Gas Shortage in Mexico Could Affect Our Drive

A friend of mine recently reached out about a friend of hers who was driving through Mexico on his motorcycle and ran out of gas due to the gas shortage in Mexico happening now. Since Keith and I plan to drive for 4 days through Mexico I started searching for way to know who does and does not have gas on our route. 

Thankfully, Google to the rescue. It seems Google has added a feature to their maps where you just type in “¿Dónde hay gasolina?,” “¿dónde no hay gasolina?” and it will show you who does or does not have gas. I tried it and it's pretty cool!

There are also 4 apps that can also help with this and this article tells you all about it - I downloaded two of the 4 (Gasoapp and Gasolina MX), so here's hoping that we don't run into any issues along the way. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are a bit nervous of the unknown.

It's Official: I Have Lost My Visa

Don't I look thrilled?

Back in early October, Keith and I applied to renew our temporary resident visa for 3 years. One thing we have found to be consistent in Mexico is nothing is done in a timely manner. My visa is still in process. Keith however managed to get his renewed, a week ago. 

When you have a visa in Mexico you have to fill out exit documentation with immigration every time you leave. Since we have been waiting for ours to be renewed, we have had to buy exit visas every time we left since starting the renewal in October. You can't just leave, you need permission or you risk losing your visa.

Knowing we were leaving for 15 months we were trying to find out if that would affect the process since we wouldn't be in the country. It seems it would have... Apparently they need to take our finger prints again (really? It's not like they change from the last time we did them...) and then have a 2-3 week waiting period to get the card. With us leaving ay a specific date, the timing just didn't work. So, I can't wait any longer as we leave on Friday. So, today, I went and gave it up... 

I was there for 1.5 hours and walked out with a single piece of paper with my photo stating I am giving it up and I have 20 days to leave the country. Adios, Mexico! See ya in 2020!

Our Last Lol-Ha Happy Hour for Awhile

We have only one week before we take off for our big road trip - we are very excited and nervous! 

Since last night was Friday, we decided to visit one of our favorite hangouts, Lol-Ha, for happy hour with many of our expat friends. It was great to see so many familiar faces so we could say good bye for now and not for good.

It was a beautiful night and we opted to have dinner with our friends, Dave and Randi, at Lol-Ha. 

We are really going to miss everyone but we feel this little getaway will be good for us and just make us miss Mexico. Hasta luego, Mexico!

Finally Visiting Vallodolid & Casa de Los Venados

Keith & I have been wanting to go visit Vallodolid for awhile now but never seem to be able to successfully schedule a time to go. Our friends, Randi & Dave, have also been wanting to go so we finally were able to schedule an outing.

The drive from Akumal is only about 1.5 hours and you drive through a few small towns filled with local art stores (and lots of street dogs).

I had read about an American couple who bought a home in 2000 and remodeled it while filling it with Mexican folk art. They now own the largest collection of Mexican folk art, which I am a huge fan of, so I had to see it. They open their home up to the public at 10am for a few hours everyday and you can take a guided tour, for free.

When we arrived it wasn't quite 10am so we wandered around a bit looking at shops. Then at 10am we went back to Casa de Los Venados to join the tour. The tour was about 1.5 hours and we were walked through the house and given lots of information on the art, the owners and the home. They wouldn't tell me what the house was purchased for and I was kind of scolded for asking... at-least I felt like I was. The guide made a comment about how he had been told it was impolite to ask about how much people make, etc... Well yeah, that is. I'd never ask that question. Asking how much a home was purchased for, especially when it had been in rubble for about 80 years seems like a fair question. The house was fully restored and they put a ton of work into it to bring it back to it's glory. If only they had redfin or zillow here...

Cathedral in Vallodolid

Anyways, I loved the tour and all of the art. I was so inspired I had to find a few pieces for our own little collection we have here in Mexico and Lake Ozark. 

After the tour we had lunch at a local restaurant suggested by Linda, El Atrio. We had hoped to have some al pastor tacos but they didn't have any. I opted for melted cheese with mushrooms and chorizo and chicken panuchos. So good!

The rest of our day was filled with touring the cathedral, shopping and walking around the main square. It's a cute town and an overnight stay would be really fun. Maybe when we get back from our 15 month hiatus... 

