Notes about Mexico

These will be my Notes about Mexico as I come across tidbits of information that may interest you.

The list is already very long, so I’m going to publish now.

Expats will give you misinformation ALL of the time. It’s terrible, so be weary and do your own research. This is an issue everywhere, not just in Mexico.
To do fast math to figure out how many USD you are paying in pesos is in USD, You drop the digit at the end and just divide by 2.So let’s say it’s 800 pesos. You drop the zero at the end which makes it 80. Divide by 2, so that’s $4. And when the USD is doing well which is not often these days, it’s even less than $4.
Didi is the Mexican equivalent to Uber, but since they scammed me the last time I took them a few weeks ago, I am boycotting them.

What they did was double the cost of the ride once I got into the car. They had never done that before. I heard Uber does that too.

Not only that, when I told the driver I’m not paying the difference, he must have called someone at the Didi office, because then he got off the phone and it sounded like they told him not to worry.

When I tried to pay him the money, he said no and showed me something about my credit card.

I can not use my US credit card with Didi, so that means at the office Didi went into my account and switched it from cash to credit card. TERRIBLE!

Didi also delivers food like Uber Eats.

In many (or some) cities and towns, they have no Didi or Uber unless it’s for the food. That’s the taxi mafia industry.

There’s also InDriver which I think is even less expensive than Didi.

What you do is put in an amount you want to pay for the ride and then drivers bid on how much they will charge you and you choose one. Normally they never go as low as what my price is LOL

Unfortunately their app isn’t as good as Didi’s or Uber’s because it never remembers the last address I was dropped off at.

The odd time Uber is less expensive, but usually Didi is less.

If you keep checking every few minutes, the prices will fluctuate.

In order to be able to download Didi on your Android (not sure about the iPhone) you will need to have a Mexican e-mail address attached to your phone, otherwise it will tell you that it can not be downloaded in your area.

I hate UBER. They are an evil corp and they treat their drivers like GARBAGE, but I have no choice, I need to use them.

Once I got to CDMX (Mexico City), they started forcing me to check off that I will wear a mask AND then take a fucking picture of me wearing one. The last time they demanded that I just said screw this and went with Didi.

They also stopped letting me use not just one credit card, but two American credit cards and they told me there was something wrong with my cards. Yeh right.

Like I said, Didi also doesn’t allow for foreign cards, but they are a Mexican company unlike Uber, so at least I can understand that. They claim they are working on allowing for American credit cards.

You can contact Didi through the phone at 800-725-8888. Last time I called the #9 prompt was STILL looping and not sending me to an English speaking customer service rep, although when it worked the first time I called, I never got someone who spoke English there so I had to wait anyway.

I reported it 3 times so far and we’ll see if they fix it. I doubt it.

Uber provides NO way to contact them. They hide how to contact them in the app, AND on fakebook they just threw me a link to a Spanish form and when I told them I couldn’t fill it out they ignored me. That happened twice.

They also did respond back via e-mail twice with the same generic BS response that didn’t solve the problem with the credit cards.

They also allowed a driver to scam me for more money and I have no way of fixing it.

The driver couldn’t figure out where the address was, so he went all the way around a huge block in a circle charging me more then what I was originally quoted. I refused to pay it and then they said there was a balance owing on my account.

Uber Eats does give you good discounts sometimes, but their app sucks. If you aren’t careful, the area where you write your notes to the restaurant won’t take. I wasted time arguing with a restaurant about how I wrote notes on two dishes. The restaurant refused to refund me or replace the dishes and I only realized afterward that it was the app that is poorly designed.

Didi drivers in both Morelia and Tepic are TERRIBLE when it comes to picking up my boxes and suitcases and taking them into the car.

In both Cancun and CDMX I never had this issue with Uber drivers.

I had to re-request a new driver 4 times three separate times to finally find someone who would take the boxes for me. When I motion them to come into the house, most of them act all scared as if I’m going to take them into the house and KILL THEM. SMH.

What’s worse is that they lie and put down that I never showed up so there’s a 25 peso cancellation fee on my account. Two separate times I’ve had to spend an hour with Didi customer service with one time even arguing with a low IQ person for an hour who kept telling me what the driver said as IF the driver is telling the truth and I’m lying. Finally after I demanded a manager TWICE, I got the fee removed.

