13 Reasons YOU WON'T like Living in Mexico That NO ONE Talks About

hi everyone this is marianna and you are watching mexico relocation guide your expert guide to living and retiring in mexico the right way in today's video i want to talk about the 13 negatives of living in mexico because i'm well aware that living in mexico isn't going to be for everybody and if you know anything about me you know that i'm a huge cheerleader and a huge promoter of mexico not only because i'm from this amazing country but because i see the positives in people's lives that you know moving here has done for them but again i know it's not for everybody and in this channel i want to give you not only the good but i also want to give you the bad and the ugly so in today's video let's talk about some 13 negatives of living in mexico that way you can actually move here knowing if these are deal breakers for you or not [Music] number one sometimes basic utilities are not always stable now what do i mean by that it's not uncommon in mexico for whenever it rains for power outages to happen now luckily a lot of mexican homes have gas stoves and gas heaters so you can still take a shower and cook but it can be really frustrating if you were about to start that zoom meeting if you're still working from home or if you were about to sit down and binge your favorite netflix show now what i recommend is always having lamps and batteries at your house because you never know when one of these things will happen it usually happens for a few minutes however if it rains a lot it can last for hours like you can get electricity and then it can you can have an outage again now for me personally it's a chance for me to read a book take my dog on a walk or just take a break from my computer number two internet speed isn't fast across the country and this varies by neighborhood so some cities might say that they have fiber optic internet available but it's not available all across the city and sometimes in the same neighborhood across the street you might have fiber optic internet and on the other side of the street you might not so in another video i explained some of the things you should do or ask before renting a property in mexico and one of those things is to run a test a speed test there's a variety of different programs online that you can use for free ask the landlord for the wi-fi password and check the actual speed of the internet this is especially important if you're planning to continue working while you're in mexico because there's nothing more annoying than having to run a meeting or having to log on with co-workers and not being able to finish your job because the internet is down the good news is mexico is always improving its infrastructure and more and more towns and more and more cities are providing fast speed internet to a lot of neighborhoods numero tres the uneven sidewalks holes on sidewalks and sometimes beautiful cobblestone streets that end up being uh very dangerous and treacherous now what do i mean by this a lot of streets in mexico are very old and it's not uncommon for some sidewalks to be very uneven or sometimes have cracks in them sometimes have very large holes and if you're not watching where you're going you could end up falling in one of these holes and really hurt your ankle or foot now you're probably wondering who doesn't watch where they're going but it's actually very common for newcomers especially north of the border where everything is kind of perfect and manicured where they move to mexico they don't watch where they're going and they fall especially in very popular expat towns like ajijic and san miguel they have these beautiful cobblestone streets all over the downtown areas but if you're not wearing the right shoes like flat tennis shoes sturdy shoes sometimes even sandals can be kind of dangerous especially if it's raining so i recommend wearing the right shoes ladies san miguel and ajijic is not the place to bring your high heels now luckily in mexico there's a lot of pedestrian-only city centers or centros where they have live music bands play and usually these city centers are all flat they're not cobblestones so it's very easy to walk and not have to watch where you're going hang out eat an ice cream something like that now another thing that you have to be careful about in mexico is if you have mobility issues you should really take into consideration the city that you're moving into generally though if you have severe mobility issues mexico is probably not the country for you number four lack of safety building codes and inspections now the safety enforcement from the u.s came to mexico they probably shut the whole country down because you see a lot of things that you wouldn't normally see north of the border and that's like you know wiring on on multiple parts of the city like extreme wires all attached together sometimes exposed wires on the street which seem really dangerous and sometimes you see outlets next to a sink without a gci button that would prevent it from shocking the person now obviously newer construction is getting better about integrating some of these things into their buildings number five you cannot flush toilet paper now this isn't across the board in every single mexican home but there are a lot of mexican homes that were built a very long time ago before modern plumbing was invented and because of this flushing toilet paper is a no-no plumbing in that house doesn't have the power to like bring down the toilet paper so you might go into a restaurant or you might go into an establishment that's pretty old and has a door on the bathroom that says which translates basically to please throw your toilet paper in the trash or please don't flush your toilet paper luckily a lot of new construction again has the right plumbing has very modern equipment and this won't be an issue so we always recommend working with a very reputable realtor who will know some of these tips and tricks of your local uh community because these things can vary by city and if you want a recommendation remember we have access to our professional network of vetted and trustworthy contacts in our complete mexico relocation guide there's a link down below if you're interested in learning more number six public bathrooms are not free now this must this might come as a surprise to you if you're coming from the u.s or canada it might come as less of a surprise to you if you're moving to mexico from europe but in mexico you actually have to pay at most public bathrooms to even enter and that doesn't include toilet paper in some cases so we always recommend carrying a small travel size pack of kleenex because you never know when you're gonna need toilet paper out and about usually these bathrooms cost anywhere between two to five pesos and they usually have a gate a revolving gate where you pay an amount and then the revolving gate allows you to enter even at some places where public bathrooms are free like airport a lot of bus stations normally yes they're they're completely free but they will have an attendant there and they will have a little tray or something where you can tip them i also recommend tipping anywhere between two to five pesos number eight bribing cops in mexico if you get stopped by a cop for whatever reason