Choosing The Fear Of Regret Over The Fear Of Change

They sold their starter home, got rid of nearly everything, and pointed their lives toward Mexico with a dog and a whole lot of unknowns. Chris and Deanna Hahn join us from San Miguel de Allende just one month after making the move from the Los Angeles area, and they share what the jump actually feels like when the spreadsheets end and real life begins. 
 
We talk about what first opened their eyes to living abroad, why they chose adventure over waiting for the “perfect” retirement timeline, and how family dynamics shift when your kids are grown but still close to home. They walk us through downsizing without a storage unit, selling cars, choosing whether they really need a vehicle in Mexico, and what it’s like to build a new rhythm in a city where walking, markets, music, and chance conversations can turn an ordinary day into something memorable. 
 
We also get practical about the questions everyone asks when you say you’re moving to Mexico: healthcare and safety. Chris and Deanna share what they’re learning about insurance before Medicare, private medical care, pharmacy access, and why they feel safe walking at night in San Miguel. Along the way, we dig into culture shock in both directions, the slower pace at restaurants, the joy of speaking even imperfect Spanish, and the mindset shift that makes this lifestyle sustainable: letting the fear of regret outweigh the fear of change, because nothing is forever and you can always pivot. 
 
If you’re researching expat life in Mexico, retiring abroad, digital nomad logistics, or the real cost of living and daily routines in San Miguel de Allende, this conversation will help you picture your next step. Subscribe for more stories like this, share the episode with someone planning a big move, and leave a quick review so more future roamers can find us.

Download full-color PDFs of my book at prices below Amazon paperbacks. Visit my store at https://shop.jimsantosbooks.com 

Subscribe to our Mailing List

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2292506/supporters/new
http://jimsantos.net
https://www.instagram.com/jimsantosblog
https://www.youtube.com/@jimsantos508
jim@jimsantosbooks.com

"Wherever We May Roam: Finding Your Travel Style" - On Amazon

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Hook And Travel-Style Mindset

Jim 0:00

Ever feel like selling everything and moving to another country? Let's hear from a couple who did exactly that. Welcome to Wherever We May Roam, the new face of Travels with Jim and Rita. This podcast is about discovering your own travel style to explore the world. I'm Jim Santos, and along with my wife Rita, we've spent more than 16 years traveling. Sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes a whole lot longer. And what we've learned is this there's no right or wrong way to travel. Some people take extended getaways, some roam part-time, some work from the road, and some make travel a full-time lifestyle. This podcast is about helping you figure out what works for you and how to make it happen in the real world. So whether you're planning your next trip or thinking about something bigger, we're glad you're here. Let's get started. Welcome everybody to Whe

Jim 1:01

rever We May Roam. I'm Jim Santos alongside my lovely wife and travel companion Rita, and today we're happy to catch up with a couple we met at an international living conference in Portland, Oregon, not quite a year ago. They were gathering information and preparing for a big change in their lives, moving to Mexico. Since then, they've followed through on their plans, and they joined us today from their new home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Chris, Deanna, welcome to wherever we may roam. Thank you for having us. Yeah, it's great to catch up with you guys.

Deanna 1:32

Yeah, we're excited to hear about all of it. That introduction kind of made my heart flutter. I bet.

Rita 1:39

Yeah.

Deanna 1:40

Yeah.

Jim 1:41

Who's he talking about?

Deanna 1:42

Yeah. That's not us, is it? My God, it is.

The Moment Moving Abroad Became Real

Jim 1:48

Well, take us back a few years. Let's get some background. You were living in the LA region, right?

Deanna 1:53

Yes.

Jim 1:54

When did you first begin to think about moving abroad?

Deanna 1:58

Well, my brother and his husband opened our eyes to it. They they did the same thing when they were our age. Right. Todd and Damond. They're friends of ours.

Jim 2:09

They've been on the show before.

Deanna 2:11

Yes, yes. And I never we never knew that was a thing.

Rita 2:15

Yeah.

Deanna 2:17

They told us they were doing that. And they were 54 at the time, and that's our age right now. Oh, okay. We're both 54. And we thought that's great for them. You know, they don't have kids, and they could uh they could have that luxury of just doing that because we at the time had two kids at home.

Rita 2:35

Yeah.

Deanna 2:35

And then just over the years, we just kind of watched them live this amazing life. And we made it we made a few trips to visit them, and we're like, oh my gosh, maybe this is a possibility for us someday.

