The Serious and Not So Serious Aspects of a Mexican Summer
Last updated October, 2023
What to expect
Mexico has a number of cities that offer pleasant daytime temperatures and cool, pleasant evenings in the summer. Mazatlán is not one of those cities (neither is Merída, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta nor any other coastal town in Mexico)
Summers in Mexican Pacific coastal towns will offer you splendid sunsets and rollicking thunderstorms. They’ll also have you sweating in crevices you didn’t even know you could sweat (knuckles sweat?).
The humidity is so high in Mazatlán that I wake up to stair railings and tile floors that glisten with moisture. Pasta melts in the box. Grocery store packages are taped shut with plumbers thread tape. I’ve heard the Yucatán, Mexico’s Gulf of Mexico is worse. There are reasons to go in the summer however. The cities aren’t full of expats and summer storms are beautiful at night. Prices are much lower on lodging. It’s a good environment for indoor projects while still having a view to ponder during breaks.
Ultimately, early morning is the time to work-out, take walks and otherwise seize the day in coastal Mexican towns and cities.
Two things make living with Mexico’s coastal heat different from living with the heat in Miami, New Orleans or Houston. First, air conditioning is used more sparingly in Mexico. If a store or restaurant even has it, the air is often set at barely-tolerable-degree Fahrenheit. The air conditioning systems also seem to lack dehumidifiers. Shopping malls only provide a damp cool, like the swamp coolers of yesteryear.
The cost of air conditioning in Mexico
Saving electricity is an obsession in coastal towns in Mexico due to the way electricity is billed. You will hear horror stories of $800 (that's dollars U.S.) run up by visitors or new home owners who didn't read up, like this account from my very own Mazatlán.
In essence, the goverment subsidizes the cost to a certain degree of usage. If you over consume, which is easy to to if you’re used to central air conditioning, the government penalizes the home owner with much higher rates not only for that month but for a year or more, until you show you’ve learned your lesson.
Rooms in homes are individually cooled by splits. If you’re doing it right, you’ll move from room to room turning mini-splits on and off as you go through your day The moment you’re comfortable, it’s off to another room. Mexicans are more accustomed to being warmer or colder than Americans are. My Mexican friends will huddle under blankets in a 75 degree room.
The other factor that makes the heat different is the salt in the air. Mazatlán has some of the saltiest air in the world. In the kitchen, potato chips go soft within the hour, garlic salt hardens in the bottle and the laundry on the line dries stiff as a saltine cracker.
Ways to handle a Mexican coastal summer
Even in September, Mexican coastal towns have plenty of hot days ahead. But there are ways to stay cooler, especially if you’re female, beyond the usual admonishments to drink a lot of water and wear light clothing.
Use an umbrella rather than a hat
Umbrellas are much more common here. I was surprised how much cooler it was using one (and you’ll feel like Coco Chanel.)
Try hand fans (the Spanish kind)
An entire summer went by before I re-discovered folding fans. Spanish and Mexican women still use them with aplomb in both countries. (A friend of mine in Spain keeps one in every purse.)
At any group gathering like concerts in Mexico, you will see hundreds of them, like so many colorful butterflies waving in the air.
In the 14th century, the use of the fan developed into a secret language used by women to communicate with young men since women were always chaperoned. For example, a woman touching her nose with her folded fan meant she thought of him every day.
If you think this is bad, you should see me after the work-out.
Even inexpensive hand fans are pretty. You can buy a few at the vendor stalls in any Mexican plazuela to keep handy for when the breeze suddenly dies or the window on a bus won’t open.
I once met a guy at the Mazatlán immigration office who fielded the idea of inventing the “man-fan” bringing to mind images of mud-flap graphics, leather threading, and eye contact that would be hard to break.
Freeze rolled washcloths for work-outs
I got this idea from a yoga instructor who brought them for the savasana after hot yoga classes. Soak the washcloth in water with a few drops of essential oil, like lavender or peppermint. Roll it up and put it in your freezer.
Before you go to the gym or a warmer outing, take the completely frozen wash cloth out and put it in plastic bag to take with you. In about 30 minute, the cloth will be perfect. You might just complete your work-out without having a stroke.
Keep water bottles with frozen water too
Electrolyte drink sold in even the most humble of shops. Ask for “suero.”
Same thing goes for water. Freeze half a bottle of water. Before you leave for the day, fill the other half with the cold water from a pitcher in your refrigerator. It should be perfect to drink after your first set of morning pickleball.
Freeze fruit
Keep frozen fruit in the freezer as a snack that lasts forever. Fruits can be blended with a little agave syrup and poured into ice cube trays for healthy frozen snacks, a great way to use past-prime fruit.
Replace electrolytes often, very often (Ask for Suero.)
Heavy sweating depletes electrolytes. Symptoms of imbalance include weakness, twitching and…seizures. Older people are particularly susceptible because they have more problems regulating their body temperature.
You can buy bottles of premixed electrolytes in even the most modest store, but the cheaper option in Mexico is powder that is sold for babies that you mix yourself. Doctors here recommend four bottles of Suero a day minimum in the summer.
I had often read older people sweat less. For that reason believed myself no longer capable of producing the torrent that I now achieve regularly when I go to the gym in Mexico. I felt 10 years younger just knowing I could sweat like the 22 year old next me.
Author at play during a summer in Mexico
Coca - Colas: Feel the power.
Forget all those terrible things you read about how bad Cokes are for you. I am sure that doesn’t apply here in Mexico.
Officially, the urban myth that Coca-Colas are different in Mexico has been debunked, but oh, watch me writhe in ecstasy after that first draught. I can almost hear you up there, across the border saying, “Drinking Coke? Not me! Never!”
Ha-ha-ha (or as they say in Spanish, 'ja ja ja"). You'll learn. Coca-Cola sells more of their product in Mexico than any other country in the world.
Go into any convenience store early in the morning and you'll see a line of day laborers with their 1.75 liter-size bottles in one hand and their plastic container or refried beans in another.
When you see Mexicans like these doing things that you think are wrong, rest assured - there is a damn good reason for it. They are descendants of an ancient culture, with mysteries and secrets we are only now just beginning to understand.
No matter what, you’ll find that it’s all totally worth it.
In time, your need for the sights and sounds of the ocean and Mexico will become so great you will accept the heat, humidity and bathing suits that deteriorate in a month.
I have come to relish the summer sweat fest in Mexico in much the same way I used to enjoy wringing sweat out of my jersey mountain biking in Snowshoe, West Virginia. Like the vodka and lemonade that would follow such rides, in Mexico the occasional cooler night, a well-air conditioned room, and the icy beer after a walk are things you’ve earned.
In fact, I’d feel a little guilt-ridden if I swooped into Mazatlán for only for the cooler months from November to May like the snowbirds do. Maybe those of us who live here in the summer have a little bit of Mayan in us, and understand Mexico’s demand for a little human sacrifice.
Next up:
Mexican courtesy and my never-ending quest to be queen for a day.
About the author:
Hola! I'm author of "If Only I Had a Place," a new book on renting in Mexico.My second book is, “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico.”
Both entertaining and a how-to, something you wont find anywhere else in the genre. Most recently I released The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico a cookbook for expats, travelers and snowbirds who want to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico (You must cook.)