Background: 34 year old American, lived in 4 countries for a year + (USA obv, Quebec, France, and New Zealand). Not too interested in living in the USA and those other places were either too cold (Montreal) or too difficult to obtain a long-term visa (France and New Zealand).

So I started looking into Latin American destinations (Medellín, Lima, and Mexico City mostly) and decided to try out Mexico City ("CDMX" from here on out) for a month and then make a decision. Well, I've been here a week and completely love the place, so I'll be making a permanent move here soon.

Safety: Whenever I tell friends/family I'm going to Mexico, obviously safety is the first thing that comes up. "You'll be killed!", "It's too dangerous", "In my opinion it's worse than Isis" (from an uncle who probably hasn't ventured out of the Midwest). After a week here, I haven't felt threatened or unsafe a single time and I've walked through quite a few neighborhoods day and night and rode on the bus/metro a handful of times. Yes, there are tons of horrible areas (like almost every big city), but I would have no reason to ever go to them anyway.

Cost of Living: This is one of the huge advantages of CDMX compared to the West. The best tacos you've ever had are about .75 each, a metro or bus ticket is .25, a huge coffee or tea $1.25, a 15 minute Uber ride is $2, etc. Grocery store prices are roughly similar to a cheapish USA city. And rent prices are where you'll spend most of your money. I'm paying $600/month for a fully furnished 1BR AirBNB in a very safe and centrally located part of CDMX. You could go up to the $1k range and get a small place in one of the best neighborhoods, and obviously go much, much lower if you want to save money and risk it in a more dangerous area. Roommates is also an option obv.

Entertainment/Nightlife: I'm not super into nightlife, but have visited a handful of cool bars, and from what I've heard nightlife here is amazing and isn't concentrated in one specific area, there are tons of hotspots.

CDMX is either #1 or #2 for most museums in the world, is littered with awesome architecture, archealogical sites, several unique and interesting neighborhoods, etc. This is the main thing that sets CDMX apart from a city like Medellín. You will never run out of things to do, no matter where your interests lie. There are also tons of interesting, medium sized Colonial cities that range from 1-4 hours away by bus. Flights from CDMX to anywhere in Mexico are almost nothing, you can even fly to Bogotá nonstop for about $100 each way, and there are tons of nonstops to USA/Canada, LatAm, and Europe.

Girls: OK, obviously Mexican girls can not compare with Colombian girls in the looks department. In CDMX, if you wander thru el centro, it is difficult to find more than a couple cute girls. However, when you go into the posh neighborhoods there are many more. I've yet to visit Medellín, but from what I hear hot girls are everywhere.

In CDMX though, Tinder is a freaking goldmine. I pipelined a bit before arriving, and had 250 matches within a week. I've set my search radius to 10 miles, and each day there are 75-100 new girls. I'm a 5'11" slightly above average looking white guy and I would say I could easily date 3-4 7s or 8s per week for an entire year. There are just an overwhelming number of girls and since Mexico City has the (unfair) reputation of being dangerous, most westerners never venture beyond the touristy beaches. As such, you actually have a shot with the upper tier girls, and usually they are well traveled, well educated, and have good paying jobs (relatively speaking).

You can read more about my first week of dating exploits in the OOT Online Dating thread, but I'll try to post more of that content here.

I'll post some pics of girls I've been seeing and some of the sites (of which I've seen maybe 10% even though I've done a **** ton of exploring, there is just so much to see) in the next few posts.

Girls! A sampling of the girls I've either already seen or matched with and will hopefully see soon. I'm not comfortable putting faces up of girls I am still seeing or might see.

Girl on the left I had a pretty good date with last weekend that ended in a short makeout. Middle girl is totally my type because I'm really into skinny girls, we're meeting this weekend. Far right is a model/actress that has been difficult to set up a date with so I'm probably just gonna move on b/c there are plenty of other options.



Probably the hottest girl I've ever matched with in any city. We've got a coffee date Friday:



Girl I saw once and got along with well, but seemed too conservative, so I won't be seeing again. Some Mexican girls are traditional/conservative, but many are just like girls in more feminist countries (i.e. left, non-religious, open about sex), and I've had a few average looking girls offer to come straight over to my place.

I post her face b/c A. I'm not seeing her anymore and B. As a reference point for looks. I would say she's about in the middle as far as girls I'm seeing. Note: pic is filtered and her skin was noticeably worse in person, so not as hot in person.



