What I Use: Mexico 2021 (Premium)

We drove through the desert in a car with no name. We rode in a hot air balloon. We sailed down some canals. Yep. We’re in Mexico, and instead of our usual home swap, we’re spending two weeks checking out San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and Mexico City. Here’s what we did, and what we took with us.

Tech gear

Most of the gear I traveled here with will be familiar to anyone who checks out my What I Use articles, in particular What I Use: Mexico City (Premium) from just two months ago. So we can move through most of this quickly.

As always, we try to travel as lightly as possible, and I still carry the same two bags, a Rick Steves Velocé Shoulder Bag (as my laptop bag) and a Ravenna Rolling Case (also from Rick Steves, as my luggage). These are time-worn winners, but I could have gone bigger in both cases. I brought two laptops (see below) and the rolling case is sized to smaller European airlines. That’s OK. It’s always nice to be as mobile as possible, and since we’ve had laundry available to us on this trip (as on past home swaps), I only needed to bring 4-5 days’ worth of clothes.

In the laptop bag, I brought the HP ZBook Firefly 14 G8 that I just reviewed (specifically so I could review it and keep up on that shrinking backlog), the HP Elite Dragonfly Max I reviewed in late June (because it is running Windows 11 now and has a SIM card for my Google Fi data SIM), my iPad Air (for reading and watching videos), my Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (for much-needed and excellent noise cancelation on the plane), and my Google Pixel 4a 5G, though for this trip, I arranged to use my wife’s Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra for photos since I wanted zoom (which the Pixel lacks) and wasn’t happy with the Huawei P30 Pro I used on the last trip (though the pictures were great).

I also carried a backup phone—a OnePlus 9 Pro—just in case, some assorted charging cables and small electronics, our passports, my COVID-19 vaccination card, and my Global Entry card in the laptop bag. Plus, my trusty JetBlue blanket, which I fold up to make airplane armrests less terrible. (They may not sell them anymore, which is a shame.)

I signed up for Google Fi again before the June trip, but as a secondary account, and one of the nice things about Fi is that Google lets you pause the service for three months at a time, so you don’t have to pay for it when you’re not using it. I paused the account after that previous trip and then reenabled it before the current trip, and I put the SIM in the Samsung, with a second data-only SIM going in the Dragonfly. My Pixel has my Mint SIM, and I can make and receive calls and texts in Mexico on that phone, but with no cellular data access.

I also brought my usual gadget bag in the carry-on luggage. There’s no need for power converters in Mexico, another nice thing about traveling here, so it contains my Anker power strip (with USB and a 5-foot extension cable, I love this thing), a Fitbit and phone charger, various electronics, some Starbucks coffee packets, and so on.

Unfortunately, the Dragonfly laptop was rendered inoperable because of a weird AC-based water issue—see Problemas (Premium) for the gory details—but the Firefly laptop has been a champ, and I’ve really grown to love and appreciate the thing. I’ve used it for work, obviously, but we’ve also attached it to the TV at the second home swap to watch movies and some comedy standup—seriously, check out Nate Bargatze on Netflix—with our kids.

Out in the world, I’ve been using the Samsung for photos and you can see the results on Instagram, though I’ve added a subset of them here of course. As I write this on Monday afternoon, about three days before we return home, I’ve used almost exactly 4 GB of data on Google Fi. Whatever. It’s affordable.

Air travel

Speaking of affordable, Mexico has several advantages over Europe from the perspective of an American traveler, the most obvious being that it’s far less expensive. (Though doing a home swap as we usually do can narrow the gap somewhat.) Another is the air travel experience.

Where big cities like London and Paris are 6 to 7 hours from the east coast of the US, Mexico is just 4 to 5 hours. And where those European flights are all overnight affairs during which I can’t sleep and then spend the next few days in a fog, the flights to Mexico City are normal day flights. And where Europe is 5 to 6 time zones ahead of the east coast, Mexico is just one time zone, and thus just one hour, behind the east coast. Put simply, I love Europe, but there is no comparison when flying: Mexico wins this one handily.

This was especially important because we needed to drive 3.5 to 4 hours after landing in Mexico City, as described below. I’ve actually tried to do something similar in Europe a few times; in Ireland one year, for example, our plan was to drive from Dublin to Galway when we arrived before dawn, and we had to pull over partway because I started nodding off. Not good.

Schedule and logistics

As our kids grow up, scheduling family trips becomes more complicated, but I’m happy that we’re able to do it at all, and further happy that my kids even want to travel with us. My son, for example, is 23, and has lived apart from us almost exclusively since he started college. By comparison, when I was 23, I also went on a big trip: my honeymoon. And I was several years removed from having traveled with my family at the time. So things are quite different with my children, and I’m grateful for that.

Anyway, as we looked forward to this summer and what we had hoped would be ever-improving conditions on the COVID-19 front—so naïve, in retrospect—we of course considered another European home swap, and we even had a friend we’d swapped with multiple times in the past ask if we were interested should conditions permit. We were, but as the weeks and months pushed on, it was clear that, while Europe had opened up to Americans, the reverse was not happening. And we eventually came to the time when we had to make a decision.

It wasn’t hard. I had spent months in early 2021 researching Mexico, so it was the obvious destination. We had already booked our June trip, which went better than expected, and wanted to explore more of the country. Looking at the rest of the summer, and at the kids’ schedules, we figured a two-week trip would make the most sense, with our kids joining us for the second of those two weeks. How we would spend our time wasn’t as clear, but we eventually settled on a plan by which my wife and I would visit some of the so-called “pueblos magicos” that looked interesting in central Mexico, and when the kids arrived we’d stick to Mexico City and that area, and use our previous experience to guide what we did with them.

And that’s pretty much what has happened, with just a few minor adjustments. Originally, we expected to visit three of those pueblos magicos—San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and Queretaro—in the first week of the trip, and we decided to base ourselves in San Miguel, which is geographically in the middle of the three. There were questions around transportation—driving in Mexico seemed daunting, and there are inexpensive, first-class busses all over the country—and where we’d stay.

Both points were problematic. On a traditional home swap, we stay at someone’s house, so we don’t have to pay for a hotel—it’s literally what makes three weeks in Europe possible—and we almost always have the use of their car (or, in some cases simply don’t need one). We also usually eat two meals each day at the home and one, lunch, out in the destination. But on this trip, we’d be eating out for basically every meal.

So the trick here was reducing the cost of two weeks away from home. Just being in Mexico helps, of course, since most things here, especially food, are much less expensive than in the US (and less expensive still than in Europe). But we needed a place to stay and a way to get between locations; San Miguel de Allende, for example, is 3.5 to 4 hours from Mexico City.

We’ve had limited experience to date with Airbnb, and that experience was all negative. But after looking at hotel prices—the place we had stayed in June, the Hilton Reforma in Mexico City, had already gone up from $100 per night to $135 per night, and we’d need at least two rooms when the kids joined us—made Airbnb the obvious choice. And so we did some research and booked a place in San Miguel de Allende from Thursday, August 2 through Wednesday, August 11. And then a larger Airbnb that’s just three blocks south of the Zocalo, the main square in the historic center of Mexico City, from Wednesday, August 11 through Thursday, August 19.

We made mistakes related to our inexperience with Airbnb. There were things we knew to look for, like air conditioning, laundry (which helps us pack light), and high-speed Internet. There were things we didn’t look for, like a table of any kind, an item that was curiously missing from the first Airbnb. And there were things that were advertised but weren’t present—like a coffee maker and microwave, also in the first Airbnb—that my wife complained about and received after the fact. Basically, our opinion of Airbnb has gone up a little bit, but it’s still one of those things we’re not entirely comfortable with.

Then we had to deal with transportation. It is obvious to me that no one who doesn’t live in Mexico City should ever, ever drive there. But for the first week, given the distances involved, and the possibility that we may want to visit some locations, like wineries, outside of the three towns we wanted to visit, and so on, we eventually decided we would need to rent a car. The bus system here is supposed to be incredible, similar to flying first class, and this is something I do want to experience. But not on this trip. So we rented a car from Enterprise—for under $300, no less—for that first week.

I wrote about our flat tire and gas problems with the car in Problemas, but one thing I didn’t fully discuss was that the first Airbnb had promised “on-premises” parking, which indicated to us that it would literally be at the property. It was not. Instead, we had to park the car on the other side of town, a 25-minute walk away. That may not sound bad, but remember that San Miguel de Allende is at a high altitude, which makes walking more strenuous, and that it’s a hilly town, which makes walking even worse. That distance colored our desire to use the car a lot, so we never made any short drives to wineries or anything else. And the flat tire we had further dampened the chance of any side-trips.

Also, in researching those pueblos magicos, we discovered that Queretaro, which is more city than town, didn’t really have much going on despite all the YouTubers claiming that it was probably the prettiest/best place to visit in all of Mexico. So we eventually decided to skip Quereataro, which led to even less driving. Overall, we only used the car to drive to San Miguel, to and from Guanajuato, which I wish we had spent more time in, and then back to Mexico City. What it gave us, over the bus, was freedom of schedule, and it was probably worth it. But I probably won’t ever drive in Mexico again.

In Problemas, I also describe the change we made to the itinerary because of Windows Weekly and our truncated stay outside of Mexico City. Long story short, we came back to Mexico City last Tuesday instead of last Wednesday, and we ended up staying at a hotel—the Hilton Reforma—on Tuesday and Wednesday nights to bridge the gap between the two Airbnbs. And our kids arrived on Thursday as scheduled and went directly to the second Airbnb, which has worked out well.

Places

As noted, we began this trip in San Miguel de Allende, and as I wrote in last week’s Premium newsletter, it is one of the prettiest places we’ve visited.

But we were also led astray by various YouTubers who, overly excited about the prettiness, never mentioned that there really isn’t much to do there. There is a gorgeous main square in front of an incredible neo-Gothic church called La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel. And then some smaller sites like a mask museum, a library, and … you get the idea.

It’s mostly about walking around its quaint, cobblestoned streets and parks, eating, and drinking. You could do the whole thing in two days.

I have never seen a place that was so beautiful and yet so devoid of things to do. It’s no wonder that San Miguel is an expat paradise, and you see (and, dear God, hear) Americans all over town, eating, drinking, and driving up real estate prices.

Guanajuato, by comparison, is the anti-San Miguel, crowded and chaotic.

Because of the flat tire and poor planning, we only spent one night in Guanajuato, and I wish we had split our time evenly between here and San Miguel, and would do things differently if I could. (Again, thanks YouTubers.)

The food and drink there are fantastic. The scenery is even more beautiful—and there’s more of it—than in San Miguel. And it’s a much, much bigger place with more to do and see.

It’s also much hillier than San Miguel, so be prepared for a cardio workout just walking around. It’s worth it.

We visited Mexico City back in June, of course, so our goal for the second week was to give our kids a sort-of best-of tour of what we had seen and done before while adding on a few fun side-trips that we specifically waited on so they could enjoy them too.

The first was a balloon ride over the Teotihuacán pre-Hispanic pyramids that are about an hour northeast of Mexico City.

This was one of the most incredible things we’ve ever done, and while Steph and I had experienced hot-air ballooning twice in the past—once in Albuquerque, New Mexico and once in Phoenix, Arizona—this was Mark’s first balloon experience (Kelly stayed home, sick.)

And it was unbelievable.

The second was a boat cruise through the also-incredible canals of Xochimilco, which is about 35 or 40 minutes southeast of Mexico.

This place is interesting on a number of levels, but most people probably don’t know that Mexico City’s Aztec predecessor was built on a huge lake and that this city grew into a Venice-like place of interconnected canals before being conquered by the Spanish and mostly covered over. Today, this is all that’s left of that Aztec past, and it is gorgeous.

There are a few different ways to approach the canals, in that there are party boats and slower, quieter excursions. And we went for the latter, specifically going in the morning on a weekday to skip the crowds and the noise. It was great, and I even recorded a short episode of First Ring Daily from a canal boat.

Health

I use a Fitbit Versa 3 to track my daily activity, sleep, and resting heart rate. I can’t recall where or even if I discussed this previously, but I noticed on our previous trip to Mexico City that my resting heart rate—and heart rate out in the world during the day—was elevated during the trip. Before we traveled to Mexico City in June, my resting heart rate was pretty consistently at 66 bpm, but it went up each day during the trip, and it eventually settled in at about 78 bpm. Oof.

I assumed this was caused by the altitude: Mexico City sits at about 7400 feet above sea level, which means it’s higher in the air than Denver (“the mile high city”) or Albuquerque, both of which are roughly 5300 feet above sea level. (I currently live at sea level. OK, at 417 feet above sea level.)

This was concerning to me, but we were only there for 6 days, and I figured that had we stayed for a longer period of time, it would settle back down to normal. And so I was curious what would happen on this trip.

Anyway, when we got home from Mexico City in June, I monitored my resting heart rate even more compulsively than usual, and I have to say, it’s a little weird to me that I never did get back down to 66 bpm. Instead, it slowly went down over time, and by the time we left for this trip, it had settled in at about 68 or 69 bpm. So now I was even more curious about what would happen on this trip.

Nothing happened. My resting heart has been normal for the entire trip, 68 to 70 bpm, and while I have seen some elevated heart rates while walking around here, that’s normal too. It is high altitude, after all. I have two theories at play as to why. The first is that visiting San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato before Mexico City helped acclimate me: These places are 6000 to 6500 feet above sea level and maybe that’s just enough below some line I don’t know about to have helped me transition. The other is that something was going on before we visited the first time, and that that, combined with a stomach bug or whatever, plus the altitude, triggered the increase.