Rita 2:48

Now, had you traveled a lot before this?

Chris 2:52

No. Okay. Okay. We haven't traveled really at all in our lives.

Deanna 2:58

A little bit here and there.

Chris 2:59

You know, little little short vacations.

Rita 3:02

A few cruises, like most families with kids.

Chris 3:07

Yeah, yeah. We get to Disney World and we've been to Cabo San Lucas and you know, various points in in Baja, California. Yeah, we're we're not well traveled. So this is kind of a wild, wild thing for us. I feel like this is the time in our lives to to travel.

Jim 3:25

Well, living in the Los Angeles region, you were at least exposed to a lot of Hispanic culture. Uh, do either of you speak any Spanish?

Deanna 3:33

I speak a little bit. I I'm not fluent by any means, but I worked with a lot of Spanish-speaking patients. So I know like basic Spanish, but mostly revolving around food because I'm a dietitian, so that was most of my conversation. So it's it's a little bit limited here with what I knew how to say to patients. Right.

Chris 3:54

Except most of what we do here is eat, so it's one right.

Rita 3:57

Yeah.

Jim 3:58

I was gonna say you must really be enjoying the uh different kinds of foods that are available there. The food here is out of control. And the freshness for the local mercados.

Rita 4:06

Yeah, we spent a month in San Miguel two years ago.

Jim 4:10

Yeah, a couple years ago. When we tried our hand at roaming, when we sold our house that's right, and set out. We spent a week in at the beach first in Mexico.

Rita 4:19

Right.

Jim 4:20

And then we spent a month in San Miguel de Allende, and actually we almost bought a house there.

Chris 4:26

We almost did. I wow that that's what happened. People come here and they do crazy things like move here, buy houses here.

Rita 4:33

Right. Well, we did that in Ecuador. We went on vacation to Ecuador and bought a house.

Jim 4:41

Yeah, but we we went to look at places too. We did. Yeah, we contacted realtors and all that.

Rita 4:46

Yeah, we did. We did, yeah.

Kids Family Reactions And Empty Nesting

Jim 4:48

How did your uh family and friends how'd they react when you said that you were thinking about doing this?

Chris 4:53

The I think the good thing for us was everyone had all of our friends and family had known that Todd and Damone had been doing this for a long time. Okay. So it it it kind of softened the blow for us, I think. But still people were surprised, I think, because we still have a son who's in college and at home at the time. And living with us, you know, at home. And so we've we've sort of made him homeless, kind of a little bit. Um we we set him up with a dorm room, and I feel like that's fine.

Deanna 5:28

Yeah, he has shelter, yeah, yeah.

Chris 5:31

Uh-huh. But he he was supportive of us doing it, probably thinking that we wouldn't have had the actual nerve to go through with it so fast. But now that we actually did it, he's excited for us and and having his own adventure, you know, yeah being at home. So it's it's sort of been fun for the whole family.

Jim 5:52

Oh, imagine it'd be coming down to a visit.

Rita 5:54

Oh yeah.

Chris 5:54

Yeah, yeah.

Rita 5:56

Yeah.

Deanna 5:57

And it it's it's been an easy way or uh easy way to enter empty nesting because we're off on our own vacation adventures. And you know, it doesn't really feel like an empty nesting right now. It just feels like just a whole new adventure.

Rita 6:14

It's a new chapter, right?

Deanna 6:15

That's fine. Yeah, it's a new chapter for everyone.

Rita 6:17

I think we saw more of our kids when we lived in Ecuador than we did when we lived in the States.

Jim 6:23

Well, there was more quality time.

Rita 6:25

Yeah.

Jim 6:26

Um, you know, if when you visit them in the States, they're off with their friends, they're going to, you know, school events, right? They've got their own activities and everything. So you kind of see them, it's kind of hit and miss.

Rita 6:36

Right.

Jim 6:37

But you know, if they come to see you in Mexico, you got them, right?

Rita 6:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're they're tucked in. And it's and it's great fun.

Chris 6:47

We spent the last two years living with our son at home while he was going to junior college. And I was working from home, but you know, I was working, he was working, Deanna was working, he had a he has a girlfriend. So we we lived together, but we didn't really spend a lot of time together. And so now that we're here, he's coming down in the the end of August and and spending a few weeks, and and like that's gonna be such a fun uh time that that's just gonna be different if we hadn't made this big change.

Rita 7:19

Is that is he your only child?