2 of my newer matches with great legs that I'll hopefully meet this week:




Used a "Super Like" on this girl and it paid off with a match! Usually I've been using my Super Likes on girls that are slightly out of my league that might normally pass me over.

Subbed, and looking forward to photos of the city, surrounding area, living quarters, and overall city. Best of luck in your journey. Any tips on banking, and overall travel tips would be cool.

What do you do for a living, and how are you able to live outside the US for so long? I would love to travel for months on end, but I feel like I'm anchored to the job, car, and house.

Re: Banking, no clue as I don't think I'll need a Mexican bank account for the foreseeable future.

Re: Travel tips, I'd be glad to try and help if there's something specific you needed help with.

I've played online poker for ~10 years, so that's been my primary method of funding my adventures.

Here's what I've got so far for pics. Keep in mind I've only scratched the surface of what the city and surrounding areas have to offer.



El Bosque de Chapultepec: Mexico City's massive central park (twice the size of Central Park in NYC). It has tons of great museums, a few lakes, a cool castle atop a hill with great views.

Walking in from the main entrance:


Monument dedicated to the Niños Heroes. Apparently a group of kids who were some of the final defenders when the USA attacked Mexico City. Legend says some of them jumped off the castle to their death rather than surrender:


One of the lakes:


Views of the city as you go up the hill:


The main view from atop the castle looking down el Paseo de la Reforma, a long avenue loosely-modeled after the Champs-Élysée in Paris:




Polanco: Just north of El Bosque you have the neighborhood called Polanco. I saw more Ferraris, Lambos, and Maseratis here in 10 minutes than my entire life growing up in Omaha. Super posh area, with luxury shopping, great bars and restaurants.







Paseo de la Reforma: Huge avenue that spans from El Bosque to El Centro. Also, the main financial district and lined with some pretty impressive skyscrapers. El Paseo is dotted with cool monuments, trees, and sidewalks.

The emblematic Ángel de la Independencia:


Fountain of Diana:


Shameless brag, a girl I was on a date with works right on top of El Paseo and took me up to her office for a nice makeout session with some views:




Parque Alameda and Palacio Bellas Artes: El Paseo ends and then immediately you run into the Parque Alameda and the Palacio de Bellas Artes next to it. The Bellas Artes building is one of my favorite I've seen in any city.

Monument to Benito Juarez in the park:


Palacio de Bellas Artes:




Zócalo (el Centro): After the park you reach the historic center of México, el Zócalo. You could easily mistake it for a Euro city center with the vibe. Just check out the awesome opening scene of Spectre for a better look.







Basilica de Guadalupe: My lady friend/guide tells me it's the 2nd most visited Church after St. Peter's.





La Condesa/La Roma/Zona Rosa: There are several upscale (thought not as much as Polanco) neighbourhoods. Condesa is probably the nicest, Roma is more hipstery, and Zona Rosa is the gay district and has more of an urban feel.

A taste of the architecture in la Roma, has a very French feel:


Tons of streets like this lined w/palm trees and full of great bars and eateries:




Well, that's what I have for now. Soon I'll try to visit Santa Fé, a neighborhood possibly even richer than Polanco, but only accessible by car and far away from the center. Also on the agenda is Teotihuacán, an ancient site with awesome looking pyramids, and Coyoacán, an area to the south that I think has a more colonial vibe to it. Also gonna catch at least 2 Liga MX matches, 1 in the famous Azteca featuring Club América, and a Pumas home match.

All that being said, this is Mexico City, so obviously there are some super ****ty areas, but it's also easy to avoid them, and I have no reason to every visit them. Out of sight, out of mind. El centro and all the more upscale neighbourhoods take up a massive area that you'd never get bored of. So safety-wise, I've yet to feel remotely threatened after 10 days, and I've been to a handful of less savory areas and used a lot of public transport.



Must-see Specte opening scene: I have to admit, I was ignorant about Mexico City and would have instantly assumed it was terrible, but this movie was a brilliant marketing campaign for the city and started me researching more about it, only to find out that a ton of travelers love the city.

Wow, looks like a lot of cool places to explore. Do you know Spanish? Is it a requirement to really navigate different areas?

