Mexico’s Affordable Cultural Gem

Friday, Aug. 22, 2008

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Dear International Living Reader,

The roads into town wind among lushly green hills and ravines, where rivulets and small waterfalls are a common sight. In spring, coffee bushes in bloom, their tiny white flowers scattered like snowflakes on the green leaves, grow in every ravine under arching banana trees. This is Xalapa, the heart of Veracruz State’s coffee-growing region, where the foothills meet the mountains.

The air here is rich and moist and the temperature mild, though you may need a light jacket in the evening. It’s hard to believe that you’re only an hour from the torrid coast, with its temperatures in the 90s. But in that hour’s drive you’ve gone from sea level to 4,000 feet, and from Veracruz’s black-sand beaches to this capital city nestled in the hills.

Xalapa is no longer the tiny capital it once was—it now has about 400,000 people. But it still feels like a small city that you can easily escape into the countryside. And for those who love landscape, this is great country. From the city’s heights you can see green hills in almost every direction blending into blue-tinged mountains. It’s no surprise that Xalapa is a hub for mountain sports, especially eco-tourism and white-water rafting on the area’s many little rivers.

Xalapa's colonial main square is the historic center of a city that is chic, sophisticated, and largely modern. For many people, Xalapa’s cultural life is the main draw. This is a city that exudes creative, intellectual energy. Known as the “Athens of Veracruz,” Xalapa is home to three universities and arguably the best music school in Mexico. Chic coffee shops and bistros fill during the day with shoppers and into the evening with students, academics, and writers, their conversations a roar over the tinkle of wine glasses and coffee cups. Walking through the city center, you see placards at almost every corner announcing concerts and plays. And my own first stop was at Xalapa’s anthropological museum, the best in Mexico after Mexico City.

If you’re looking for a medium-sized inland city with great amenities, Xalapa could be a good fit. From film to theater to music, it offers as many cultural activities as a city twice its size. Housing and overall cost of living are remarkably inexpensive, as well. The local food markets offer a mouthwatering array of fresh produce grown in the area. (I saw fresh-picked oyster mushrooms and delicate greens the day I was there.) For more extensive shopping there are supermarkets, a Costco—and all the major shops of the city of Veracruz only an hour away.

If you love colonial homes, Xalapa’s historic center has some great bargains.One colonial home for sale in the very heart of the city is just a stone’s throw from the Cathedral, the municipal palace, and the Diego Rivera Museum. The property is a three-story building for mixed commercial and residential use, with a three-car garage on the ground floor (a great amenity in congested downtown Xalapa). Upper floors include wood-beamed ceilings, with a large living room, dining room and half-bath on the second floor, and three bedrooms and two baths on the top floor. Top-grade materials have been used throughout, including marble and hardwoods. The lot size is about 2,870 square feet, but the house, thanks to those upper floors, has nearly 5,000 square feet of construction. Price: $375,000. For location and price, it doesn’t get much better than this.

If the busy traffic in the city center is not for you, however, a 10-minute drive takes you to green, tranquil, and semi-rural outlying suburbs and villages.

Most of these neighborhoods outside the center have much more space and definitely less traffic. The modern gated communities in the suburbs have extensive green areas, many of them including lakes, streams, and jogging or cycling paths.

And prices for modern properties are very reasonable. My realtor showed me many attractive properties all over the area—many under $150,000. That price, with all Xalapa’s charms as well, is a combination hard to resist.

Glynna Prentice
Your Mexico Insider, International Living

Editor’s Note: Glynna is editor of our Mexico Insider publication and she has much more to say about Xalapa and its surrounding areas. If you are a subscriber you can access the issue here. Not a subscriber? Sign up with this link.

Read related IL Postcards:

- Yes, a Couple Can Live on $1,500 a Month in Mexico

- The Venice of Latin America

- Why I Love the Costa Maya