How to Dress When Visiting Central Mexico

I hear most often the weather issue as the primary reason why Americans move to México. Let me just say, the weather here can be unimaginably wonderful depending on where you end up expatriating. There are areas of México where the weather is referred to as Eternal Springtime. It is a true statement for a lot of México, especially the Heartland. It could be called Paradise weather.

I had never before lived in a mountain desert. A lot of the towns in México's Heartland are just that. I mention this first because a great deal of retirees have arthritic issues that can be helped, if not alleviated, by living in the Heartland.

If you were to sit in my living room and look out the picture window, you would see an enormous mountain that is about one-half mile from my front door. I have named it "Butt-mountain" for the butt-like rock formation that sits on its top. Butt-mountain, you would no doubt observe, is covered with yellowish, hay-like vegetation with a sparse sprinkling of small green shrubs. It is stark. It makes one wonder what sort of toxic waste disaster took place to make Butt-mountain look so, well, dead.

Further observation would reveal that farmers send their cattle up there to graze, which leaves you wondering what they find to eat.

Butt-mountain is not alone.

All of Guanajuato is pretty much like Butt-mountain: dry, shrubs everywhere, cactus, and yellowish hay-like grass. This is because the town to which my wife and I moved from Kansas City (the land of hideous weather) resides in what is sometimes referred to as a "Steppe Climate."

A Steppe Climate is one in which evaporation exceeds precipitation. Note that this is a generalization because technically the entire state of Guanajuato has three types of climates: semi-dry, temperate, and semi-warm.

The city of Guanajuato is located right along the dividing line between the "temperate semi-humid" and the "semi-warm, sub-humid" regions. So we get a little of both of the two sub-climates. We get dry, shrubs, cactus, and yellowish, hay-like grass in our little neck of the Mexican woods.

This is essentially a mountain desert without the blowing sand. In addition, we do have the rainy season that transforms the topography into a luscious carpet of greenery so that those poor cattle on my Butt-mountain can have something real to eat. The state does have some regions of temperate climate.

"In general this climate is intermediate in terms of temperature (mesothermal). The plant types that commonly grow in it are oak forests, oak-pine forests, pine forests, chaparral, and grazing land. It appears in six variants, covering 20% of the total area and unevenly distributed. The least humid climate is found chiefly in the southeast, in the municipalities of Apaseo, Jerécuaro and Yuriria."

What all of this meant to me at the time of our move was that at last I had found an environment in which the symptoms of my chronic illness would stabilize. And, indeed, they have. If you are afflicted with any sort of illness that reacts to constantly shifting weather patterns, then this type of climate is just what the doctor ordered.

I suffer from Fibromyalgia Syndrome. This pain and fatigue disorder lays me low when the weather constantly changes. When we lived in Kansas City, the land of weather torture, I was always in pain--it was unrelenting. I spent untold days in bed from being too tired to get out of it.

This Land of Eternal Springtime (as it is sometimes called) is perfect for people who are "weather-vanes."

I have two friends afflicted with illnesses that are also reactive to sudden and frequent weather changes. They report that they cannot get out of bed, suffer from unrelenting pain, and are miserable in the United States. One moved to our little Mexican community while one stayed in America. The one here has seen marked improvement. She is more active and can get around better. The other one is just as miserable as we all were when we lived in the United States.

"México has some of the best climate in the world. It's located just far enough north in latitude to avoid the extreme heat and humidity that most countries have that are located closer to the equator. Yet it is far enough south to avoid the harsh winters that can hit much of the United States and Canada."

That was good enough for me. The illness from which I suffer is greatly improved here. The times I suffer the most are during the rainy season but that is relatively short compared to the rest of the year of perfect weather. The weather can be, however, a really party-pooper.

Blog Entry:

"The work on our next book has come to a screeching halt. No, it's not because of writer's block or some horrid disaster. We are holed up inside our Guanajuato apartment, in bed with the covers pulled up over our heads, because it is rainy season in central México.

We are writing a travelogue-memoir of the city of Guanajuato and its surrounding areas. We thought this was a great idea since one does not exist and because, in Guanajuato, it is so hard to find anything in this city-built-in-a-ravine that even maps are all but useless. So, we are using landmarks that any tourist can easily find and walking through the entire city in that fashion. I will keep you informed.

Meanwhile, one cannot be out doing the walking research when it is dreadfully cold (well, dreadfully cold for Guanajuato.) and raining.

Rainy season begins about the end of May and lasts until about the middle, sometimes the end, of September. It truly is weather paradise here until the rainy season starts. During December, for example, we finally relent and start wearing long pants and maybe, on some days, a long-sleeved shirt. Coats are rarely needed (at least by the expats), and we leave our windows open for all but a few days in January.

However, when rainy season hits, all bets are off.

You can have the hot rains.

You can have the cold rains.

You can just have the rains and the temperature doesn't know what to do.

Right now, we have the cold, pain-causing rains. You would swear it was a dreadful and dreary rainy day in October in Kansas City (the place from whence we came). It is terrible outside and the sun forgot to rise here today.

We feel sick. We feel like we've been severely beaten for something for which we are completely innocent. My poor wife is still under the covers and it is 4:12 p.m. Somehow, I am sitting at the keyboard but feeling like death is imminent.

The poor locals here bundle up like we would in Kansas City when we heard that an apocalyptic blizzard was on its way... one that would surely kill everyone and everything in its path. They put on heavy winter coats, long wool scarves, earmuffs, and I would suspect long underwear. But here's the deal.

"Guanajuato Weather: a Current condition as of 4:44 p.m. is 68 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy."

Here in almost weather paradise, we've become pansies. It is just 68 degrees and cloudy, but here we are calling for the end of the world.

But, that's what happens when you acclimate to having a near perfect weather paradise and some weak and emaciated clouds lower the temps to the unbearable.

Does this mean we're spoiled?"

If you end up choosing somewhere on the West or East coasts or in the Tabasco area to expatriate, you will find an altogether different weather wonderland waiting for you. Your health issues will determine whether or not you end up expatriating to a sub-tropical climate like Vallarta.

We were there for the first time during Christmas 2004. Let me tell you we felt like we were trying to breathe under water. The winter months are supposed to the be the best, which begs the question, "Just how bad is it in the summer months?" I will tell you how bad it is: much of the city clears out, at least the expats, and leaves for the summer. We have friends who come to San Miguel and Guanajuato to escape the unbearable heat and humidity.

The Christmas we were there, it was so hot and humid that we slept, if we could sleep, with a ceiling fan going on high and all the doors and windows opened. It was horrid. The sad thing is that I see the appeal of Puerto Vallarta and the coastal cities. But the weather is unbearable. And, December was supposed to be one of the bearable months.

It is like Hawaii's climate. And because it is so unbearable during the summer months, most of the tourists try hitting the beaches when we were there, December through January. There are about 25,000 expats living there who leave for most of the year because it is unbearable. I want to know, what is the point of that? Why have two expat homes? Why buy somewhere in Vallarta, or on the Gold Coast, and then have to vacate it during three or more months out of the year and go elsewhere, such as the Heartland of México? I know a lady who is looking for a place in San Miguel she can use when she flees Vallarta.

If you have respiratory illnesses, the coastal areas may not be for you. Also, arthritic illness will be much worse in these high humidity locations. The appeal is big. It is magic in these coastal American Expat Enclaves. There is no doubt in my mind about that.