My Spanish is intermediate, and I'm studying about an hour a day. I wouldn't say a requirement, but it would probably limit your experience quite a bit. You could probably find plenty of girls who would be happy to speak English, but you'll be limiting yourself to a handful of neighborhoods.

Seems like you have seen quite a bit for only being there a week. What resources would you recommend for a beginner to learn Spanish? What does your daily routine look like while being there?

Nice thread. Will definately follow. I appreciate every Attempt to advertise great Places with a wrongly sinister Image. Latinamerica has tons of these.

Could you give some vague examples for cost-of-living ?

Yah, I usually do a ton of walking around and exploring. I was pretty exhausted after the week though especially with the adjustment to the altitude here.

I like using Duoling for the grammar basics then I use sites like Speaky to find partners to practice speaking/writing with or italki if you want to hire a teacher like $3-10 per half hour (depending on quality of teacher).

Well, for now I'm only staying until March 6, so I wouldn't say I have a daily routine yet b/c I'm still in tourist mode. But I love the city so much that I'm officially coming back in May and have already booked a place for 6 months on AirBNB.

Yah, the perception of Mexico City seems criminally unfair. I have to admit, it wasn't even on my radar of places to go as of a year ago and I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable traveler. I'm really excited to use this city as a base to explore more of LatAm.

Re: cost of living

Your main expense if gonna be rent. It's the main area where prices are close to western level. I'm renting a fully furnished, large 1 BR (large kitchen, bathroom, and living room) in a nice neighborhood (but not 1 of the top 3 nicest), for $900/month. I feel like it's a pretty good price considering all bills are included and the place is fully furnished. You could maybe get that amount down to $600/month if you downgrade neighborhoods, while still being in a safe area. I probably wouldn't go much lower, and roommates is an option too to lower costs. I always prefer living alone though.

Public transport is basically free. 10 metro or bus tickets will cost you $2.50. Uber costs very little. All my rides in-city have been $2-5, even from the airport was only $8. You can grab a huge coffee for $1.25-$2 in even the nicer cafes (like the one I was in with a sick view of Bellas Artes). You could eat delicious street food for extremely cheap (3 or 4 tacos for like $2.50). Tons of cheaper restaurants with lunch or breakfast menus are $5. Upscale restaurants and bars tend to have food/drink prices more in-line with the West, but it's also easy to find cheaper (but still delicious) restaurants and cheaper bars with $2 beers.

Grocery store prices tend to be similar or slightly cheaper than what they are in a city like Omaha, Nebraska. Convenience stores are super cheap. A big bottle of coke is like .50, bottled water is extremely cheap, and I drink exclusively that b/c supposedly the tap water is questionable. Clothes prices seem similar. Entertainment stuff seems about half price compared to a normal western city. Cinema tickets are $3-4, same with quality museums.

That's about all I can think off the top of my head, but should give a general idea. If there's anything specific, feel free to ask.

Tinder has still be pretty insane. I've been ignoring matches with girls who would be among my top matches when I lived in Lyon. I kinda burned myself out the first 14 days with dates, so now I'm doing about 1 every other day. Slept with 2 girls, a handful of makeout sessions. I would however, like a LTR when I return permanently in May, but for now it's been enjoyable meeting cute girls who like showing off their city (especially to Gringos). I think they really appreciate Western guys who show a genuine interest in their language and country.

Bonus: Matches with this cute 41-year old with a body that would post most 20-year olds to shame. Haven't fired off my opener yet, but hopefully all goes well. I'd say of the upper echelon girls I've been matching with, about 65% of those will respond to the open and of those, I could get 75% on a first date (but don't have time for them all so I let some convos die out).

It still surprises me how cheap stuff is here.

I wanted to find a private tutor, and found a university girl (not that attractive, don't get ideas) off a website who will come to my place for $5/hour. So I've been practicing Spanish an hour a day and it's been helpful. She says she travels 30 min. each way. So she's making $5 for 2 hours out of her day. I'll probably give her a few extra pesos at the end b/c I feel a bit bad.

Before yesterday's lessons I needed a pen, so I ran to the convenience store to get 2 bottles of water and 2 pens. Thought the guy was gonna fleece me for a box of pens and say $4. Nope, happily grabs a blue and black pen for me and throws them in for free. Total cost for 2 bottles of water and 2 pens: 50 cents.

