Greetings from Mexico.  So you may say to yourself that you’ve seen these greetings before….so you’re on vacation.  Actually, this time it’s a bit different; we have moved to Mexico!  After talking about this for several years, we finally executed our long thought out plan to start a new life and adventure.  This past spring, we put our house on the market, had an estate sale getting rid of 80% of our possessions, sold both of our cars, moved into temporary housing and quit our jobs (we are now retired).  Finally, last month we packed up our 2 furry kids and flew down with 2 suitcases each to start our new life in Merida.  The past 6 months seem like a blur at this point and to be honest, it kind of feels like we’re just on vacation as it really hasn’t sunk in that we’re retired.  But after all the craziness, it’s nice to have some down time and frankly we’re rather exhausted!

So what does this mean for The Scented Hound?  I’m not sure at this point how this blog will morph and develop; but it will.  We’re living in temporary housing right now so I don’t have a permanent address.  And I’ve heard that getting packages here in the country can be a bit tricky, so I’m not sure how I’ll get my hands on new releases, etc.  That may take some time.  Additionally, I’ve found that perfume in a hot tropical environment wears much differently and anything that seems to have any heft (orientals, etc.) just becomes incredibly cloying and heavy.  And those that do wear well, seem to disappear very quickly.  Maybe once I get used to the heat, I’ll get this dilemma settled.  Or maybe I’ll just have to ensure that I test perfumes in an air-conditioned environment.  Additionally, I don’t believe that niche perfume is very prevalent down here.  But maybe that makes for a business opportunity??!  In any case, now that I’m retired I’ll have time to work this all out.

So with the move, out of all the things that needed to be done, there were two items that really stressed me out.  The first was getting the cats down here.  We had to ensure that they were certified by our veterinarian 10 days before departure.  We had heard horror stories of people getting down here only to have their pets put in quarantine for weeks because they didn’t have the right health certifications.  Thankfully, both kids managed their flight without issue and the customs inspectors were nothing but nice.  They’re still not thrilled with their new digs (the housecleaner is here as I write and they are not happy), but they’re adjusting as well as can be expected.

The other thing that gave me lots of anxiety was how to move my perfume collection.  Now, I have to admit that my collection is not huge (it can all fit on one gilded West Elm tray), but since we put all of our possessions that we were keeping in storage (could be up to 6 months) I couldn’t do that as they wouldn’t be temperature controlled.  Then I inquired into having them shipped down via DHL or some other service, but was told that they would be considered “dangerous goods” because they are flammable.  Thankfully, my brother and sister-in-law travel to Mexico and will plan on visiting us sometime this winter.  They said if we ship the perfumes to them, they’ll bring them down in their air-conditioned travel bus.  So we carefully packed up the perfumes and shipped them to Washington state (via UPS which was a no-no) and I am hoping that they’ll arrive safe and sound towards the end of the year.  I did manage to put at least 20 perfumes in my suitcase that were small and thanks to Undina they traveled without any issue.  So you ask, what did Undina do?  If it had not been for her post concerning how to seal perfumes with Parafilm, I don’t think my perfumes would have traveled nearly as well.  And BTW, on eBay you can purchase small amounts of Parafilm for a relatively small cost.   Trust me, it works well.

So in brief, that’s my story for now.  It’s an exciting time and I have no idea where this adventure is going to take us, but I’m sure it will be a fun journey!

For more information on securing your perfumes for shipping with Parafilm, check out Undina’s helpful post here.

Viva la Mexico!