Making games in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

A balance of business and pleasure

Over a year ago I moved from a small college of Bloomington, Indiana to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I stripped myself of nearly all belongings and flew with my dog Pearl to San Diego to meet up with my business partner. We run a small indie game company and can work from anywhere. I figured why not try something new? And thus, the journey began.

The drive from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta took three days. It’s recommended that you take the federal toll highways for safety and efficiency, it was a long and boring drive but we didn’t have any issues.

Puerto Vallarta is a vacation destination — not known for digital nomads. People come for the resorts, weddings, honeymoons, and partying. As a full-timer it’s sometimes hard to avoid getting sucked into the “vacation mindset” that revolves around over-indulgence.

Finding a home

On craigslist we found an absurd 4 bedroom panoramic ocean view apartment for $1,700/month USD. It wasn’t finished but we liked it and waited a month for the landlord to fix up the place. After a month we moved in and the place was still unfinished. It took months to finally get things finished up, you have to have patience here… Things just take longer, It’ll get finished mañana. We put one of the bedrooms up on airbnb to offset the cost of rent.

Pearl enjoys the view

Language

Language barriers aren’t often an issue here because this city revolves around tourism. This is good because it makes life easy, and its bad because I’m not forced to learn Spanish.

The views of the Banderas Bay are incredible. Our house sits on top of a hill that overlooks the whole bay… It is a blessing to wake up each day to this amazing view. The natural beauty is everywhere. Behind our home is a thick jungle-covered mountain. There are a ton of awesome beaches to enjoy.

Co-working

There are co-working spaces here but I work from home where the commute is short and I can spend more time with my dog. The co-work spaces are air-conditioned and quite nice, but they are expensive. There are plenty of cafes with great coffee if you want to work on your laptop. :)

Weather

In the hot season humidity can be very de-motivating! You could argue that enduring a few months of heat and humidity is a small price to pay for perfect weather the rest of the year. After a while you get used to sweating through multiple sets of clothes a day. It rains daily in the rainy season.

Food

The food here is rich, delicious, and most of the time cheap. Drinking beer and eating at restaurants is affordable but fattening. Its more difficult to find healthy food options here, but not impossible. There’s Walmart, Costco, Sams and many local groceries. I try to buy most of my fruit from small family-owned markets that are on almost every corner. I go out to eat far more than I would in the States because its so much cheaper.

Community

Techie nomads exist here, but there isn’t really a “scene” here. If this is important to you Guadalajara would be the better option.