What I Use: Mexico City (October/November 2024) (Premium)

Tomorrow, we fly home from Mexico City after seven weeks here, our longest continuous trip outside the United States so far. We have a complicated several weeks ahead of us, with Thanksgiving next week, our daughter’s college graduation and subsequent move, Christmas, New Years, and then our daughter continuing her education in a new state. It’s going to be so busy, I get nervous just thinking about it. So for now, I’ll ignore that and look back.

Work, work, work

I came here with two major goals, both book-related, and as I wrote in From the Editor’s Desk: Slog (Premium), that ended up being a major source of stress and fatigue. And as I look back on this now, I’m still confused by how it all went down. The short version is that I got a ton of work done updating the Windows 11 Field Guide for Windows 11 version 24H2, and I’m pretty happy with that, though there’s a lot more to do. And my wife and I both got a ton of work done creating our first (and probably only) book together, Eternal Spring: Our Guide to Mexico City, though we still have precious little to show for it from a public-facing perspective.

That will change soon. This past weekend, we finalized our plans to ship the first, incomplete, preview version of that book, and we’re stepping through the remaining to-do items so that can happen. As I wrote about this previously, getting over that hump will be a big deal psychologically, but we’re hamstrung by a desire to get this right, and to put out something we can easily update and expand, and then keep up-to-date. I figured we would cross that milestone about a month ago, and then maybe by the end of October. But it will happen this month. And then we’ll fill in the missing pieces going forward.

I’m going to write more about this–yes, writing about writing–soon.

Tied to this, when I wrote that Slog editorial, I had only written one of the three laptop reviews I’d hoped to finish during the trip as well. (So maybe there were three major goals.) And I was held up by some issues with the Lunar Lake-based laptop that Lenovo shipped to me here, and so I wanted to get through that first because I have to ship it back before we go home. But I’m pleased to report I did get that done: My Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i 15 Aura Edition and Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid reviews are both out, and I can at least fly home with a clear conscience on that.

Home office

Our apartment in Mexico City is tiny, maybe 700 or 750 square feet, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. My wife is using the second bedroom as her home office, while I do what I do at home and move between a few different places. Here, that’s a kitchen table–that’s really in the living room, though it’s all one big room–with my laptop dock and external display, the couch, and the bed.

This is curiously workable for me. After years of working mostly out of a home office, we downsized in 2023, living for several months in a two-bedroom apartment in Macungie, Pennsylvania. The layout meant I had to set up my home office in the corner of the living room there, and I found myself working more from other places in the apartment. And so when we moved into a bigger, three-bedroom condo, and I was able to set up a formal home office in its own room, I found myself using it less than before. And so I kind of do here, in Mexico, what I do back home. I move around, like a digital nomad in my own place.

The problem here (in Mexico City) is that working from the couch was uncomfortable. In Pennsylvania, we have TV tray tables that work well as mini-laptop desks, but we didn’t have anything like that here. So Stephanie bought me a small TV tray table from Amazon for my birthday, and I liked it so much that I ended up using it daily during the trip. So we bought two more, one for her to use on the other couch, and one we leave in the second bedroom and bring out on the balcony when we sit out.

Other than that, the setup here hasn’t changed too much. I keep an HP Thunderbolt 4 dock, an inexpensive Dell P2422H 24-inch Full HD display, a Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard and Mouse set (which I won’t link to as it’s no longer made and selling for Taylor Swift concert ticket prices now), and a Nextstand portable laptop stand on the table between the living room and kitchen. I also have a Dell 4K webcam, Audio-Technica ATR2500x-USB cardioid condenser microphone, and a KDD Microphone Boom Arm Stand and Youshares shock mount for podcasting. And though I cycled through the laptops I brought there as needed, I ended up using my Surface Laptop 7 with this configuration semi-exclusively for the second half of the trip or so. (I found its webcam to be good enough for podcasting as well.)

We have small Anker power strips in every room now, including two PowerCubes with outlets and USB-C and USB-A ports that are quite useful. I keep an Anker Nano II three-port charger here–it’s powerful enough to charge a standard laptop–but because we were in Dallas for three or four days before we got here, I also traveled with the Anker Nano two-port charger I use at home, and I’ve been using that by the bed. (And need to remember to bring it back when we go home.)

As for laptops, I came here with three–my Surface Laptop 7 and the HP Omnibook Ultra and Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid I reviewed. And when we arrived, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i 15 Aura Edition I also reviewed was waiting for us. We have other laptops that we keep here, including two 16-inch models, but we didn’t use them regularly as before–my wife and I were using one each with the docks we have here–and so I ended up using them for testing different Windows 11 install configurations, including the local account-first setups that led to Taking a Walk on the Wild Side (Premium) and the Local Accounts chapter update for the Windows 11 Field Guide. I have to fly home with the same three laptops I came here with, so I won’t be messing with those other laptops for now. But as they get older, I’ll likely swap them out for newer models over time.

