Could this be what retirement looks like for me?
It’s been five weeks since I crossed the border into Mexico. If I hadn’t already, I’ve now crossed the tipping point from vacation mode into something entirely different. It’s the beauty and appeal of long term travel. I was lucky enough to experience it in 2017 when I spent three months in Europe, half of it walking the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain which has its own way of warping a person’s sense of time.
As I enter a third week in Guadalajara with no set time frame for leaving, the pressure of “doing it all” has nearly completely dissipated. There is still plenty to do, I’m sure, but I don’t feel the need to do any particular thing.
So what have I done in my two weeks in Guadalajara so far?
Day Tripping
I’ve taken a couple of day trips out to neighboring cities. The first was Zapopan, to the north and west, for a stroll through its relatively small downtown area. I stopped in to visit the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Zapopan before heading out for dinner and a movie at the upscale Andares shopping center.
Zapopan is the second wealthiest municipality in all of Mexico, and that felt pretty obvious as I walked off my sushi dinner before settling into plush reclining seats with a couple of cold beers for a late showing of the second Avatar movie.
On the other side of Guadalajara, to the south and east, sits Tlaquepaque, another neighboring municipality and one of Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos, a federal designation designed to encourage tourism among some of the country’s most culturally rich towns. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every Pueblo Mágico I’ve visited and Tlaquepaque is no different.
In the day I spent there, I visited several galleries, ate two tasty meals, and watched several different performances, including ballet folklórico, mariachi, and an arrangement of love songs performed by a violinist to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The giant cantarito with its healthy dose of tequila was an added bonus to the day.
A Dinner to Remember
As lovely as it was to have tableside mariachi during dinner in Tlaquepaque or quality sushi in Los Andares, the clear winner for best meal was dinner at Bruna. It wasn’t only the best I’ve had in Guadalajara, it easily wins for best dining experience of this trip and lands in the top five of my entire life.
Yes, it was that good.
When someone at the hostel first mentioned the idea of organizing a dinner at a restaurant called Bruna, I didn’t think much of it. Then, every time I heard someone talk about eating there, they were raving about it. I wrote off the high praise as hyperbolic but since some of the friends I’d made at the hostel were going, I decided to join.
I’m glad I did.
Bruna is truly a fine dining experience, with emphasis on experience. The space itself is deceptively massive. When we first pulled up, it appeared larger than an average restaurant but not by much. It wasn’t until I started exploring between courses that I realized we were seated in just one of several dining areas, and between dining areas there were several Asian gardens and sculptures and an art gallery and yet more undiscovered places I didn’t quite get to for fear of missing the delivery of the subsequent course.
I knew were in for a treat when our table of seven started receiving our drink orders and each one was its own little showstopper.
My Moscow Mule came delivered inside of a Russian nesting doll. An arctic-themed drink was prepared on a bed of snow-like salt crystals with plenty of dry ice used to create a dramatically frosty effect. Other drinks were prepared on a bed of rose petals or poured from a gas canister and other kitschy containers.
But the meal at Bruna wasn’t all show, there was substance as well. My entree, a beef short rib served with a teapot of its juices, was both beautiful to look at and a pleasure to eat. Each bite, scooped up with a spoon to incorporate the flavorful broth, melted away in a sensation not unlike eating a hearty soup.
The most delightful part of the meal was my appetizer, a mole tasting plate. The platter, resembling a palette of paint colors ranging from pale yellow to purplish red to green to the darkest reddish brown, was served with handmade blue corn tortillas for scooping.
Some sauces had the familiar flavors of chocolate and chile like I’ve had back home but others were total departures from what I expected, like the sweet banana and beet sauces which made for ideal starting points for the tasting. I’ve had mole verde elsewhere in Mexico and Bruna’s was excellent. The true standout and recommended final notes was the black truffle mole, the darkest and strongest sauce that lingered in a way you never wanted to end.
Not every course can be a winner and I would have been happy to trade my guava gelatin dessert for the decadent chocolate dishes others ordered.
Please know that these photos do not do justice to the presentation quality of each dish. Dim lighting and an iPhone 11 aren’t going to capture the artistry of each plate and magnificence of the space.
If you are ever in Guadalajara for any amount of time, I implore you to dine at Bruna.
Just go.
Well, make reservations first, but go.
Ready to Retire?
I know I recently extolled the virtues of hostels in a blog post, but I will admit I stayed in an Airbnb over the weekend. I was ready for a little extra privacy, something not always in abundance at hostels, at least for a few days.
When planning and budgeting for this slow travel journey, I ran the numbers with the option of staying in an Airbnb or apartment from time to time. It’s been eye-opening seeing what real life on the road costs versus the estimates I made ahead of time. And that’s actually a large part of what I’m doing on this trip. I want to gather real world data on what it costs me to live my personal lifestyle abroad with an eye toward a possible future retirement in a country other than the United States, preferably one with a lower cost of living like Mexico.
I’ll likely want to spend more than a few days in an apartment or similar arrangement to get a better sense of what living abroad could be like but even just the long weekend gave me a feel for how settling into a neighborhood and building a daily routine might go.
One of my favorite mornings in Guadalajara was this past Sunday. I woke up with nothing but sunlight as my alarm, lounged around in bed for as long as I wanted, and then walked down the street for a breakfast sandwich and hash brown to bring back to enjoy with coffee.
It was a simple, nearly unremarkable morning, but the taste it gave me for a possible future abroad was tantalizing.
You could call what I’m doing a mini retirement, that’s certainly one of the buzzwords others have used for a very similar experiment. I’ve also used the terms slow travel or long term travel. I’m not too hung up on any particular labels or timeframes. I’m enjoying each day as it comes and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how the journey has unfolded.
And I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these weekly updates. Make sure to follow my Facebook and Instagram pages for more pictures and photos of my journey.
Hasta pronto!
Eric
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