Chris 7:21

We have a daughter who's 23, and she graduated last year and moved to Illinois.

Rita 7:26

Oh, okay. Okay.

Chris 7:28

So we have we have to visit her anyway. We have to fly to visit her, so might as well be from somewhere fun for us.

Jim 7:35

Might as well be from Corretero.

Rita 7:36

Yeah.

Downsizing Selling Everything And Going Light

Jim 7:40

Now, you know, we've been through that process, uh, like we said, of selling our home, giving things away when we are trying full-time roaming ourselves. What was it like for you going through that process? Did it feel odd to be giving up all your worldly possessions?

Deanna 7:55

It it did at first when we were last year, we really started thinking seriously about doing it in this year in 2026. And I looked through, like I looked at all of our possessions, I thought, how is this even gonna happen? We have to get rid of all of our stuff and sell our house. It just almost seemed impossible to do. But we started chipping away at it last year, and it took us um a good nine months to really get everything out of our garage. Yeah. And it was hard at first, but it's just stuff, you know. At first it was hard, but then you really think like how how often do we look at this stuff in the garage? Like if if if getting rid of this is what it takes to go have some adventures, I think that's a pretty good trade-off.

Rita 8:45

So no storage, nothing left at home.

Chris 8:48

No store. We sold the house, all the furnishings inside, and the cars, and we brought clothes and a dog with us. So you flew down with we we rented a car to get here so that we could because even though we got rid of so many clothes over the last year, you still have a lot of clothes left, and we brought way too many clothes, but having the dog and the clothes, we thought driving here will be the best way to get here.

Rita 9:15

Now, why did did you think about keeping a car?

Chris 9:18

We didn't really.

Deanna 9:20

We we toyed with it a little bit. Oh, yeah. Um, we toyed because I thought most people say you don't need a car here, you walk everywhere. But then we also met a few people that had cars and said it's great to have a car here. So right, but then at the end, we didn't really want to hassle with it.

Rita 9:36

Yeah, yeah, you know, I think I think I would have been more content in Ecuador if we would have well, we couldn't you then you could not port in car. You weren't allowed to do that. But and we did think about buying one. Occasionally it would cross our minds, and we never did, but I think I would have been more content if I if we had.

Jim 10:43

Well, the problem was when it's 25 cents to get to the grocery store and two dollars to get a cab back.

Chris 10:49

Yeah, it's true. You have to do a lot of those trips to make up for for a car.

Deanna 10:54

Absolutely.

Chris 10:55

But we haven't explored it yet. The bus system is really easy here, and cabs and Ubers are inexpensive. And in San Miguel, almost everything is is walkable, really. That's right.

Rita 11:07

It is.

Chris 11:08

There's there's times where where we've thought, oh, maybe it would be nice to have a car today to go do this, but I feel like not so much at a level where we regret not bringing a car.

Rita 11:20

Well, I don't think I did till maybe after five years. Right.

Chris 11:24

And you know, we may want a car at some point. Uh, you know, if we were to stay in San Miguel, I think at some point we would want a car so that we could do just more exploring of Mexico easily. I I feel like we don't need to explore San Miguel in our own car as much. Um, it's so easy to, or you you know, you have friends have cars, you can go with them. Yeah, it's really easy to find, you know, there's lots of great drivers around. Um so it is easy to get around it in this in this area. So I feel right to sort of at least start without having a car.

Rita 11:56

Yeah, and we did rent cars to travel.

Jim 11:59

Yeah, we've got our local Ecuador driver's licenses and would rent a car if we wanted to travel and explore. And we did. We explored Ecuador like that by car. Oh, like but uh skip back to that move down there. That's still quite a drive, LA to San Miguel. Yeah, that must have taken me.

Chris 12:16

Like four days or something. Four days, I think.

Jim 12:18

Oh did you

The Move South And The Planning Sprint

Jim 12:19

go through Mexico City or around Mexico City on the way?

Chris 12:23

We we didn't hit Mexico City along the way. We went from I think from Laredo through Monterey and then to San Miguel, basically.

Rita 12:32

Did you have to find lodging that could secure your vehicle?

Chris 12:37

We so we rented a car in LA and drove our stuff to Laredo, Texas. And then in Laredo, we had a transportation company pick us up and drove us from Laredo to San Miguel. And that was a 10-hour drive. So they picked us up at six in the morning and they promised they'd have us in San Miguel by dinner. And and they they delivered on that promise. Yeah, it was great.