The next time this happened I had to get the woman at Didi to convince the drivers to come in. Only once at Didi customer service did I get a smart guy who removed the fee and put in a report on the drivers because he understood they can’t just refuse to take my luggage.

I had to think of how to solve this problem because none of the customer service reps are smart enough to solve it. I thought that messaging them through the app right after I ordered the ride telling them there is luggage would tell me if they are going to take it or not. You have 5 minutes to cancel after you order the ride, but what happens if they come in 3 minutes? SMH

That solution didn’t work either. Either the drivers never saw the message, didn’t understand the Spanish from goolag translate or they were just idiots. One of them even continued to drive to the Airbnb despite not wanting to take my luggage.

This went on and on every time, and I would go through hell once again waiting and redoing the Didi request over and over again.
Rappi is just like Uber Eats, a food delivery service. Once again, on your Android cell phone, you will have to get a Mexican e-mail address (where you say you are in Mexico), otherwise it will say it’s not located in your area. And what’s really stupid is that the same restaurant can be listed on both Uber Eats and Rappi or even Didi Food and yet the only full menu is on Uber Eats with a watered down version on the other two apps.
Blah Blah car is a car pooling mobile app for Mexico. I read one comment where someone said if there’s no picture or ratings, don’t trust them. Also make sure their ID is verified.

I did try to use it once, but almost NO ONE responded to my messages (I had questions) and one woman did respond, but then she wanted me to pay for another seat because of my boxes and luggage.

I get it, I probably would do the same thing, but it was cheaper to take the bus.

Also, if you don’t know where the Blah Blah car wants you to meet up, you are screwed. What if there’s no place to sit down? What if they are late and you are waiting forever? Although that can happen with the buses too because it happened in Morelia that I had to wait 45 minutes, there were no seats and it was freezing cold outside. What if they won’t help you with your heavy luggage?

Actually in the end it wasn’t cheaper to take the ETN bus line because they charged me extra for the overweight of my suitcase and boxes, but I didn’t know they would do that because on the shitty Ado bus line, they never did that.

The car is faster usually by 30-90 minutes (I think). Sometimes even 2 hours faster than the bus.

And I don’t know how often the Blah Blah driver will stop for the bathroom, whereas the bus has a bathroom in it.
ETN bus line has THE most comfortable chairs and leg space. I even got the row where they are single seats, no one next to me, but like all companies that charge more, they are mask nazis, but after I sat down I took it off and it was okay. Unfortunately they aren’t available in every state and city.

Update: I took them again and here’s what you need to know. Some only go a certain distance and then you need to get off in a major city and go the rest of the way paying again. This last trip on two different ETN buses no one bothered me about the mask although I think at one point one wanted to when I was giving him my ticket. The drivers don’t care, it’s only the ticket people who do.

Also, I didn’t get charged extra baggage fees on the first trip, but on the second leg I did and I’m sure I got ripped off in Mexico city UNLESS each city has a different price and that wouldn’t surprise me.

It’s a maximum of 25 KG and anything over that (I’m sorry I don’t remember how much) is X pesos per kilo.

I was charged over 500 pesos in Mexico and while I may have had a few more things in the boxes then I do now, certainly NOT 300 pesos worth. This time I was charge 210 or so pesos.

Also, the guy and I had been talking about the death jab and mask, so he kind of liked me or took pity on me blaming the manager for charging me.

Lastly, try NOT to sit just above the bathrooms in ETN. They REEK.

Because the second leg was an empty bus (only 5 of us), I got to sit downstairs because every seat was empty. It was my first time sitting down there.

Well, the bathrooms were disgusting because the seats are right near the bathrooms.

Who even knows when they clean the buses and yet they are the top of the line bus line.
In Mexico they don’t put fluoride in the water, rather, they put it in the salt. So one expat woman said she takes salt with her to the restaurant and asks them to use that when cooking her dishes. Here’s an article about that. Of course the WHO is behind the evilness.
The 2 cities with 5G are: Mexico City (CDMX), although I heard there’s 5G only in certain areas, and in Aguascalientes. I’ve never heard of that city before.

Here’s a site an expat gave me. The problem is, on this site it says there is no 5G here.

I heard from a Mexican that he thought there was 5G all over the country, but when I gave him that site, he too saw there was none. So why are they (the lying mainstream media) telling everyone there is 5G and that they have been expanding it?

