We leapt from the UK on Thursday 29^th February 2024, and landed in Mexico City (CDMX) onto our unplanned new life path on Friday 1^st March 2024.

We have been in Mexico for two weeks.

We slipped back in to the rhythm of Mexico very quickly – it had been a year since we left and suddenly we were back in the same Colonia (Santa Maria de Ribera), with considerably more baggage yet fewer ties back home. We have returned to see if we can make a life for ourselves here.

The warm and sunny, ebb and flow of Mexico is thrilling. It feels like nothing stands still, but not in the hectic, frenetic way of New York, it is a much more natural process, it’s more like the city breathing. One street can completely transform itself depending on the time you walk down it, with shutters going up and down to reveal new ventures, or with makeshift shops out of cars or taco stands appearing on the street. The city is constantly evolving, and you really do not know what is around the next corner or the adventures awaiting behind any door. It’s also amazing how everything works and it does, 22 million people live here, and everything is really effective, not always efficient but it works, in its Mexican way. 

Mexico City is a fitting capital for this enchanting country – it feels if you open yourself up to it, thing can happen and that is how our first two weeks have unfolded. Whilst also managing to relax, catching up on much needed rest, much has happened all thanks to the magical webs of connections that everyone is exposed to when they come here.

In the two weeks we spent here, the tops notes are as follows:

• Being custodians of Twiglet, Nick Zarb’s very cute/silly toy shih tzu, for a week. Wonderful.

• Pippa meeting a Mexican designer with his own workshop, who was very impressed by her work and offered to fabricate any of her pieces and sell in his shop under her name – incredible. He also is keen to learn some traditional woodwork techniques from her to include in his own work.

• We bought a car – which is very exciting – it’s been while since either of us owned a car and a grown-up one at that. It is a Kia Soul, so has been names ‘Alma’. (Just to note our beloved Vanny is now in the loving care of Katie Mountain, a very worth proprietor – we know they will have many adventures together)

• We stayed in our friend’s, Ana + Goran’s, wonderful flat with beautiful views of the mountains of CDMX in Santa Maria. We then moved to a beautiful house, that is a work in progress by a Cuban artist a few streets down – we met him two days before he left us with the keys to his home, as he departed for the beach for a week. With the only rule is to leave a little gift to symbolise you when you leave. So generous, so Mexican.

• We may have had a look at some flats with an estate agent, just assessing our options….

• Ana went to the International Women’s Day march (#8M) – 180,000 people marched and the atmosphere was so powerful, joyous and inspiring. Everyone dressed in purple, marched along the broad avenues lined with Jacarandá trees bursting with purple flowers – the photos from above are very striking. There was a complete cross-section of society coming together to rise up against patriotism and all the nefarious attributes of it. People lined the streets with flyers showing pictures of abusers – calling them out, some with phone numbers and social media links attached – why not? This should happen everyday.

• We spoke to an immigration lawyer who says we are just in time to apply for a very simple, quick and easy to get visa – it is called the regularization program and is a hang up from COVID days – if granted it will give us a visa for 4 years. The requirements to apply for this visa, are you have to have enter Mexico between 2018-2022 (tick), you are back in the country on a tourist visa (tick), your visa is about to run out (tick – we panicked when we saw we had only been granted 20 + 30 days in our passports, but turns out that works in our favour!). So we can’t believe it, but perhaps by mid April, we may have this visa, which with a small update will also allow us to work here.

• We went to a cocktail + dinner party held by Thomasina Miers (chef founder of Wahaca restaurants). It was a hoot and we met loads of wonderful and interesting people, ex-pats and Mexicans, that live here.

• Unfortunately Pippa’s skin has not been good – the pollution and altitude of CDMX is very drying and clearly her immune system needs a complete reboot. She saw a highly recommended Naturopath and has been given a strict diet (with fasting), plus bee injections, pills, powders, oils, creams for two weeks – he swears she will heal, first internally and then this will reflect externally, we both almost cried. We will start this regime when we leave the city.

• We’ve eaten A LOT of mangoes, pineapples and avocados. Basically don’t want to eat much else.

We are now leaving the City, time to drive to the Oaxacan coast…… xxx