Jim 13:00

Yeah, I was wondering how the rental company would like that if you rented a car in LA and dropped it off in San Miguel.

Chris 13:05

Yeah, yeah, we did uh it's probably not it was hard enough to find a rental place that would let us rent a car in Los Angeles and drop it off in Laredo. So we thought best to you know best to find someone who could just take us that last Mexican leg of the trip.

Jim 13:21

Right. What was there any point when you questioned your decisions?

Deanna 13:25

I I don't, I mean, I think since we we went into full gear planning since last July, I would say.

Chris 13:33

Yeah, a year ago.

Deanna 13:34

A year ago we made this happen. We didn't question it, but there was times like we was we would talk about it incessantly every single day. That was our main conversation, and it was so fun. But it was like, are we really doing this? Like, who does this? Well, a lot of people do it, but yeah, and in our little in our little town of Valencia, we didn't know anyone that has ever done that. Yeah, it was super exciting. We never questioned it, but it was such a scare, it was a scary move.

Chris 14:05

Yeah, yeah, but it was kind of like a game for us, yeah, you know, like getting our residency, going to the international living conference, selling the house, getting rid of our stuff. It all seemed like checking things off on a list to solve a puzzle, right? And then I remember once we were getting kind of actually close, like the house had sold and we were in escrow, and it was actually getting closer. We thought, what are we gonna do when we get to Mexico? There's nothing left for us to do. Like, because we've spent a whole year with checklists and spreadsheets and all these things that we needed to do. Like, once we get here, because neither one of us are we're in our 50s and we're not good, we don't like to relax.

Rita 14:48

I get it.

Chris 14:49

We don't like to sit and read a book for all day or sit by the beach or anything. So we were kind of nervous not having anything to do here. Right.

Rita 14:57

Now, did you purchase or rent?

Chris 14:59

We're gonna rent for a year. So we found uh we signed a year lease once we got here.

Deanna 15:04

Okay.

Jim 15:05

Are you going to go for citizenship or just uh get the residency?

Deanna 15:08

I think just permanent residency at this point.

Jim 15:12

Uh notice Mexico just instituted free universal health care as a residence. Do you have access to that too?

Chris 15:18

Healthcare is probably one of the last things that we've worked to solve in moving here. Uh probably not the most helpful way to do it. But uh, I do believe that we can as temporary residents, uh, you know, in in certain situations, you know, if but healthcare is something because we're not on Medicare yet, and I'm still working, I'm a digital nomad, you know, so we've got our insurance at home. Right. But you know, we've we've had so we've met so many people here who talk about even just paying privately for healthcare here in Mexico is reasonable and easy to access and easy to navigate, and the care is so good, and doctors tend to spend so much time with you compared to back in the States.

Jim 16:09

Yeah, we'd have had to see an eye doctor while we were in San Miguel.

Rita 16:12

Yeah.

Jim 16:13

And uh Totten Damon recommended one, and remember it was no problem at all.

Chris 16:17

Yeah, we're hearing so many stories about people who just, you know, anything from colonoscopies to dental surgery, still it.

Deanna 16:24

And it's been on it, it's been on my list of things to do is to establish care with a physician.

Rita 16:29

Yeah.

Deanna 16:29

I read that if something, you know, like you don't feel good, you have strep throat, whatever it may be, you just message your physician directly.

Jim 16:39

A WhatsApp.

Deanna 16:40

Or go to a pharmacy. And isn't that amazing? And then you could get care right away. Yeah.

Rita 16:45

We used to just go to a pharma. Well, I did in Mexico. What did we do in San Miguel? We just went to the pharmacy. We didn't even have a physician.

Jim 16:53

Yeah, and in Panama's Panama as well.

Chris 16:55

Physicians at the pharmacy you can consult.

Jim 16:57

Yeah, just go and tell them what what you've got and they'll sell you like two or three bills. And yeah, it's actually easy to access.

Rita 17:03

It is. We've actually done that all over Europe too. Gone to a pharmacy and said, Hey, I need this. Do you do you have a similar product or whatever? And they hooked us up.

Jim 17:14

Yeah, last year when we were in England, Rita was had like almost pneumonia. But the doctor visits were all free.

Rita 17:21

Yeah.

Jim 17:22

The medication they prescribed was all free. She got a lung x-ray and that there was no charge for that.

Rita 17:27

No. Yeah.