Phones and electronics

When we flew here, I had just published my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review, and so I switched to the iPhone 16 Pro Max and reviewed that phone while we were here. Since then, I switched back to the Pixel and then, unexpectedly, back to the iPhone. I can’t decide which is better for me overall, as they both have things I really like and things I do not. One thing I don’t like about the Pixel is the battery life, so we carry around an Anker Portable Charger when we’re out in the world, just in case. It’s a life-saver, and nicely compact.

I used eSIMs from both Nomad and Airlo while we were here, and while I like Nomad better overall–it’s cheaper, among other things–Airlo uses Telcel in Mexico, and Telcel works much better in our neighborhood. (I have Google Fi, of course, but Fi connects to the same inferior network here in Mexico City, and I had connectivity issues when we first arrived as a result.) If you want to help me out, I have referral codes for Nomad (PAUL65GE) and Airlo (PAUL5847), and I do recommend both.

I also wore and used my Google Pixel Watch 3 during the entire trip. I like it, especially the readable display and the round shape. But it’s a bit big, and I have to charge it every day.

I used my 13-inch iPad Air M2 each day, as I do at home, to read the news in the morning and read otherwise throughout the day. I like it, the iPad is the only choice for a tablet, and a good one, but this is a bit big and I wish I could have gotten a normal iPad or an iPad Mini instead. I ordered a Kindle Colorsoft e-reader the day Amazon announced it, and it’s waiting for me at home. But I know it won’t completely replace the iPad because it doesn’t have all the reading apps I use. I’m curious about the color display, however, and have wanted a color e-ink device since before such a thing even existed. We’ll see.

I brought my brown Beats Studio Pro noise-cancelling headphones and Apple AirPods Pro 2 earbuds here, but never really used either other than on the flights. The Beats work well with Android, not just iPhone, and the battery life is killer (about 17 hours). But both do a good job of noise cancellation. I also brought my old first-gen Bose QuietComfort Earbuds just in case, but didn’t need them.

TV and music

We purchased a pair of JBL Charge 5 Bluetooth speakers last year, and they sound great, alone or in a stereo pair, and we had been using them as the audio output for our Apple TV 4K, which is tied to a 58-inch Hisense 4K/Dolby Vision TV. There were two issues. One, there’s no way to automatically turn them on/off with the Apple TV and TV, and two, when they’re stereo-paired for music, there are dropouts and other weirdisms. So I’d been thinking about replacing them for a long time.

This past year, I decided to test some Apple HomePod speakers and ending up keeping them at home, with an eye on leaving the Sonos ecosystem. And so I purchased a pair of HomePod Minis, traveled here with them, and had a grand old time getting them to work. That was a nightmare, but they work fine now, sound great, and come on automatically with the TV as desired. We still use the JBLs for music outside on the balcony, though it’s more reliable with just one.

Internet and Wi-Fi

No changes here. We still have TotalPlay for Internet, but they upgraded our service, again, this time to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) (down), and it’s been as reliable as ever (and more reliable than our connection back home). I can’t get into the Huawei router for some reason, and I am dreading that Spanish language support call, so we now have two Wi-Fi networks, the Wi-Fi 5 network through TotalPlay and a Wi-Fi 6 network that I created with an Eero Pro 6E mesh router and an Eero 6 -Fi 6 extender. The latter is in our bedroom, where it’s in range of the Blink 4 Outdoor Camera that’s mounted on our balcony and has worked uninterrupted since I installed it there back in June.

Flying, luggage, and stuff

I left my trusty Rick Steves Ravenna Rolling Case here in Mexico a few trips back and flew home with no luggage, which was wonderful. And since then, I purchased a smaller Ravenna Mini Rolling Case, thinking that would be all I’d need for future trips since we leave clothes and other items we need here, and can travel much more lightly. But fate had other plans. I’ve come to Mexico twice since then, and I had to bring too much stuff both times to use the smaller bag. On this trip, we had that work event in Dallas, so I had to bring clothes for that. Maybe I can travel with the other, smaller bag in January.

Other than that, there are no real changes. I still use an HP Renew Backpack, which can hold two or three laptops as needed. And I still bring the standard assortment of cables, chargers, and whatnot in a little gadget bag that I pack in my luggage. Not much to say there.

Looking ahead

After our busy holiday period, we hope to come back to Mexico City by mid-January, and if it works out, stay for at least three months if not more. We haven’t booked that yet, and Steph is considering getting an open-ended one-way ticket, which would be a first. But we’re watching the fares for now.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something. But there’s lots to do before we go, and I’m a bit distracted: United literally just texted me that it’s time to check in for tomorrow’s flight. So I’ll sign off with that.

A few more photos …