Do we even trust the Speedtest.net site?

Well, as of February 22, 2022, the evil telecommunication companies here in Mexico are going full steam ahead to install 5G EVERYWHERE. This is in Spanish, but you can just use goolag translate.

March 2022 – Well it looks like that expat who has been convincing everyone to come to Mexico (I won’t name names) lied. There has been 5G towers all over Mexico for at least a year if not slightly longer. In fact, about two months ago in one of his groups, an engineer had been arguing that he saw towers all over and I didn’t believe him because of this lying expat.

I found out the truth from another expat on fakebook. She was shocked at how many 5G towers there were compared to 2019 when she had last been in Mexico and there’s no way they were just erected since the announcement came out. They had to have been working on them for a year at least.

A week ago when I had to go to a hotel in downtown Tepic, there was one of those HUGE 5G towers that is around 5-7 stories high.
Springs (natural spring water from the ground) in Mexico. There are not many listed here for Mexico, so if you do find some and you get the water tested, please add them.
Oxxo is the Mexican version of 7-Eleven and almost but ALL of the locals send their money through Oxxo with the exception (I think) of BBVA which is a bank. Since most low income Mexicans have no bank accounts, they use Oxxo.Oxxo has to be making a fortune for every transaction they do. I did hear (I haven’t confirmed this) that you can’t send the money online unless you have residency, so you’d have to go into the store to send it.
I hate cell phones and can’t understand why people love them so much besides that you can carry it with you and it’s not heavy, although mine is.

When traveling to Mexico, I had no choice but to use it on the plane, bus etc. and because of Evernote and their mobile app, it just deleted my Mexico cities note when I made it into a shortcut. Even VERY important notes that took me hours to write up have disappeared even on my Evernote desktop.

Evernote almost always blames the customer saying they deleted it and didn’t realize it. They make me do all of this work to give them logs, check their online version, and they NEVER recover it.

I was FURIOUS, but I’ve gotten over most of me losing 1 1/2 years worth of research on Mexican cities. I am switching from Evernote as soon as I settle on a good note taking app. If you want my list, just contact me.

Back to WHY I hate the cell phone that EVERYONE is addicted to and just so you know, it’s NOT because I’m a technophobe.

I’m both a nettie AND a netrepreneur and I’ve been around computers since 1984 AND online since 1998, although I logged on a few times in 1994.

Back to the plane ride to Mexico… I even had issues logging into another app that I desperately needed, so this isn’t just one issue.

Then on my mobile I ran out of data 3 days after I got my bloody Mexican number LOL

Where I escaped from I NEVER run out of data because I never use my cell phone unless I’m outside my home. I have a landline.

So, what does this have to do with Mexico?

Well, if you aren’t used to cell phones and how much data they use, they use a lot. You need to shut off apps you normally don’t use and connect to wifi as much as you can when you are in restaurants.

And also, I paid a fair amount to my previous overseas cell carrier to be able to have data service in New York because that’s where my connecting flight was, but I never used the phone once because I was rushing to make the connecting flight because my first flight from overseas was delayed.

So I paid for nothing and it’s a lot more expensive to pay for roaming and data in Mexico than in New York, which is why I just decided I would pay for a Mexican SIM card at the airport.

Well that never happened. I had to pay a taxi to go all over Cancun trying to find me a place to get a Tel Cel SIM card. I was told Oxxo would have them but they don’t. Oxxo can add data and minutes to an existing SIM card, but now I’m not even sure that you can get a SIM card from them or at least not from the Oxxo near the bus station I was at in Cancun.

Just so you know, in Mexico they don’t have unlimited. Their version of unlimited is typing on social media (fakebook and whatsapp), and Telegram isn’t part of their unlimited social media package.

And if you record or listen to voice messages on either fakebook and whatsapp, that doesn’t count as unlimited either – SMH
Now here’s something VERY important to know and this is ONLY for Tel Cel… Unless you get a plan where they bill you every month, you will have to remember to renew your minutes and data by going to an Oxxo (or so I thought.)

The first time I paid 200 pesos, but again, I barely use the phone, so the 2nd month I asked a guy (customer) at one of those small convenient stores whether I should just pay 100 pesos, and asked how many days does it give me?

He said he thought it was 30 or 45 days.

I couldn’t pay cash at that store, so I went to an Oxxo and I asked the manager after I paid, how many days that gives me and he said 45 days which I found strange.

