San Miguel de Allende – Ex-pats in Mexico

Living overseas, Mexico, Retirement, Travel

Ajijic becomes the favorite.

dawn-1851 — *Sunrise over Lake Chapala from the Ajijic* *malecon, or boardwalk. Views of the lake from the hillsides north of town are stunning.*

We have a new leader! Leslie and I think Ajijic is now our first choice for a “permanent” retirement home, with San Miguel de Allende a close second. We still have other places to experience, but this area is quite desirable for a number of reasons. For example:

Ajijic lies at 5,020 feet above sea level, so the days are mild to warm (hot in May, they say) and the nights are cool but not cold. Ex-pat friends have told us they have a fire in their fireplace maybe eight to 10 nights a year.
People are more friendly here. Maybe it’s the small-town vibe. Almost all the locals will greet you on the street with “buenos dias” or “buenas tardes.” And many speak at least some English.
There are a lot of gringos here but they seem much more warm and helpful than those in some of the other places we’ve been.
Excellent, affordable health care is readily available in the Lake Chapala area, and construction is to begin soon on two new hospitals. If the local docs can’t handle your problem, Guadalajara’s Johns Hopkins-affliated teaching hospital is just an hour away.
Organizations such as The Lake Chapala Society offer many ways to meet other ex-pats. They sponsor Spanish classes, tai chi, yoga, health screenings, line dancing and bus trips to Costco in Guadalajara, in addition to advice on legal and insurance matters, as well as tips on immigration. Here’s a complete list. There’s also Ajijic Newbies, a FaceBook group that allows new residents to get recommendations from Lakeside veterans on things like finding a doctor or where to get a great pedicure.
We found a strong faith community in St. Andrew’s Anglican Church and have already made friends there. They even made us permanent name tags!
Parishioners gather after the service for coffee and cookies. They’re pretty sure we’re coming back. They even made permanent name tags for us!
There are volunteer opportunities at the church and in local not-for-profits. We spent some time earlier this month with Don and Dale, who founded a resale shop that is plowing thousands of pesos back into the community.
The Guadalajara international airport is less than an hour’s drive away, with direct flights to lots of U.S. cities, including Chicago (Midway). And to reach San Diego, we can take a cheaper domestic Mexican flight to Tijuana and walk across the border.
Lakeside towns are small — Ajijic has only about 15,000 residents. So you can enjoy a small-town feel while being a short drive from U.S.-style shopping malls and big-box stores (Costco, Home Depot, etc.) in Guadalajara.
Sweeping vistas, of Lake Chapala and parts of the Sierra Madre Mountains, both north and south of the lake. Granted, the mountain views are better in the rainy season when everything is green.

There are some downsides, of course:

In the centro, streets are cobblestone. Makes driving difficult there. And parking is sketchy at best.
Walking in the centro is a challenge, partly because many sidewalks are in poor condition and partly because there are lots of street dogs, and nobody cleans up their messes. At least one person, though, told us the street dogs keep the rats out of the central city. That’s their job!
The area is becoming more popular with ex-pats, and that may drive rental prices up. Or it may not — jury’s still out.
We would need a car to live here, which you could say about almost anywhere. But Lakeside is a bit more spread out than other places we’ve lived. For instance, San Miguel is much more walkable, and there are taxis and buses everywhere.
Cultural opportunities are a bit more limited here, although Guadalajara has a symphony orchestra and other fine arts. That, however, requires a trip to the city. Lakeside does have the annual Northern Lights Festival de Febrero, which is Feb. 16-March 3, 2018. The festival features young classical and jazz musicians. In contrast, ProMusica in San Miguel has a much longer season.

This is not a final decision, and we’re still surprised that we’ve found Mexico to be so attractive as a retirement home. But the climate, the cost of living and the proximity to friends and family in the U.S. make this country highly attractive. There are other places we want to see, and a European location still might win the day. But we’ve already put some feelers out to find a rental here in Ajijic, starting about this time next year, for at least six months.

Andrews-1957 — The sanctuary at St. Andrew’s Anglican. One of this church’s most impressive missions is to provide Sunday School for local children. Volunteers pick up the kids and bring them to the church, where they get a meal — which they might not get at home — and a Sunday School lesson. They all come into the service for communion, going down the aisle right behind the choir. They reach out to us to shake our hands as they move toward the altar. Very moving.

For now, it’s on to San Diego! Leslie and I have always known that it’s possible we will — at some point — need to be closer to our daughter Stephanie, or that she will need to be closer to us. Even closer than here in Ajijic. So we’re trying out San Diego, partly to see if we can afford the high costs there. We need to do our due diligence. And it lets us spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with Stephanie.

