Category: Moving to Mexico

Life as a foreigner living and working in Mexico. What it’s like as a Canadian living full time in Mexico.

Baja Living Moving to Mexico

In This Moment

Cabo 1999.  Unless you were here you really can’t imagine how it was.  It’s sometimes hard for me to remember just how tiny it was.  There were a handful of bars, a few restaurants, a couple of grocery stores and just a few hotels.  The corridor was basically empty, housing and apartments were not hard to find – and life was good.  Simple but good. 

It was then that I entered into the world of timeshare.  It was honestly terrifying.  I have always considered myself quite methodical, a planner and overall very consistent.  I’m not much of a risk taker, and pretty much had my finances and spending all figured out. Very methodical.  I guess that’s the Canadian in me.  When you have a fixed salary, fixed income, government benefits it’s the same thing every 2 weeks.  You plan your payments, vacations, nights on the town and pretty much everything else around that. 

Then comes the world of timeshare. There are no guarantees, no salaries, no “for sure” things and literally it’s every man, woman and child for themselves.  My friend and I started working for the Villa Group at the lobby of Villa del Palmar.  We were known as the In-House OPC’s.  We were the “concierges” that gave you the welcome package, gave you some info, and invited you to the time share presentation.  I think there were 5 or 6 of us, and my friend and I were the “new kids” on the block.  We didn’t speak the language, weren’t very pushy and always found ourselves chatting about our experience of how we ended up in Cabo, rather than whether or not they were interested in the breakfast the next morning.  That changed quickly.  We had a great team, a great manager and that’s when we learned what it meant to work for yourself and work on commission.  There was really no time for an adjustment period. We got a few day’s training, learned our pitch and got thrown into the fire.  I learned so much about myself that first year.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back I was pretty much fearless – although at the time all I mostly felt was intimidation.  That’s when I really learned to stand up for myself and I figured out what I was made of.  I learned from some of the best, and even though we were usually fighting over couples, turns and commissions, we really did have a great team.  We went for concierge dinners, got to know a lot of the new places around town, and really did have a lot of respect and admiration for each other.  It was crazy! 

I OPC’d at various tracks for the next few years and then started working at Club Regina as the Member’s Services manager around 2004.  I was basically in charge of the OPC’s for the members.  That’s when I really found out what I was made of, got a quick grip on the spanish language, and things really kicked into high gear.  At the time our project director for the Club was Terry Sommers.  He was so ahead of his time, and just an amazing guy to have the pleasure of working for.  He was a little crazy, had huge ideas and really knew no limits.  He was a dreamer and a visionary and it was our job to implement his ideas and make them a reality. He did not know the word “no”, and to him everything was possible.  We started selling a new project while I was there called Grand Regina.  That’s where the grocery delivery idea was born.  I’m sure it was one of Terry’s ideas – that the guests could come and when they arrived they would have whatever food and drinks they wanted waiting for them in their villa.  It was my job to find someone to deliver those things.  We tried a few catering companies  – because at the time that’s really all there was.  Costco was just opening and Cabo was on the brink of booming.  My friend and I started doing the deliveries ourselves, as we couldn’t find anyone else to do it.  We did it part time while both working at the Club, and then eventually I was doing it full time as the owners started going to other properties and wondering if we could deliver there as well.  It was a bit of a rocky path and a huge learning curve.  We eventually parted ways in 2014, which is when Prickly Pear was born.  March 2019 will mark our 5th year as Prickly Pear Cabo, and I could not be more proud and blessed to be here in this moment. 

“If you walk in the footprints of others you won’t make any of your own.”

It’s been a long road of ups and downs and failures and successes.  They have all led me to today.  All that I’ve learned from the people that have come and gone in my life is just awe-inspiring.  It was International Woman’s Day a few days ago.  The day came and went and it wasn’t until I was winding down that I had a chance to hit social media for the day.  The posts about the amazing women in our lives and the ones that inspire us every day was not lost on me.  The people that have come into our lives really impact us.  We take the good when we can, and try to leave the negativity behind.  It’s interesting to look back and know the ones that had a significant impact on who we are today – for good or for bad.  Please take time to tell the ones that had a positive impact on you, whether they’ve come and gone or are still impacting you today.  I find that perhaps people that I had an impact on a few years ago, are now the ones that are inspiring me as I see them growing and becoming their best.  Life does do a full circle, and you never know what impression or impact you will have on someone.  Always try to leave a positive footprint as you don’t know how long or how much of an impact it will have. 

Cheers!

~ Michelle

Moving to Mexico

From Farm Life to Beach Life

Well.  I was right. This is going to be more challenging than I thought. Finding the time and making it a priority will be the biggest struggle of my new blogging career. Let me answer the question that you have all been waiting for. Or at least the question that I’ve been asked the most since crossing the border.

What made you move to Mexico?  If you’ve ever spent a winter in Saskatchewan, Canada you will already know the answer to that. I was born in Edmonton, Alberta and we moved to Eyebrow, Saskatchewan when I was 5.  From 1st grade through to 12th I attended the same school. We had 11 people in our graduating class and I rode the same bus, with the same bus driver (Hardy – he was the best) for my entire 12 years of public education. You would have thought that being the first bus to arrive for 12 consecutive years would have instilled a greater sense of urgency regarding punctuality. It hasn’t – which is still one of my biggest struggles to this day. 