I don’t know. But I’m happy that my resting heart rate has been normal here. And maybe I can get it down further when we go home.

The work experience

I am a big fan of the home swap work schedule, but my experience to date has always been in Europe, which, as noted, is 5 to 6 hours ahead of the U.S., usually 6. (Only Ireland and England are 5 hours ahead.) This means I’ve worked for a few hours in the morning each day, headed out in time to eat lunch and see sites in whatever destination we’re at, and then come home by 3 pm, which is 9 am back home, and worked for a few more hours until dinner. That’s a bit more than half the time I usually spend working during the week when I’m home, but it’s always worked out well, and I’ve always sort of expected that as we got older and eased into “retirement”—which I view as “working less over time” and not “stopping working”—that maybe this could be my normal day-to-day schedule no matter where we were.

But Mexico has shifted my perception of this future, and I’ve had to adjust my schedule here because of the much smaller time change. The weirdest part of this, go figure, has been recording First Ring Daily with Brad. We record the show every day at 9 am, and when I’m home normally, that gives me about two hours after waking up to read the paper while drinking some coffee, walk the dog, and get settled in with whatever news happened overnight.

In Mexico, there’s no dog to walk, and I basically get up at the same time, though I have slept later some days because I’m more tired from all the walking. So there’s only an hour—sometimes much less—between the time I get up and the time we start recording. More than a few times, it was only minutes. It’s not a huge deal given how casual FRD is, but it’s a little strange to be staring into a camera right after you wake up.

As for the rest of the day, I don’t need to be back for 3 pm now, so I have been working in the morning, going out and doing whatever, and then we come back at whatever time in the early afternoon, and I get some work done then. I’ve been working more than I usually do on a home swap, which is fine—this isn’t a real vacation, anyway, but I get some sense of accomplishment by writing—and then we go out for dinner, and I’m usually done by that point. I take a day off here and there as needed, based on what we’re doing.

At our first Airbnb, we didn’t have a table of any kind, so I did most of my writing while laying down on a bed, which isn’t entirely comfortable. But I often spend some time writing from a bed in the afternoons, even while at home, just to mix up the day. And the second home swap has a table, of course, so I’ve been using that and the bed as I do at home.

Technology wins and fails

Despite only being gone for two weeks—less than that as I write this—the trip has felt much longer. Part of that is positive, as we’ve had a great time. But part of that is negative, too, as we’ve had a surprising number of problems on this trip. Again, you can read all about the problems in Problemas (Premium). Here I’d like to briefly discuss some of the other technology wins and fails we’ve experienced on this trip.

I’ve used Android Auto here and there, but our car doesn’t have this functionality and I keep telling my wife that if she ever does get to use it, she’ll want to upgrade. Well, that happened, and she does: The car rental we used during the first week of the trip had both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and since we prefer and have Android phones, we used the former. If not a lifesaver, Android Auto is absolutely wonderful, and it was very nice to have for navigation, and was much easier to read and use than a phone screen. We also used it for some music while driving. Very nice.

Connectivity has been great for the most part, too, both with Verizon Wireless, which my wife uses, and with Google Fi. I expected to lose connectivity in some of the more remote places we visited, and belatedly lamented not downloading offline maps in Google Maps, but it worked out fine. What a world we live in.

Speaking of Google Maps, it’s obviously excellent and impossible to ignore overall. But we had a creeping series of small problems over the trip, not related to navigation but rather to its information about locations like restaurants and gas stations especially. I mentioned both in that Problemas (Premium) article, but it bears emphasizing: Far too often, Google marked locations that were long closed as open, causing us to waste time. We wandered around San Miguel de Allende on Sunday night for almost an hour before we found a (semi) acceptable restaurant, and while I know that sounds like a first-world problem, it was frustrating. (And the restaurant we did end up was one we found on our own, not with Google Maps.)

What’s not a first-world problem is Google directing us to remote gas stations in the middle of freaking nowhere for us to find out, multiple times, that the gas station was closed, and had been for months or years, from the looks of things. And most were surrounded by fences with razor wire. That’s not just bad, it’s dangerous.

In What I Use: Mexico City (Premium), I mentioned some user experience problems with apps like Instagram and Facebook, and we of course experienced those again. I have been meaning to write about that, perhaps as part of a series (“UX Fails” or whatever), and still hope to. But it was interesting to show these things to Mark, my son, who recently graduated with a degree in this area. I still hope he can help fix the world. But I’ll do what I can in the meantime.

There’s probably more, but this is getting lengthy, and there’s more to explore before we fly home on Thursday. See you soon.