Part of the reason for moving to Mexico from the US in 2013 was to live a simple life and shrink our environmental footprint. I wanted to be completely off grid, but Lisa wanted electricity and wouldn’t hear of it. She rarely puts her foot down so we installed electricity.
However we do do our part in many other ways.
We compost. In the US 35 million tons of food waste ends up in landfills annually.
Our little compost pile doesn’t take up much space. It is situated directly outside the side door for easy access. We had to put a cover on it to keep a certain “always starving”pug out but what we didn’t expect was the lizards. Any sunny afternoon there are several sunbathers sitting on the lid. I think the gnats that are attracted to the food waste provide a yummy smorgasbord for our little friends. There’s at least one regular. We call her Lizzy.
When we have dinner leftovers, they go into dogfood. Absolutely nothing goes into the trash.
When the house was designed, we included a rain collection system. It made no sense to me to live in the tropics with a large roof and not collect rainwater. The softer water is better for the house and garden. We angled the roof slightly to collect runoff during the rainy season. We just had the pump rebuilt and it works like a champ.
We also are not consumers. We maybe have 2-3 pairs of shoes and a very simple wardrobe. After all, Mexico is the chancla capital of the world.
Last Fall we bought a new car. I really thought we could use public transportation and survive with one vehicle. As with most of the world it’s difficult to live without cars. We did however buy a hybrid. In Mexico in the seventies I travelled all over the country by bus and train. Boy have times changed.
There is little recycling in Bacalar. We all know that recycling is a ruse by the producers of plastic anyway. We shop locally for produce and eat little meat. We carry our cloth shopping bags and tell shop owners, “no queremos plástico” when they try to give us bags. We do the best we can to be aware.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe my compost pile will save the planet. That’s the job of government and industry. I will however do my part.
DOS TORTAS
the adventures of dos tortas 
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