You’re born in one country and that’s good enough to love it because we belong to a land where our genes were once sired. However, when you choose to live and stay in one country that’s not yours,that’s pure love.

And that’s what Mexico means to me, love at first sight, a fascination that grows and renews itself with each passing day, a relationship that knows no crisis, because when there’s just a very gloomy day, a sole and single second of magic can wipe that sadness out. Mexico always smells of soap to me, cleanness, those magic bubbles that burst out when you need them most.

An afternoon soaked in downpours as I walk frenetically down the streets of Puerto Vallarta; that smell of wet land; people with unsung patience hitting it off with nature.The round little face of a child who smiles roguishly out the bus’ window, those people who get off their tails to the beat of their own sounds; water, bells, ladies thoroughly sweeping their doorsteps, all food outlets and joints laid out in a rainbow of hues and aromas.

In this neck of the woods, life is rooted in land, feelings and actions are truer, more far-reaching sometimes yet more genuine, more humane, as hard to cotton on to as man’s inner nature, so full of contradictions, passions and uncertainties. And during some of those moments I happen to understand exactly why I am here. I know it with a level of lucidity that makes me smile and fills up my soul.

Consuelo Elipe