Wow! It's been a while. Welcome back guys! If you're wondering where exactly we've Been for the past week or so, both of
us were taking turns getting sick, and Then the day we decided to do a video, it rained the whole day and the day after that. And now there's a bus. This is the only bus that exists in Puerto Morelos. [Laughter] And what are we doing today? So in our last video, we were telling you why Moving to Mexico was basically the best
decision we've ever made. In today's video, it's a little bit
different. It's those, any of the reasons That we feel like we regret making this
decision. Whether that's before coming, Since coming, and now. So what are those
regrets? Probably not what you think. So the first regret on our list is not
taking every possible opportunity to learn Spanish before and after coming to
Mexico. For me, it's that despite doing 30 minutes lessons every day for almost a
year leading up to coming to Mexico, and sometimes two or three 30-minute lessons
a day, there's still so much more I could have done in the United States to prep
for coming to Mexico. Like the crazy thing is, half my family speaks fluent
Spanish. So I could have been calling any And all of my relatives, or going over to
my grandma's house, and just having conversations. They're not gonna judge me
but I let my own fear of embarrassment, Or awkwardness, or not knowing how to say
things the right way, I let that stop me from taking those opportunities to
practice. And also, sorry, what were you going to say? And that awkwardness, that's the first
big hurdle to get over. That's hard To get past, and I feel like those audio
lessons really really helped us to start speaking the language and getting used
to talking with someone. But even still, After coming here, I know I didn't take
every opportunity to learn the language. Before coming here, what was your idea?
Like did you think it was going to be easy to learn a language once you were
in Mexico and it was just going to come to you? Oh absolutely! Because people tell
you these things like "Oh yeah, just immerse yourself in the culture, immerse
yourself in the language, and you'll become fluent in no time!" As if by
osmosis you will just absorb it from everything.
From menus, street signs, people talking. But that is so so so not the case! If you
are not making a conscious effort to Look up every word you don't know, take
the opportunities to practice in Conversation with locals or people who
speak the language, and doing continued lessons, you're not gonna get... It's not... It
just doesn't come to you. Yeah, if you come To Mexico and think that just because
you're living here that you're going to Learn the language, that is absolutely
not true. Not going to happen. If you're not trying every single day and taking the opportunities you can to learn the language, that's the only way
it's ever going to happen at any reasonable speed. Yeah, and so for us,
we've taken... We've tried taking more Opportunities like: watching Netflix
shows in Spanish, watching YouTube videos in Spanish, actually pushing ourselves to
have conversations even when it's a huge train wreck! [Laughter] I'm trying to read books in
Spanish. I mean you really... Immersion Is making it everything. Even us talking
to each other in English, that kind of sets us back I think and we still
obviously do that. So... Yeah, but you know We've been here for almost a year and
we've probably learned at least 10 words Every single day. And with our vocabulary
that we had built up before coming here We probably know about 5,000 words in
Spanish right now, and we're nowhere near fluent. People who are around us who
don't speak Spanish, they think we're fluent, but we know we're no where close. I would like to
clarify one thing, I do not regret learning Spanish or continuing to learn the
language. I want to become fluent at any cost. But I do regret not doing more sooner. Our next big regret is not starting to
sell our stuff sooner and not making a plan of attack. Seriously, the most
stressful part about this whole thing for me, were those the last few months
trying to get everything finalized. Trying to get everything sold. Trying to
get my business sold, our personal possessions, and getting everything ready
to come down here. We were selling Everything on the app OfferUp. I would not do that differently, that was amazing and a lifesaver. Yeah yes, that was great. But what I would do differently is start
selling it sooner and make a plan of attack, like Okay, I'm going to list 10
items for sale every single year starting... Or every single day starting... [Laughter] Every year of my life. [Laughter] Starting a year in advance. Because I had a big storage unit full of inventory for
my business. We had a three-bedroom, two-bath house.
