Deciding where #2 – City v. Country
Will you live in the city or the country, or somewhere in between? Most people contemplating a move have a preference in this regard already. Something you may not have thought of (I certainly hadn’t) is that, in Mexico, the further away you get from the city, the less goods and services become available.
This is in total contrast to the US, where the cruddiest burg of 25,000 boasts substantially the same shopping as a large metro area — it might not have Macy’s or Nordstrom’s, but it will have Lowe’s or Home Depot plus a few independent hardware stores, at least one or two art/craft emporia, a fabric store or two, bookstores new and used, all manner of auto supply stores, plumbing and electrical dealers, discount clothing places, thrift and antique shops packed with goodies, not to mention Target, et al., and let us not forget an ample selection of supermarkets and drugstores. What was I talking about? Oh, yes. Well, a comparable variety of consumer opportunity is to be had only in the largest Mexican cities, and even then — it ain’t the same.
If you are lucky, a town of 30,000 or so MIGHT have a Walmart or Aurrera or Soriana, where you can buy wine and Friskies, plus an assortment of local shops (clothing, fabrics, auto supply, bike repair, etc.). From central Mexico on down, most towns of any size have traditional food markets. Stores like Sams Club and Costco (sole sources of imported parmesano, quantity olive oil and kitty litter), and shopping malls are found only in definitely urban areas, say over 200,000 population. If you crave a truly rural ambiente, expect only the most basic items (dried beans, toilet paper, milk, tomatoes and such) to be available locally and be prepared to shop for gringo luxuries on costly pilgrimages to the nearest large city.
A subcategory of the city vs. country question is that of sophistication vs. rusticity. In general, one finds more sophisticated surroundings and company in the city than in the country, like anywhere else. But I will point out that there do exist smaller towns, notably in the colonial areas, which possess an extremely rich cultural heritage and are stuffed to the gills with arty, literary, and intellectual types, both Mexican and foreign, which can thus offer the best of many worlds. I suspect Mexico contains limitless possibilities in this regard, if you take the time to explore.