Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico » Living in Mexico http://www.mexico-with-heart.com Fri, 20 May 2011 02:42:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Life Planning in Jalisco, A Guide for Expats http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/life-planning-in-jalisco-a-guide-for-expats/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/life-planning-in-jalisco-a-guide-for-expats/#comments Fri, 20 May 2011 02:40:33 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=2200 Life Planning in Jalisco, A Guide for Expats is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> I just learned that a friend of mine has put together a very useful website and PDF document on the subject of life planning, specifically for Jalisco but also pertinent wherever you are.

Visit http://lifeplanninginjalisco.wordpress.com/ to find out more.

This is a topic that it is all too easy to procrastinate on, but Susan has really made it easier to tackle. If you live in Mexico, or are thinking of it, this is really crucial! Maybe you have a Medical Directive for your home state in the US or province in Canada. Think it is valid in Jalisco?

Visit http://lifeplanninginjalisco.wordpress.com/ now, before procrastination takes over!

Life Planning in Jalisco, A Guide for Expats is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/life-planning-in-jalisco-a-guide-for-expats/feed/ 11 Somewhere in Mexico, a Fun Video http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/somewhere-in-mexico-a-fun-video/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/somewhere-in-mexico-a-fun-video/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:49:00 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=2170 Somewhere in Mexico, a Fun Video is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> Here’s a delightful video made by a local band, the Tallboys.  See if it doesn’t make you want to come running down here!

I recognize just about all the spots where they are singing.

Want more? Go to Youtube and type in Tallboys.

Somewhere in Mexico, a Fun Video is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/somewhere-in-mexico-a-fun-video/feed/ 0 Late Afternoon Tropical Bliss http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/late-afternoon-tropical-bliss/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/late-afternoon-tropical-bliss/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:05:34 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=2159 Late Afternoon Tropical Bliss is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> When Americans think of Mexico, often it’s a pleasant fantasy about lying on a beach somewhere, maybe Puerto Vallarta or Cancun. There may be a margarita somewhere in the picture, but hey you can have margaritas up north too! I think the essential parts of this popular daydream are the sun and the water.

A couple of days ago, I just happened to have an experience that will probably remain a high point for me of this sort of thing. It didn’t even happen on a beach, but in our own yard, here by Lake Chapala. The weather lately has been heavenly. We are nearing the end of the rainy season, and we’ve been experiencing a delicious blend of cloudy, cool, or even rainy days and sunny days with the highs in the low 80s or so. Often Kelly checks the weather for where we came from in Colorado, and reports on how cold it will be that night. It’s been below freezing a lot there already. Gloat.

We usually enjoy a dip in our pool in the late afternoon. A couple of days ago, Kelly went back inside after his swim. I wasn’t ready to get out yet — I wanted to do more water aerobics, so I waved my limbs around energetically for a good while longer. What a perfect day it was. The water was 84 degrees, and I wondered how much longer our solar water heater on the roof of our house would boost the natural heating of the sun on the water. Usually there are several months during the winter when the water gets downright brisk, and we don’t swim. So I was grateful that it was still so nice. The sun was shining on the pool, and the air was warm too.

Reluctant to go inside, I stood up in the shallow kiddie part of the pool and began doing my Wild Goose Qigong, ancient Chinese movements not unlike the better know Tai Chi. Gradually there came over me a sense of tranquility, of being connected with everything around me. My stretches done, I slipped back into the water and decided to do a sort of meditation. I closed my eyes, let my breathing get slower, and enjoyed looking at the turquoises and golden tones I was seeing through my eyelids. I became quieter and quieter but not sleepy at all. Briefly I had a moment when “I” didn’t even seem to be there. If you have ever had this experience, you know how sweet this can be.

Eventually, I toweled off and went inside. The peacefulness lingered.

sunset-pool

Late Afternoon Tropical Bliss is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/late-afternoon-tropical-bliss/feed/ 3 Sounds of Mexico http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/sounds-2/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/sounds-2/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:27:41 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=1981 Sounds of Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> We have a little sound recorder, and here are the sound files we’ve made. I think that if you have an mp3 player on your computer, clicking on the file name will simply play the file.

