Leaving San Francisco, and leaving Pixar, was for me all about letting go of comfort zones. I always thought that it is important to challenge your own comfort zones every now and then, otherwise life can become pretty dull. Now, living in a van is a bit of an extreme way of challenging comfort zones. As Stephanie said, as much as we love the Westy, sometimes we like to have a real bed, a hot shower and consistent wifi. So every few days or weeks, we end up staying somewhere with these things. I think our comfort on this trip so far must look something like this:

I could have Patzcuaro, San Miguel de Allende and Mexico City in there, but you see the point.

In La Paz, we stayed in a cheap but nice hotel with wifi and AC, and we got to know the neighborhood vendors of tacos and aguas frescas. In Barra de Navidad, we rented this great aparment, became friends for our landlords and watched the second Obama-Romney debate online while having dinner. In Patzcuaro we slept in the van, but with showers, wifi and a great backyard for Milo. In Morelia we stayed at another cheap hotel, with safe parking for the van, I got to have breakfast in the same place for three days, and watched the election results from a bar at a posh hotel. In San Miguel de Allende and México City we found awesome hosts, who opened their homes for us and pretty much became instant best friends.

With Edith and Bill, our Thanksgiving hosts in San Miguel de Allende.


Stephanie checks on Milo, in our room in Mexico City.


With Enrique and Stephanie, having some of the best pozole we’ve had, after a great 10km walk with the dogs.

As I write this, it is our last morning in Mexico City. We spent seven nights here, made two new friends, and are now ready for a few nights of camping.

I think we’ll do the Hospitality Club / Couchsurfing thing more often from now on. The only danger is that the experiences are so great that we end up staying too long on each place!
 

By jbuhler

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