How easy is it to set up a Pokerstars or Party Poker account over there? And any live games or tournies going? Sweet thread I sub

I'm not the person to ask b/c I've only been here a couple weeks. When I return in May for good, I'll set up a Stars account and possibly Party. From what I gather it must not be too difficult. There are (or were) large poker communities in Playa del Carmen and Rosarito.

For live, I haven't looked into too much, but apparently there's at least 1 casino that spreads a couple games. I don't play live much, but it doesn't seem like Mexico is the place to go for live players.

Posting to subscribe in epic bread

I will have to give Duoling another try. Do you go back to the States, or will you travel to another location until May?

What are the top 3 things, and what are the top 3 worse things about CDMX?

I leave Mexico City March 6 and will go to Playa del Carmen for 2 weeks, back to the USA for 2 months, then back to Mexico City to live permanently in May.

The 3 worst things are:

1) Traffic - Although it doesn't affect me as much since I play poker from home.
2) Noise - There are dumbasses who go around in the streets shouting at 8-9 AM every morning selling crap or picking up trash or whatever
3) Pollution/contamination - There's a lot of smog and sometimes I feel like it messes with me a bit (random cough or my eyes burn from dust).

Other than that, there isn't really much I can complain about.

Hard for me to narrow it down to my top 3 things, so I'll just list a handful of things I like.

1) The food - So delicious and you can eat for next to nothing if you want.
2) Walkability/transportation - You don't need a car, you can walk for everything or take the metro or grab an Uber than costs next to nothing.
3) Girls - They aren't nearly as hot as Colombians, but you actually have a chance with the top tier Mexican girls here, who are smoking and really into white guys since there aren't many in Mexican. The girls I've been on dates with here are waaaay hotter than girls I could get dates with in France, USA, or New Zealand. There also isn't nearly as much as a socio-economic divide as I thought. Most of the girls I'm dated have solid jobs, are highly educated, cultured, and well-traveled. From what I've read about Medellín,

I would almost venture to say that the girl situation is better here. Sure there is far more eye candy in Medellín, but it sounds like unless you're ridiculously loaded or handsome, you don't have a shot with the hotter girls. The gringo effect is played out and must have a bad rep as sex tourists. There also seems to be a pretty big economic divide with most girls, so you never know if they're just looking for a ticket to the USA. Most of the girls here love Mexico City and have no interest in moving away. This is a bit of conjecture on my part, I'm looking forward to visting Medellín soon and finding out for myself.

4) Weather - During the day the highs are 70-80 year round. Doesn't get an A though because it cools off too much at night and can be chilly.

5) Culture - Has a **** ton of museums, theaters, concerts, stadiums, arenas, basically anything you could want to do, Mexico City probably has it.

Honorable mention: History, architecture, warmth/friendliness of people, cost of living

Subbed!

Dont forget to make us jealous with food porn post

This makes me want to move there too. It has the normal negatives of a big city, but way more positives! I have a noob travel question. You say that you use Tinder quite a bit. Do you use an American phone plan and pay for International, do you buy a phone there and use local service, or do you just use wi-fi?

I have a Verizon plan and added some int'l. feature that allows usage in Mexico. However, it doesn't work all that well. Once I come back permanently I will be getting a Mexican plan.

BTW, I post most of my dating exploits in the "Online dating thread" over in OOT. Don't really wanna be posting the same thing twice, so I'll probably keep this thread more focused on the city unless people want to ask specific questions about women here in general.

Dating here is waaaaay easier than in France. I'd say I'm about a 6 in looks, but there aren't many gringos here and they're super highly valued. On Tinder there are about 100-150 new girls every single day. I could easily get as many dates as I wanted with 7s-8s as I wanted. My success rate at getting 2nd dates is 100% (in France more like 40-50%). Girls here in Mexico that I would like to meet, but just don't have the time for are hotter than a lot of the girls I ended up going on dates with in France. Some of the girls were pretty average (a few 5s, a lot of 6s). So basically, you can easily date up in Mexico. Whatever type of girl you can match with in USA/Europe, you can probably add 2-3 pts. to that in Mexico. And it will be far easier to keep them interested.

Oh and the girl in post #2 I described as "probably the hottest girl I've ever matched with in any city" and I have been on 2 dates. 2nd date went really well, lots of making out, she seems really into me. Great personality, insane body, but face isn't quite as cute as I initially thought (I thought it'd be a 9, but more like a 7). Still an all around great girl that I could see myself settling down with if things keep going well.