Jolly Mexican Mechanics is a 45-second mp3 file that was made about 7:30 AM on December 13, 2005. We had been traveling down Highway 15 from Arizona, when somewhere between Guaymas and Mazatlan our clutch began slipping. We limped into a delightful campground on the beach on a Saturday afternoon, at least an hour from any city. The folks at the front desk called the mechanic, and he came by on Monday and said he’d be here early the next day. He arrived at 7 AM with two helpers and the three of them had the clutch disassembled in less than an hour. During this time, they kept up a steady patter of jokes and onvesation.

Kelly put my recorder in his shirt pocket. He walked by their pickup to catch a little of the music from their radio, then stood by them as they worked. Their joking around didn’t slow them up a bit.

(As for the clutch, they came back later in the morning with one new Toyota part from the nearest city and another part they had fixed. Within an hour, we were all back together again. Total cost, $100 US, not counting the extra days we stayed over at the beach.)

Others:

A party next door to where we are living. It kept me awake so I went outside with the recorder.

Children singing
 when we were in Michoacan in 1970.

Cicada The sound of the rainbird is common before the rains begin here by Lake Chapala.

Sounds of Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/sounds-2/feed/ 0 Simple Green Living as Expats in Mexico http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/simple-green-living-as-expats-in-mexico/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/simple-green-living-as-expats-in-mexico/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:14:17 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/simple-green-living-as-expats-in-mexico/ Simple Green Living as Expats in Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> April 18, 2009 — With Earth Day coming up on Wednesday, I thought I’d write about what Kelly and I do to minimize our ecological footprints.

We chose to live in one of the most benign climates on earth, at 5,000 feet in the tropics. Days are warm, nights cool off. There is seasonal variation, but no snow and certainly not the humid heat I grew up with in Washington, D.C.

The heating and cooling needs of our house are minimal. For about three months in the winter, we have radiant electric space heaters by our desks, which we use in the early mornings and the evenings. In the hot season, we keep the house open all night, at least the windows that thieves couldn’t get in easily, and we shut the whole house up in the heat of the day. When we reopen later in the day, we run a window fan for a few hours.

Speaking of the house, we use compact fluorescent bulbs even though they have a trace of mercury. Life is full of trade-offs, and we are watching developments with LED lights. By having a tiny house, we need few lights and we are pretty faithful about turning off lights we don’t need.

Our hot water came through a propane hot water heater with a tiny tank when we bought the house. We added a solar array to pre-heat the water. At this time of year, we keep the propane heater off and go totally with solar hot water.

We drive so little that a tank of gas  for our VW Jetta lasts at least two months. We cluster our errands so that our weekly trip to Ajijic and other towns along the north shore of Lake Chapala includes getting some of our groceries and doing other shopping, often having a massage, visiting friends, and eating out.(We sometimes stop in at the new Wal-Mart. I have found all-cotton queen sheets and broccoli sprouts nowhere else lakeside.) We don’t hesitate to drive at other times if there is a reason – Kelly goes to the monthly Chapala Greens group meetings, for example.

Our solar clothes dryer works perfectly in this sunny climate, and we get some stretching exercise putting our wash up on the clotheslines. Last year during the rainy season I wondered about getting a gas clothes dryer and that gave Kelly the idea to cover a walkway behind the house and put clotheslines on it too. Works fine, even in a downpour.

Recently at home we’ve been eating primarily vegetarian, emphasizing salads. That’s easy to do here – we can get lots of fresh fruits and vegetables at the weekly tianguis here in San Juan Cosalá. It takes both of us walking down with our large cloth tote bags that we lug home, usually full to the brim. And we have an organic garden. It’s pretty much impossible to know if the produce we get at the tianguis is organic or not. We cheer when we find live bugs in the greens!

We reuse the plastic bags we do get – taking them down to the tianguis with us to refill over and over. Eventually they get used for cleaning out our indoor cats’ litter box. I would like to get away from using plastic bags at all but haven’t figured out how. Some of the larger bags we get (at Wal-Mart of all places) are themselves recyclable.

The state of Jalisco is encouraging recycling, and our town happened to be one of the first to institute it. So we do that; we were already composting our veggie wastes.

We don’t give up things that we don’t want to, though.