the cop may try to get you to agree to a donation to avoid you getting a ticket now corruption in mexico isn't uncommon and i'm not saying that it's okay but in fact in 100 of the cases i would say demand your ticket and don't pay the bribe but i also know it can be very intimidating when law enforcement stops you they're asking for a pretty small bribe and you know it may be easy to just pay the money and then be on your way however in most cases i would say stick to your guns ask for your ticket demand that the officer do the right thing and in probably nine out of ten cases they'll let you go off with the warning number nine you can't drink the water now in mexico water isn't potable like we're used to in a lot of developed countries and for this reason a lot of people end up buying what's called agarraphon which is just like a 5 or 10 gallon jug that you can refill some people even use you know this kind of water to brush their teeth or to wash dishes which personally i think is an exaggeration but that's all personal preference and the cost of these garafones they vary but usually you can expect to pay about 300 pesos a month for drinking water number 10 mexico can be smelly at times yes friends mexico can be smelly and you know this fully depends on the neighborhood whether it recently rained or something else that might be permeating in the sewage system remember that mexico is a very old country and a lot of the planning and the sewage is very ancient so for this reason there does tend to sometimes be smells especially in the older parts of any city it also depends on how much your local neighborhood or your neighbors around you have done to pay out of their pocket to improve their sewage system so even if you are in an older part of town and it doesn't smell around you it's probably because people locally have done something about it it could also happen that you're in a newer part of town and your next door neighbor lets their dog use the bathroom right on the curb and they don't pick it up so mexico can be smelly at times now luckily sometimes those smells are very very favorable it could be tacos they could be flautas it could be pan and a bunch of other wonderful smells from the wonderful food in all the street food vendors number 11. mexico can be noisy you know latinos i think we all share this and that we like any reason to party we like to celebrate and we tend to be noisy when it comes to those things and mexico is one of those countries that you will find is noisy now everybody has different sensitivity levels to noise and i would say that if you're thinking about renting a house in mexico definitely spend some time in that neighborhood at different times of the day drive by at night drive on the weekends and just see like are my neighbors party people do they like to play really loud music until the wee hours of the night in mexico also if you live closer to the city center or the centro then you will probably get more noise than usual and that's because churches will ring their bells all festivals are typically held in the city center and you know there's also a lot of restaurants and other establishments that like to crank up the music especially on the weekends but mexico can be noisy if you're very sensitive to it and you're renting an airbnb or you're renting uh short-term accommodations i would recommend bringing earplugs with you just so that you can sleep through the night but remember this is mexico and mexico is noisy don't try to change the people number 12 english isn't widely spoken now this may be very obvious to you uh but you'd be surprised how many foreigners come to mexico and get very frustrated when the locals don't speak english now spanish is the official language of mexico and in order to thrive when you're living here i would suggest learning at least the basics and then taking it from there learning a little bit more at a time because spanish is the first language in mexico and you will need it in order for you to thrive the majority of locals in mexico will probably have gone to public schools where english isn't taught nationwide if this is a deal-breaker for you and you know that you have no interest in learning in spanish mexico might not be the country for you although there are a lot of mexicans that are fluent in english it shouldn't be expected so keep that in mind before you move to mexico you will need to learn some spanish and the final one number 13 mexico has earthquakes but actually most of the seismic activity is so small that people just sleep right through it or they drive through it and they never even notice now there are particular or very specific hot spots where this can be more noticeable and if that's something that you're very sensitive to or if that's definitely a deal breaker for you then i would recommend not moving to areas where there's a lot of seismic activity the bajillo region or anywhere like queretaro san miguel de allende guanajuato leon all that bajillo region even some parts of jalisco you probably will never feel any movement at all so with all these negatives why would anybody want to move to mexico well for many people the positives just far outweigh the negatives most people move to mexico for economic reasons they end up staying because they enjoy the weather in some parts of mexico the weather can be temperate year round you can enjoy 70 60 degree weather every day of the year and if you're a beach lover mexico has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world some people love living here because of the food you also have affordable health care you have quality rentals that are probably a third of the cost that you're paying north of the border the people the people are amazing the people really do make the difference and mexico is rated as the number one country where expats feel most at home they feel most included because mexican people really do want to get to know you they they're curious about you there's so many reasons why living in mexico is wonderful if you're working from home for a u.s company or a foreign company and you're a u.s citizen or resident you can potentially end up paying zero taxes if you take advantage of the foreign earned income exclusion and there's so many benefits i mean you have low property taxes if you buy a house so living in mexico really there are a list of benefits that truly outweigh the negatives but i would love to hear from you i would love to know if there's a particular negative that i didn't put in this list or a particular positive that's not included in the list down below and that's it those are the 13 negatives of living in mexico my name is mariana you are watching mexico relocation guide and i will see you in the next video [Music] you

Channel: Mexico Relocation Guide

Views: 408,000

Keywords: retire in mexico, living in mexico, moving to mexico, is mexico safe, safety in mexico, move to mexico, earthquakes in mexico, expats in mexico, is mexico cheap, do they speak english in mexico, digital nomads in mexico, Mexico, live in Mexico, can I live in Mexico, best places to live in Mexico, best places to retire, retire abroad, taxes in mexico, Tangerine travels, negatives of living in mexico

Id: KANB36yhHlQ

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 30 2022