Besides, last Christmas Stephanie flew for over 24 hours and changed planes twice to get from San Diego to Malta. This year is her turn to stay home. We’ve rented a condo in the East Village neighborhood just three blocks from her place. And we’ll be taking a look at nearby communities like Temecula and Oceanside, even as far north as Irvine, where Steph works three days a week.

So we leave Ajijic saying not adios but hasta luego! And if you haven’t seen this video on Leslie’s FaceBook page, take a look. It’s fun, and it gives you an idea of how the ex-pats down here view their Mexican home.

Next post from NOB (north of the border)!

view2-1953 — *The patio of our Ajijic home seen from the mirador next door. We often had lunch at the table under the red umbrella. Thanks, Anita and Ken! And goodbye to Racer, Bean, Audrey and Doris Day.*

*The parroquia, largest Catholic church in town, near Ajijic Plaza, And yes, the sky really is that blue most days!*

Living overseas, Mexico, Retirement, Travel

Hasta Luego, Puerto Vallarta!

*This little guy is called a social flycatcher. He and his relatives have been visiting our pool for the past two months. Pretty bird with an obnoxious call!*

Leslie and I leave tomorrow morning for the next stop in this vagabond lifestyle — Mérida, capital of the state of Yucatan (JOO-kah-tan).

This is Hasta Luego (“see you later”) rather than Adios! because we may very well be back. We like this city. San Miguel de Allende is still at the top of the list, and we still have other places to see. But PV is definitely in the running. We need to spend more time in the centro, the downtown area that’s also called the Romantic Zone.

We can already see a scenario that would have us in San Miguel for the summer and Puerto Vallarta for the winter. Best of both worlds.

The good things about this little slice of heaven include:

Lots of places where you can contribute to the local economy, including U.S.-based big box stores like Costco (where I got new contact lenses this week) and Home Depot, but also many small locally owned places. Leslie came out of one marina-area shop with lots of great-looking lightweight clothing at good prices.
A good Anglican church, Christ Church by the Sea.
The locals are warm and friendly. They don’t mind us gringos being here because we help create jobs. And that’s a good thing.
Many expats here, and our friends Mike and Sara Wise make sure there are several events a month to get people together. We met David and Michelle Webster at a coffee hour several weeks ago, and later had dinner with them. Fun couple, whom we hope to see again.
Lots of great restaurants, and not just Mexican places. Italian, Chinese, Brazilian, seafood, you name it.
A number of interesting places outside PV to explore — such as Magical Cities like San Sebastian.

The downsides are:

It’s big. Maybe too big. Lots of places and lots of people. Puerto Vallarta is several different areas with vastly different vibes.
Walkability is good in the marina but poor if you want to go to other areas, like downtown or the shopping centers — almost essential to have a car here.
Access to farmers markets and local mercados is limited.
Many expats here (once again, that’s a positive and a negative), and they seem a little bit cliquish, although they would say that’s not true.
Not many cultural opportunities here, at least not that we have found. However, we did miss an opportunity to be at a chamber music concert early last month, and last night we attended the second evening of the 11th Festal Vallarta Azteca del Folclor Internacional.

Mexican folk dances, complete with colorful costumes, were a big hit with the crowd of mostly locals at the international folkloric dance festival that opened Wednesday evening. The beach is just behind that stage, so we had a nice view of the sunset, too.

Next post from Mérida. We’ve heard the daytime high temperatures hover near 100° F. It’s a colonial city, like San Miguel, but a 30-minute bus ride gets you to a great Gulf of Mexico beach! More to come…

Mexico, Retirement, Travel

Sunny San Miguel

Leslie and I have arrived in San Miguel de Allende, about three hours north of Mexico City. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is about 6,200 feet above sea level and has a population of about 140,000 — perhaps 10,000 of whom are expats from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Ireland and the U.K.

We plan to be here through the end of February. And it’s warm! Today (Sunday) the high will be about 75º F. Cool at night, but really pleasant during the day. Low humidity, and no rain for the next week at least.

*The neo-gothic La Parroquia San Miguel de Allende Arcangel is the parish church and the city’s emblem. It is one of the most photographed churches in Mexico.*

Getting here certainly wasn’t easy, and we made it more complicated by trying to save a few bucks on the airfare. First, we flew from Malta to Barcelona and stayed overnight to avoid getting up early and rushing around trying to make close connections. Good move.

From Barcelona, we endured an 11-hour flight to Bogota, Colombia, then another four hours to Mexico City. On the trans-Atlantic leg, we were on an Avianca Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner. First time on one of those. Neat plane, and an uneventful trip, but in hindsight it would have been better to spend a little more and go through Miami to Mexico City. You get what you pay for.