Jim 17:28

Speaking of that, was there anything about the current political and economic situation in the US that that drove your decision early on, or was it just completely for the adventure?

Food Costs And The New Daily Rhythm

Chris 17:38

It was for the adventure. I think politics never entered our mind as a reason. It it's it's maybe a more of a happy accident that it's a fun time to remove ourselves from the daily, you know, situation in the United States.

Jim 17:52

But still the cost of living in Southern California compared to the cost of living in San Miguel must have must have given you the bins.

Rita 18:00

Yeah. Right.

Chris 18:03

Well, San Miguel is is not the world's cheapest town in the world. It is. There's a a little bit of sticker shock. I it I wouldn't say that finances weren't the only reason to move to Mexico either, certainly. You know, uh we couldn't just move somewhere because it's less expensive than where we're currently living, you know.

Rita 18:26

Right.

Chris 18:26

But I think I think you know, watching Todd and Damone just having an amazing life here was right the number one reason. And then other things become fun things that go along with it, you know, like you know, maybe not living in the United States at the moment, or yeah, maybe maybe there's a better deal on certain things, but we are finding we are finding a lot of things cost similar.

Jim 18:50

Yeah, I think at the grocery stores, it was pretty similar, but not in the mercato market. But yeah, going to the mercato or oh yeah. Have you been to the Tuesday market yet? Um yes, yes, so much fun.

Rita 19:01

Oh, it's hilarious, isn't it?

Deanna 19:04

Yes, Tuesday market. We ordered some meat at a carnoisseria last week, and that was fun. We managed to get through that.

Chris 19:13

Yeah, we we needed specific pork for a recipe we were cooking, and Deanna went into this total carnoisseria. Oh, yeah, you know, with with with a a vendor who you know spoke no English as she shouldn't need to. And Deanna just full on ex asked for exactly what she. It was so fun to watch. Yeah, to get it. And then also they were they had just made chicharrones, you know, like totally fresh out of the out of the oil. And Deanna was chatting with her, like, oh, I think we need some of those as well. We got a handful of those. Like that was that's the fun part of being in Mexico, you know.

Deanna 19:49

I find just walking to the grocery store, which is about a 15-minute walk from our place, it feels like an adventure. Um just not walking to the grocery store, but I'm passing them so many different things.

Rita 20:01

Yeah.

Deanna 20:02

That oh, I've never seen that restaurant before. You know, there's so many different things to spot. Makes up fun.

Jim 20:10

You know, during our uh full-time period, there was a time once sitting at a I think it was a little Mexican restaurant in in Riga, guy went walking by wearing medieval armor with a sword. And I had one of those moments when it was like, what the heck am I doing? I how did I get here?

Rita 20:28

Oh my god.

Jim 20:29

Has has that hit you yet? Have you had these moments where you you look around, just can't believe where you are?

Deanna 20:34

Yes. All the time, all the time. Because back home, we knew what our week was our week and month was gonna look like. Exactly. We knew.

Rita 20:45

Yes.

Deanna 20:46

The the day-to-day, the the routine, right? It was very structured. And here, since we've only been here a month now, but just during the week, sometimes we'll go listen to music on a random Wednesday night. And like sometimes I'm just sitting there listening to this music and looking at Chris and thinking, look at look at our lives right now. Like this is so different than what we used to live.

Jim 21:10

Oh, I think just the month we were there, there were four or five festivals and parades.

Deanna 21:18

Nothing about our lives are the same. Everything is different and it's so fun. It's so fun and different feeling. Yeah.

Rita 21:26

You know, we actually had culture shock going to when we lived in Ecuador, but when we came back, it was culture shock as well. Yes, I can see that it was absolutely scary when we went into restaurants and saw the amount of food that would be heaped on these people's plates. I said, Jim, I don't think I can eat in here. I'm nauseous just looking at this. Because it's so healthy and farmed a table and and all of these wonderful.

Jim 21:59

And in the States when they uh bring you the bill along with the entree.

Rita 22:03

Yeah, yeah.

Jim 22:04

How rude. No one chases you out of a restaurant in most of the countries.

Chris 22:10

Yeah, and the the I feel like that's our one American thing that we're still wrestling with, you know, because in the United States it's it is customary, right? Like they bring the bill soon after you're done eating, you know. You pay and leave, and then you know you can leave whenever you want. And here it's very rude for them to bring a check before you ask for it. Yeah. And so, you know, sometimes you're sitting there like an American saying, Okay, I finished my meal.

