After months of preparation our global adventure finally began last week when we departed for our first stop—Mérida, Mexico.

Why Mérida? Capital of the state of Yucatán, it’s a vibrant city of about one million residents with a rich Mayan and colonial heritage.

Several factors have made Mérida an increasingly popular expat destination:

• Easy access to and from the States 
• Proximity to the beach (less than an hour’s drive)
• Boatloads of culture 
• Central location for exploring lots of surrounding UNESCO-designated archaeological sites, including Chichén Itzá, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World

And the low cost of living that we’ll report on at every location we visit.

In the Mérida airport we got Mexican pesos from an ATM to pay for the taxi ride to our Airbnb rental.

After using the US dollar in Ecuador all these years it felt weird to be handling foreign currency. Fortunately, the conversion is simple—one peso roughly equals a nickel.

During this initial trip we’...