IT WAS’T 45 DAYS!!!! It was ONLY 15 bloody days.

Here is a site that did NOT work for me because for some reason a lot of the online Mexican sites don’t accept my very very popular credit card. At the very least it will tell you the different plans and how many days you get it for.

So the other option which ALSO didn’t work with my credit card (I had to use my debit card which worked – SMH) was this. I got these in instructions from an expat…

“Send a text to ” 3434 ” that says: Recarga 200 (or 150, if you choose that plan, though I don’t know for how many days 150 lasts. I know 200 lasts 30 days)

You’ll receive a link where you can enter your credit card.

As well you will receive a PIN which you need to enter.

From there you’ll get confirmation of your success (exito) via text message.”

You should hear a ding via SMS (text) that you got your monthly top-up.

This pass week April 22, 2020 I suddenly had NO CELL SERVICE even though it wasn’t a month since I had topped it up. I advise you to write down the date you top it up. If I didn’t get TONS of BS texts from Tel Cell al the time I would just look in my SMSs (texts), but I do. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that people have been ripped off by Tel Cel.
If you need to show immigration that you are flying out on a certain day so they give you more days, you can create a reservation (it’s not a ticket) to show them.
Here’s the site.

I did have problems with them when I used it on my phone, so make sure that if it says you didn’t have enough funds and you do it again, that you check your credit card statements that you weren’t charged twice.
So in every Mexican expat fakebook group except for the asshole Felipe’s and a great one called Awake in Mexico, they are ALL the walking dead mind controlled zombies. Some woman who said she felt weird (probably took the death jab) was asking where she could take the toxic PCR test for free.

It turns out it’s expensive to take it in Mexico (1200-1600 pesos or so which is around $60-80 USD) so hopefully that will deter the walking dead Mexicans from taking it over and over again even though I know they are rushing to get the death jab, so what does it matter if they take the test which is just a mini death jab.

Anyway, one woman provided this site where you can find places to take the BS toxic PCR test, so I’m giving it to you here just so you are aware of it. Supposedly it’s for the US too.
Acronym – DF is referred to Mexico’s capital city (México Distrito Federal, México D.F.). Now they’ve changed the name to Ciudad de México, which many refer to as CDMX.

Someone said that in 2016 they did the name change to have the “benefits” of being another state of the Republic, and e.g. have their own Constitution, budget, etc. No clue. I’m not even going to try and figure out why they did that or what that all means. Remember, I do NOT BELIEVE IN A MAFIA GOVERNMENT.
Acronym – AMLO stands for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president.
The steps to get upto the sidewalk from the streets are almost always very very high. It was that way in Mexico City and in Morelia. It’s not as bad in Tepic, but still can be bad.

Even in the Airbnb I’m in, they are HUGE deep steps for the stairs to go upto my living area.

Outside, I sometimes have to find a lower level to step up to. While it’s good exercise, it can be dangerous if your knees and thighs aren’t strong, so be aware. It may be different in other Mexican cities and towns.
I lost money because I made the mistake of telling an Airbnb host that everyone was coming to Mexico to escape the forced vaccinations. She had asked me why I came to Mexico and this is a common question I get asked.

I spent over 160 pesos to get to the Airbnb there and back because I wanted to check the place out first before booking it. That may not seem like a lot to you, but since I don’t get paid to do this truther activism work and I only work part time and I’m not working right now, that’s a lot for me. Plus it’s the fact of the matter and I could have been working instead of spending almost 2 hours traveling and talking to them. It was a good learning experience though.

I also wasted almost an hour with them the night before because they couldn’t give me their correct address so that it would pull up on Uber or Didi. It kept giving me their next door neighbor’s house and I wasn’t sure I was getting the correct information because initially Uber wanted over 1,000 pesos ONE WAY! That’s way too much in case you are wondering.

Nice mother and daughter, but I was PISSED that an hour after I got back to the other Airbnb I was staying in, the pregnant daughter, who was suffocating her unborn child with a face diaper, messaged me saying they are too scared with me not being vaccinated.

A Mexican American told me she just doesn’t say anything to people anymore because it will cause problems.
Despite what happened with the Airbnb host, twice in one day I gave two different shop vendors too much money and they gave me money back. WONDERFUL!!! That was in Morelia.
I’m pretty sure that all over Mexico they put juice into plastic bags. I had no idea what to do with it when it got to my Airbnb, so I just drank it from the bag inside the cup. They also do this with all of the sauces and it’s a frustrating and messy situation.

