Gated Community how Exotic | Day 339 of my 2023 Journal

Our first gated community! YAY.

Everything can be an adventure, even this. For us Europeans, a REAL gated community with a guard, actually several guards, is seriously exotic. We had to show ID and share who we were visiting, and they had to, in advance, let the guards know we were coming.

I wonder if this exists in Europe. It probably does, as most do, but it was genuinely exotic to us.

I see the point, though. We were visiting a family with six children, all under the age of fourteen, and the community had a shared pool, a games room, and probably much more to enjoy for the kids. As a mom of many (not that many, but still), I understand the relief if you can open the door and let the kids run off to enjoy themselves, not worrying about a thing.

And who knows: It might be relevant to have a gate and a guard in Mexico.

The fun thing is, the people we were visiting very much were a misfit to the gated community (except for their need for the ease of it). We meet them at the teens’ party, a British family who had lived four years in the jungle in Costa Rica before coming here.

Maybe they just needed the extreme opposite?

Whatever. We very much enjoyed our afternoon in their home, with the people they had invited, including the other family with six children we had just met. It is sad to know we have to leave, but we do. Otherwise, we would not be able to come back, would we? (This is a Pippi Longstocking quote in plural, and if you are unfamiliar with Pippi Longstocking, please make sure this is the next book you read).

We walked back in the cool evening, discussing many things, including when to come back and how lovely it is to walk home after a great social night to cool off and share what we have experienced. The blessing of being one too many for a taxi.

(I show the beautiful regular doors of SMA in this post to contrast the gate)

With love

Cecilie Conrad

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