And we had to take everything and fit it into four suitcases. If you've never done
anything like that, you just don't Realize how difficult and how much work
it's going to be. And I will admit that This all would have been way easier if
we like just donated everything and didn't need the money to put into
savings for our travels. Uh-huh. Or we were way more flexible on
price, but we were sort of like "We need as much money as we can to put
in savings for a cushion." So we wanted to put in the extra time to
like try to achieve that. Because really, Every dollar counted for us. Just ten
bucks, that could mean a night's lodging and That's a big freaking deal for
us! Especially when starting out and not knowing any of this would turn into what it has. [Laughter] And you asked me what would I do differently about this? Honestly, nothing. And I think
that's due to my favorite book in the Whole world, which recently has blown up
and there's now a show about it on Netflix. And that's called the
life-changing magic of tidying up. And basically, it just helps you to let go of
things that are weighing you down and not bringing you joy. That's like the
huge premise of the book. I would recommend if you're gonna do something
like this to get that book, read it, or Listen to it on something like audible.
Which, we just became an affiliate of, so If you guys want to try out that book,
listen to it on audiobook, you can use Our link in the description for a free
book, and starting your trial. Or you can Continue on with a subscription after
that. You can get not just that book for free, but any book in their selection. Yeah, any book at all. The next thing on our list is something that sort of comes with traveling. You just -
There's some things you can't anticipate. Some things that you don't know you
don't know. This was one of them. I have To take these specific vitamins for a
Mercury detox protocol, and I didn't think to research how difficult or easy
it would be to get those in Mexico. You can drive them across the
border with no problem, but if you want them shipped here, I have to apply for
special like permits or something, and They're very expensive. So, if we had any
recommendation on this point, it would be: If you need something specific, and you
don't know if it exists here, find out how you can get it to yourself or stock
up before you come, because that's been One of the biggest headaches, most pain-in-the-ass Things that we've dealt with. Yeah, it really has. Just getting Vitamins that i need to take. I would
like to mention one thing here. Although We are framing this around the concept
of things that we regret about what we did before, during, or now that we're
living in Mexico. There aren't a whole Lot of things in my life that I truly
truly regret, because I kind of think It's a silly premise. Sort of like being
mad at someone and they don't know you're mad at them. It only really hurts
you. But instead, these are more things Like: If hindsight's 20/20, this is how we
would have done it differently. And I look at stuff like this as like "Oh,
that's a very valuable life lesson!" or "Okay, now that I know this, I'll do it
better the next time." Number five! Or Whatever number were actually on. [Laughter] And that is letting negative news reports get to us. After we told our family that
we were doing this, not a single day Passed that we didn't get an article
about all the bad shit happening in Mexico. We knew we were being lied to to
some extent but we didn't really know how much. Getting something sent to us
every day by our friends or family, it Sort of got under our skin a little bit.
Yeah, after a little while you're like "Well how much of this is true?" "How much are we going to worry about?" "Are there Going to be bodies in the street every few feet? A shooting every day?" Yeah, we just didn't know. A perfect illustration of this. By the time we were
in Mazatlan, we heard something. Which was Only a week into our travels. Yeah only like a week or so into our travels. Weird something outside. And it was like
on a megaphone. We didn't understand what it was. My mind, in my mind, I was like Oh
my gosh! This is the police. They're out looking for a criminal. They're saying
everybody get inside your house! No this is not a drill. So we asked our... [Laughter] This is so embarrassing! We asked our host like "Oh my gosh, what's going on? What's on the loudspeaker?" Well, you know
the like, "Refrigerators, Microwaves..." [Laughter] It was that guy. It was someone asking for your Old junk, like metal stuff that they could buy off of you. But the thing is, in the US, the Only time you ever hear someone going
around on a loudspeaker... Yeah, it's just not really common. Is if it's the Police or something saying "Stay inside,
we're looking for a criminal." Yeah, so that's what we though. But just don't Believe everything you see on the news
cuz like we probably would have been so Much more carefree and easygoing about
like trying out new things if we weren't... If there wasn't that thing in the back
of our mind like "What if this is a trap?" "What if this is really dangerous?" "What if
it's the cartels?" Like I don't know. The next thing we wish we would have done
differently, I have to give you a little Background on this. In Arizona you are
not required to have a front license plate on your car. So, we searched in a
Facebook group, asked people, and they were Like "Yes, you should get a vanity plate."