There’s no way to open the bags because they tie them so tight and they are small bags. Also, 99% of the restaurants don’t give you a cup, just the bag, so getting the juice, soup, salsas, or even just main dishes with food in them out without it spilling everywhere is NOT EASY. So far I haven’t figured out a way.

With the soya sauce from a chinese restaurant in Tepic when I tried to poke a hole in the bag, it sprayed all over the place because the bag was tied so tight it looked like a tiny water balloon.

Here’s a pic of it

So make sure you bring scissors, because the scissors I saw at the photocopying shop in Morelia were so cheap and low quality (like those kid ones we got in the 70s), that there was no way I was buying them. I’m sure you can get them in other more American style stores.
Speaking of a good restaurant in Tepic. I just had the most negative experience with a great restaurant that had the best burger I’ve ever had not just here in Mexico, but anywhere. Their papas Gajo (wedge fries) were great and so was their grilled meat, vegetables and onions.

So the first time I ordered from Rappi, but like everything in Tepic and most of Mexico, the restaurant closed so early at 4:30 pm (yes you heard me), that I missed them the next time I wanted to order, so I called them.

Even though he understood some English, it took me a while to get the guy to understand me even on WhatsApp.

He gives me the total price which made me realize that ALL of the prices on all of the food apps are inflated. I already had a feeling that was the case, but I wasn’t sure. The total came to almost 200 pesos less, but he made it 418 pesos instead of 416 and I checked my math 3 times.

I told him he needs to call me to take my credit card number but instead he gives me a long number that looked like a credit card number.

Initially I thought he made a mistake and was giving me another customer’s number. WOW.

Finally I realized that he wanted me to pay with a bank transfer and I said I can’t do that, that’s not how credit cards work. SMH. I had to tell him that 4 times and finally I just said I’ll pay cash. I could tell he wasn’t smart at all.

I asked him how long it’s going to be and he said 30 minutes. After 45 minutes he still hadn’t arrived so I started calling his restaurant. No answer. I messaged on WhatsApp, NO ANSWER. I was furious.

I was very hungry and it took over 30 minutes to order with him as it was. P.S. This was short. Every time I’ve needed to order from a restaurant in Colima it’s taken me AN HOUR!!! It’s always a very STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE especially because I’m hungry and I have to repeat myself over and over again (see my article on the personality of Mexicans.)

This is how unprofessional and disrespectful Latinos can be and they are very immature just like most people in 3rd world countries are. Instead of just saying he won’t be filling my order, he left me hanging.

It took me another 1 1/2 hours to find another place to order from and start translating, so by the time I got the food and ate, it was 3 hours later.

A few days later I get some ad from him on WhatsApp asking me to order with his specials, so I started screaming and swearing at him that he’s STUPID if he actually thinks I would order from him again???

It turns out the MORON’s driver couldn’t find the correct address.

Then he took my number from my WhatsApp account instead of using the one I gave him. I still have my old number on my WhatsApp account and I won’t remove it just yet.

Instead of him just apologizing for two mistakes, he had to keep insisting that the address was wrong and YET, every other Rappi, Uber Eats driver, Didi, Uber, and InDriver make it to the right address. Mind you, it’s done through their apps, but had he actually been paying attention to what I said, he would have called me on the right phone number and every time I have to choose my address, I can see there are two of them, so the driver should have seen there was a second closer one.

And of course he had NO answer for why the next day he didn’t reach out to me after he saw that I had messaged him on WhatsApp and fakebook tons of times giving him shit.

People in third world countries REFUSE to accept responsibility for their mistakes. I learned this overseas, in Panama, and now here. That’s what immaturity is. Mind you, there are plenty of immature babies in first world countries too who act this way.
If you are bringing your car into Mexico, you need to get a TIP (temporary import license) and you must have Mexican car insurance.

I don’t know about American car insurance, but supposedly Canadian car insurance won’t work in Mexico. Someone wrote this… “no Canadian insurance will cover you in Mexico. You have to buy Mexican insurance online (we used Lewis & Lewis) or you can buy it at some border crossings. I know Nogales was selling it outside Banjercito.” Here is the Mexican site for the car insurance.
How to travel through Mexico without the tolls. This is from an expat since I don’t have a car.