  • I leave my desktop computer on, with all my programs set up how I like them, when I take a nap or eat a meal.
  • The very fact that we live so far from family and dear friends does mean that we travel further to see them than we used to. But we donate to one of the carbon-neutral websites to at least help with that.
  • Having an in-ground swimming pool is hardly simple living, but it’s great exercise and we have solar heaters and floating covers to make it usable for more of the year.

So we’re doing what we can, and trying to figure out more. It isn’t always simple to live simply! I started another blog a few months back, simplegreenliving.com. Actually it’s a site I began three years ago but bogged down on. Now, with the greater awareness among people and greater urgency for the planet, it’s more of a priority.

Other Americans and Canadians who live here, your comments on living ecologically here? And my readers from north of the border, your comments are welcome too.

We are all in this together, and every little bit helps. Or does it? That link is to my reflections on that topic at the new blog.

7 Comments from the old blog:

  • At April 20, 2009 1:45 PM,  Leslie Limon said…

    I’m also an american living in Jalisco. I enjoy reading your blog, and I’d like for you to take a look at mine at leslielimon.blogspot.com

  • At April 20, 2009 9:05 PM,  Rosana Hart said…

    Leslie, enjoyed your blog! Readers, go take a look… Leslie is fluent in Spanish, married to a Mexican, and raising 4 kids here. Quite an interesting view of life here. And she cooks too!

  • At April 20, 2009 9:34 PM,  Leslie Limon said…

    Thank you so much! I am greatly enjoying your blog. Hope to keep in touch with you.

  • At April 22, 2009 6:44 PM,  The Cheap-Ass Curmudgeon said…

    Zana, Michael here from http://thecheap-asscurmudgeon.blogspot.com/. I sure am enjoying your blog posts. I have some friends who are living down in Mexico off the pacific coast in a tiny little sailboat (no motor). They have a 1 yr. old little girl and a cat—all on the boat. Boy does one have to pare down to live that lifestyle! They’ve been doing it for a few years now. My wife and I envy where you live and how you live. We have our house for sale so we can begin our journey south to Central or South America. Wish us luck!

  • At April 22, 2009 7:58 PM,  Rosana Hart said…

    Yes, good luck! And thanks for coming by! Readers, he has a fascinating blog too, take a look!

  • At April 23, 2009 9:33 AM,  Calypso said…

    Now if you just get that compost toilet going ;-)
    Good effort – thanks!

  • At April 23, 2009 10:50 AM,  Rosana Hart said…

    Oh yeah — I forgot to mention our composting toilet because I don’t use it much! it’s quite far from the house…
    We actually have one… when Kelly’s sister came for almost a month last summer, she couldn’t come in the house much because she is allergic to cats and we have 2 indoor ones. She was using our motorhome as her guestroom, but its bathroom blackwater would have filled up way too fast. So we actually happened to buy a nice fancy brand new compost toilet that someone had brought down here from the US without measuring the width of the bathroom door into his casita. Ooops, so he sold it to us for a fraction of its original price.
    We have this set up with curtains made of petates, just outside the motorhome. Works fine. Kelly just put up a good page about making a humanure – style composting setup:
    http://greenhomebuilding.com/articles/humanure.htm

Simple Green Living as Expats in Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/simple-green-living-as-expats-in-mexico/feed/ 0 Semana Santa, A Good Article on Mexico, and A Challenge for This Website http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/semana-santa/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/semana-santa/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:09:54 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=1900 Semana Santa, A Good Article on Mexico, and A Challenge for This Website is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> April 11, 2009 – It’s Semana Santa, and we prefer to stay off the highways. From day before yesterday through tomorrow, it’s one of the main holidays of the year here… and we really stay off the highways! We’re about to walk down for lunch to our favorite local restaurant, Viva Mexico, here in San Juan Cosala… we often do that.

There are a number of vacation homes owned by Tapatios (people from Guadalajara) in our neighborhood, and quite a few of them are here for the weekend. We groaned to each other as we noticed this, remembering some really loud parties we have endured in the past, but so far so good. They are all quite sedate! Or at least quiet!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a really interesting article about Mexico that was published in the New York Times. Enrique Krauze, who wrote it is a brilliant Mexican historian, essayist and publisher. It was written about 3 weeks ago in, and tackles questions of drug cartels and more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mexico-with-heart.com began as a result of a trip Kelly and I took around various parts of Mexico in our motorhome in 2003. That link takes you to the beginning of the book I wrote as a result. Six years ago, blogging wasn’t nearly so big and besides we were offline a lot. So I wrote the book, self-published it, and later put the whole thing up on this site, complete with lots of color photos I couldn’t afford to put into a paperback book. I added information about various places in Mexico, too. In November 2004, I started this blog.