Day of Relaxation at an All-Inclusive Resort

Photo courtesy of Linda

Every now and then it's nice to escape the ever day priorities and head to a local all-inclusive resort. With high season just now starting you can get good deals on hotels before it begins, so we did just that... Our friends, Paul & Linda, invited us to join them for a night at El Dorado Seaside Suites for a day of relaxing with great food and drinks.

After dropping Kevin & Jessica off at the ferry in Playa Del Carmen, we headed to the resort and checked in. The resort is BEAUTIFUL and they have some of the best food in the area. 

We were able to get a beach Bali bed as our room wasn't ready - all that means is laying in the warm sun while sipping cocktails to the relaxing beach sounds. Honestly, it's pure joy!

Keith taking a nap

We get laughed at when we post photos from resorts as people say we already live a vacation life, why do we need another vacation. Living in Mexico is nice but just like anyone we have errands to run, bills to pay, laundry to fold... So yeah. sometimes it's nice to get away from the norm and just do nothing.

Our little vacay consisted of eating, drinking, lounging, eating and then drinking more... It was delightful and not keto at all. Totally worth it!

Thanks Paul and Linda for the invite - as always, it was fabulous hanging out with you two! I am still dreaming about that dinner... #delish

Our 2nd Set of Seattle Visitors to Mexico

We were thrilled when our Seattle friends, Kevin & Jessica, reached out to come and visit for a few days. We hadn't seen them since we left Seattle over a year ago so it was exciting to welcome them to our new home.

After picking them up in Cancun we took them to one of our favorite local hangouts, Jungle Fish Beach Club, for dinner. We had our first (and only) "are you Keith and Tarah from House Hunters International?" moment. We all got a good laugh at that as it made us feel like celebs, for just a moment.

On Monday we went on a float through the Mayan canals, which was a first for Keith & I. We had no idea they were even there. We drove past Tulum about 15 minutes and met up with a guide who had us follow him on his scooter down the road a bit more and then down a dirt road heading towards the water. Once we parked we walked down the road another 10 minutes to a lagoon with some of the bluest water I have ever seen. We all hopped in a boat with Felix, our boat driver, and he drove us about 45 minutes into the lagoon to a dock. We all hopped out and were directed to check out the old Mayan trading post ruins. It was amazing to see how small the doorways were - we asked about that and Felix told us Mayans were very small and the doors show you just how small they typically were. Think 8 year old height... small.

The canal had a nice current so we all popped our life jackets on as diapers and jumped in. The water was a wee bit chilly but we adjusted quickly. I kept asking about snakes and alligators but was told they don't live there... OK, I'll go with that. I wasn't able to take any photos as I left my phone in the car to stay dry but these folks have a great write up about the float with amazing photos. 

The next day we all decided to go the Xcaret for a day of swimming and eating. We had never been there either and it was more fun than I had thought. Once we arrived we had a little wait to work on getting our local discount on our tickets but surprisingly we were able to get it and our tickets were 1/2 off the normal price.

The park contains a lot of birds and animals but the flamingos were my favorite as I had never seen them in real life. They are beautiful and weird birds. Xcaret was similar to our float but their canals don't have a current. You do wear a life jacket but if you just float on your back it's less effort of swimming through all the caves. The 4 of us had a great time. 

Kevin & Jessica were off to Cozumel the next day so we drove them to Playa Del Carmen to catch the ferry. Next up for us, El Dorado Seaside Suites for a night.

Our House Hunters International Viewing Party

Many of our friends who came but sadly not all are pictured.

When we found out the air date of our HHI episode, we just planned to watch it alone at home. But after much nudging and many requests, we decided to have our friends over to watch it together on our upper deck. 

Luis made us promise not to watch it before the party, which was very difficult as we managed to get our hand on the episode about a week before it aired. We lived up to our promise and didn't watch it until it aired on the 4th. (That was REALLY hard to do!)

I'm actually glad we didn't watch it as it made it all the more humorous to watch and laugh together with everyone. 

"Dream Killer" is now Keith's nickname and I can't tell you how many times people have said to me "does it come with the bar?". This might be in our top 10 of things we've done together.

Thank you to all who have been supportive of this adventure and didn't laugh at us too much for the show. ;)

Spoiler alert.... For those who don't know us and are wondering why we picked TAO, it was the community. Just look at all those smiling faces - who wouldn't want to live here?!

If You Missed House Hunters International...

