Are any of you thinking of retiring to a different country? My sister-in-law, Noelia, and I have discussed retiring in Mexico. That won’t happen for a while, of course, but it’s fun researching different places to live.
The first place we started looking at is San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful and historical Mexican town where my friends Sophia and Manuel Norman have a home.
Another place we looked was Ajijic, located on the northern shore of Lake Chalapa and surrounded by the Sierra Madre mountain range. The year-round moderate climate got us to look there, plus we have some friends who are thinking of retiring there also.
Puebla is a literary and artistic center with lots of festivals and great architecture, but we quickly discarded that city because it’s just too cold for parts of the year. Neither Noelia nor I are interested in being cold in our retirement. But it was painful to do so because it’s such a beautiful city.
Mexico City just seems too big and daunting to both of us so we struck that one off the list. Plus we can always visit any time if we want to.
Acapulco has become dangerous because of the drug lords taking over the avocado industry, plus she has been there before and said it wasn’t worth it. And some of the Pacific beaches are not sandy. They are pebbly and not what you think of as “the beach.”
Noelia is from the city of Jalapa in the state of Veracruz, but she doesn’t want to live there. The state is very beautiful and has both mountains and beaches, but I trust her judgment since she has lived there and I haven’t.
One area that neither of us has discussed, because I don’t think either of us is interested, is anywhere in the Northwest part of Mexico. Baja and all of that area. I have friends who love to deep sea fish and they go there every year and love it, but if I do any fishing at all during my retirement, no one will be more surprised than me. Now eating fish is another story all together. I will cook and eat all the fish I can handle, but someone else can catch it as far as I’m concerned.
The states of Guanajuato and Queretaro are still on the list. They are both in the central part of Mexico. San Miguel de Allende is there. Both states contain cities that are UNESCO World Heritage Sites with lots of history and architecture. We are doing more research in these areas.
The place we have both become more interested in lately is Huatulco and the city of Crucecita which is located in the state of Oaxaca on the Pacific in the southernmost part of Mexico. With 330 sunshiny days on average that sounds like the best place for me.
And this is one of the only places to have sandy beaches on the Pacific Ocean.
It only started being developed in the 1980s as a tourist destination and has a population of 50,000. There are nine bays which all have beaches that the city is built around.
The real estate is much cheaper than anywhere else we’ve looked and it’s one of the “greenest” and cleanest cities in Mexico. The city is taken care of by ancestors of ancient indigenous tribes of people who settled in the area. And they do so with a lot of pride.
And in the area of gastronomy, being right on the sea there is a huge assortment of all kinds of seafood which is right up my alley.
The city is also bordered by a nearly 30,000 acre national park and a number of coffee plantations which offer tours, and there are a several waterfalls and a butterfly sanctuary.
So far I think this area is my favorite of all, but time will tell.
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