departing in 5 mins 🕝

We arrived at this condo in Playa del Carmen at the beginning of the pandemic. Six months earlier in Buenos Aires, Aixa had pneumonia and now she wanted to get a lot of sun to fully recover,

We had a deluxe, ground-floor apartment at pandemic prices. The beach was closed, but, in the mornings, we went and stayed until the police politely asked us to leave. We also had the pool to ourselves most of the time.

We were isolated from others, but Aixa and I are each others’ best friends. I was as happy as I’d ever been. I thought we could live here for the rest of our lives.

By the end of the first month, we got sloppier with our social distancing. We started to make friends.

By the end of our third month, the condo was full. Playa del Carmen had come back to life. Meanwhile, my father was telling me how his friends in Florida were saying that the virus was a hoax and that Dr. Fauci was a fake.

Here we were, though, trying to navigate this pandemic with whatever valid information we could find, with our lives at stake. It wasn’t a political game for us.

If we caught the virus in Playa del Carmen, we would have been on our own. The hospitals were already overflowing. Mexicans were paying black market prices for oxygen tanks, and they were still hard to come by.

For us, it was time to leave Playa del Carmen to maintain some social distance. We don’t like highly social scenes anyway.

We paid a local fisherman for fresh mojarra, straight from the Caribbean.

This was the view from our beautiful Mexico City apartment. We were mostly isolated, but we were starting to take more chances. We became friends with Liliana & Jorge, the apartment owners. We also had Alejandra & Miguel, who we met in Playa del Carmen.

Mexico City is now referred to as CDMX. The city says they want it as a brand, like NYC. They’re even selling CDMX merchandise.

We bought a few pieces from this artisan, and he gave us this hand-painted clay cup as a gift. People are very friendly and giving in Mexico.

Mexico City is a safe place to live, and very walkable.

We loved San Miguel de Allende, a small mountain town in central Mexico. It’s very popular with ex-pats. During the earlier days of the pandemic, we were the only tourists in a boutique hotel. We loved our stay. This, I thought, would be a beautiful place to live.

Here’s Aixa telling me to take the photo already, just at the moment I pressed the button!

We went back to live in San Miguel de Allende for a month, but we didn’t like it. We met a New Yorker named Joe, and his Mexican wife Ana. Joe’s family had a pizzeria for three generations in upstate New York. He ran it, until they moved to San Miguel de Allende.

After a lot of experimenting, Joe learned how to make a good pizza at high altitudes, and with such different ingredients. His pizza was the best we had in Mexico.

Joe is part of the San Miguel Rotary Club. They raise money to help poor Mexicans build water tanks for their homes.

This Ensenada AirBnB was home for just two weeks. Here, we thought, we could enjoy a slow, Mexican lifestyle with the U.S. just an hour and a half away. We became friends with Alma and her Swiss husband Fredy. They lived in the apartment below ours.

Fredy and his brother used to be professional chefs. Fredy‘s brother worked in the White House for President Nixon.

Twice a week, I bought a bottle of local wine to share with Fredy after dinner. We’re still friends on WhatsApp.

Last week, I had dinner with an old friend. We’ve been friends since 1985. But even before I left NYC, I felt like we’d grown apart. Now, I felt even more distant.

Sometimes friendships end because the other person has changed, and sometimes they end because the other person hasn’t changed at all.

This is an early Edward Hopper sketch I saw at an exhibit in February.

We had our reasons for leaving each place, but honestly, I was happy everywhere. Aixa and I have shared so many life experiences and we’ve grown inseparable. It’s not about where I am, but who I’m with.

Behind us is the old South Street Seaport fish market. It’s now a food hall.