Sunday, November 27, 2016

More Daily Life in Mexico-Taxi!

For the first time in my adult life, I do not own a car. Since the time I left home at 18, I have always had a car and it has been an integral part of my life for the last 45 years. But owning a car in Mexico is difficult and expensive. While San Miguel is situated at 6500 feet and nestled in a small valley with plenty of challenging hills, our daily walking ritual has whipped me into pretty good shape. 




A roof top bar
I love walking the quaint cobblestone streets as we make our way about the town visiting the various mercados and tiendas where we purchase our daily needs. In the evening we sometimes perambulate to one of the local cantinas or roof top bars where there is plenty of cerveza and tequila for about half the price at our old home.


In addition to walking, taxis are readily available and remarkably cheap. Walk out on the street, and within minutes you are trundling your way anywhere in town for 35 pesos, or about $1.85 at the current exchange rate. The last ride we took in Oregon was to the airport and cost $35.00! The cab drivers are generally courteous and polite, if not frequently amused at my Spanish. Although any kind of suspension is often long gone in these vehicles, and one can only hope that the brakes are working when they careen down one of the steep and narrow callejons (alleys) they use for shortcuts to avoid traffic. However, one usually arrives safely at your destination, and hey, the price is right!

Do I miss my car? I guess so, but I certainly don’t miss the car payment, insurance, gas, or maintenance. Those costs alone add up to more than our rent, or provide for a very comfortable drinking budget!

Tomorrow we will walk down to get our new Mexican based cell phone. The service includes unlimited text and calling in Mexico, the US, and Canada, as well as 3GB of data. For this we will pay the exorbitant fee of about $14.95 a month USD. Cancelling our $150.00 a month plan with Verizon really breaks my heart, but the extra $135.00 a month will come in handy. 

Click any photo to open the gallery!

4 comments:

  1. You keep posting all this Pro information about Mexico they're going to need a wall to keep the gringos out

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  2. I have lived most of my life without a car in the big city of Chicago and it has been a fine experience. I have been using a car the last year to make it easier to help my dad out and believe e I miss the walking and public transit life even in the winter.

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  3. Which Mexican based cell phone company are you using?

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  4. Hi Lynn! We are using AT&T. They recently bought out some smaller companies down here and we seem to be getting pretty good service in this area. TelCel offers similar pricing I believe and I understand the service is also good.

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