de la Suède au Mexique

At HomeExchange, we like to give a voice to those who can speak best: our members. This story, written by Magda, a HomeExchange member from Sweden, tells how her family traveled for months and even found a school for their daughter on the other side of the world.

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Our idea for an adventure that was longer than a two-week vacation was born out of being overwhelmed by daily life – that’s when I thought “ Maybe we should drop everything and go away for a few months? ».

Questions started popping up in my mind:

• What to do at work?
• What should the school do? (Our daughter Marysia is 8 years old and education is compulsory in Sweden)
• What to do with the house?

Well maybe home exchange ? Without giving it much thought, I wrote a post in the HomeExchange Facebook group – maybe someone as crazy as us would be interested in a months-long home exchange. I got a few responses: France, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Denver, but we were looking for something more spectacular.

Some time later, I received a message from Adriana: “ Hi Magda! We are a family from Mexico who love traveling, we are interested in doing a 6-10-12 month exchange, our house is in Puebla and you can also spend your vacation in our beach house in Acapulco “.I thought wow – let’s do this!

Travel Preparation: School, Administration and Planning

This innocent conversation turned into our travel plans.

In order to take the next step and move from idea to execution, we need to find a suitable school This will be accepted by the Swedish education authorities and our daughter will Swedish Education Abroad Authorization.

Adriana helped us sort out all the details and obtain the necessary documents from her neighborhood school in Mexico – Theresa College We have approval from the Swedish authorities. Our crazy idea became a reality!

Together with Adrianna, we took the exchange and started planning! We begin our stay in Mexico with Adrianna Determine school subjects – Buy textbooks, uniforms, visit schools, meet teachers and make Marysia feel confident. We then went to Adriana’s home in Acapulco to take a break from the tour and relax before the next adventure.

Travel before the start of the school year

North America

Our exchange started during the holidays, so we planned to visit a lot of places in Mexico and beyond. After our stay in Acapulco, we packed our bags and, thanks to HomeExchange, set off on the adventure of a lifetime.

• First stop is Miami – Mark’s wonderful house is right next to Miami Beach (2 minutes from the beach!). We rented a car, visited Florida, and then we planned a wonderful Caribbean cruise – Ocean Cay, Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands. We had always dreamed of taking a cruise, but it seemed out of reach because it was so expensive. Being so close to Miami and since all our stays were organized through HomeExchange, we were able to save money to make this dream come true!
• Back in Miami, we flew to A few days in Cuba – Unfortunately, due to the political situation, there are no HomeExchange houses, so we stayed in a hotel. A great country, great people, but difficult emotions, difficult daily life, difficult political and economic situation. However, the atmosphere in Cuba and the openness of its inhabitants are extraordinary.

View of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Three weeks later we were back in Mexico – this time the Yucatan Peninsula. We still have three weeks of vacation left! We started in Cancun, then Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

Every house we stayed in was a vacation paradise, with multiple bedrooms, a swimming pool, and even an outdoor bathtub with a waterfall. this The advice of the owners is very valuable to us – This is why we love HomeExchange. We explore the world from a local’s perspective, we choose local places, local food, and we see the world through their eyes rather than through the eyes of tourists. Priceless value!

• Cancun Veronica’s house was our base for traveling to beautiful places in Yucatan, where we visited ancient Mayan cities, beaches, cenotes.
• Playa del Carmen Ernesto’s house had a rooftop jacuzzi and was right in the center of town, right next to the boardwalk and beach, so we had plenty of opportunities to play, move around, and enjoy tourist attractions. We also took a ferry to the island of Cozumel.
• tulum Reed’s house is an oasis for us, a house with a swimming pool in the middle of the jungle – what better place to relax at the end of a holiday? We also visited Chichen Itza, a pre-Columbian Mayan city that is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Start the school year in Puebla

Our Yucatan adventure is over – we’re back at Adriana’s home in Puebla to start the new school year. How exciting, new school, new friends, new subjects and a new language! We have some small concerns. After all, Marysia only has 8 ans. It turned out that these fears were completely unnecessary and teachers, children and parents all welcomed Maricia with great openness.

Additionally, thanks to our adventure, Maricia now speaks fluent English and continues to practice Spanish. The school in Mexico is a Wonderful language adventureLike international language camps, the difference is that you don’t need to pay for language study, hotels or accommodation.

Explore Mexico with GuestPoints during the school year

But the start of the school year doesn’t mark the end of our adventures – we use our days off and weekends to plan more house swaps through our program guest points (We collected enough money before leaving Sweden to travel freely to Mexico). Funny thing is, when I was planning a guest points redemption at our house, my husband would ask “ Why do we need so many points? We will never use them in this life. “.However:-)))

Puebla and surrounding areas

There are many attractions in Puebla and its surroundings, the beautiful old town, the historic center, Atrizco, Valquirico, Cholula, Cuernavaca, Popocatepetl Volcano – one of the most active volcanoes in the country and the smallest volcano in the world that you can enter, Cuiscomete. We were never bored for a minute.
Mexico is so diverse in terms of climate, culture, and geography that traveling around the country is fascinating.

san miguel de allende

The next place we visited for a few days and enjoyed the hospitality of HomeExchange was the town of San Miguel de Allende and Susan’s very cozy house. We have a swimming pool, a beautiful lemon tree, a rooftop terrace with views over the city and La Parroquia Cathedral – one of the most photographed churches in Mexico. In San Miguel de Allende we spend one of the most celebratory days of the year – mexican independence day.

There is a huge celebration in the town square with music, fireworks and shouts of “Viva Mexico!” This day will forever remain in our memories.

Ixtapa Zihuatanejo

We then returned to Puebla and planned another trip, this time flying to Ixtapa Zihuatanejo on the west coast of Mexico. Emilio’s house, located on the Pacific Ocean, spoiled us rotten every day, and my husband spent almost every night on the terrace listening to the sound of the ocean and waiting for the sunrise. This was literally a dream house, it was so wonderful and comfortable that during our stay we just went nearby to listen to a lecture on sea turtles and released baby turtles back into the ocean. Maricia is delighted!

veracruz

The next stop on our trip was Veracruz and Bernardo’s home.
It’s a very atmospheric place, renovated in a 19th century colonial style by a local Oaxacan artist known for his folk crafts, so you can imagine the apartment! During our exchange, Adriana and her family had to return to Mexico because their grandmother was ill, but with their permission we were able to stay in their house. It was an opportunity to get to know each other better – we spent a few evenings together established friendship. HomeExchange is our second family and I can’t wait for us to meet again somewhere in the world or plan another trip together.

acapulco

Our final destination was Acapulco, where we happily returned to catch the last rays of sunshine with our friends who had come to visit us in Mexico. Ron’s house is a real gem and the icing on the cake for us, with 1400 m2, seven luxurious bedrooms, two swimming pools overlooking the bay and La Roqueta Island.

Our adventure is marked by the Day of the Dead, a celebration of death, color and joy, which is very important in Mexican culture. We planned a traditional makeup look with friends, booked a restaurant, and spent the day with the local community.

Summary of our family trip to Mexico

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see everything in Mexico, but I’m sure we’ll be back to enjoy more of the riches this country has to offer. I think I should also mention Safety – A lot of people ask us this question. We spent several months in Mexico and nothing bad happened, the country is huge and of course there are dangerous places but you just have to use common sense.

To summarize, in our exchange We visited 2 continents, 9 countries and 15 homes via HomeExchange.

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PS We can’t wait to go to Thailand for Christmas and New Year, where we will spend three weeks in Guillaume’s beautiful apartment in Koh Samui.