Eyebrow (http://www.villageofeyebrow.com) had approximately 300 people when we lived there. There was a bank, school, grocery store, post office, grain elevators, and I think a gas station with a restaurant if I remember correctly. No – we did not have a traffic light. We grew up about 15 miles out of town on a farm, close to my Grandma and Grandpa where my Dad was raised. We had a grain farm and worked outside from March until September. Once hockey season started, we moved from the seat of the Massey 1800 to the cold bench of the hockey arena.

Never forget where you came from and never take your eyes off where you’re heading.

It was a great life. Not an easy one, and now as a business owner I often wonder how my parents did it. They worked together raising three kids and crop after crop. I think that the three kids turned out alright and the crops – well – as the saying goes in farming “you win some you lose some”. When we were young – we thought we had it all. We started working for a dollar an hour and we had it made in the shade. We cut grass, planted trees, dug potatoes, shelled peas, husked corn, and rototilled the garden. You name it – we did it. As we got a bit older, we learned how to drive everything. Cars, trucks, tractors, combines, grain trucks, swathers…the list goes on.

That’s also when our sense of responsibility set in and our work ethic was formed. I was googling some quotes related to farming and found one that was true when I was 12, and still to this day. “Farmers don’t quit when the sun goes down. They work until the job gets done.” We learned it way back when we witnessed it from our parents, and we still hold true to that today. I think that you could probably classify everyone in my family as a workaholic. Finding a balance is difficult – and one thing that I am striving for. Balance. It doesn’t happen on its own, or by accident.

After high school, I moved to Edmonton and went to a year of college with the plan on attending university and completing my degree in Education. I was accepted and was scheduled to start the next fall. I kind of wasn’t feeling it, and decided to take a year off to work. That one year turned to thirty, and I’m still working. I spent 5 years in Edmonton and worked as a retail manager for LensCrafters, where I was certified as a licensed optician. Shoveling my 1969 Mustang out of the snow got old really fast.  That and the fact the heater didn’t work after it was -15 degrees was not a good combo. She was my first car and my first love. However, I had to upgrade to something a little more reliable. My little brother managed to take her off my hands and eventually, she had to retire.

It was with LensCrafters that I was able to transfer to Vancouver. I packed up my little Mazda and headed to the west coast. Bright lights, big city. It was while living in Vancouver that I took my first trip to Cabo with some girlfriends. Our first night at Squid Roe was like something I’d never experienced. I was instantly hooked on Cabo and this completely foreign way of life. We ended up coming down about 6 times over the next 2 years.  Every time loving it more and more. The people, the beach, the smell of the air when you get off the plane. 

It was just amazing to me how someone would recognize us from one stay to the next, let alone remember our names. It was quickly becoming apparent that this is where I needed to be.  At least give it a whirl – what did I have to lose? I could always go back. Young, crazy, and perhaps a little bit reckless (at least according to my mom) I threw caution into the wind and made the move. I came down with another one of my friends that also had the Cabo bug. 

One rainy day in December 1999, we packed up our 1985 Grand Marquis (that my parents generously provided – bondo and all) so that we could have a clunker and fit in with everyone else here. We almost made the trip without incident. We did have lack of brakes in Oregon, and some smoke and a call to the LAFD in Los Angeles – but other than that smooth sailing. We arrived on December 21 and I can honestly say that every time I drive into town from the north at dusk, I see the Cabo lights and am reminded of that night.  It was exciting, relieving, and terrifying all at the same moment. My life was about to change and I had no idea what to expect. But I knew it was going to be an adventure!

Saludos!

~ Michelle

Moving to Mexico

Hello!

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

Hi. I’m Michelle. Welcome to my blog. I will admit that I have wanted to write this for years. At least 4 to be exact, which is when I signed up for my WordPress account. Today is the first day I am posting something. It may be the last – hopefully not, but we’ll see how it goes. 

I’m not sure what my fascination with writing a blog is. I think it will be extremely difficult, time consuming, and probably very challenging. I’m not a writer, I don’t have the greatest spelling or punctuation, or even vocabulary for that fact. It seems like the more spanish I learn, the more english I forget. So whether one person reads this or one hundred read it – it doesn’t really matter. I’m doing it for me and my own personal satisfaction. I don’t have any “great content that I’ve been dying to share”, I’m not an expert in anything but I do, however, hold an opinion on everything. So please don’t be offended by my remarks or my extreme sense of sarcasm. I’ve been told that sometimes I should use the “sarcasm font” which I have yet to find. So everything is very tongue in cheek, and should all be taken with more than a grain of salt. This is me and who I am. I’m Canadian, living in Mexico for almost 20 years, and for the most part loving every minute of it. I’m a workaholic, don’t take enough time for myself, and my two favorite past times are coffee and wine. Chances are very good that with each post I write, there will be one of the two sitting beside my computer. Currently it’s wine. 

I’m the founder of Prickly Pear, which is basically my baby. I am the driving force behind it, and could not be where we are today without one of the greatest teams that are around. You will learn a little more about them throughout my rants and raves. I’m sure for the most part I will be raving about them. 

Well – that’s it. That’s my introduction. I hope to share with you some of the very things that I love about Mexico, and specifically Cabo. I hope to give you a glimpse into living life in Mexico, and what that entails. What it’s like for as foreigner living here, how I got here, and what made me stay. I will share with you some of our favorite things to do, and favorite places to go. You may have heard of them, or they may be new to you. I promise to give you my honest opinion and a little behind the scenes look at what it’s like to live and run a business in Mexico. 

In the meantime. Salud! Cheers!

~ Michelle