All that adds up to a sprawling array of some 683 pages.

So this week I bought an online course on how to transfer HTML websites to WordPress, best known as a popular blogging platform but also well suited to creating sites. I am well into making the switch with another old site of mine, but it only has 83 pages. I’ll decide about this one later. The goal would be to make the information more accessible, chiefly.

Readers of my blog, I am curious: have you ever ventured onto the website itself?

3 Comments from the old site:

  • At April 12, 2009 11:15 PM,  Familia Valdiviezo said…

    Thank you for your comment. Chihuahua really is a great and beautiful place with so much rich culture. If only people could see behind the bad stuff they hearon the news! I am actually leaving tonight for a visit to the United States to get my passport, so I have to travel by bus first through Juarez to catch a plane in El Paso. I am a little nervous, so wish me luck! I will be following your site and reading your book. Thanks again and keep in touch!

  • At April 14, 2009 6:48 PM,  Anonymous said…

    I enjoyed your book first then became a regular reader of your blog. You were the first author/blogger that captured my imagination about moving to Mexico. Well first I read the AARP article a few years back now entitled “Living la Vida Loca” I think and I havent been able to think about anything else but moving to Mexico just as soon as I can. Thanks so much for all the information. from Litchfield, Connecticut

  • At April 14, 2009 8:35 PM,  Rosana Hart said…

    Hey Chihuahua girl — hope your trip is just fine!

    Thanks, Litchfield reader… I write for people like you but I don’t usually know anything about you. Hope the timing is perfect for your arrival.

Semana Santa, A Good Article on Mexico, and A Challenge for This Website is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/semana-santa/feed/ 0 Living in Mexico as a Mythological Quest http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/mythological-quest/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/mythological-quest/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:05:06 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=1897 Living in Mexico as a Mythological Quest is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> April 4, 2008 – I’ve been reflecting on life in Mexico. It’s been over three years since we began living in our house here, and I’ve often wavered in whether I’d rather be here or in the US. Many of my American and Canadian friends here in the Lake Chapala area take to life here so naturally. So does my husband!

As I walked by myself to the street market the other morning, I thought of my life in Mexico as being a bit like a mythological quest of the sort Joseph Campbell wrote about. The hero faces many obstacles and struggles. The outcome is uncertain; suffering and even death are quite possible. And in the end, there is a success. It may not look like the success that the hero set out to find in the innocent days before all the the adventures, but there is some sort of recognizable happy ending.

For me, the challenges here have often been near-overwhelming. Here are some of them:

  • Mexican traffic
  • Uneven internet connections
  • Lack of immediate access to Amazon and some of the material items I’m used to back in the US
  • Typhoid and dengue fever are here, plus turistas
  • Not knowing so many things about the culture here in Mexico
  • The surrealism implicit in Mexican bureaucracy, and the long delays
  • Petty theft and “small” crimes
  • Being perceived as wealthy
  • Casual Mexican attitudes about safety
  • Infrastructure problems, from our whole town running out of water for days to really bad roads
  • The extremely different role of police here
  • The risk of being in a vehicle accident and being subject to more of that surrealism
  • Dealing with the fears of family and friends NOB about Mexican drug violence
  • Not being immune from worrying about possible what-ifs myself

Okay, that’s the path of the quest, and I’m sure I could think of more to add to that list, and I could write a whole blog post on any one of them.

Luckily, very luckily, we don’t have to wait till the end of the journey for the rewards of living here… I would never have made it! Here are just a few instances of the sweetness of life here in Mexico:

  • The love of life, the joyousness expressed so freely by Mexicans and by foreigners who are happy here
  • The Mexican love of babies and young children
  • The courtesy and graciousness of the people
  • The willingness to pitch in and help when a problem arises, such as when the mudslide hit our town a year and a half ago
  • The Mexicans’ “Ni modo” shrug at things they can’t control
  • The heavenly climate
  • Our ability to live very economically and simply here
  • The camaraderie among the expats here

I could go on here too, and I *have* written blog posts about a lot of these.