We arrived in Mexico City at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and stayed over Wednesday night to become acclimated to this hemisphere. Got to SMA Thursday afternoon and settled into our apartment in the Centro area, which has cobblestone streets and narrow sidewalks with neat little shops and restaurants all along the street. We are just above Cafe Monet, owned and run by our landlady’s brother. Click on the link to see their site, then click on “Casa Monet Apartments” to see where we’re living for the next six weeks.

We’ve already visited the Central Mercado for some fruits and vegetables, and on Saturday we went to the Organic Fair just down the street. Judging from the quality of the produce, we’ll be going back there every Saturday. Especially since there are also food vendors selling all manner of tacos, enchiladas, empanadas and other Mexican food for lunch.

*One of the food vendors at the Organic Market. Looking forward to* proxima semana (next week)!

San Miguel has a vibrant arts scene, with tons of art galleries and almost-daily opportunities to see plays and attend concerts of all types. In fact, there’s a jazz festival Feb. 7-11.

Today we attended St. Paul’s Anglican Church, just a 10-minute walk down the main street. Neat old building and a good message from a retired Episcopal bishop — also a U.S. expat.

More next time on costs, but the big thing in that area is the peso-dollar exchange rate. The dollar is getting stronger by the day, and that helps in many ways. For example, in the Mexico City Airport Hilton I tipped a bellman 100 pesos — that’s about five bucks USD. And yesterday, we went to a chain supermarket here in SMA known locally as “Mega” for all the stuff we couldn’t get at the mercado. Put over 1,200 pesos on my debit card! Checked the bank account online today, and with the exchange rate USAA Bank gives us, we paid $57.18 for a basket full of food. Leslie is sure that at Jewell or Whole Paycheck it might have been double or even triple that amount.

As they say around here, hasta luego!

Europe, Living overseas, Malta, Mexico, Retirement, Travel

Ciao, Malta!

So we bid farewell to the island nation of Malta. (The Maltese say “ciao” for goodbye. Their language borrows heavily from Italian as well as Arabic.) Lacking any temporary-residence visas, we can only stay in the Schengen Zone for 90 days. Tomorrow is the 90th day since we boarded a train in London and headed for Spain.

So we’re headed back to the New World to check out more possible retirement homes. First stop, later this week, is San Miguel de Allende in the mountains of Mexico’s Guanajuato province, about a three-hour drive north of Mexico City. It’s over 6,000 feet above sea level. Since we’ve been living for the past month at about six feet above sea level, this will take some getting used to!

We’re excited about being warm again. Malta is in the Mediterranean Sea, just about as far south as you can get and still be in Europe. But this winter has been unusually cold. It’s been that way all over Europe. The mountain air of San Miguel promises to be drier. While at night it’s in the low 40s F. right now, daytime temperatures are in the mid 70s. Can’t wait to have a margarita on the rooftop terrace of our apartment!

Right now, the plan is to be in San Miguel until March 1, then move on to Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast. Both towns have huge expat populations. Puerto Vallarta’s expat community is active and vibrant. We’ve already gotten a ton of emails inviting us to their social events. After about six weeks in PV, we plan to try Mèrida, at the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, then possibly Playa del Carmen, just south of Cancun. We’re back in the Chicago area, probably by mid-July. Hope to see many of you then.

International Living magazine rates Mexico as the Number One retirement destination in the world for 2017. It’s partly the warm climate, partly the warm people. We’re hearing lots of great things about Mexico. Now, I know somebody is saying, “Gee, isn’t Mexico dangerous?” Well, it’s not nearly as dangerous as Chicago! Seriously, there are places in Mexico you should not go, like the Mexican states along the U.S. border and the state of Sinaloa. The drug cartels aren’t active in the areas we plan to visit. If they were, the tourists and expats would leave, taking their money with them. Then lots of good folks would lose their jobs. Where we’re going, it’s very safe. More on that later.

I leave you with a photo I took in Teatro Manoel in Valletta. It’s the third oldest theater in Europe, and the oldest in the former British Commonwealth. The concert we attended was titled, “Gallic Music for Cello and Piano.” The cellist was a young French artist, Sébastien Hurtaud. He was accompanied by Italian pianist Bruno Canino. We heard works by DeBussy, Fauré and Saint-Saëns. Leslie and I both enjoyed the performance, but spent the whole time thinking of our dear friend and outstanding cellist, Jo-Jo Murphy.

Next post from Mexico!

*Sorry, it’s a little dark at intermission of a concert we attended in the very small Teatro Manoel, built in 1731 by the Portuguese Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena of the Knights of St. John.*