Peak seasons in Mexico’s expat destinations

Looking down to the bottom of the hill from my patio in Mazatlán, a strip of the malecón cuts across the horizon, and I can see the row of palm trees swaying along its length. When the sun’s light hits palm trees just right, the fronds give off a silver shimmer that looks exactly like the tree is draped in tinsel. The ocean behind the palms this time of day is still grey-blue, the caps also flicking off silver in late afternoon light.

A standing fan in the room carries a gentle late-November breeze from outside to inside, and it brushes against my bare legs. The birds are roosting with sounds of contentment with their day on the air currents. Finally, cooler weather has arrived to a Mexican coastal city, bringing with it thousands of snowbirds from Canada and the U.S. escaping what has already become a particularly harsh winter up north.

Along the coasts, winter is temporada alta (high season) and Canadians in particular flock to the Pacific Coast. I live part-time in Denver and have spent winters in a West Virginia ski towns. Both have reached to twenty below zero with the wind chill. I still learned never to argue with a Canadian about what real cold is.

My Mexican game plan has never been that of a snowbird (I come off-season) for various reasons. But every year I do spend a month or two enjoying either the beginning or the end of peak season in Mexico. Being in Mazatlán in November this year, I am reminded of the whirlwind social life enjoyed by expats who live in Mexico during their city’s peak months. Restaurants moribund only a week ago are full of excited extranjeros and extranjeras, relieved to be here, among friends, in their Mexican home away from home.

Any expat who desires a full dance card will find it in an expat town in peak season. Peak seasons vary in the calendar by where you choose to live in Mexico. In San Miguel de Allende, once named as the most beautiful city in the world by Conde Nast, peak season is during the summer and activities level off in the winter, although there’s always plenty to do.

People who spend high season here tell me they may have two or three activities a day, whittled down from even more choices. They reunite with fellow expats that they may have known for many years in the historic districts (usually called el centro) in San Miguel de Allende, Querétaro, Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlán and the Yucatán. Over the course of the soft evenings, they drift in and out from colorful plazuelas common in Mexico to restaurants, galleries, and stores on the side streets. Mexico’s population is young (average age 28), giving the plazuelas and other hang-outs a pleasant youthful buzz without being frenetic.

Over the course of a few years, expat towns unfold their activities to residents gradually. It’s not quite as easy as picking up paper or going online to know everything that might be going on. Mexicans do not take marketing quite as seriously as Americans do - frequently an event will be announced the day before, or only in Spanish, or practically not at all. “Pop Up” events - temporary, unexpected events in unique spaces that pop up for a few hours or days and then “pop down” - seem to have been invented here.

Bigger events that are easy to find out about are frequently free and amazing in their variety of flavors. In addition to the theatre, concerts, poetry readings and lectures by Mexican artists, you can find samplings of familiar American works. In an area’s high season, event calendars fill with offerings to attract expats, like comedy clubs or dinner theaters.

Like the palm trees, old standard works shimmer with a new exoticism when presented in Mexico. You are not going to see “Cats,” you’re going to see Mexico’s interpretation of Cats featuring a Mexico’s “Madonna,” Yuri. You are not just going to see a band cover music by The Doors, you are seeing how Mexico interprets Jim Morrison (when I went, the theater interpreted the band with black lighting and smoke).

Most activities will have surprising elements associated with how Mexicans’ view the material. You can enjoy the interpretation and learn something about Mexican sensibilities at once. In reviewing what is going on in a single month in Mexico’s most popular areas for expats, even after years in Mexico I was amazed by the variety and color, from small venue plays and exhibits up to international festivals and fairs.

In Lake Chapala, you might go to the Spotlight Club, which has a show (Dizney) for 300 pesos ($16 dollars). The play “A Lion in Winter” plays at their Bare Stage theater for 150 pesos ($ 8 dollars). Gardening classes are being offered by an expat in the city for those wanting to learn what plants local conditions favor for their gardens. Wine tastings and pairing are becoming popular in many expat areas like Lake Chapala, where you might pair esquites (a corn dish) with salmon mousse.

If you chose Puerto Vallarta as your home, you might be going to The Festival Gourmand International which takes place in various restaurants in the city. On a diet? There is always the Annual Puerto Vallarta Film Festival of the Americas. Not into crowds? At Act2 they are putting on a 90 minute spectacular honoring Michael Jackson. Maybe you want to shop. 'Llévele!' is another a special event where you can buy art, clothing, accessories and jewelry made by some of Puerto Vallarta’s best artists and designers.

Up the road from Puerto Vallarta in my town of Mazatlán, many events converge at the famous Angela Peralta theatre, a gorgeous 1800’s opera house. Walking by the buildings surrounding the center in El Centro, you can often hear young people practicing a flute or a saxophone, or see girls in ballerina dress rushing in and out of theatre compound. One recent Sunday, passerbys looked in from the sidewalk to see and hear an opera tenor practicing with a full orchestra. Free concerts are plentiful in plazuelas all over Mexico

On the other side of Mexico in the Yucatan peninsula, the biggest challenge in keeping up with the number of things to do in a city twice named America’s Capital of Culture. You might be attending folkloric ballet presentations or the Yucatán Bird Festival with bird-watching sessions, workshops, and educational exhibits.

Day trips to areas that are not usual expat hubs give you even more choices. If you live in Mérida, you might decide to take a trip to nearby Taxco for National Silver Fair, a competition of Mexico's best silversmiths. More than just a showcase for silver, concerts, dances, and fireworks make it a real festival. Day trips from Guadalajara could be Tequila and its distilleries or Tlaquepaque.

Maybe Mexico’s coastal summers are not for you and you’ve chosen an area with a cooler climate, like San Miguel de Allende, Puebla, Querétero, or Guanajuato, with its hillside of taffy-colored houses. Each has events not duplicated in other parts of Mexico.

San Miguel de Allende has been a popular expat destination since the 1950s. Even in the slow season in San Miguel de Allende you can participate in Musicians' Day (actually the feast day of Santa Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians) where you would see music makers of every stripe gather at midnight in front of the Oratorio church and offer up an all-night serenade to the Virgin.

In Querétaro you might go to the Hay Festival, an arts and science event taking place all over the city with international experts in literature, visual arts, science, film, music, journalism - just about everything. Or you might to to one of the best fairs in Mexico, the Feria Internacional Ganadera de Querétaro.

In nearby Guanajuato, about two hours away from San Miguel de Allende, the Festival Internacional Cervantino has grown into a world-class celebration of the performance and visual arts, one of the most important in all of Latin America. Food and Gourmand Festivals are as popular in Mexico as the U.S. (No one who has ever tasted a Chile en Nogada in Puebla can blame the poblanos for having a festival to celebrate them).

No matter what place you choose in Mexico, you will find plenty to do, or you can just sit and savor the sweet Mexican breeze in the winter as it brushes against your bare skin, as I am.

Related links:

If you are a big city lover, Guadalajara is your best choice in Mexico. - Ventanas Mexico

Explore the fine arts for much less in Mexico [blog] Ventanas Mexico

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About the author:

Kerry Baker is the author of "If I Only Had a Place" gives advice on how to rent long term in Mexico, as several reviewers comment, “information you will find nowhere else”. The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico” is her most recent book - two parts practical advice, one part entertainment, a book that will guide you without leaving you numb. The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico” is a cookbook of 150 recipes and advice on how to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico.