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 Entertainment | Books | August 2006 
Vacation Survival Manual in The Land of Frogs
 Doug Bower - PVNN
My wife and I, Americans living in Guanajuato, Mexico, have co-authored a brand new print and ebook titled, "Guanajuato, México - Your Expat, Study Abroad, and Vacation Survival Manual in The Land of Frogs".
We feel there is no publication available anywhere that covers the material we do with our unique first hand experience at settling in Guanajuato, Mexico. And the need for what we say in this ebook is much needed.
Long time Expat residents of the other Mexican towns are now looking to Guanajuato to move since they are being priced out of the housing marketing in towns such as San Miguel de Allende. Also the cost-of-living in those traditional American Expat Enclaves has increased making it difficult for the expat to live. The issue is that living in the city of Guanajuato is nothing like living the Gringo Landias or Gringo Gulches of San Miguel de Allende or Puerto Vallarta.
Expatriating to Guanajuato is different and unique. Unlike San Miguel de Allende or Puerto Vallarta, there is not a huge gringo community here that acts as a support buffer for "newbies". Nor is English widely spoken as it is in other areas where expats live. My wife I spell out the differences living in Guanajuato and basically offer a survival manual for the potential expat.
PART I
Chapter One: Guanajuato: Still the Real Thing
We discuss life in Guanajuato and how it compares with other areas of Mexico where expats usually live. We also discuss the downsides of living in Guanajuato.
Chapter Two: Getting Here
We talk about the different conveyances used to arrive in Guanajuato. We talk about bringing your car into Mexico, taking the bus, and flying—all methods used by various expats to arrive in Guanajuato. We warn of the bureaucratic nightmare of finding the right information you need to bring your car. We include web sites for additional information.
Chapter Three: Visa Requirements
We discuss how to get the FM3 visa and why it is better to wait until the potential expat arrives in Guanajuato to do this. We tell how to do it, where to go, why to use a service. WE INCLUDE A COPY OF THE VISA APPLICATION as well as AN INTERNET LINK TO OBTAIN A DOWNLOADABLE COPY OF THE APPLICATION FORM.
Chapter Four: Housekeeping
We teach the potential expat EVERYTHING he or she needs to know about setting up house in Guanajuato. We teach how to:
· Find Housing
· Find Water
· Find Gas
· Take care of your hot water heater
· Get your telephone
· Get connected to the Internet
· Deal with your trash
· Deal with scorpions
· Find furniture
· Deal with the issue of security
· Deal with the issue of noise
Chapter Five: Our Daily Bread: Shopping in Guanajuato
My wife teaches the reader how to shop for food, where to go, and what to expect.
Chapter Six: Making Friends
Since there are so few gringos here, I show how making friends is contingent upon learning Spanish. I talk about how to learn Spanish and refer the potential expat to sources for materials.
Chapter Seven: Odds and Ends
This chapter covers:
· Working in Guanajuato
· How to get a bank account
· Public Transportation
· Medical Care
· Laundry
Chapter Eight: Renting a House in Guanajuato!
This chapter covers the delicate issue of dealing with Mexican landlords and how culture will most definitely affect how they treat the Gringo expat. This chapter includes strategies on how to keep from getting exploited, a rental housing checklist, what exactly to expect, the rental contract, and how to survive your first six months with a Mexican landlord.
Chapter Nine: The Rent First or Buy Dilemma
This chapter is the largest and deals with the issue of why it is better to rent first and buy later. I present an argument of more than 6,000 words about why the potential expat needs to rent in Guanajuato to "test the waters" before he considers buying property. This chapter will help the expat avoid the disaster of buying a house on impulse and then having to try to unload it if the infatuation with the area wears off.
PART II Guanajuato Survival Tips
This section evolved from the many emails I get from potential Guanajuato expats who ask me questions. It is written in column style. Most of these columns have appeared in either print or online publications. These chapters will amplify many of the themes in the smaller sections in Part One.
Chapter Ten: Introduction to Survival Tips
What do you do when your heart's desire is to visit or live in an area of Mexico most Americans have never heard of ? You want to visit or live in an area where English is not widely spoken, but you do not speak Spanish. What are your options?
Chapter Eleven: Survival Tip - Water
A typical day in the life of an American expat living in Mexico will include trying to find drinking water. You might be surprised by this but everyone knows that you cannot "drink the water in Mexico". This refers to the fact that you cannot drink the tap water in Mexico. Probably every American adult already knows this. But does the typical American adult know just how one obtains drinking water in Mexico?
Chapter Twelve: Survival Tip - The Language Barrier
Let me begin this next column in the series with a generalized statement: The Spanish you learn in a classroom in the United States, Mexico, or in your own study from some impossibly expensive Spanish language tapes WILL NOT be the Spanish you hear in the streets of Mexico!
Chapter Thirteen: Survival Tip - Finding Work
Though I have written a lot on the issue of expatriation to Mexico, one of the most common questions from the "younger crowd" is, "Can I find work?".
