# Expats in Guanajuato, Aguascalietes, Querétaro



## AdeOB (Feb 3, 2011)

Looking for a nice comfy city to find a job in and spend some months making new friends and practising my Spanish before trailing off round the rest of the country.

Seems like places like Guanjuato, Aguascalietes and Querataro are not too large (but not too small), relatively close to GDL and Mexico city (for occasional weekend trips) and keen for English Language teachers due to being university/business centres. 

Are any of these places prohibitively expensive in comparison to the big cities themselves and do they have lively expat/student communities for friend making.

Any advice would be appreciated. Although I want to practice my Spanish it would be great to make contact with a few english speakers to have a friendly pint with and a few studenty clubs and events to make new friends.

Thanks again for all your feedback guys I really appreciate this forum and I'm feeling more positive every day about coming to Mexico. :flypig:


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## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

I don't know much about Aquascaliente but live between Guanajuato & Queretaro. Queretaro is considerably larger and more a business city that college. Guanajuato is really a college city where the university is a key focal point. I really like the old center of Queretaro but in the situation you describe, I would tilt to Guanajuato. Neither has a large expat population but there are people on this site from both.


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

I live in Guanajuato so I can only talk about things here. As far as a job goes, there are English teaching options here but the teachers tell me that the pay is minimal - around $3 US per hour and right now the job pickings are very slim. A friend of mine with 10 years teaching experience in public schools in the US couldn't find a job and eventually went back home. Since you don't plan on staying very long, the better schools won't be interested and the not-so-good schools will want you to work without a work permit, which is illegal and can get you deported back to the UK in a hurry. The better schools will arrange a permit but will demand a contract of 6 months minimum; usually they want a full year. If you were going stay here permanently, you could set up a studio to teach privately and earn a little better.

The permanent expats here tend to be older, not university aged. There are always a ton of backpackers passing through, however. If you're social, you'll make plenty of friends. I made many friends here on my first trip and my circle kept widening on each successive visit. Eventually I just moved here!

Guanajuato isn't particularly expensive but it isn't the cheapest place to live either. I get the impression it is pretty comparable to Aguascalientes and Queretaro.

All in all, it's a great place to live but if you need to work to pay for your stay here you may be in trouble.


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