I Moved to Mazatlan!
We had to leave the apartment we had rented long term in San Miguel de Allende after 6 months due to it already being rented out from January until April. That seems to be the busy season in San Miguel. I found something on Airbnb not too far from where we were renting. Unfortunately, I did not request to see the apartment beforehand. The apartment would have been fine if it were much cheaper. It was the last straw for us with San Miguel. It is just too expensive for the lack of security. It also got real boring after a while. People who live there long term often stress the fact that you have to take extended vacations from the city. We will miss the friends and people we met.
I decided to contact Airbnb in order to negotiate some sort of refund. The apartment didn’t have everything needed for a long term stay so we wanted some money back for an early cancellation. Airbnb’s customer service is abysmal. And of course they side with the landlord because that is who makes them money, and they have a monopoly when it comes to renting apartments. After a few days we settled on a time for us to vacate the Airbnb and moved to another one for a week in the Guadiana neighborhood of San Miguel. It is an upscale neighborhood dominated by viejeo gringos. I have to say, I am extremely prejudice against viejeo gringo retirees. I have never in my life been as racist or prejudice against anyone as I am a retired baby boomer. I cringe in anticipation of some sort of entitled offence. I have met a few I liked and it really pains me to have this prejudice. I have never seen a more entitled people. Trump is a perfect mascot for that generation in my interactions with the retirees. But, I kept to myself, walked my dogs in the beautiful park there, and kept looking over my shoulder, lol.
I arranged with the wonderful Driver San Miguel to take us from San Miguel to Mazatlan. Including us and our 2 pugs we have about a Suburbans amount of crap we are lugging around. Driver San Miguel had already taken us to Puerto Vallarta and back when we were unable to find a reasonable apartment in that city. I scoured Facebook groups about Mazatlan and made a few connections. We had never been to Mazatlan. This was my attempt at giving living in Mexico one last chance. There is no reason what so ever to be paying big city US prices for apartments in a country that lacks US infrastructure and security. We are still working. We are not wealthy retirees from California buying mansions in old colonial towns struggling with poverty.
We left San Miguel before sun rise. Driver San Miguel picked us up with a diesel van instead of a Suburban. Mexico was suffering from a gas shortage and there were multi-hour long lines at every gas station between San Miguel and Mazatlan for regular gas. We made good time and checked into our Airbnb in the afternoon. First impression, Mazatlan was beautiful.
I checked in with a guy I connected with here from Facebook. He mentioned he knew of some places for rent. When we first decided to try to be expats in Mexico we had a dream in our head about getting an oceanfront apartment with a pool. Our horrible experiences in Puerto Vallarta had us thinking that dream was impossible. But that was exactly the scenario we were presented. Oceanfront condo with a pool. And it was cheaper than the house we rented in San Miguel that was a block down from street kids selling cocaine, lol. We have fiber optic internet at 100mbps. Washer and dryer. Perfect set up.
Mazatlan has a great feel to it. There are tons of delicious restaurants. Lots of vegetarian and vegan options. It’s kind of the best of both worlds. The Centro Historico area is like an old Colonial town similar to San Miguel. The beach is beautiful. The malecon is long and there are bikes you can rent and bike lanes. I immediately noticed it was a much safer city than San Miguel. The city is open much later than SMA. You don’t get the feeling of having to watch your back at night. Kids playing on the beach and the malecon at night. In San Miguel I had instances where a truck full of tough guys acted like they were going to hide me in the back and beat my ass. Ain’t nobody got time for that. It seems as though there is a healthy middle class here. I can see myself living here for a few years. I want to get my ocean time in before global temperatures increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius over what they were before the industrial age and the effects of climate change make coastal cities less than ideal.
We rented this place for a year so we will be here for at least that long. Carnaval is coming up at the end of the month. Its like Mazatlan’s version of Mardi Gras. Can’t wait to see the spectacle. The people of Mazatlan are nice, and I do my best to avoid the olds. We are getting settled in and finding our favorite stores and restaurants. I am sure I will blog about all that kind of stuff. Since we left it seems lots of crime is occurring in SMA. Looks like we dodged a bullet, no pun intended. I think that’s enough of what I wanted to say. Now I’ve got to figure out if I want to hit the beach or the pool..
By Jason
To Follow Jason on his Mexican Adventure click on his blog JasonListens.com
The Mazatlan Post