So I went and got a vanity plate. I got one from the state of Oaxaca because it
had the Mexican flag on it. Red, white, and green. I'm like "This is perfect! I'll be
super Mexican!" I put my family name on it, Salazar, and we're like "Perfect,
good to go! This is going to be great!" [Laughter] So since being in Mexico, we've gotten pulled over dozens,
dozens of times. At first (we thought) it was because of that front plate. That's not a common
thing to have a vanity plate in Mexico. In fact, it's like unheard of. You always
have two matching plates. So they're like "Why do you have a name of a Mexican
druglord on your car?" [Laughter] "Why do you have one From Oaxaca when you're all the way in
Sonora?" So we took it off. Since then though, we get pulled over all the time,
and they're asking about the placa, "Where is your front plate?" And we don't have
one, it's not necessary in Arizona. So What we would have done differently is
go to the freakin DMV and get an identical plate from the back of the
car and just put it on the front. We will do that when we go back to the US! But I
honestly don't even know if you can. I Think you can. I'm just going to tell them
we lost it. But when you when you order Your registration, you literally only get
one plate From them. So, could we just "lose it"? [Laughter] This one applies to us as
someone who started, or as people who Started a YouTube channel, and that is
not slowing down sooner. When we first came to Mexico, we were literally working
every single day, from the moment we woke Up, to the moment we went to bed. That put a lot of stress on us. And it kind of Didn't allow us to really like enjoy all
of the experiences we could have because We were just focused on working. Like we
had to make something work in order to fund our travels to keep doing this. I
would like to share that before starting this YouTube channel, I never ever ever
ever considered, ever, that it would be a Possibility to like be a YouTuber! Oh,
heck no! Me either! [Laughter] And even when we were doing This, in the beginning, I never thought
like eventually this will be a big YouTube channel. It was really, we thought
we were going to make our living from Steemit. We were going to make videos and
that would supplement our blog post on Steemit, not grow a YouTube channel. So I
think once we realized there was a little bit of a possibility to like make
YouTube the main thing, that's when we Started working our tushies off from
sunrise to sunset and to wee hours of the night. But I think there's a part of
the Mexican culture that we should have Adopt sooner, and that's working when
it's time to work, and then relaxing after that. Like turning off that work
side. So this is definitely the biggest financial regret I have from all of this,
and that would be getting a bunch of dental work done before we came to
Mexico. I had some insurance money left on my like contract that I had, that I
could use up before. So I thought, you know what, might as well use this money
or it's gonna go to waste. But I still ended up paying thousands of
dollars for dental work, even with the insurance coverage. So ultimately, looking back, I wish I had gotten it done here. It would have been
cheaper and not have that headache while we were trying to do everything else
that we were trying to do. Sell Everything, prepare, get our documents in
order, and all that. Yeah, so even despite you having insurance in the US and not
having any dental insurance here, it Still would have been dramatically
cheaper here! Much much cheaper. Something else we wish We would have anticipated, is to just not
expect everything to go as planned. Yeah I think that one might more directly
relate to me because I'm a huge planner! I used to plan everything out
super far in the future, be super organized with my schedule! Things will
happen at this time, then this time, we Will go here at this... like whatever. That's quite the personality to have for Constant travel. Yeah, no, it doesn't work out
at all. Originally, we had planned out. "We" meeting "me." I spent hours and hours
looking at "Okay, we're gonna go to this city, then this city, then this city, and
mapped the whole thing out, all the way To our dream place. The city that we
thought we were going to fall in love with: Puerto Escondido. Still haven't
been there. [Laughter] Still haven't gone to that place. I mean, I literally thought it was going to be
like this very structured, boom, boom, boom, Go to these places, spend a few days in