Also had a date with the middle girl from the first pic. I really like skinny girls and she's pretty cute also. I thought the date went terrible b/c my Spanish is mediocre and she speaks fast and we were in 2 loud places. Even she wants to see me again. I thought the date was going nowhere said I was just telling her some of my other dating exploits. I think it probably worked in my favor as it made it seem like other mexicanas are after me. Not sure if I'll see her again or not.

My other main prospect is a super petite (she might not even weight 90 lbs. honestly), really cute girl. We've had 1 date, it went very well, she's super in to me, commented positively on my looks ~5 times, and said she wanted to kiss me (she rebuffed 2 of my attempts), but she has a "boyfriend" in Portugal who isn't even returning to Mexico any time soon. She messaged me today trying to set up a date, and I think she might have broken up with the bf and she'll probably try to pursue me.

Oh, I almost forgot a pretty good dating story:

Matched with a 33-year old girl. I could tell her views were somewhat traditional/conservative. But on the first date she was pretty open to physical contact and about an hour into the date we were making out and continued off and on for another hour. Date 2 we meet up again and spend most of the date making out. She won't really let me progress to groping her butt or breasts though. Eventually she tells me that: A) She's still a virgin and B) I'm the first guy she's ever kissed that she didn't know for at least a month. She said she had an Italian boyfriend for 1.5 years that apparently she didn't sleep with. Funny thing is that she's a tremendous kisser which would be highly unexpected for a virgin.

After date #2, I told her I didn't see a serious relationship in our future b/c our worldviews are too different. She's cute and also super petite (probably weighs less than 90 lbs., recurring theme), but I didn't want to lead her on thinking a LTR was possible. She's a huge soccer fan so I invited her to a Club América match as "friends". I wasn't planning on making out with her, but on the metro to the match I put my face close to hers and she initiated a kiss. She kept saying stuff like "so are we friends? or more?". I didn't bite and say we were more, but we have good kissing chemistry so she continued. She's obviously the type of girl who isn't gonna let me go further without a commitment, but I'm not gonna lie just to get more action.

Anyway, just thought it was kind of funny, a 33-year old virgin, A++ kisser is probably quite rare.

She ain't no virgin.

Well, I'm just going off what she says. She claimed it on date 2, then on date 3 I said "come on, you're not really a virgin" and she replied "I am, I swear!". I don't really care either way.

To give a better idea on quality of women here since I don't want to put faces of women I'm actually seeing. Here are a couple women I matched with and messaged a bit, but then decided not to see b/c my week was already full.

I would rate them in the 6-7 range and in France or USA they would be among my best matches and I'd be dying to see them, but here there are so many girls and match quality is higher, so they don't quite make the cut.

Went to Teotihuacán this afternoon with the 33 year old virgin. I believe it had the largest population of any pre-Columbian city at 150k and has a series of awesome pyramids that fortunately the Spanish left untouched. Usually they tried to destroy anything non-Catholic, but at the time this area was deserted so they didn't see it as a threat. The restaurant is called La Gruta (Spanish for grotto) and was a really cool setting and really cheap for the quality of food: 2 entrees, 2 drinks, and 2 main dishes were only ~$32 total.

Ended up going with the 33-year old "virgin" who I think I've mentioned once or twice. Basically we make out a lot, hold hands, she hugs me a lot, but won't allow anything further until married. She claims she never masturbates (possibly never in her life), which I find hard to believe. Mostly it's a friendship of convenience b/c she's often free during the afternoon when most other girls I'm seeing have to work, so it's cool to check out some new places with her.


Pic from the 2nd largest pyramid facing the rest of the complex:



Wore my Club América shirt and ran into a fan of Costan Rican team Saprissa, so had to take a pic holding their flag. The 2 play each other tomorrow in a Champion's League match at Azteca:



La Gruta:



Pic isn't very good, but I ordered some barbacoa that you put in a soup (that I forget the name of) that was freakin' delicious. My friend ordered a mole poblano that was pretty good also:

That's good to know phone service. Will you create a new thread for your May move, or will you keep this one going? I'll have to check out OOT if the stories are as good as these.

Good food and sight seeing. Keep em coming