House Hunters International - Adios to the Daily Grind

House Hunters International filmed us at La Buena Vida

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY - our episode of House Hunters International, "Adios to the Daily Grind", airs at 10:30pm EST on HGTV. 
We have 20+ friends coming over to watch it with us tomorrow night. Check back for pictures, our commentary/thoughts and I'll share the video a few days after it airs.

They wouldn't let me wear my t-shirts so I hope I get a few shout outs to my business, The Sweetest Tee. Fingers crossed!

Let us know what you think of the show :)

Happy Thanksgiving from Mexico

We have now celebrated Thanksgiving #2 in Mexico with friends. This Thanksgiving we enjoyed dinner at our friends, Randi and Dave's. 

Our local restaurant/beach club, Jungle Fish, made our turkey and we all brought our own sides. We actually had the opportunity to go a week before and try the turkey. They were kind enough to make two for us to try. We went with the traditional with white wine gravy but both were great! Tony is an amazing chef and comes up with great recipes.

I was in charge of bringing two desserts (brownies and a keto pumpkin cheesecake), but sadly, one (cheesecake) just didn't turn out as I had expected so Keith ran to the store and bought a cake. He's a life saver!

The night was a lot of fun! We ate and drank so much we left feeling happy yet overly full. It was a great day with friends and I am thankful to have been a part of fun a fun celebration! Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving too!

The Sunsets Here are Spectacular

House Hunters International

We FINALLY have an air date for our House Hunters International episode and we are very excited (and nervous) to see it.

We spent 5 days in May filming it here in Akumal. We also weighed 20lbs more than we do now and we couldn't change clothes for pretty much that whole time... Seriously though, this show is what made us realize how over weight we had gotten. We kept seeing ourselves and saying "OMG, we are going to be on TV looking like this". Then the following week we went to a friends wedding and saw pictures of us and were sure we needed to make a change.

Anyways, back on topic... On December 4th and 5th our episode will air on HGTV. They have called it 'Adios to the Daily Grind' - will you be watching?

I just hope we don't look like total jerks....

Keith Getting His 2nd Tattoo in Mexico

Keith has been wanting a new tattoo to cover up an old one he's had for many years. We have some friends who's cousin is a tattoo artist in Merida. He was in town so we met up so Keith could get his new ink. Just so happened it was on the upstairs area of Jungle Fish, which has an amazing view of the ocean. Not a bad place to get a tattoo!!

The tattoo took several hours and will have to be finished in a few months, but for now, it looks great!

Scuba Diving with Mom in Akumal

My mother came to visit for a week and all she requested to do was to go scuba diving. I was certified when I was 17 all because of her. It was very much a part of her life 15 or so years ago and she hasn't really been doing it at all anymore. Now that she is nearing 70, and with us living in Mexico, she really wanted to get back into it. 

We took her to Akumal Dive Shop and they took the 3 of us out to do a 45 min shallow dive. After she jumped in the water she had a mini freak out, which I can relate to as I did the exact same thing a few months ago when I first got back into the water with gear on. The guide calmed her down and helped her descend.

Once we were all on the bottom he held onto her until she was comfortable. We swam around for quite awhile and we were lucky enough to see two very large sea turtles, a lion fish, several parrot fish, trigger fish, angel fish and an old motorcycle. Apparently, where we went, they call it Motorcycle Alley.

Keith, Mom and Me with the motorcycle

Tarah's Ketosis Experiment - Fat Burning Machine

Keith and I started following a Keto diet on May 31, 2018. To date we have both lost over 20lbs and are still moving forward with our weight loss. We are not strict Keto as we do have some days where we eat carbohydrates, but honestly it's not often. We try and keep our carbs to around 20 grams a day. 

On a daily basis we drink Pruvit, which is a drink mix that has pure therapeutic ketones it and helps put our body into a state of Ketosis so we are burning fat as energy instead of carbohydrates. "Ketosis is a normal metabolic process. When the body does not have enough glucose for energy, it burns stored fats..."

Today I did an experiment to see if my body was in Ketosis. At 9:45am I tool my blood glucose levels and it was at 0.6. I then drank my Pruvit at 9:50am. At 10:50am I check again and I was at 1.8, I'm officially in ketosis! 5 minutes later I did it again and I was at 1.9. So as you can see, I was still climbing. I am literally a fat burning machine!!

