Remember when I was all blasé about packing for Mexico? Super cavalier about how everything is available for sale, you won’t miss any conveniences from home? Turns out I was WRONG, because it is impossible to find…AVOCADOS.

I can hear you gasp in shock, but it’s true. Avocados are somehow hard to find here. Ok so technically there is a fruit and vegetable market that consistently has avocados (among other gorgeous fruits and veg) for sale…

And cereals — how do you buy your cereals…not in jars?

…but that amazing market is on the opposite side of the neighborhood from me. Between us lie many small mom-and-pop fruit shops….all apparently devoid of avocados.

Instead, I find avos for sale in the most unlikely of places. They’re tucked by the front register in a swimsuit store. Hidden behind tostadas in a cheese-and-also-chicken-feet-because-why-not shop. And once, stacked next to bread loaves in Oxxo, the ubiquitous convenience store of Mexico.

What avocados I do find are well worth the effort though, because of course they are consistently the best, most delicious avos ever. ????????????

All those avos are great fuel for my ongoing hiking adventures. Latest one was a trek from the surfer hub of Sayulita to the little town of San Pancho. How beautiful was the hike, you ask? About THIS beautiful.

My trail wound along the cliffs and beaches, hidden occasionally by hanging vines and overgrown trees.

Meanwhile, down on the gorgeous and totally empty beach…

Kinda a picture-perfect vacation spot. Although I’ve been thinking lately about the difference between vacationing and traveling, especially between vacationing and my kind of travel — aka working remotely on the road. Vacationing is about days of leisure and doing exactly what you want, whenever you want. My travel is a normal work day, just set in a remote location.

When I was in college, one of the dorm doors near me had a comic (maybe Far Side?) on it with two characters celebrating that travel would give them so many exotic places to enjoy their daily routine. That’s how I feel — travel is just taking my usual routine to new places. I still enjoy the same things…going running, catching sunrise, keeping up with friends and fam. After a long day of work, I still want to relax by reading a good book…I just happen to be reading in front of a gorgeous Pacific sunset view.

And just like back in San Francisco, many hills stand between me and said gorgeous view.

Oh, and I definitely share my daily commute with some different types of neighbors.

And the streets here are decorated with some of the brightest street art yet. I haven’t discovered it all, but there are some highlights so far.

So I guess my life here isn’t *exactly* the same as being back in San Francisco. But it’s got more in common than most people expect.