Today is a historic day, not only because an African-American man was elected president last night, but also because 3 years ago today, John and I arrived in Playa del Carmen to start a new life. We intended to stay for only 6 months. Our goals were to learn Spanish, discover a new culture and gain some clarity to hopefully figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.
Three years later, and we’re still inching our way towards reaching our goals. Our Spanish is meager, allowing us to order food delivery over the phone, but often foiling our attempts to speak with our Chiapan cleaning lady. We now understand how so many Latinos in the U.S. can get by without speaking much English. We rely on our network of expat friends and English-speaking Mexican professionals more than we’d like to admit.
Culture? As any Mexican would say ‘Playa has no culture!’. Well, that’s partially true. We have no museums, no theatre, no art galleries. But that’s not what we came here for. We still struggle to understand the whys and hows of life in Mexico. But we’ve already learned so much. Like that Mayan women are not unfriendly but extremely shy and intimidated by foreigners. And that in a business transaction (anything from buying a mango to getting internet service to purchasing real estate), one should never EVER expect it to go smoothly or fairly or timely. And that living in the here and now is a good thing. Cuz when aggravation over a mango purchase hangs in your future, it’s just not worth thinking about!
We never did figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives. But that’s okay because we’re living in the here and now. John is doing software development for U.S. clients. I’m doing website development and search engine optimization (a new skill I acquired in Mexico). And we both have invested much of our time into our labor of love, a Playa del Carmen website called In The Roo. Roo is short for Quintana Roo, the name of our state, in case you were wondering. I hope to spend even more time on In The Roo in the future, combining my two loves — travel and technology.
We’ve had our share of ups and downs in Playa del Carmen. We miss Chicago terribly. Living in a Mexican beach town isn’t all about drinking tequila and lazing on the beach. But for now, life is good in Playa. We don’t know how long we’ll be here. We’re just living one day at a time.
Happy Anniversary you two! It has been a pleasure getting to know you both and to count you among our favorite people in Playa. Here’s to three more years???
Who knows? Could happen. My mom is hoping and praying and doing voodoo magic so it doesn’t happen though! Moms!
Hello Folks
I was in Playa del Carmen for about 4 hours in Oct. We rented a car and ended up there on our last day out of Cancun.
My head was spinning because 5th. Ave. looks like a place that I’ve been dreaming about…I am a caricature artist, i’ve been at it for years…this street looks like I could get a LOT of customers.
I have just applied for a FM3 working visa at the Mexican consolate in Philadelphia. They said because I work for myself it will take about 2 months…amybe mid Jan….if I get it.
Are there any other tips you can think of that would help my quest.
I would make better money on my own on the street but do you know any place that would let me work where I would pay or give a percentage to the house and be able to sirvive while waiting to get my license?
…I’m sorry to hear about the gallery absence…I also want to do some paintings from life (called plein air painting…small ones in about 3 hours)
My website has no caricature samples, if you’re curious, write me back for those….thanks for your attention to this …good luck with your langauge skills…it’s more difficult where most everyone speak English…Cheers!
David
Hello David – It’s certainly easy to fall in love with Playa, isn’t it? Getting a work visa is not so easy though. If your visa process with the local consulate doesn’t work out, I’d recommend hiring a lawyer in Playa del Carmen to pursue your visa. But before you spend all that money, you might want to live in Playa for a while to make sure it’s what you really want. Vacationing in Playa del Carmen is dreamy, but living and especially working here can be very challenging. There actually is one gallery that I had forgotten about when writing this blog entry. Jaime Fierro has a gallery on Calle Corazon. Also for lots of great information, check out our Playa del Carmen forum. Read what people are saying and ask lots of questions. Good luck to you!
John & Libby,
Belated congrats on your 3 year anniversary in Playa! My wife & I really enjoy your blog and dream about making a story like yours happen someday. We got married at the Blue Parrot on Nov 7, 2008 and are coming back this Nov for another wedding and to celebrate our 1 year anniversary! We’ve even tossed around the idea of looking at property with a real estate agent but aren’t sure how we could move without some sort of even small income. I’m particularly interested in hearing more about how you started your business from the ground up, the process you went through, contacts you made and any general advice you have. Maybe we could even meet up for beers in Nov to talk firsthand? We’ll buy if you feel like telling more stories? Let us know and keep up the good work on the blog!
Tim & Kelly