ice and lime juice. I drank a few of them due to the scorching daytime heat. Even though it was early spring the mid-day temperatures along the water made seeking shade and a cool beverage requisite for those of us of fairer complexion.For ease […]
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I shake my head recollecting the period of time I believed Mexico City to be a polluted, dirty, crowded, dangerous and ugly city not worth visiting. I’m not exactly sure why I came to believe this but it probably had something to do with an American bias that perceived things happening south of the boarder generally repugnant. This same perspective admittedly also inhibited me from choosing to learn Spanish in school as a second language (instead I chose Latin — who chooses Latin?) — a limitation I am currently working to overcome. It’s a shameful memory to remember a time when I could off-handedly intuit a city, and probably its nation, as not worthy of my interest without ever visiting. I was thankfully forced to reconsider this perspective as friends (many of them) kept relating how wonderful Mexico City was. I looked at them unconvinced — “what about all the kidnappings and murders?” — then it was my turn to be looked at strangely, “uh — it’s not like that at all.” And just like that I became one of those people I encounter all the time in the USA who are guilty of being a little out of touch […]
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