Plans change. My initial plan, before we moved to Mexico, was to buy a car/van as soon as we could and travel through Mexico a bit before settling down. Maybe even across the border if we felt like it.

These plans had to be changed by the mere fact that we haven't been able to buy a car yet. It'd have to be a van for all of us and our pets, and unless you want to drive around in a vehicle that's falling apart, there was nothing in our price range.
So I put this idea on the 'long run' shelf. It will come when the time is right.

source Edited in LunaPic

The Old

The apartment we're in was initially an Airbnb. I rented this for 6 weeks, from November till January because I didn't want to be faced with having to look for new accommodation around the holidays.
We then ended up extending the rent by 1 month, to 3 months at a time.
The neighbourhood we're in is reasonable, the kids have a lot of freedom here, and we have some pretty cool neighbours.

The kids made friends here, and that is why it has been hard for me to just pick up and move. However, we've all agreed that the house is just not good enough.
When we first got here, things were already falling apart.
Small things, like doors falling off the hinges in the kitchen...
Locks not working or door handles loose.
The lady that is managing the apartment, basically handed us the keys and left, without ever showing us around or how everything worked.

Because we were all tired, I never really looked around the house to see if everything was OK. So we ended up with a couch that was far below anyone's expectations.
It was dirty, let's keep it at that. I had it cleaned, but it still wouldn't hold up.
A fabric couch gets dirty easier once it's been cleaned...

We didn't use the oven for months, simply because we had no idea how to turn it on.
And I forgot to ask every time I saw the lady. So yeah, that's my fault.
I had to replace a shower curtain because it was moldy.
Not a huge issue, but still...This are all things that should have been in place before we moved in.

But all of the above is nothing compared to what else we were dealing with.
Because I refused to sign a one year contract, simply because I didn't know we were going to stay in Playa, every time we extended, they did something to the price.
Before we left for Acapulco, we agreed to pay 12k pesos for the next 3 months. When we came back, this changed to 13k. Her excuse was that the landlord changed his mind but personally I believe it's her pocketing the extra 1k.
There's no way of finding out for sure because all the dealings go through her.

Then we were dealing with bad internet for months, while she assured us it would be stable. We finally managed to change provider but it hasn't gotten much better.

There are many more things that could be mentioned, but I'll leave it at that.

Meanwhile, I've been looking for rentals but not actively because moving also costs money that I didn't have at the time.

My plan to have at least 6 months worth of rent in cash when we got here fell through because the shipping company that dealt with our pets basically screwed us over, charging me a lot more in the end than we agreed to initially. So I was going month to month, putting a lot of additional strain on me. And stress I didn't need.

Time to Move on

I knew it was time to make a choice. My kids also have friends outside of this little community. And it's always possible to meet their friends here. Just not every day.
Plus they will make more friends along the way.
We were planning to travel more first, and it would have had the same issues: that they'd have to make friends as we went.

The plan to travel is still on the books but for now we'll have to be content with short time travels...
It's fine.

So it wasn't until last week that I actively started looking for another place to live.
And then the perfect place fell right into my lap.

4 bedrooms, which means that the boys can share a room (the youngest is now sleeping with me), and my teen daughter can finally have her own room...for the first time in her life!
It also means that I will have my own room, without the roomie!
I mean, I love him, and it wasn't a big deal to me but it also meant having his clothes flying around my room, and his toys on the floor etc...
Now I will have my very own space, to do with as I please.
The luxury!
You should see the kitchen!😍

We'll have a small garden, and a huge rooftop.
Enough to grow at least a little bit of our own veggies & herbs.
It will definitely do until we can buy our own place, somewhere in the jungle...
At first we had to negotiate a bit about the price. But the owner was quite clear that she'd rather have someone for the year than vacationers moving in and out all the time, so she was quite easy to convince. It's still quite a bit more than what I'm paying now but I know it's going to be worth every penny.

The 20th of June is the moving date. Only a few weeks!

The first thing I will do is run around the house to take photos while it's empty.
You'll be the first ones to see them hehe.