Seventh Anniversary Issue

Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico. Mexico Living Experience: the staff. Photo by author

The first issue of Letters From Mexico was published on June 26, 2017. It was titled Get Lost! This philosophical title gave me a chance to describe a trail experience in Tepoztlán. Every month since then, a new theme was explored. 

To celebrate the anniversary,  I am sharing with you how Letters got started and a bit of its history. I'll disclose my creative methods, and we'll take a look under the hood for our techie readers. Then I'll share some exciting news of what's coming up.

Let's get started!

History 

Here's a slide show I made from images randomly selected from past blogs:

On my third vacation visit to Mexico, I was crying just prior to leaving. I didn't want to leave this country, where family and community are priorities, and return to the US, where work and shopping are more important. The tears told to me to prepare to move to Mexcio. I worked for a couple of years at a high paying job in Boston saving money, then packed my VW and drove down, arriving in Mexico in October of 2003.

After a few years, to keep friends and family abreast of my Mexican experiences, I started writing a blog using Yahoogroups. Over the years, as I travelled in Mexico, I met new friends and included them on my list. I got feedback that I am an excellent writer and that I should write a memoir. My process getting one out is another story in itself. The universe supported me. I met a web designer on the beach who offered me a lowered "Mexican" price to create a site for me and develop social media sites. One of those, a Google platform called blogger.com, became the second generation for my blogging.

A coach of mine told me about PageCloud.com, the platform I have used since the beginning of Letters.  Although it has some shortcomings, I find their tech support very good and use it often. I did a Google search for Letters From Mexico, and discovered that title hadn't been used since Cortez wrote about his travels. I felt that he wouldn't mind my borrowing it for my blog.

My Creative Process

After my first blog, subsequent ones were longer--more involved. I wrote what I thought might interest readers from my experiences of living and traveling in Mexico. Over time, my blogs grew larger. I always used photos and videos to illustrate my themes. I'd pick a theme, collect images and videos, and from that collection, derive section  headings. Then I would write the text, adding the visuals where appropriate along with captions. It seemed to me that editing visual material was more laborious than writing textual content.

During the writing of my second memoir, I joined a writers' group that met weekly at members' homes in nearby Cuernavaca. This helped my editing tremendously, as well as kept me continuously at it. It was a jovial atmosphere, where criticism was always constructive, and never taken personally. Since Covid, the group has met online. I've used them for other projects besides my memoirs, and sometimes for reviewing upcoming blogs. I also used a couple of free online editing platforms before investing in a more advanced one.

Tools and Methods

Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico. Here's my desk. Photo by author

I built my desk shortly after moving into my current apartment, near the starting date of Letters. In the photo above, you can see it in its usual messy state. My MacBook Pro has a charger and external drive attached. Since it is a 2017 model, I cannot update the operating system beyond Big Sur (version 11.6). It has 8GB of RAM, and 121 GB of storage. The external drive is from Toshiba and has 1 TB storage. I like using the laptop because the screen size makes video editing easier. 

The desktop video editor I use is ScreenFlow, made for use on a Mac by Telestream, Inc. Many years ago I took an online course to learn how to use it. I'd say it's medium level in complexity. It works well for me. I enjoy exploring new features when they come up. It keeps my brain active, too.

For making collages of photos, I use Canva.com. It has a newer animation creation feature which I have explored somewhat.

Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico. Here is the camera outfit I've used. Photo by author

For photos and videos, I use the Cannon shown above. I was very pleased to find it in a Best Buy store in Santa Fe over ten years ago. This point and shoot digital camera produced excellent results for photos and videos. It even had good sound quality for capturing nightclub events, something rare in a camera, especially one for just over $100 USD. Because it is outdated, I bought a cell phone a couple of weeks ago, something I've been very reluctant to do for a long time. I am addicted to the Internet, and hesitated to take that addiction with me in a mobile device when I go out. I found a good one at a low price: Infinity Hi Sense H50 Zoom. You can see in their label on the photos in this article at the bottom left of each image. I have a lot to learn about how to use it, including how to get rid of their name.

Upcoming

You may have noticed some changes in the layout of this blog, and my complete site overhaul. This was prompted by an idea of a friend who I got to move into the apartment upstairs from me a few years back. He suggested we start a business catering to the needs of those interested in moving to Mexico. But more on that later.

First, we moved the blog onto a special platform that PageCloud provides for blogs. I'd been holding back on doing that for a long while because the blogging section has fewer editorial choices than regular site pages. But as the blog grew over the years, a problem developed. How could I do proper archiving that would be easy for me and user friendly? The blog platform has an automatic archiving software. My web designer and I have plans in the future to move all of the past blogs into this section, creating tags and categories for them, and a search engine to more easily find any given topic from the archives. But this is a tedious and lengthy job to be accomplished in the future.

We still struggle with the comments section, as PageCloud does not provide this. Instead, they recommend a third party comment system called Disqus.com. I find installing it and using it very cumbersome, and think the user interface is too complex.  I give my email address for comments, and then copy/paste them into a homemade comments section. You may have seen the different methods employed for different blogs. So far, I am not overwhelmed with comments. What do you think? Are you OK with Disqus, or do prefer the email method.

We've been working on getting ready to start this business for six months and are now ready! It's called: Mexico Living Experience. I have already helped folks for years transition from the US and elsewhere to live in Mexico. People find me in various ways and ask to meet to learn how to find an apartment, where to shop, about restaurants and nightclubs, etc. I've lead a weekly hiking group for several years. And my published memoirs and this blog give them insights directly from my experiences.

I know it is intimidating to visit a country without knowing the language and customs, and even more so to consider moving here. We offer continual personalized guidance for visitors coming to stay for a week or up to a month or more in three different packages, all at half price for a limited time. For those coming for a month or more, we help them in advance with accommodations. Here is our new Facebook page. 

Please give it a like and tell your friends to do the same.

I've collected video clips from blogs to use in promotions. One shows different markets in Tepoztlán:

Here are clips of interviews with discussions about Mexico and Tepoztlán: