Back Story

Currently I'm in Mexico City for the night. I'm on my way to my final destination somewhere in Mexico. This is a place I've gone since I was a young kid. This place isn't the glitz and glamour people imagine when going on vacation. I'm going to a small town in rural Mexico. It's big enough to have a local mom and pop stores or business such as food establishments and weekly farmers markets.

There are things to note that give me a sense of why we are so lucky to have good (relatively) infrastructure in the United States such as good plumbing, and safe water to drink, I'm looking forward to going to this vacation to appreciate living a simple life.

I want to preface that these are not complaints but situations I will simply experience and have previously experienced. There's not point trying to be negative since I know what I am going to encounter. I've done this many times.

Things I will experience

Can't drink tap water:

• I have to buy bottled water such as the five-gallon jugs and bottled water when I am out and about.
• I can't use my non-disposable water bottle until I get back to the United States.
• I have to be mindful of what I consume with water; solid or liquid.

Air Conditioning:

• Don’t get me started. TLDR; non-existent

Electricity:

• Currently there seems to be no electricity in the city. Apparently, lightning from storms and overloads took out a few transformers in the electrical grid.

Manually Starting Heating Water:

• Since the gas line infrastructure is non existent where I'm staying, we have to rely on tanks of Liquid Propane (LP) which is limited by the amount of LP in the tank and manually sparking the water heater.

• Using a portable water heater that you plug into the electricity.

• Boil the water on the stove which also uses liquid propane.

Cell Phone Service/Internet Access:

• This is the least of my worries. The tower tends to go out after a storm, when their are electrical blackouts or equipment failures . It's a 21st century nightmare but I can go without it.

Solutions to keep me up beat and safe

• Read
• Go enjoy the outdoors and take pictures on my camera.
• Take advantage of being disconnected from the online world. I always forget to enjoy life as much as I should with a phone. I will simply have an expensive paper weight.
• Learn to enjoy a cold shower
• Learn to prepare ahead of time.
• Learn to work with what I got!

Many people dread the idea to living like this for two weeks. People do this on the daily ! I know this will humble me and learn to appreciate the things I take for granted when I am back home. For now expect me to be disconnected most of the time and live in the moment.

I would love to talk more about my experience!

Off to catch a flight in the morning!

I'll post again during the next two weeks or after the two weeks!