each one. And, I mean, travel just Doesn't go like that. So I wish I'd
gotten that out of my head before Traveling, and I think a lot of
situations would have been less stressful. Because it's just like, it's
never ever going to go the way that you Want it to, or the way it's supposed
to go. It's gonna go the way it's gonna go. And a lot of times that means shit
happens. But other times, it means "Hey, you love this place, and you thought you were
going to go right on to the next place!" For us, that was Guadalajara. Yeah, we were told three days, that's all you'll need there. And then we're like "What? What the hell are you talking about?" It's huge! It's a huge city and we loved it! We ended up spending four months there. If I had to say something on this,
It's: You will find freedom and happiness when
you don't expect things are gonna go a Certain way. And you just let them go the
way that they're gonna go. And be open to The idea that even if it doesn't go the
way you think it should, it can still be Good, or better, or just okay. Another
thing we would have done differently is Not only knowing what paperwork we
needed to get, but knowing exactly when We were going to get it. For example, we
knew we had to get Mexican car insurance, But we didn't actually buy until we were
literally on the road the day we were Going to cross into Mexico. In fairness, we thought That it would be
okay to just buy it for a few days and then, Yeah. Like once we got our bearings in
Mexico, find whatever the cheapest or Best coverage. But then on the way to the
border, we stopped into a place that sold it. And it turns out, three days of
insurance was like a hundred bucks. And you can get a year's worth of insurance
for 450. And then, we knew we had to get a Temporary import permit for our car and
we had to get visas. With the Frustrations that we had crossing the
border into Mexico, We ended up forgetting about it, and we
drove a while, and then had to turn around. We almost had to turn back to the border when we were in Guaymas. Thankfully there's an office. A Banjercito (to get the Temporary Vehicle Import Permit0 So the lesson... Yeah. The lesson from
this is just know exactly where those Offices are located before coming here, at whatever border crossing you're at. And I will also say that at the end, it
was so... Like some stuff was so confusing And overwhelming, and we just had so many things... At the end of what? At the end of like right Before we came to Mexico. We were about
to cross the border. So much stuff was High on our priority list, that it was like
overwhelming to deal with it all. And We were sorta just like putting out
fires. Like okay, insurance is now the Number one priority. Okay, getting our
visas are now the number one priority. So As much planning as we did, there was
just stuff that, like, it came up. Along the way, we're hoping to help you
guys. Our mistakes are your benefits through these videos! [Laughter] Next thing on our list that we probably should have done differently, is after we were so stressed
out getting everything finished and ready to go into the country,
was just spending a few nights in each place. And that, I mean that rule still
applies to now. I think it's super Exhausting to spend days or long
hours of driving, and then just stay for a night somewhere. We found that it's
much better and preferable to spend at least a week for the exhaustion factor.
And also, you end up saving a lot more Money that way with, for instance, weekly
discounts on Airbnb. And by the way, if You're new to Airbnb, please use our link
that we're gonna put in the description, So you can get $40, or the equivalent and
your currency, off your first stay. If I Were to do this over again, I would try
to make a good online friend or two who Already lives in Mexico before coming. Because the day you arrive, and even before, you're going to have a ton of
questions, and you're not going to know how to do anything. Whether that's like
ordering gas, or water. Just make a friend, it'll make your life easier! (Maddie talking in an announcer voice) Would
the owner of a tangerine CrossFox Please come get your car out of Puerto Morelos. There's only room for one tangerine vehicle in this town. Something
that totally goes along with staying in places for more than a few nights at a
time, is something that personally bothers me a lot about traveling. Or
maybe like the one thing that I sort of circle back to a lot of times. And that's
not having a place to really call home. Like a comfortable place to go back to.
