It’s time for the hard, honest truth. Mexico has not lived up to my expectations. It has FAR exceeded them! In a short amount of time that I have been living in Mexico, I went from a scared girl on a plane wondering what awaited me to finding contentment and settling into a place that I love.

Now, Mexico is a big country. Like any place, everything varies by region. I’ve lived towards the north and in the south and I certainly have seen differences between the two.

But now, over 5 years later, through our travels and experiences, I’d say that I’ve certainly formed a few of my own opinions over time.

Here are the top 10 reasons that I ADORE living in Mexico (and why it would be a challenge for me to return to the U.S.)!

1. The people in Mexico

Ever heard of Southern hospitality? Well, try going a little farther south than Georgia or Alabama to experience what that really means. The people of Mexico are friendly, open, and hospitable…a true breath of fresh air.

I enjoy seeing my neighbors every day. Even when we don’t have much time to talk, in one or two conversations I usually know them much better than I ever came to know any of my U.S. neighbors.

Are people just as busy? Sure they are. For most full-time positions employees in Mexico work 45-50 hours per week. But something is just different. Stopping to help someone who has a question or a problem seems to be engrained into the cultural DNA.

Ever felt like you were going to get cursed out just because you asked a simple question to the gum smacking, eye rolling person sitting at the customer service desk? You’ll experience that less living in Mexico.

2. A much lower cost of living in Mexico

If you’ve come from a more developed nation and you’re now living in Mexico, you’re going to spend less here – often way less.

We pay $174 USD (3,300 MXN pesos) for rent for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath newly constructed townhouse here in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.

Our water bill is about $8 USD (and that’s only because it just went up by a whopping 29%! Times are tough, eh?)

Electricity? Ours ranges between $13 – $21 USD per month, sometimes up to $30 USD in the winter. That’s with me home all day running the washer and dryer and other appliances. San Cristobal has mild weather so A/C is not needed. We sometimes use a space heater for a month or so during the coldest part of winter, so that’s when we see the jump.

Granted, there are some products that are more expensive here. You’ll obviously pay more for imported goods, so if you can’t live without Johnson’s smoked sausage or if your cheese must be Kraft, then that will come at a premium.

Electronics are almost always pricier in Mexico as well. But still, not even those extra costs put a significant dent in the overall reduced cost of living.

Probably the largest difference in costs are not from goods but from services. My seamstress charges me a total of about 500 pesos ($26 USD) to design and complete matching outfits for me and my 2 girls.

For housekeeping, even if you pay your housekeeper very well (and I hope you do!), the going rate for an 8-hour day is less than half of what a housekeeper in the U.S. charges per hour.

Regarding car repair, even though your auto parts likely will not be cheaper, your mechanic service will be.

You can find excellent medical care for a fraction of the price. Even if you pay out of pocket for all of your services and throw a surgery in there you likely would not pay more in a year than what your insurance premium alone costs you in the U.S.

Check out why you still need to budget, even if you live abroad.

3. The FOOD in Mexico

Folks, please think beyond Tex-Mex cuisine. Mexicans in Mexico have never even seen Taco Bell tacos or burritos with ground beef inside.

We’re talking about real Mexican food, people. Chiles rellenos, mole (MO-ley, not like the animal), tamales, enchiladas, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, pozole, caldo de res.  

And the variety is incredible! The people of every city, state, and region eat differently. If you’re living in Mexico and you really want to get all up in the culture, it really helps to learn how to cook like the locals (not just eat like them). Feast your eyes on a few of my personal kitchen creations. O.M.G.

4. My wonderful friend/domestic helper  

Having a housekeeper was nowhere within our budget in the U.S., but the cost is readily accessible when you’re living in Mexico. She’s with us M-F and also cooks and helps me with my kids while I work.

She’s been with us for 3 years. She was there when I had my second daughter and she’s always there to support us when “life” happens.

My kids adore her and we have fun on excursions together outside of work.

She’s a wonderful friend and person and we feel blessed to have her with us.

5. Being able to stay home with my kids

If you’ve been following me, you know that I have not had a job outside of my house since the day I stepped foot into Mexico. I’ve had to figure a lot of things out on my own in the work from home life. But the results have been so worth it. I can’t imagine going back to work and I hope I never have to.

I can’t put a price on being able to be there for my kids whenever they need me. Yes, they have a babysitter for a few hours per day, but I’m still home.

I’m always here to get my oldest ready for school and give her excessive hugs and kisses before daddy takes her. I’m always here to go pick her up or welcome her home when daddy brings her (once again, with a truly excessive level of hugs and kisses).

I don’t have to worry about who will watch them during school breaks and vacations.

If one of my girls is sick they can snuggle with me while I type away.

If they want to come show me what they’re drawing, painting, creating, or just tell me what they’re thinking smack in the middle of the day (yes, my 19-month-old does this too), then they can come right up to my office and tell me.

Not to mention the wonders that staying at home has done to improve my chronic anxiety. I used to cry in the mornings before going to work (for no reason at all!) I was good at my job and appreciated at work. That’s just how anxiety works. Those days are gone since living in Mexico.

6. The outdoor markets in Mexico

I remember being a bit disappointed when we first arrived to Mexico in Los Cabos and I found it to be very much like most parts of the U.S. I had always had this vision that all of Mexico had outdoor markets (and actually, most if it does).

But in Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo there were only typical, large supermarkets – convenient, but pricier, not as fresh, and…I mean, just not nearly as cute as those outdoor markets I had seen on T.V.!

So I was so very excited when we came to Chiapas, and for the first time, I saw those beautiful, colorful street markets. Here in San Cristóbal de las Casas, there are a few huge markets and then pretty much every neighborhood has its own little mercadito.

And we’re not just talking about fruits and veggies. The larger markets have separate butcher shops within them. They sell hats, clothes, handmade items, flowers. You name it!

Then there are the furniture markets. Here in San Cristobal, there is a long street of several outdoor furniture markets where you can get quality, inexpensive wood furniture, finished or unfinished. Or if you don’t find anything you like, you can have the carpenter custom make you something to order, which is kind of pretty awesome, if you ask me.

7. Year-round spring/fall weather in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico

This one is totally subjective, but I personally find the weather in San Cristobal de las Casas to be darn near perfection. It does get quite chilly in the winter time and at night sometimes, but for the most part, it’s like spring or fall all the time.

I love not sweating after 5 minutes of being outside. I love wearing jeans and a t-shirt and no jacket and feeling deliciously comfortable almost all year.

I love my Kentucky home dearly, but if you’re from there, or if you’ve visited for half a second, you are aware that the weather changes…constantly! In fact, the saying goes that if you visit Kentucky and don’t like the weather, don’t worry. Wait 10 minutes and it will change.

So you get something like snow in the spring, then a long hot summer with some freezing temps mixed in. Then the winter can either be mild and full of lots of strange critters that didn’t get a chance to die off OR it can be filled with so many ice storms that you wonder if you’ll ever get to work safely again.

I longed for those perfect spring and fall days, which seemed so few and so fleeting…and so…well, unpredictable!

San Cristobal fills that need to perfection.

8. Superior, more personalized medical care in Mexico for a FRACTION of the price

Do you have your doctor’s cell phone number? I have ALL of my doctor’s cell phone numbers and I can send them a WhatsApp message when I feel like it. Don’t hate on me. Just come to Mexico.

The medical care here is far more personalized. The doctors know and remember you and your family. Two of mine are my Facebook buddies and regularly comment on my posts.

When we go to the doctor, he or she does this weird thing that I never experienced with most U.S. doctors. They listen to us. They don’t seem annoyed by questions. They go above and beyond to answer them.

My youngest daughter was born here in Chiapas and my sessions with my OB doctor were easily 30-40 minutes each (in a top-of-the-line facility, even though they were always very busy).

My daughters’ pediatrician typically spends about 45 minutes with us.

My gastroenterologist sessions have been 30 minutes long, and that’s just because I don’t have many questions.

That whole feeling of trying to talk a mile a minute to get some very important information off your chest while your doctor is trying to walk out of the room…yeah…doesn’t happen much here.

And does the quality suffer? Not at all.

These are doctors who are just as busy. Their waiting rooms are just as full. They studied just as long and just as hard and posses just as much knowledge and experience.

But they treat you as a human, and it kind of makes you think that they became doctors to help people. Now isn’t that a welcome change of pace?

P.S. – I will mention that yes, there does exist some really shady medical care here, but that becomes really really easy to avoid after you’ve lived here for about 20 minutes. As a general rule, if you expect to pay for your medical care, you don’t live in an extremely rural area, and you don’t choose a medical “professional” who is working from his house with  a handpainted sign hanging in the front window which has “médico” spelled incorrectly, then you should be just fine. 😉

9. A simpler, less materialistic environment in Mexico

This is one of those mindsets that I really didn’t even realize I had before living in Mexico. But that life of getting what you want, whenever you want, pretty much instantly, with a few clicks…that’s just not so much a thing here as it is there.

People are a bit more patient. People are a little more open to waiting.

In the U.S., if you don’t spend money on your social life, you may not have a social life. Spending time with your friends more often than not involves going out to eat, going shopping, going to the movies. In other words…spending money.

Don’t get me wrong. I just mentioned three of my favorite things in the world to do. But I do appreciate the fact that the normal way to hang out amongst our friends here in Mexico is going over to each other’s houses or going to picnic or grill at a local park.

You realize that you just don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a good time. Regardless of if you have it or you don’t have it, I find this mindset and this environment plain healthier.

We’ve become a debt-free household and I try to teach my daughter from an early age to avoid debt, save, and be financially responsible. It’s easier for me to do that in this environment.

10. The entrepreneur spirit in Mexico

The hustle season, the self-motivation, the get up and go attitude. Whatever you want to call it, the entrepreneur spirit is alive and well in Mexico!

Everywhere you turn around, there are ladies selling tapestries in the street and tamales from their homes (FYI, a red light turned on in front of their house means they’re currently selling tamales. I just found that out recently! Pretty cool!)

There are people offering to shine your shoes. There are contractors and small businesses galore.

My husband worked for about 2 weeks for someone else when we arrived to Mexico before launching into contracting out his electrical/repair services and later establishing a small business once we moved here to Chiapas. The paperwork and process is 500 times simpler here than in the U.S.

It’s no secret that wages are low here. Even compared to the cost of living, they are still very low. That’s a big reason why so many strive to do better by doing their own thing. I give them mad props.

Back home, people will look at you like you have two heads if you dare to mention that you don’t plan go to university because you have other plans…and they’ll likely try to talk you out of it or tell you to at least go get a business degree.

I like being surrounded by people who can see alternatives a bit more clearly.

Mexico truly has something for everyone! I bet you’ll love it as much as I do.

So what about you? Have you come to visit or live in Mexico? What are some things you LOVE about it? Tell me in the comments below!

You may also be interested in the 14 things that nobody told me about Mexico (not even my Mexican husband!)

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Erica Ray

Owner/Author at Erica Ray Language

Hi! I'm Erica Ray. I'm a self-taught bilingual gal from the U.S., language teacher and coach, expat in Mexico and a former English/Spanish medical interpreter. I help Spanish learners go from struggling learners to confident Spanish speakers. My students learn to create and stick to a personalized and comprehensive study plan, practice their speaking regularly and establish powerful learning habits to finally progress toward conversational fluency.

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