“Pretty much punch in your destination and set the settings to “avoid tolls” in Google maps. We traveled from Progreso to Morelia using only non toll roads. And from Laredo to Morelia using toll roads.

Toll roads save you more time and I remember less hassle at the checkpoints.

When using non tolls, there could be some stupid checkpoints. Most of the time we try to not make the eye contact with them and try to just keep going, they don’t usually chase you. I only stop if I absolutely have to.

And from Laredo to Morelia I added all the tickets I had from the toll roads and it came up to $65 US dollars.

But this amount may vary, probably some $10 plus/minus.

And usually those checkpoints are located right before a bigger city or on the state lines, or near them.

Most of them you breeze right through. But there is a chance you’ll get pulled over at least once.

For the first time travelers to Mexico, I would recommend getting all the needed paperwork at the border. It just makes it a bit easier for those who have no idea what to expect and still need to adjust to the Mexico ways of things.

Then, after you get a feel for it, and it’s less stressful, you can make that decision whether or not it’s worth it to pay for the TIP every six months or not.”
Here is the combi site for Morelia. I think this is a main site where you can search other cities as well. A combi is a small white van you can take for peanuts, like 9-15 pesos, but I think it only goes in a straight line down the street you caught it from, and I’m not sure if you can put a cart in the back which is what concerns me, because I will eventually be getting a shopping cart with wheels. Plus if you aren’t small and thin, good luck getting in.
“INAPAM (Instituto Nacional de las Personas Adultas Mayores) is a senior’s discount card for those 60 years of age and over. They are available to citizens and Temporary and Permanent Residents. INAPAM provides benefits throughout Mexico.” Site.
Plastics and styrophome are all over this country and of course are toxic to us as well as our Mother Earth. There’s nothing you can do about it. Only two restaurants, both of which were in Morelia, had better quality takeout containers. That’s it, and I’ve been eating at restaurants for 4 months straight now.
Site to find roommates, but the prices are equal to what you could pay for a whole apartment or house.
They have these coat and purse hangers stands (at least in Morelia) in the more medium to high priced restaurants.
The addresses in Mexico (at least in Morelia) are all screwed up. Or maybe it’s goolag’s map, I have no idea.
I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to find addresses to Airbnbs and now I was trying to look for the address to a venue and on Didi it gave me 6 different options all for the same address and it wouldn’t let me choose the closest one. It gave me some error. Just NUTS.
From someone else… “There is a whole city block in CDMX, near Zocalo station, all they sell is gold and silver, coins, bullion, Eagles, Maples etc. all there. Look for “Plata y Oro” probably about 20 coins and gold shops total. In Guadalqjara there is a similar street in the centro. some have private booths if you’re doing real business. Have an armoured vehicle deliver to you for a reasonable fee, or even DHL.”
This may only be in Tepic Nayarit (it turns out it’s not), but twice now at an airbnb, the matches I was given to light the stove were so tiny and thin, that every time I have to hold it close to the end where it lights just so it wouldn’t break. Totally cheap and annoying, so bring a stove lighter just in case. Some stoves have the igniter, but others don’t. Today on April 22, 2022, for the first time I was able to work a REAL stove where you just press the button and it lights the burner. LOVELY. But this is an expensive Airbnb.
When I’ve posted an ad in Facebook groups to hire someone (a local) to help me find a house, three times so far I’ve been messaged by someone offering sex services or something to do with either them being a trans or offering me the trans operation. Google translate did a poor job of translating. WOW. This was ONLY in Puerto Vallarta groups just so you know. This is just one more reason I crossed that entire area off of my list and I’m not talking just in the city where it’s insanely expensive.
From someone else… “You will save hundreds of dollars in fuel and tolls by driving from California to Michoacán via Texas. then heading south. It is literally further driving down the coast, due to the shape of Mexico. also the tolls between Nogales and Tepic never end…like ever 1 hr pay another 150 lol…for days. vs Driving on the 54 from Saltillo to Zacatecas you can cover hundreds of miles in a day easy, hardly any tolls…or topes! also gas in texas is wayyy cheaper Yes. I used the toll calculator on tollguru.com, they actually have the gas and toll prices in Mexico. you can plan your trip. I drove from SoCal to Guad and it was faster and cheaper to take I-10 to San Antonio, enter at Laredo, then drive straight through the centre”
From someone else… “If you don’t have someone to sign as a guarantor on your lease, they charge you an extra tax in lieu.”
The toilet paper is very toxic here. They put some toxic perfume smell in it that drives me insane.

