OK, so I got stalled with the whitewater rafting Huasteca posting.  I’m not sure why, but it was just case of writer’s block.  So, we are moving on to different subjects now. 

Many Canadians have the idea that Mexico is this beautiful sunny warm country of beaches and all-inclusive resorts and that living here must be like being on a holiday 24/7.  Sadly, none of this is true.  Just like in Canada there are lots of different climates from the hot sunny places where it really is 33C and sunny almost every day to the places of the country where it actually SNOWS.  We live somewhere between the two.  During the summer months (April to about October-ish) the weather is quite nice.  I would hazard to say, perfect.  We have beautiful days where it’s sunny and 28-32C every day and then it cools down to 10C at night.  It’s wonderful because you don’t need air conditioning, you just open up the windows once the sun goes down and our house cools off.  The reason it gets so cold at night is because we live at just over 6,000 feet altitude.  Once the sun goes down, the temperature quickly drops.  There are areas of the country at higher altitude that face these similar temperature swings.  The other thing to note is that although it will be 32C during the day here, the morning will start cool and it will be a gradual increase with the temperature peaking at 32C around 4 PM.  It’s never 32C at 10AM here. 

During the winter months the average temperature is right around 20C but again, it’s a gradual peak throughout the day and the night time temperatures hover around 0C.  I know this isn’t Canadian winter cold, but here’s the catch:  we have no central heating.  That means that you rely on small, relatively ineffective space heaters to heat a single room.  All houses here are made of brick/cement block with cement over top—once they get cold, it’s almost impossible to heat them up during the winter.  So, while in Canada it might be –20C outside, the inside of your house is a balmy 18-20C.  However, when you’re where we live in Mexico, it might be 0C outside at night and it’ll be 12C INSIDE the house.  I’m not kidding. 

This winter was an unusually cold here.  There was actually snow in the foothills about 30 minutes outside the city.  Highways were closed just north of us because of the snow.  It was cold.  It was 12C in my office cold.  The worst part for me was that I spend all my day home and you can only put on so many layers and you still can’t get warm.  Some days I had so many layers on I felt like that kid in A Christmas Story.  I drank lots of tea to keep my insides warm.  Imagine stepping out of a hot shower into a bathroom that cold.  It was miserable.  The only opportunity to take the chill off the house was when it would warm up and get sunny in the afternoon and I could open the doors and let a bit of heat it.  Fortunately the cold doesn’t last too long but there were definitely times I just wanted to say forget it and check myself into the local hotel to get warm. 

Luckily, it’s been warm for about 5 weeks now and I’m really enjoying the sunny weather.  It feels so good not freezing my butt off.  I can go outside and lay in the hammock and enjoy the afternoon sun.  I’m spending my days soaking up this wonderful weather but in the back of my mind, I know that it’ll get cold again.  So yes folks, when I complain about how cold it is here, don’t get bitter and tell me how it’s –20C outside because at least you can go inside, take off your coat and be comfortable.  Think of me, while I’m sitting in my office with 4 different layers on practically perched on a space heater praying for March to come.