And so the journey continues.

3 Comments from the old post:

  • At April 04, 2009 1:19 PM,  Bob Mrotek said…

    Rosana,

    I think that if you talk to other Americans who live in Mexico for an extended period you will find that most go through stages similar to yours. Generally I find that those, like you, who find an equilibrium here are people of courage, faith, and optimism. The main thing is to keep peace in your heart…always.

  • At April 17, 2009 1:33 PM,  Sharon said…

    My partner and I lived in Ajijic and Chapala for 4 years, and owned a home in Chapala. I could add a couple of other things to your list of dislikes: trash and garbage in the streets and empty lots, and scorpions! (Although we were never stung by one, we saw plenty.) Also, I echo all the positives you mentioned, and they are truly wonderful. We came back to the US because of the stock market, 9/11, the (then) lack of water in the Lake, and the crumbling infrastructure. Wouldn’t trade the time we had in Mexico, but it’s very good to be home.

  • At April 17, 2009 2:21 PM,  Rosana Hart said…

    Scorpions… how could I forget scorpions! They are very much a part of the epic. Haven’t been bit either but we find an average of one a week in our house.

Living in Mexico as a Mythological Quest is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/mythological-quest/feed/ 0 Introverts, Extroverts, Paranoids, Drama Queens… http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/introverts/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/introverts/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:10:34 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=1818 Introverts, Extroverts, Paranoids, Drama Queens… is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> Sept 10, 2008 — We’re all here. I’m sure we have our Mexican counterparts but right now I’m thinking about us foreigners. The drama gets pretty intense at times.

Okay, I’ll fess up that Kelly and I are the introverts and the extroverts — both of us. We do enjoy going out now and then, we like talking with people and meeting new people. But when it comes down to it, both of us tend to be happiest working on our many projects: writing, gardening, learning new things.

For example, when Kelly’s sister was here, she got us started with Wild Goose Chi Gong. I really took to it and am learning more, bit by bit, via DVD. This form of Chi Gong is known as a “medical” type, and I must say that seeing the health problems of other foreigners here has me on a fitness kick, losing weight, getting more exercise, and almost completely eliminating wheat and all sweeteners from my food.

That leaves the paranoids and drama queens. I’m sure I could qualify for one or another title now and again, but I was actually thinking of various other people and events over recent months. (Add drama kings, it’s certainly not just women.) I will spare you the details of these sagas.

I was chatting about this over lunch with friends today, a couple who have been here several years longer than our nearly three years. The woman commented that one of the main things that she loves here is the sense of  community among the foreigners.

People tend to know each other, help each other out, make allowances for each other’s foibles (however massive), and be warm and friendly to a degree she doesn’t see in the US. Her husband pointed out that we all came here from someplace else.

I’m a bit nuts, some of them are a bit nuts. And maybe you’d fit right in too!

1 Comment from old blog:

At September 10, 2008 12:34 PM,  Catalyst said…

When I lived in Mexico, the joke went “Half of the Americans in Mexico aren’t wanted in the United States. The other half are!”

Introverts, Extroverts, Paranoids, Drama Queens… is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/introverts/feed/ 0 Voting in US Elections from Mexico http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/voting/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/voting/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:04:05 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=1811 Voting in US Elections from Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> Sept 6, 2008 – American living abroad? You can vote.

I didn’t realize till we looked into it that any American living out of the country, whether civilian or military, is entitled to vote in national elections in the state where they last lived in the US.

Get all the details, and fill out a form to apply, at

http://votefromabroad.org/

They give various tips, including the comment that may reassure some of you: Voting only in federal elections only cannot be used to affect the determination of federal or state tax liability.

Please spread the word on this.

UPDATE 2009: We did this but it didn’t work, I am not sure why. Planning to talk to our registrar of voters when I’m back in Colorado soon.

Comments from old blog:

  • At September 06, 2008 6:01 PM,  Steve Cotton said…

    I am with you on reminding folks to vote. I have been amazed at the wide range of political opinion I have encountered with Americans in Mexico — and they should all be certain that their voices are heard. I will have the luxury of being able to vote in my home state — even though all of our elections are by mail ballot — and to pay a full 10% of my income to my state for the privilege.

