Hi everyone! We’re Julie and Stan, old newlyweds from Nashville, Tennessee, currently in Puerto Vallarta. We married in January 2020 and expected to start a travel lifestyle that spring, but we all know why that didn’t happen! After lockdown eased up in 2021, we sold the house and left for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in July. We hope to have 3-4 month stays in interesting (and inexpensive!) places around the globe for the next 10 or so years, and house/pet sitting seems like a fun addition to our plans.
Stan is a pharmacist currently doing computer programming and research. I (Julie) am a lawyer trying my hand at creative writing. Between us we have six adult kids and a love for dogs and cats. About the only negative in our global travel life is that it’s not very conducive to bringing a pet, so I hope we can get our furry fixes via TrustedHousesitters.
Thanks for having us here; I look forward to being a part of this community and sharing experience and knowledge. Best wishes!
Julie
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Well hello there! My hubby Mark and I have been doing some serious research about ex-pat life in Mexico. How is Puerto Vallarta treating you? 
We have only been to the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo, but I have interest in looking at San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro City. He’s been looking at La Paz as well.
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Hi @RamblingRose a very warm, if not belated welcome to our community forum … love the name, thank you for joining us from Puerto Vallarta and for a great introduction … you have really chosen an amazing lifestyle when travel is back to “normal” whatever that looks like, the opportunities are there for pet and housesitting to be whatever you want it to be.
I have been on this journey since TrustedHousesitters started, pet sitting and working remotely from my Vancouver, Canada home across 5 continents too many sits to count and a plethora of adorable pets from cats, dogs, chickens, horses, goats, pigs, fish, birds, to homes of every shape and size, plants and gardens that my husband cared for with his green, green fingers.
Welcome again, enjoy connecting wit our members from around the world and we can’t wait to share in your next amazing THS journey.
Angela and the Team
Hello, @Angela_L ! We’re excited to be here and hope for many good experiences through TrustedHousesitters. Thanks for the warm welcome!
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You are welcome and I forgot to say I am currently in Scotland … a COVID “immigrant”
Hello @mattersfact2 ! Stan and I have been in PV since July, and we really love it here. The Pros: lovely, sweet people; inexpensive cost of living if you aren’t in search of luxuries; very large and supportive expat community. The Cons: summer and fall are VERY hot and VERY humid, and A/C isn’t standard anywhere; electricity is the one utility you’ll almost always have to pay separately when renting, so you can’t just blast cold air 24/7; luxuries - that is, everything above the level of necessities - are expensive; Banderas Bay isn’t swimmable due to mud and runoff from PV during the rains (PV perches on a hillside and everything runs down into the bay).
My husband gets altitude sickness, so unfortunately some of the cooler and higher elevations were out for us. Also we originally had a health motive to be at the ocean, and that guided us to PV. However, from all I’ve heard, San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro would be wonderful options.
Would we come back? Yes, though I’d really try to come over winter when the temperature has moderated. It’s not crowded with tourists now, though, so that’s nice.
However, PV is just our first travel destination. We hope to spend the next few years (health and age and finances and Covid permitting, of course) traveling around the world. For this year 2021, with Covid still in control, PV was a good option, and I’m glad we got started this year.
Have you and Mark had good experiences with house-pet sitting? Any words of advice for the newbies?
Julie
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Scotland seems like a great place to be! How nice! (It sound so cool - we’re still burning up here in Puerto Vallarta! haha)
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Welcome RamblingRose - we’re headed to Puerto Vallarta on vacation November 24 and looking forward to it and escaping the rain in Vancouver, Canada!
Hi Annette, by November the rains will be leaving and the heat will be less, so sounds like a great plan! Have you been here before?
RamblingRose
Thank you so much for the detailed report on PV. 
Mark and I haven’t done any house sitting, and perhaps there will come a time when we do. Right now, we are homeowners searching for sitters since we have 2 little old men of our own. We are newbies here as well. Our first sitters are arriving next week for an extended weekend.
@mattersfact2 , “two old men” - lol
Good luck with your trip and your sitters!
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Mexico is one of our favorite destinations - have been about 30 times since our first trip to PV in 1976 and have visited other areas of Mexico. Enjoy your time there!