In fact, it’s so toxic, that in one Airbnb I needed to have them bring me one that didn’t have the colored paper and flowers on it because it was smelling up the entire small studio.

I have yet to see if they even have American toilet paper here and at the Airbnb I was at in Morelia, they started buying the toilet paper from Costco (Kirkland brand) and it was so poorly manufactured, that it wouldn’t tear off easily and it kept tearing the paper so it was in shreds. I assume that it was manufactured here in Mexico and not in the US, but I’ve never bought Kirkland brand before to know if it’s always like that.

Another brand they used before was like that too.

They better have American toilet paper by the time I need to buy it. I brought some rolls with me because I had so many before I escaped, but eventually I will need it.

Update: I came across a WONDERFUL toilet paper at an Airbnb, but when I asked the host what it was, once AGAIN he didn’t answer me. Whether because he was angry that I was leaving OR, because like every other Mexican especially in Colima, they do NOT read and answer simple questions and I have to repeat myself over and over again.

I asked in an expat group and almost everyone said it has to be this one – Just One from Regio. It looks like you can ONLY buy it from Chedraui which isn’t in every city, especially not Colima. Keep in mind that the Regio brand has a ton of different types of toilet paper, and supposedly it’s not easy to find this.
So in this Airbnb I’m in now in Tepic, there’s not enough water in the toilet tank and it’s backing up, and when I finally told the hostess that there was an issue, she told me not to put the toilet paper in the toilet, to put it in the garbage can.

I know what she’s talking about because I lived in Panama for almost two years, and this is what so many locals did (they throw the toilet paper in the garbage can) which is probably WHY they sell that toxic perfume toilet paper, so it doesn’t smell up the bathroom.

After investigating, I found out that the issue is, that they don’t know how to build water lines properly. They make them too narrow so the toilet paper clogs them up.

I guess they do that in Mexico and probably every Latin American country (I can’t be certain of course.)

There was no way in hell I was throwing feces covered toilet paper in the garbage can to stink up the entire Airbnb, so I keep flushing small amounts. What a fucking STRESSOR.

I didn’t have this issue in other Airbnbs just so you know, but this is the Airbnb where there’s no kitchen sink in my upstairs apartment, so I have to walk down the very steep high steps to their garage and wash the dishes in their stone laundry sink. That’s where she washes her dishes and cleans her food. No clue where their kitchen sink is. My guess is they don’t have one. SMH.

Here’s a pic of it.
So I finally figured it out…In older houses even if they look nice, but haven’t been 100% renovated, they do NOT have kitchen sinks. You have to wash the dishes in the same place they wash the laundry.

I know.

And it’s not even easy to wash dishes there because the faucet is usually small, towards the back and it’s hard to even rinse anything. Here’s a pic.

So make sure when you are booking an Airbnb that they have a SINK!!! Nuts.
There are 3 time zones in Mexico, although as one local told me, the locals don’t care about time zones LOL SMH. Here’s a link if you want to know what time zone the place you are looking into is in.
The top grocery stores in Mexico are Chedraui and La Comer. There’s also Soriana, but they are mask nazis and that was in every location I went to which wasn’t many, but at least 2-3 different ones. I’m sure the other ones are too.
When dealing with companies here in Mexico, remember that many of them don’t care about customers or their service. A couple who used a custom furniture company with great results paid $9,000 USD for a custom couch done and when they finally saw the results 2 months later (they weren’t here when it arrived) it was terrible and the owner refused to correct the problems.
Someone commented with, “Honestly since we moved here we learned the hard way ,one of our biggest lessons , you just can’t trust everyone, you need to be behind them just to make sure their work is being done, don’t expect the perfect attention to detail or finishings from local handmade or custom made spots, and never ever pay in full until the finished product or service has been delivered. Also need to say that theirs exceptions and great services out there just make sure you have tons of referral from people u know.”
From someone else… “The worst mistake we made was bringing our US-plated vehicle into Mexico. For the next several years, until we shipped it back to the States and sold it, it was the bane of my existence. We also planned to nationalize it and quickly discovered this is next to impossible, even if you are fluent in Spanish. With foreign plates you are a big “ticket me, I’m a Gringo” target for every corrupt cop from Chetumal to Cancun — with or without perm or temp residency.