  • At September 13, 2008 8:29 AM,  Anonymous said…

    Just go to the nonpartisan Overseas Vote Foundation if you are a US citizen who wants to vote from abroad:

    http://www.overseasvotefoundation.org

    It has the most comprehensive and user friendly online voter tools and services for US citizens living outside the country.

Voting in US Elections from Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/voting/feed/ 0 Would You Retire to the Mexican Coast or Inland and Higher? http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/coast-or-inland/ http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/coast-or-inland/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:25:40 +0000 Rosana http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/?p=1798 Would You Retire to the Mexican Coast or Inland and Higher? is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> July 17, 2008 – We had such a good time in Sayulita recently that we can really see how people love to go there. Sayulita is up the coast a ways from Puerto Vallarta, and right on the beach.

But would we want to live there permanently? No, thanks, and here is why:

  • We are much happier at over five thousand feet elevation here at Lake Chapala, as the climate is more comfortable. It was quite muggy when we were at the coast, though admittedly July through September is said to be the worst time of year for heat there. Our worst heat is March to May, and it is dry heat, much easier to take.
  • We like being tucked in between mountains that take a lot of the bite out of Pacific hurricanes. Sure, we can get a lot of wind and rain — this month, we have already had all of the nine inches that are the average July total. But hurricanes on the coast can do a lot of damage, and if the ocean level does rise even a little, it wouldn’t take much to devastate a lot of beachfront.
  • Our Lake Chapala area is more economical, at least in real estate. While Kelly’s sister Alexandra was here, we were trying to get her interested in living here. I don’t know if she ever will, but she did get a sense that she could find a nice rental in Ajijic that would suit her (and she has very good taste) for $400 to $600 a month. In Sayulita, it seemed that very few were available and that the prices might be as much as double what they are here.

This area and Sayulita are probably pretty comparable in terms of ease of access when flying in or out. The Guadalajara airport is about an hour’s drive from our house, on this side of the city. I don’t know exactly how far the Puerto Vallarta airport is from Sayulita, but it’s not too far either.

I would give both the two areas top marks in terms of shopping, culture, access to really good medical care in the nearby cities, etc. With an edge to Guadalajara there.

Readers, if you have opinions on coast-vs-highlands, or related topics, please chime in!

6 Comments from the old blog:

  • At July 17, 2008 1:13 PM,  Catalyst said…

    I’m with you. When we lived in Guadalajara, we went to Cuyutlan, below Manzanillo, to spend the entire month of May. It was so hot we came home after about two weeks.

  • At July 18, 2008 8:58 AM,  Barbara said…

    I prefer living on the coast. I know the real estate cost more but it is worth it. All over the world beach property cost more. We built a guest house for family, and it is full almost all season. The humidity is what makes everything look so beautiful. I do not like big cities, such as Guadalajara.

  • At July 19, 2008 9:31 AM,  Anonymous said…

    We opted for inland and mountain views (and a water fall) ;-). The beach always seems like a better place to visit than to live for us.

    That said maybe one day a second home in Puerto Escondido. But first we are happy with our two places in the Xalapa area.

    Viva Veracruz
    John

  • At July 23, 2008 10:06 AM,  Deb Hall ~ Zocalo Folk Art said…

    I’m with you in choosing the highlands over the beach for the same reasons outlined, plus, the beach is relatively folk art free which is definitely not for us. Funny thing though. Now that the cuota runs between Morelia and the coast (3 hours or less from our PATZ apt to a hamaca beside the Pacific), I feel we no longer must choose. We can now visit the beach easily and often. Perfect!

  • At July 25, 2008 7:04 AM,  John W said…

    I retired in San Miguel de Allende, altitude 6,400′, because the climate is nearly perfect for me, I like all the culture, and the beauty of a colonial town founded less than 50 years after Columbus’s first voyage to America.

  • At August 08, 2008 7:20 PM,  American Mommy in Mexico said…

    We are on the Coast with our 2 small children and really love it. It is a great lifestyle for kiddos.

    We are only here for 1 year but I could see living inland for the next big experience … but of course, if we did decide to stay, we would have to stay put to give kids another year in same Mexican school.

Would You Retire to the Mexican Coast or Inland and Higher? is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

]]> http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/living-in-mexico/coast-or-inland/feed/ 1