“This could be Heaven or this could be Hell”
One week in Mexico
- There’s a difference between good tacos and just tacos, good tacos are more likely to be in less-fancy buildings without flashy signage.
- Processing your Mexican temporary residency is much harder than they make it sound.
- Really should have learned more Spanish before getting on the plane.
- Even a nice Hilton hotel is still, in the end, just a hotel.
- It’s amazing how terrible a car can be to still be listed for sale here. I looked at a car for 60,000 pesos (just under $5,000AUD) and I think someone was murdered in it but it wasn’t cleaned.
- Horses, livestock, dogs and other animals all just roam free here. Must be tough for fencers to not be needed.
- Lawns don’t exist here unless you’re in a fancy place. It’d be hard to move here if your identity was built on how good your lawn is.
- Very few Australians are here or have visited here. Many people are surprised to hear we travelled so far.
- Should’ve stopped for a night or two in Los Angeles. 26 hours door to door was a lot for two toddlers.
- Always buy bottled water.
- Oysters taste different here. Bad different.
- I had to drive on the other side of the road for the first time in three years in the presence of a Mexican man whose car I was test driving. He must have spent the whole time wondering why a person who drove this bad wanted to buy a car.
- Money transfers internationally are never as quick as you’d imagine, especially over a weekend.
- There’s little consistency between different offices of Mexican authorities. There’s very much a local spirit in the decisions they make.
- We love it here.
- It’s quite hot.
- Buy a good pram and travel cot, they’re worth their weight in gold.
- Pack light, you don’t need all that stuff.
- There are no Ubers, Didis, Lyfts or taxis in Todos Santos.
Todos Santos
We left Los Cabos today for an adventure up to Todos Santos about an hour’s drive north of Cabo San Lucas.
A few observations.
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The best branding I’ve seen for Mexican food yet is a restaurant called “Five Tacos and a Beer, Please.” You wouldn’t believe what the main item on the menu is.
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There are a lot of parties in Mexico, and a lot of beer and spirits are sold and consumed. I was the only person at the OXXO (think 7/11) who didn’t buy alcohol while I was there.
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it hot.
I love Morpho, my new favourite currency (and other numbers) conversion iOS app.
Ahead of travelling to Mexico I wanted to find a new currency conversion app that did two-three things:
- Had a Lock Screen widget to help me make purchasing decisions quickly and easily considering I still don’t really know how much 1,250 pesos is in personal terms.
- If they couldn’t do Lock Screen then at least do a widget.
- Once I opened the app, it gave me a few nuanced currency conversions. I wanted to be able to quickly get my head around AUD, MXN and USD numbers quickly.
Morpho delivered plus they brought in other conversions like weights and temperature.
The widget is great - you can choose which conversion to show, as you can see in the screenshot I wanted to always have a sense of what things on menus were worth so I settled on “what’s 100 pesos worth in Aussie dollars?”
You can then tap the widget to open the app and whatever number you enter at the top is converted below.
Travelling internationally with an iPhone soon? You’ll like this. Even Britt appreciates it and I can never get her on to new apps.
Kurt Vonnegut:
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
It’s happened! We’ve had our first American tourist in Mexico think that Austria and Australia are the same place.
The lovely person “spent some time in Germany one summer” and thought our accents sounded similar.
How can I nominate myself for the Father of the Year Awards? I just bought Luna a Paw Patrol car seat with and without beef.
Sam Kris: The internet is already over.
“In the future—not the distant future, but ten years, five—people will remember the internet as a brief dumb enthusiasm, like phrenology or the dirigible. They might still use computer networks to send an email or manage their bank accounts, but those networks will not be where culture or politics happens. The idea of spending all day online will seem as ridiculous as sitting down in front of a nice fire to read the phone book.”
Drove in Mexico for the first time today. I didn’t witness another car on the road in Los Cabos use it’s turn indicator.
I’m worried if I keep using the indicator the local news will do a story on me.
When asked at the restaurant what we were celebrating at dinner tonight I said “being alive!”
Now every staff member congratulates us on every interaction and I’m not sure if they’re being sarcastic or genuine.
The podcast series “Startup” was a thrilling listen as Alex Blumberg created Gimlet. It’s depressing to now read how Spotify has gutted that creation after acquiring it. Maybe Spotify isn’t podcasting’s darling?
I’m using the new Apple Translate app every day in Mexico, it’s pretty cool. Currently having a full conversation with my zero-English Uber driver, Jesus Angel (his name, not a prayer).
My only addition would be the ability to reverse/swap languages easier.
A day in the life of the Withers family: day four (13 October 2022) in Los Cabos, at the Instituto Nacional de Migración (the Mexican National Institute of Immigration), activating our residency visas.
Wednesday sunset
Patron saint of pioneers and travelers, Saint Joseph of the capes.
Or, in Spanish, San Jose del Cabos.
“Fish killer of the week story”
Teaching the Withers girls how to share margaritas
Episode five of Who’s Gonna Save Us with Saul Griffiths, paraphrased by Kai in Dense Discovery:
“A typical Australian suburb spends about $4m on petrol and diesel per year. That creates half a job at the local petrol station which is mostly selling sugar and tobacco anyway – that’s like three things that can kill you in one store! Anyway, if everyone is driving electric vehicles and producing their own electricity, those $4m will stay in the community. We know from spending behaviour that 55% of that money will be spent locally, creating a huge number of jobs. Not just energy jobs, but it’ll be paying for better bakeries, new classrooms, a fresh coat of paint for the sports club, etc. I don’t think we ever really thought about just what a screamingly good thing that would be for every community.“
Turns out that Cabo San Lucas is basically the Bali of the USA.
What a wild ride.
At first Jesus was coming to meet me and take us home.
Then Jesus cancelled on me.
I’m quite conflicted on how I feel about meeting Jesus in the future.