If you are planning on staying as a perpetual tourist your life may be less complicated. As long as you keep up with the TIP (temporary import permit), you will probably be OK. If you plan to get perm residency you can’t have a TIP. If you are a permanent resident, it is illegal to drive a foreign-plated vehicle in most places in Mexico. Best advice: Simplify your life. Leave the car in the States and buy a new or good used car here in Mexico.”
So it’s terrible what they do in the cities. They literally cover up ALL of the earth with concrete.

I’ve looked for houses in several different cities and there’s NO grass to be found in front of most of them and forget about finding it in the backyard if you even want to call it that. It’s a room with the roof either completely gone or a gradient type roof where some sunlight comes in and it’s ALL CONCRETE on the floor.

Some houses have the garden (this was in Morelia) in the house when you first walk in there an entire green area of plants, etc., and the sky is there and the house is there too. It’s very very strange.

And if there is some grass, they do this idiotic thing where they pour concrete strips to cover portions of the grass. Like this in Colima. (sorry, I didn’t get one with grass, but just picture the grass in between the strips of concrete. I’ll try to get another pic for you.

Why in the WORLD do they do that?

Why do they want NO nature around?

STUPID!!!! It just pisses me off. I’m looking for a small amount of earth and they have destroyed it. I asked a local and she has no idea either. I figured out that one reason was because they want to drive their car up onto the driveway, but even some houses that have a separate driveway still do that.

I mean really, there’s no point in having ANY grass at all if you are going to cover over the majority of it. Like you can’t grow anything there when you have a car run it over, and how are you going to put your feet on a narrow piece of grass? LOL
An alternative to airbnb but ONLY in Mexico City (CDMX) is this site. https://casai.com/en?currency=USD
What is a CURP?

From someone else… “It’s like a social security number every resident and citizen of Mexico gets. With this children register for school, you use it for your job, use it to register with La Hacienda (Mexico’s Tax Authority), use it to open a business in order to get an RFC number with SAT (which you need to run a business and sometimes to purchase land).”
So I had to go to Puerto Vallarta to do something I won’t get into right now that took me to the airport although I wasn’t flying out. Sometimes you can’t trust the lawyers here, they don’t know what they are doing. She cost me money, a whole lost day of work and life, and a ton of stress.

I also won’t get into how I was left stranded by a blah blah car driver.

So 3 times I had to cross over this bridge right near the airport to meet this ASSHOLE who left me stranded, then go back to the airport because I had no place to go once the shitty bar I was in (the ONLY place to sit and eat near the airport) closed at midnight and then again a 3rd time when trying to get a taxi at 5:30 am to get to another blah blah car driver to take me back to Tepic.

When I left the bar, I literally started getting vertigo as I walked up.

When I walked it the first time on the other side, someone almost knocked me over.

I was sooooo scared climbing up the ramp, that I had to hold onto the vertical steal bars as I walked up, so I wouldn’t fall backwards.

When I would walk down one side, it was soooo STEEP, my small suitcase was pushing me from behind.

I am SHOCKED more people (especially when drunk), haven’t fallen backwards and killed themselves.

I took pics in the dead of morning just to show you, if you can imagine. VERY VERY DANGEROUS, and here I thought I’d prefer a ramp over 20 million STAIRS sigh

Up ramp

Down ramp
My last note in this very long article…At least in Colima, these are the types of roads I have to put up with in many different areas of the city, not just one area. Medium sized rocks instead of pavement (even if it’s not perfect.)I can’t walk on them without hurting my feet in flip flops, and the cars must have to be fixed over and over just by driving on them.

You also can’t hear anyone in the car while they are driving over them, that’s how noisy it is.

Here’s what it looks like.

Oh my gawd, do you know how long it’s taken me to edit this article and I kept adding to it in the meantime LOL

I’m sorry, but I’m sure I will add a ton more notes about Mexico to the comments as time goes on. These are things you may want to know before moving here or even once you get here and there’s just not enough content to fill one article.

I hope it was of use to you.

Michelle
A knowledgeable mind will set you FREE
Truth is ALL that Matters!

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