Because, for me, I'm kind of a homebody, naturally. And I like having my
own space to retreat to if like everything in the day goes wrong, I just
have a bad day where I'm sick or something. I find myself, throughout our
travels, a lot of times being like "I just wish I could go home!" But we don't
have a home. We don't have a home back in the U.S. We don't have any home in
Mexico really. If there's something we Could do differently, it is just staying
in places longer to have that home. There's Kind of a problem here though. If you
have a limited budget, it's a lot more expensive to have a home and travel. Mmm-hmm. Yeah, so there's pros and cons to it. I mean Obviously not paying for double rent is
nice. So we're just paying for wherever we are at the time. But that
does mean we don't have anywhere to like nest. And feel that homey vibe. [Laughter] But that is what we're trying to change now. Mmm-hmm. In Puerto Morelos. Yeah, Having a home base, for once! And that's what we're going to try to do here in Puerto Morelos. We'll be here, we have a place
here for at least three months, probably longer. We don't plan to stay here the
entire time. We will take trips but have this to call our home. Within like three
hours or so, we can go... Three hours or less, we can go to Cancun, Playa del
Carmen, Mérida Valladolid, like Mahahual, Bacalar, Holbox.
Yeah! The Yucatan Peninsula is not very wide,
so there's a plethora of places that we Can go to while having that nice
homey home that I've been missing for so long. [Laughter] If you haven't traveled, like
consistently, before. I had never done this in my life. Me Either. But after a while of
constant travel, you realize there's a lot of things that's really nice about
having a home. Because when you're traveling somewhere, all of these
decisions that... Or all these things in your life that were just, you didn't have
to make any decisions before. It was just Sort of like routine, normal things. Every routine thing becomes a decision. It becomes a problem to solve if you're in a new place. Which is like exhausting after a while! Like not Knowing where the closest grocery store
is, or where you can do your laundry, or Where you can pick up, I mean like, when
we got... Us both being sick, I didn't know where we could go buy bags of herbal tea, just little things like that. Last Thing on this point. I have to say I kind
of knew going into this that since I'm a homebody, since I'm pretty much an
introvert, or an ambivert. I'm sometimes extroverted but most of the time I
resort to my introverted ways, I knew this was going to be a challenge. Like
really pushing myself, but I do think That builds up. Like about every three
months I get to the point where I like need that again or I'm completely
miserable. So for others who might be like me, that's something you have to
really consider. Because I don't think There's really a solution for someone
who's a homebody and like needs that Concreteness, other than actually having a home somewhere. Yeah. For this next one, we have to lay a Little bit of groundwork. So, before
coming to Mexico, I anticipated being Able to work remotely with my old
company. It didn't end up working out like that And for Jordan, his business
was completely inventory based, so there Would be absolutely no way to bring all
of that with us. Nor did I want to. I hated it! I hated that business so much
and I wanted out. Yeah, truth be told I'm So so glad that I'm not still working at
that old company! I'm much happier now. And then the other part of this is, in a
relationship, I think there's various Steps and stages where you really find
out if you're meant for that person. And The very first thing is just spending a
certain amount of time with the person. After like a few weeks, months, or even
years, you might find out, "Hey, you know what, we just aren't right for each other."
And then the next step is moving in together. That's often something
that's challenging, You find out little quirky things like how clean they are or whatever it is. Yeah. Often leads to relationship struggles
and you really find out the strength of it. And then something else that
challenges relationships is travel. You Really see another side of them
sometimes. Like you notice... And for friendships too. I've lost a ton of friends
after big trips (As in, I stopped being friends with them) Because you find out What people are really like when they're
under pressure, when things don't go How they expect. Imagine
that, they don't go how they expect! Who would've thought? Money Issues a lot of times. Like who pays for
what, And splitting stuff up, (and people not paying you back). So travel, For any relationship, even families too, it
just like really brings stuff out of the Cracks that nothing else can. But
where we're getting with this, is another level of that relationship challenges, Is starting a business together. So we're Literally doing all of these things at
once. We're traveling together, we're Starting a business together, we're
living together. We're trapped in a car together! [Laughter] Yeah, watching our videos, you may not
realize this... Having a YouTube channel Very much is a business. We have
to treat it like that. It's our livelihood. It's how we continue doing
the things we're doing. The regret, or Looking back, something that we would
have wanted to address or do differently Is just us being in business together. How we approach that. And I think we didn't
really think of this because it just Happened just so gradually. Mmm-Hmm. We could have
done our own thing online. We could have Each had a YouTube channel. Made our own videos. Or like done, I could have done content writing online Or you know different things. But it just
happened to be that we started this YouTube channel, and then it went
somewhere, and so that became a serious Venture for us. And we're both
all-in kind of people. Like if I'm gonna do something, I'm going to do it to the
max. Like try to do it the best as Possible, and I think you're like that as
well. So how would we do that any differently? Maybe some other solution is
learning how to separate the business from everything else. And maybe just
making time for us, where there's no camera, or no responding to comments. But, I mean, this is just something like a life thing too. Whether it's travel
or not, I think that's like a really good life lesson that we figured out. First
of all, thank goodness we have such a good relationship. It's strong, it's held
up through all and any conflict that's Come up because of this. I'm so happy for
that! [Laughter] Where was I going with that? I have no idea. I got distracted by the kiss. [Laughter] But, oh yeah, Just good life lesson to
know. If you're planning on making a business with your significant other, it
can put a pretty big strain on the relationship, so it's got to be a strong
one! And like we told you in the beginning, we sold everything we owned
except for what fit into four suitcases, and all the Crevices of our very tinis. Tinis? Tinis. [Laughter] Oh gosh! [Laughter] Tiny Prius C. Tinus Seey Pree. [Laughter] That's such a gross word that I just made up! [Laughter] Well there's some
stuff. [Laughter] [Laughter] Oh my gosh, who knew that I was so funny? Wow! There's some stuff that we brought that turned out to Be sort of like a waste of space or a
hassle. We made a whole video about that and we'll link to it right here. Our
final and biggest regret is not doing this sooner. We've said this to each
other so many times. And I think I personally let every reason in the book
deter me from wanting to do this. Jordan Was on board with the idea long before
he convinced me to do it. But I was thinking, What are we gonna do for money?What if we don't like it? What if it's dangerous? What if it's scary? What if we
can't learn the language? What if, what if, What if, what if, what if! So many of
those, I wish we just... I wish I just told those voices shut the f@#$ up, [Laughter] and then we Had just done it. And even if that meant no business came out of it. We just had to
use all of our savings to do it, I think it still would be completely worth it!
And I wish we would have done it sooner! It has just been such a fulfilling life.
And travel in general, I mean, I don't Think there's anything quite like it
to open your mind up to things that you don't even know that you don't know. I
always go back to that pie graph. It's Stuff that I know, then there's a sliver
stuff I know I don't know. Oh yeah! And then The rest of it is stuff I don't know I
don't know. [Laughter] And the more we travel, the more I find that to be true. We're
learning so much every day. About people, Food, culture, language, the world. But then the more we learn, the more I'm like, "Wow, I have no idea about so much stuff." It's
humbling and unparalleled. So I do wish we had done this sooner, that's my regret. So if we can give any advice out of this. If you have anything inside
of you that's like "Man, I really wish I could do that, I really want to do that."
Do it. Don't let stuff hold you back. Con't let that voice inside your head
tell you not to do it. We think it's worth it. [Laughter] Thanks for the kisses! [Laughter] Thank you guys for
watching this video today! If you can think Of someone who might like it too, please
share with them on Facebook, or WhatsApp, Wherever you share it. Give this video
the old thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and Subscribe to our channel if you would. If
you haven't already! And one last thing! GONG THAT BELL! And you will be notified The next time we post a new video! And we hope to see you there!
