Travel Report: Living In Mexico’s “Coffee Country”

I’ve spent the past two months living in the obscure Mexican city of Xalapa. Nicknamed “The Athens of Veracruz,” this is a college town nestled into the country’s volcanic belt.

Xalapa is home to the Jalapeno pepper, and was once described by Ulysses S. Grant as “the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life.”

Having previously written about the benefits of living somewhere that’s affordable and suits your personality / interests, I wanted to share a real-world example.

I visited Xalapa for about a month last year, and loved the city.

It’s a very unique place, with a surprising amount of activities to enjoy.

Let’s start with the urban layout.

Xalapa’s town center is old, dating back to the early 1700’s. Since modern earth-moving techniques hadn’t been invented yet, locals built around their environment.

As such, Xalapa is very hilly and the city utilizes enormous staircases to take you from street to street.

This is a very vertical city, but also one that’s incredibly unique and beautiful. The hilly layout gives…