Chapter Fourteen: Survival Tip - Communication
If you want to communicate from Mexico to anywhere else in the world, do not use the Postal Service. If it is not the worst in the world, it has to be in the top ten. I have harangued and harangued about this in countless columns and articles. The Mexican government has yet to do something about it. Are they listening?
Chapter Fifteen: Survival Tip - Transportation
Americans are so attached to their cars that it seems as though it is written into their DNA. They would never think of leaving their cars behind. The car is their source of identity. Cars define what Americans are. We talk about the problems of keeping a car in Guanajuato.
Chapter Sixteen: Survival Tip - Medical Care
All Americans seem to believe that Mexican medical care is positively prehistoric. They are sure, though they cannot tell you how they know, that all doctors in Mexico were educated at Bedrock Medical School with Fred Flintstone's uncle as their professor. We show you why you should trust the Mexican medical care system.
Chapter Seventeen: Survival Tip - Other Gringos
You would not think that mentioning how to deal with Other Gringos in an Expat Survival Guide would be necessary but after I am through you will write to thank me. It is necessary and we struggle with this issue on a daily basis.
Chapter Eighteen: Survival Tip - Credit and ATM Cards
Something too few tourists ask before coming to Guanajuato, Mexico, for a visit is, "Can I use my ATM and credit card for everything or anything?" We have seen many a display of the Ugly American Syndrome in restaurants and shops over this very issue. We make suggestions on how to deal with paying for things in Guanajuato.
Chapter Nineteen: Survival Tip - Love, Belonging, Power, and Fun
William Glasser, M.D., of Reality Therapy fame, said this,
"...I believe that we are genetically programmed to satisfy four psychological needs: love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun."
If this is true, then you need to have a plan, a huge plan, for just how you are going to be able to meet these needs if you expatriate to Mexico. If you don't, then what will happen is what we see all the time in American gringos.
Chapter Twenty: Survival Tip - Restaurants
Eating out is a source of pleasure and cheap entertainment in Mexico in general and in Guanajuato in particular. We are always asked where we recommend visitors eat. It is difficult to answer this question since there are many restaurants where four adults can eat for less than $20. We make specific recommendations.
PART III
These are articles and columns which I published in various Internet and print publications about living as an American Expat in México. They brought a lot of readers' emails from Americans and Canadians who were thinking of moving or who have expatriated to Mexico as retirees or expats. These articles were helpful to them and are included in the hope that they will be helpful to you as well.
Chapter Twenty-One: Why Americans are Linguistically Challenged
In this chapter, I give some answers about, the issue I harangue about the most: Americans need to learn Spanish if they are going to move to Mexico.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Vacationing in the Land of Frogs
I tell why Guanajuato is becoming the hot spot for American tourism and why it is attracting the expat.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Mexico and Creative Begging
In this chapter I discuss an unfortunate part of Mexican culture which can be a source of culture shock for most Americans.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Mexican Bus Riding
The cheapest and most convenient form of public transportation is the closest thing Mexico has to sheer chaos. Americans need to know this!
Chapter Twenty-Five: Crime in Mexico
This chapter sorts the facts from the fiction about the level of crime in Mexico.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Bathroom Warnings
If a Mexican woman has to go potty, she will waltz into the men's room if the women's room is not available. Women workers clean the men's room while men use the facilities!
Chapter Twenty-Seven: So You Want to Expatriate?
This was one of my columns, featured in several publications, in which I described a unique way of exploring a city or area one is considering as a new home.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: I Love Mexican Doctors
A man's point of view about going to the doctor in Mexico.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Mexican Street Walking
This chapter deals with sidewalk etiquette in Mexico.
Chapter Thirty: Paella Festival
I cover Guanajuato's annual Paella Festival and why it's important in Guanajuato.
Chapter Thirty-One: Can't Afford to Get Sick
Penned by my wife, this chapter covers the issue of cost of health care in America. We could no longer afford the cost. This is what prompted us to move to Mexico. She tells our story.
Chapter Thirty-Two: Flora and Fauna
I describe the creature in Guanajuato that is the fifth deadliest in the world.
Chapter Thirty-Three: Going Native
I explain how "going native" is the only way to reduce cost-of-living expenses in Mexico.
Chapter Thirty-Four: Haircuts, Doctors, and Things
I address common issues we take for granted in America and how to accomplish them in Mexico.
Chapter Thirty-Five: Life in a Steppe Climate
I address the climate in Guanajuato and how it may differ from the reader's hometown.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Where are the angry People?
I gladly explain the general absence of rage behavior in the Guanajuato locals.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Only True Stereotype
I talk about the horrors of the Mexican postal service.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Myth Busting
This chapter covers 11 myths that Americans hold about Mexico.
Chapters Thirty-Nine to Forty-One: San Miguel de Allende
In these chapters, I address the problem with San Miguel de Allende and the effect the American Gringo Population has had on this Mexican community. It is pertinent because there is a pervasive fear that Guanajuato will turn into "A San Miguel..." |
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