Spring-Summer 2025 – Workation in Mexico: A Journey of Professional Growth, Identity & Purpose

Author: Gabriela Alonso – Senior B2B Marketing Manager at KMS Mobility Solutions. Publication date: 18 June 2025

Spending several weeks in Workation, away from my usual work and living environment —travelling across different parts of Mexico (Mexico City, Baja California, Oaxaca, and Jalisco)—was more than just a change of scenery. An intense cultural and professional immersion allowed me to reconnect with Latin America and observe visible changes in urban mobility first-hand. This stay wasn’t about brief or superficial visits but a valuable opportunity for deep integration with the local environment, its people, and their daily mobility realities.

During this time, I worked remotely, navigating time zone differences, shifting climates, and constantly changing workspaces as I moved around the country. It was about truly arriving and integrating! Experiencing my work routine at a different pace and with entirely different impulses proved inspiring and enriching. I exchanged with the Mexican-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry A.C. (AHK Mexiko | CAMEXA), visiting the German Centre in Mexico (German Centres Worldwide) —excellent forums where different cultures and business models intersect. Working from my family’s office gave me valuable insights into how SMEs, NSCs, and OEMs in Mexico tackle daily challenges, develop creative solutions, and build trust-based relationships within a vast and complex megacity.

Mexico City: A Greener, More Resilient Megacity

 One striking observation was how much greener Mexico City has become. Streets that once felt grey and chaotic are now shaded by rows of trees lining the sidewalks, softening the harsh urban landscape I remembered from past decades. This greening of public spaces—intentional or not—has made the city more liveable, particularly as rising temperatures in the Valley of Mexico add new pressures. Let’s hope this trend continues despite the growth of various real estate developments across the city.

There is a quiet evolution underway: drivers are showing greater civility. Gone are the days of chaotic traffic with drivers shouting aggressively; instead, I experienced a surprising sense of order within the chaos. Streets feature improved signage, and specific neighbourhoods are embracing small mobility experiments—a reminder that small steps matter in an overwhelming city like Mexico City. 

As Juan Villoro aptly said, “If Mexico City truly functioned, it would stop functioning.” A paradox that perfectly captures its essence: chaotic, vibrant, imperfect, yet always dynamically functional.

A Living Lab of Mobility in Motion 

Staying in Mexico City wasn’t a formal work-holiday stay; it was a living laboratory. The city revealed itself daily as a real-world environment for observing the challenges, innovations, and everyday strategies people use to move around one of the world’s largest cities. This wasn’t an abstract reflection but an immersive, practical exploration of the small innovations that can mean the difference between losing time or arriving on time, between getting around or getting stuck.

Challenges persist. Getting around the city remains an odyssey filled with constant micro-negotiations: crossing busy intersections without a clear right-of-way, squeezing into packed Metro wagons, or waiting for buses that may or may not arrive. The city remains as noisy, vibrant, and overwhelming as ever—but also magical, full of life, colour, and unexpected friendliness.

It was fascinating to observe how people blend multiple options for getting around the city:

• Cablebús, sailing above densely populated neighbourhoods, connects areas far from the public transport network.
• Metrobús, providing a reliable alternative where frequency and punctuality are necessities, not luxuries.
• The Muévete en Bici program, transforming major avenues into safe weekend cycling spaces, promotes active transport and community life.
• People carrying folding bikes onto buses, creatively combining transport modes to save time and money.
• Sunday bike ride days, turning avenues into car-free zones shared by families and cyclists.
• The widespread use of platforms like Uber and DiDi offers flexible options beyond traditional taxis: 24/7 availability, driver verification, real-time tracking, and safety features.
• … and many more hybrid solutions.

This experience reinforced a key belief: mobility solutions must work in imperfect, hybrid environments where every journey is a combination of options, and where systems must be designed with empathy, resilience, and adaptability at their core. What I saw in Mexico City mirrors mobility realities across Latin America and many other parts of the world: millions of people spend hours each day navigating transport systems that shape their daily lives—whether we, as solution providers, design for them... or not.

The Mobility strategy must move beyond theoretical models. Understanding how people mix formal and informal solutions is essential to building services that work in the real world. Strategic vision must always be connected to human impact.

Five Personal Learnings: Workation as a Strategic Lens

1. Mobility is a lens through which one can understand the real world. Mobility isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about people. It’s about connection, resilience, and adapting to diverse realities. This perspective—connecting strategic vision with human impact— drives me to help build mobility services that work for real people in real cities, whether in Mexico, Europe, or beyond.

2. Productivity depends on both mindset and context. In Mexico City, my daily rhythm balanced deep work in my family’s office—a calm, focused space—with video calls framed by the city’s vibrant energy: street vendors, buses, and music. Afternoons exploring Coyoacán’s streets and plazas revealed how mobility enables community life, not just travel. The experience reminded me that designing mobility solutions means enabling relationships and opportunities, not merely solving technical problems.

3. Adapting to the unexpected is a strategy, not an option. Adapting to the unexpected is part of the value we bring. During this Workation, I once again experienced what it means to operate in imperfect environments:

• Internet outages reminded me of the importance of backups and offline workflows.
• Juggling time zones between Europe, Mexico, and personal life, where flexibility must be a constant discipline.
• Different local work rhythms, where patience and creative problem-solving matter more than rigid plans.

Navigating imperfect systems with creativity is a constant reality for us and our customers. Adaptability is not weakness; it’s strategy.

4. Well-being fuels performance. On this occasion, my Workation wasn’t just a change of scene; it was a recharge: sharing meals with family, reconnecting with my culture, and observing daily life—seeing the people behind the numbers.

Mobility is not just about speed or efficiency; it’s about improving lives. Our solutions' true impact is helping people get to work, deliver goods, pick up children from school, or enjoy an evening walk.

5. Workation is a two-way street. For those of us in B2B marketing, observing these dynamics first-hand is not just inspiring—it’s essential to designing grounded solutions. Thanks KMS Mobility Solutions GmbH for providing the flexibility, trust, and the Workflex platform that made this possible.

 My stay in Mexico enabled me to:

• Provide first-hand insights into evolving urban mobility.
• Observe how people combine new and old mobility modes in ways that should inspire product strategies.
• Return with fresh ideas and a sense of urgency: if we don’t design for these realities, we risk building irrelevant solutions.
• Deepen understanding of real journeys—insights we can’t capture from a desk alone.

Flexibility is a framework; the real impact comes from how we use it: to observe, learn, and build solutions that serve people’s real lives.

Appreciation and Looking Ahead

Again, thank you KMS Mobility Solutions GmbH for making this possible. It was not just a Workation— it was a significant extension of my work: an opportunity to recharge, reconnect with my culture, and view urban mobility through new eyes in a context different from Europe, but with many shared challenges.

My time away did not pause in my responsibilities—it was an extension of them. It helped me see the daily commutes (journeys) behind the data, and the real lives behind the mobility solutions we strive to create.

This experience has renewed my conviction: mobility isn’t just about moving people from A to B. It’s about supporting lives, lightening burdens, and unlocking opportunities.

Keep Mobility Simple.

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