Deanna 22:36

Where are 30 minutes later?

Chris 22:38

They really leave you alone because that's the polite, that's the cultural thing here. So You have to just relax and say, you know what, we don't need to go anywhere after this. And we're just sitting and relaxing.

Jim 22:50

Well, you've got a big advantage there too with Todd and Damon having been in the area for so long. I'm sure they've introduced you to all kinds of people.

Chris 22:57

Yeah. Uh to restaurants and activities and people. We really were have a built-in support system. For sure.

Rita 23:06

And you know, that's what we said when we were almost buying that house.

Jim 23:10

Yeah, this would be a pretty easy transition.

Rita 23:12

I said, this is such an easy transition. We've met a lot of Todd and Damon's friends, and you know, it was just very welcoming and warm. And but then the altitude kind of bothered me, so I was a little bit afraid to Yeah, we're at I I think we're at 6,500 feet in San Miguel.

Chris 23:32

And it's relatively flat where in San Miguel, but there are uh the occasional hill and stuff within going to various exercise classes, and it does it does hit you, although I can't decide if I'm using the elevation as an excuse for when you look back over everything you went through uh to get here.

Jim 23:54

Is there anything that you would have done differently?

Deanna 23:57

Nothing's coming to my mind. Not really. I think our biggest concern that is that we would have regretted if we didn't try to do it. So I think it's the opposite.

Rita 24:06

Good.

Deanna 24:07

Yeah.

Chris 24:07

What if we never did the steps and then we look back and you know I'm still working for a little bit, but you know, Deanna retired in order for us to move here because she was working full-time in an office. And so we're bringing in less income. And we, you know, my my long, well, my short long-term goal is to is to retire, you know, in my somewhere in my mid-50s. And we probably don't have enough money to do that, but but we're gonna figure it out, you know. Yeah. And I and I think that is in the long run so much better and more exciting than having decided to stay at home and work till we were in our mid or late 60s, you know, so that we could retire with more money. I I think the being able to do it now, and really Todd and Damone, you know, showed us that so vividly. Uh they said their only regret was that they waited till they were 54 to to quit their jobs and sell their house. So that really that really hit us hard, you know. Wow.

Jim 25:09

Yeah, when we moved to when I was still working full time too. Uh huh. But I think it was 57.

Rita 25:15

You were 57.

Jim 25:16

Uh when I retired. So yeah, and absolutely no regrets about that. People are saying, Oh, I'm retired, I don't know what to do.

Rita 25:23

Yeah. And I and I there's plenty to do.

Chris 25:27

Yeah. If you're bored, it's it's your fault. You there's so much stuff to do. There's so much to do when you're retired, you know.

Jim 25:35

Yeah, when we're traveling when we're in a different country, it we never really have that many plans, but we always seem to be very busy.

Chris 25:42

Exactly. Yeah. Deanna says that all the time. We wake up having no idea what the day is gonna be, and then we go to bed that night saying, Can you believe all the stuff we just did?

Rita 25:52

And it's and it's wonderful. I mean, it's so exciting. I agree.

Deanna 25:56

It's so fun. Each day, like honestly, I I'm amazed by each day, like from like what we've seen, or the some comp, you know, some people that we met that might be turning into good friends. So many new connections. Every day is just wow, that's different.

Rita 26:14

Yeah, we had our own vendors at the market, even in San Miguel. We kept going back to the same man or the same woman. It's um, yeah. And they they I'm excited to make those local connections for sure.

Jim 26:27

Yeah, it doesn't take long for them to recognize the gringo that keeps coming into the market. No, yeah, that's right.

Chris 26:32

Yeah, yeah. And and when you're using your best efforts to speak the the language, yeah, which which we try to do, Deanna with better success. But I I'm I'm you know, I I try as well. But it really it really goes a long way. Deanna, she's decided that whenever she gets into an Uber that she wants to converse with the Uber driver. That's just a challenge she's given herself. And she has these totally amazing conversations. You know, that's great. Completely and no, they are they're simple, they're simple conversations, but not yeah, you know, like they're full on in Spanish. And then inevitably by the end of the ride, the driver will be, you know, you you know, your Spanish is so good. And they've enjoyed having a conversation with a gringo, you know, in Spanish, you know, in fully in Spanish. So that's that's so much fun to watch.

