traveler1116/Getty Images
- My husband and I rent an apartment on the northern coast of California and own a home in Mexico.
- We live in Mexico's Guanajuato part of the year and love its walkability and vibrancy.
- We also enjoy spending a lot of our time in our apartment near the beach in Eureka, California.
My husband and I, who are 82 and 73 respectively, love being renters — but we also own a home outside of the US.
For over 20 years we've split our time between our rented apartment on California's northern coast and our 150-year-old adobe house in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Fortunately, both my husband and I are writers who can work from anywhere. We often spend spring, summer, and fall in California before heading down to Mexico around Thanksgiving to live in our house until it's time to fly back.
By splitting the year between the two places, we get to live bicultural, bilingual lives.
Our neighborhood in Guanajuato is walkable and vibrant
MARCO BOTTIGELLI/Getty Images
We first came across Guanajuato in 1999 while traveling throughout Mexico and visited it several times before buying property there in 2005.
The charming, colorful town is a walker's dream, with an abundance of pedestrian areas, winding alleys, and vibrant architecture.
Our home is on a pedestrian street just minutes away from shops, theaters, and the central park. We love the city and the fact that we can walk out our front door and hike in the hills above town in 10 to 15 minutes without a car, bus, or bike to get us to the starting point.
In Mexico, I speak the mellifluous Spanish language every day. After many years of study and practice, I'm fluent, but that doesn't mean I have nothing left to learn. Once a week, I see my tutor, who is also my cultural interpreter and friend.
Our town in California has its own charms and perks
Backyard-Photography/Getty Images
Although nowhere I've ever visited can match Guanajuato's vibrancy, I also appreciate the unique features of our walkable neighborhood in Eureka, California.
There, we rent a two-story, one-bedroom apartment 10 minutes from the ocean — fortunately, our rent has only raised in small increments over the 23 years we've lived there.
Our cozy, loft-like space is a block from Humboldt Bay, where my husband and I explore funky old wharves, marinas, pilings, and docks a few times a week — he in his kayak, me on my paddleboard.
We rarely drive, instead walking to the local library, cafés, and the supermarket. When I need to reach neighborhoods that are too far to get to by foot, I ride my new e-bike.
I also love Eureka's quirky Victorian architecture and the northern coast's cool, cloudy weather — a far cry from the extreme heat found in other parts of California.
Having 2 lives isn't always easy, but we love it
We've been yendo y viniendo (coming and going) for almost 20 years, and I couldn't ask for a more stimulating lifestyle.
Sometimes, it's tough living two different lives — we can't expect friends to keep up with our schedules, so we have to take the initiative to connect with people after we've been away no matter where we are.
We have two spaces to take care of, but we're lucky to have friends and hired help who can check on our home and water our plants.
Our home in Mexico is old, which means it requires a lot of ongoing maintenance. Fortunately, we've got a skilled contractor who can fix just about anything.
Flying back and forth can also take a toll on us since Guanajuato is almost 7,000 feet above sea level and Eureka is barely above it. It usually takes us a couple of days to adjust to Guanajuato's elevation once we arrive from California.
But at the end of the day, we live in a funky coastal neighborhood in the US for some of the year — and a vibrant town in Mexico for the rest. What more could I want?