I remember doing some research about Maz this past summer and getting a figure of over 1 million for its population. I have no idea what I was looking at. The population of the city is about 440,000 and if you add in the metro area, it’s still less than half a million. That puts it at twice the size of Regina, but fully half the size of Calgary.

In terms of actual landmass, the city feels very compact. I’ve covered most of the core of the city. It’s a very easy city to get around in, thanks to great public transportation and high walkability, so you can quickly and cheaply find yourself from one end to the other. I would do very well here without a vehicle. In fact, I am toying with the idea of flying to Maz next year since I really do not miss driving this winter.

I’m already playing the ‘could I live here?’ game that I played through my travels in the U.S. and Canada. I do intend to live in Mexico for a few years if I can get a long term residency visa, so I think that getting a start on answering that question is worthwhile. It certainly paid off in Canada because it enabled me to buy property smartly.

I know myself really well now, know what is important to me in a long term home and what is a trade off I’m willing to make. Maz has a lot going for it, being a so evocative of the central core of Ottawa, which I still maintain is the perfect Canadian city for me except for one key detail. I’ll get into that in a moment. If I were to choose Maz as a permanent residence, I’d probably want to live on Isla to continue getting the best of both worlds.

But Maz has one big ugly issue that would make it utterly unsuitable for me as a permanent residence: its climate. I can hear all of you say WHAT?! Maz has a humid tropical climate. I do not ever again want to live long term in a humid climate. Humidity makes the cold colder and the heat hotter. You also have to deal with food spoilage, mould, odours, condensation, rust and a host of other issues. I cannot believe how much of my stuff, including bags in storage, the top and sides of my fridge, clothes hanging in the closet, and even computer parts are getting fuzzy with mould! Soon as I get half a day off, I really need to empty everything out of the closets and cabinets to make sure I’m on top of the mould issue.

I didn’t buy property in the back end of nowhere Saskatchewan just because it was cheap or because I had easy access to a lovely city (which I don’t…). I bought property there because of a generally dry and sunny climate, year round. As it turned out, my biggest priority wasn’t being able to walk to a bar or coffee shop or a movie theatre or a good grocery store, but to be in a climate that doesn’t make me want to curl up in a ball and sob three quarters of the year and keep me glued to an AC vent the rest of the time. Climate came first, cost of living second, and everything else was negotiable. That was as shocking revelation.

I love Maz very much and look forward to returning next year, but after that, I’m going to seek a different location to try to find that magical combination of hot and dry winter weather. Being near the ocean isn’t important to me (rather obvious if you look on a map where Haven is located, about as far away from an ocean in all directions as is possible anywhere in North America!), so I wouldn’t mind venturing further inland, although I will have to watch the elevation!