cat daily-life.md
The daily-life realities no relocation blog mentions
Tolls are pesos, cash, period. The highway toll booths take no dollars, no credit, no debit. Keep pesos in the truck or you're not going anywhere.
Parking costs money in Nogales. Almost everywhere — Walmart, Soriana, Ley, the mall. Here in Magdalena too. Small money, but it surprises Americans used to free lots.
City water runs twelve hours a day. Half of town gets it 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the other half 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. — Magdalena and especially Nogales. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has a storage tank and a pump. You stop thinking about it after the first month, but it's a real piece of infrastructure you own and maintain now.
There's no natural gas. Everything runs on propane, and when the tank runs low you call the truck. Filling mine costs about $3,000 pesos (roughly $170 at today's rate) and lasts three to four months. Budget for it, and don't discover you're empty on a Sunday night in January.
None of this is a complaint. It's the texture of actually living here versus visiting. The healthcare math is real, but so is the water pump — and anyone selling you the first without the second is selling you something.
# prices and exchange rates reflect my personal experience as of july 2026, at roughly 17.50 MXN/USD. recalculate before you trust the numbers.