Jim 27:24

Yeah, we always talk to cab drivers also. We do. A lot of times they'll end up saying, you know, if you want to go anywhere while you're here, uh, here's my car, just give me a call and I can drive you around and wait for you. And yeah, or why don't you come to my mother's restaurant? You know.

Chris 27:40

Yeah.

Rita 27:40

I know.

Chris 27:41

I I'm not, you know, we haven't done tons of traveling, so I have to just maybe assume that it's part of the Hispanic culture, but maybe it's maybe it's around the world. But like we've met Mexicans who are so welcoming and you know, they find out that we're new and they'll actually we've had a couple invite us to their home, you know, like right, like come see where we live in what neighborhood, and we'll take you to this. We should show we'll show you what grocery stores are good and stuff. And like uh in in Southern California, if you met someone in an exercise class, you would never in a million years get into their car, you know. Right. It would never happen. And and like, and here it doesn't even seem weird, you know, because people are just so welcoming. Yeah. It's just it's so normal, and that's happened to us, you know, more than once.

Jim 28:30

Yeah, that month we were in San Miguel, they were having a heat wave.

Rita 28:33

Yeah.

Jim 28:34

And it was like up in the 90s every day, and there was no air conditioning in the place we were

Safety Outages And Advice Before You Leap

Jim 28:39

staying.

Rita 28:39

This historic hazy end of things.

Jim 28:41

Yeah, you know, you how you have the like inner courtyard that's open to the sky, and you know, you've got screen doors.

Rita 28:47

So we have the windows and the screen door and the porch around um not the porch, the hallway, I guess.

Jim 28:53

And we're sitting around in our underwear.

Rita 28:55

Yeah.

Jim 28:56

And people go walking by the door and they're in their underwear. And it's just, hola, the mustard.

Rita 29:05

It was the most fun. And I said, Oh my god, damn, this is normal.

Jim 29:12

You know, yeah, yeah, it's hot.

Rita 29:13

Take your clothes off. Yeah. Survival. It was happening. Oh my god.

Chris 29:19

Yeah, we haven't walked around in our underwear yet, but you know, we may. You never know. We'll get there. Life life goals. Yeah.

Rita 29:28

Yeah.

Jim 29:30

I think it was in May.

Rita 29:31

It was in May. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Ungodly hot months.

Jim 29:36

Yeah, it's usually hot in May, but it was about 10 degrees hotter than than.

Chris 29:39

So you've only you've only been here in the month that people tell you not to be here. May is the worst month, right? So if you guys come back in, you know, if you came back now, you you would buy a house, I think, because uh yeah, it's in the 70s during the day. At the most, it's 80, you know, but usually it's in the somewhere in the mid-70s.

Deanna 30:00

And um it's so funny because in June and July and August, it's considered low season apparently in San Miguel because it rains, but it really only rains at night and it's just beautiful during the day. Okay, and I'm surprised it's not considered a high season because it's just so beautiful. It's a it's a great time to visit in July, I think.

Rita 30:25

Are they having low water issues? Because I think they were.

Chris 30:29

Oh I don't think so, although it's possible, but I don't know. We're so we're new and sort of in a bubble still in figuring out.

Rita 30:38

It's a good one though.

Chris 30:40

We've had our we've had our electricity go out a couple times, our water went out a time or two, but you know, we we've been so amply warm warned ahead of time, you know, like stuff just happens and then it'll get fixed, you know. But that's just how it is. And right, and we've certainly had those experiences, and you, you know, it's and when the electricity goes out here, you the houses in Mexico either have a Tanaka on the roof or a cistern in the basement, right? But regardless, they're they're operated by electrical pumps. So when the electricity goes off, which it often can do, not only do you, you know, need you know, can't see or or watch TV, but you can't flush a toilet or take a shower. So you have to you have to remember that.

Jim 31:27

Yeah, we were having dinner with Todd and Damon at an Italian restaurant there, I think, and the power went off while we were eating. Yeah. And didn't come back on until hours later, but we had to walk back uh to where we were staying in the dark.

Rita 31:40

From San Antonio.

Jim 31:42

And everybody's out on the street, you know, partying and talking. Or using their phones as flashlights. And it occurred to me, I can't imagine an American city where I would walk through a place in the dark and not be concerned.

Rita 31:55

Yeah, right.

Chris 31:56

Yeah. We've been talking about that a lot with with with other folks who have come down here. And, you know, we the because inevitably the there's two questions you get asked in the United States when they hear you're moving to Mexico. And one is healthcare, which of course we just I think I feel like I defiantly decided not to figure it out because everyone asked me about healthcare. But uh but the other one is safety. You know how and and I can't it's it's hard to describe unless you've been here how safe you feel at all times. You don't even feel safe, you just never feel unsafe.

