So, Who Wants to be a Tour Guide in Mexico?
When you are the author of five books and a host of columns and articles, something in the back of your brain speaks to you. “Just because you’re published, don’t get it into your head that people care a rat’s fundament that you have had 45,000 people read your articles and columns, not to mention your books, and that someone, somewhere is even syndicating your material to the tune of 700 publications and counting.”
That would be the voice of reason talking.
I know this because one source I use to track my writing recently issued a report that people are actually reading what I write and doing so in great numbers. This does not mean that I am famous and most certainly does not mean that I am rich. But, what it does mean is that I am currently having to wade through a bevy of e-mails from readers who think because,
1. I live in Mexico.
2. Because I write about Mexico.
3. That 1 + 2 = I must be a tour guide, an interpreter or translator, an expatriate mentor, a hotel reservation-maker and confirmer, and that if they write and say, “Oh, tell me what I need to know to retire to Mexico,” that I have nothing else to do with my time but try to come up with an explanation to the general question, “What’s it like to live in Mexico?”
I am writing about this because, for real, I am getting not a few, but a lot, of readers who write me and ask me to do these things for them.
For those of you who do not know what I do, I live in Mexico with my beloved wife, Cynthia, and I write. I write books and I write articles and columns. I have had some modest success but not enough to say that I am well-known because I am most certainly not. Nor do I live in a mansion with an army of servants. We live in a one-bedroom apartment that my wife cleans herself.
People who do not know what is like to live in Mexico are understandably curious and want to know the skinny. That is why we wrote a book called, The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico. We wrote the book so that neither of us would have to repeat ourselves in answering untold e-mails which ask what has to be the most general question in the known universe, “What can you tell me about living in Mexico?”
Where would I possibly begin to answer this question for the scores who e-mail me? I wrote a few books that do just that.
I’ve met American tourists that are checking out the possibility of living here. They ask me what I do all day with my time. Now, that is a good question. It is good because if you move here to retire or simply live, you will have to come up with something to do or you will find yourself making a hasty retreat back from whence you came.
However, when I tell people what I do all day, you would swear that I had just told them that I engage in methodical serial killing. One guy said to me once, “Oh, I could never do that!” And another, “Oh, I would have to do something REAL with my time.”
Alrighty.
If you are wondering what it is I told them that garnered those responses it was this, “I sit in the park a lot.” And, I really do that-a lot!
I get most of the material I write about when I sit in one of the many parks in this Central Mexican town. Perhaps that gives the appearance that I have nothing better to do with my time. Maybe these tourists go back and report this to others�others who write me with these assignments that they think I can do for them. Maybe they are thinking of my well-being. Since I am such a do-nothing schmuck, I must need some work.
I do not know. What do you think?
I am very grateful that people are reading my work. It makes me feel good and spurs me on to keep writing. I even had a travel book publishing company tell me that they will contact me later in the year to give me to write for them. They actually liked my writing enough to want to hire me. That is good.
But, for the record, dear readers, I do not interpret, translate, book hotels, pick you up at the airport, find you somewhere to live, run an Expatriation Mentoring Service, nor have the time to tell you how to move to Mexico or what it is like to live here.
I have written a few things you could check out at the bookstores if you really want to know.
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So that my readers are not left in out in the cold, here are some resources in the event you do need help in coming to Guanajuato.
1. Check out the site of Mr. Hugo Rodriguez. He offers all sorts of helpful services with vacationing, studying in Guanajuato, or finding a place to live. He does this for a price . www.avantel.net/~guanajuatorentals/
2. This site will help you with your tourism needs. Check out the web site and get their email address. Someone there will be able to figure out your questions-eventually. www.guanajuato.gob.mx/turismo/
sayala@guanajuato.gob.mx
3. Tourist Office Information
Plaza De La Paz No. 14 Col. Centro
36000 Guanajuato, Gto.
Tel: (473) 732 76 22 Fax (473) 732 42 51