Woohoo!!! Burn fat, burn! If you are interested in ordering a 10 day sample pack to see if it's a product that will work for you, shoot us an email!

We Made a Video

Keto Couple in the Riviera Maya

Not a photo we like...

So, a lot has happened in just a short week. Keith and I decided we have gained more weight that we care to admit, so it was time to make a change. After seeing several friends who are succeeding on the keto diet we decided to give it a try. In doing so we came across Prüvit and Keith started doing a lot of research about it, fell in love with it and signed up to be a distributor. Now he is nose deep learning all he can about keto and Prüvit. 

We have changed the way we are eating and actually getting out to exercise a bit more. We are posting about our journey in a few places, if you are interested in joining us or just following us. You can join our FB group Let's Keto Together, where we post recipes, talk about ideas, meet others, etc. We also have a Pruvit Riviera Maya page where Keith posts updates, videos and promos on products. We also have two Instagram accounts - one for Prüvit and one about our journey being Keto in the Riviera Maya.

Our Keto Breakfast

We are 6 days in and we have already been seeing great weight loss results. I have lost 4lbs and Keith is down 4.6lbs. We are planning our days out with MyFitnessPal, watching our macros and making sure we work together to get the results we both want. 

If you are interested in losing weight, join us! Motivation and community are a wonderful thing - let's do this!! 

Filming for ANOTHER Reality TV Show

Keith doing an interview

Keith and I were fortunate enough to be picked for a popular TV show and spent the last 5 days filming. During that time, we had the opportunity to go on a sunset sailing adventure, visit a local monkey sanctuary, film in one of our favorite restaurants, explore Playa/Tulum and just have a great time pretending to be actors.

Sadly, we aren't at liberty to say what show it is just yet until we have an actual air date... once we do we will be posting more about it. 

Elenor, the Monkey on my shoulder,
who pooped on me... yeah.

The crew was really fun to get to know and we learned so much about how these types of shows are created. We repeated things many times and shot them from several angles. We may not be seasoned TV stars but it gave me a greater respect for those that are - it's a lot of work and you stand for so long... It's exhausting work!

How did this happen you may be wondering... Well, we are in many expat groups on Facebook and had read that someone was looking for a couple who was moving to Mexico for casting. I sent a message to the women who had put up the posting and she messaged me the next day. The whole process started August of 2017. We had to put a lot of it off for awhile since we were in the process of getting ready to move and then our month long drive across the US. We stayed in touch with them the whole time though as I didn't want to be forgotten.  ;) 

Once we finally landed in Mexico, we started wrapping up the process to see if we would be selected. We had to send in a video of us talking about ourselves and what we like to do plus we had a few Skype calls and sent in loads of pictures... Once we got everything done and submitted we were informed on April 18th we had been selected. Originally we were going to start filming May 4-8th but we asked to move it out due to my surgery as it would have only been a week later and I wasn't sure what types of activities I would be cleared for. They were ok with that and May 12-16th ended up being the dates we were given. My Dr. wouldn't clear me for ziplining so we missed out on that but I think the monkeys made up for that.

To be continued...

Lights, Camera, Action - Our Opportunity to be TV Stars!

We recently had the pleasure of being a part of a pilot for a new potential expat show that is being pitched to the networks. They came to our home and filmed us answering questions and talking about our move to Mexico. We also had the opportunity to check out a local cenote we hadn't been to before where they filmed us jumping off the rocks and swimming. The crew was so much fun to meet and work with. We can't wait to see the final result and we hope the show gets picked up!

We had no idea when we moved down here that we'd have the chance to be on TV talking about this new life of ours. Funny thing is, a few weeks later, we were picked to be on a popular TV show that has to do with moving abroad. Not sure how much we can really say about that right now but we are really excited for this opportunity - more info to come!

We are trying to post videos of our adventures so our family and friends can see what we've been up to. Check out our YouTube Channel, we try and update it often.

Our Scuba Obsession!

Recently, I received my scuba certification and let me tell you it was the best, most exciting thing I've ever done. The class took about 2-4 hours for 4-5 days (not including the homework), but it was well worth it. Tarah has been certified for a long time, but it's been several years since she's gone diving. This has given us an opportunity to share a wonderful experience we both enjoy. Attached are a couple videos documenting our experience. Thank you Rob and Kris King for your drone video.

https://youtu.be/t-6PjfuBHHo
https://youtu.be/fNGZtcwYzoI