Rita 32:32

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Chris 32:33

Which is sort of a feeling I don't have in the United States necessarily. All that you know, if you're in a crowd in the United States, you look around, you know, you're you're thinking, okay, where are the exits? You know, like how does it does anyone look nervous right now? But here that doesn't happen. I'm sure part of that is our honeymoon phase of just being in this super fun place. But you know, walking home at night, you know, after you've been, you know, listening to music and the streets are the streets are much more empty, but like you're never you're aware of your surroundings because you should be in any city, right? You know, at night, but you're but you're not at all nervous here. And that that's just uh it's a it's kind of a nice feeling.

Jim 33:16

Do you have any advice for others who may be thinking about making such a big change?

Chris 33:20

I think that my advice would be to, if it if it interests you at all, to really, really consider doing it and allowing the fear of regret outweigh your fear of change. We Deanna and I, Deanna and I aren't the we're not the average adventurous, you know, oh my gosh, look, why don't we sell everything and move to Mexico? Like we in order to move here, we sold our starter home that we bought 24 years ago. Um, because we it it just always seemed too hard or difficult to move, you know. We don't like change. We don't like change. Wasn't until Todd and Devon visited us, you know, basically exactly one year ago that made us realize that the fear of regret was greater than the fear of change. And and people always throw at you the things that we did when Todd and Devone told us about it seven years ago, you know. Well, we can't do it because we work or because we have kids or because I don't speak Spanish or you know, whatever the thing is. But you know, even if you have kids, like kids kids live in Mexico also. Right.

Rita 34:27

Right, exactly.

Chris 34:31

You know, and you know, it's not for everyone, and I and I get it, but if if it is for you and you think it might be something that is for you, sort of regardless of what it is that you need to figure out, it's it's worth figuring out, I think.

Rita 34:45

Well, you know, the thing, the thing that I always have in the back of my head, no matter where we're traveling, nothing is forever.

Chris 34:53

I think so too. And I I feel like people aren't gonna ever look back and say, oh my gosh, I sure wish we hadn't lived abroad for a year. You know, even if it's like we lived abroad for a year and ultimately it just it wasn't for us, I still think you think, well, that was still worth it to find out or to have that adventure, you know.

Deanna 35:11

And I uh yeah, I often um I often told myself during this process the last year, I'm like, what's the worst that could happen? Like, really, what what is the worst that you know? You just move the worst is that we don't like it and we come back and then go somewhere else, go back and live in your son's door. Exactly. I don't know.

Chris 35:30

We're paying for it. We should get to live there, right?

Rita 35:32

Exactly.

Deanna 35:35

Two weeks after we moved here, Chris had asked me, you know, so what would happen? What how would you feel if we were forced to go back to the States?

Chris 35:46

Yeah, like what if we got deported? What if we got deported?

Deanna 35:49

And it's not our go back. I what would that feel like? And I I would be so devastated because it's been so great since we've been here. Yeah. I I don't I wouldn't be anxious to go back to what our lives were like before. It was a good life before, yeah, and it was comfortable and consistent and structured.

Chris 36:09

It's nothing we escaped from.

Deanna 36:11

No, I loved my life and I loved our friends, and I love being you know, near our son, and my mom still lives in California. So I love all that, and to leave all that was hard, but I still don't want to go back.

Jim 36:27

We've been talking with Chris and Deanna Hahn, who traded their lives near LA for the quiet mountain town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Chris, Deanna, thanks for taking the time to catch up with us and hope we get a chance to come out and see you soon.

Chris 36:39

You definitely need to come visit soon.

Deanna 36:41

We would love to have you visit.

Jim 36:52

If you've been thinking about traveling longer or just traveling better, we hope this episode gave you a few more ideas. Remember, there's no right or wrong way to explore the world. Only the way that works for you. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast, and if you have a moment, leave a quick review. It really helps more people find us. And if you want to go deeper, you can check out my book, Wherever We May Roam, Finding Your Travel Style, where I walk through all of this in more detail. You can search for it on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook, or just use the link on our podcast page. If you have any questions, a topic you would like discussed, or would like to be on our show, email us at Jim at Jimsantosbooks.com. Thanks for listening, and as always, safe travels wherever you may roam.