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Sharyn

Jul 15, 2006, 4:20 PM

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Where to Live?

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Hello,

I am new to blogging so glad that there is a forum to learn in.

I am selling my house so I can move to mexico, and hope to learn a lot from this site and these discussions.

For those of you already living full or parttime in Mexico, maybe you can help me in choosing a place to start looking. Here's what I know about me.

Hot humid tropical climates make me sloth-like, so don't want to live in one on a full time basis. I need trees, and a garden, so desert is out.

So far, on my list to choose from are San Miguel de Allende and the Lake Chapala area. I prefer smallish towns, (under 150,000) but with restaurants, shops, mercado, color. I would like to be situated in an area that did not think it was just terrible to be a single woman living alone! So I probably need other expats for language and acceptance.

I can't wait to see if there are any suggestions for me! Thanks in advance.

(This post was edited by jennifer rose on Jul 15, 2006, 6:00 PM)

juditha16

Jul 15, 2006, 4:27 PM

Post #2 of 48 (9434 views)

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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Bienvenida a MexConnect. The state of Michoacan is green and beautiful and the weather is the best! Check out Patzcuaro for a greener gringo community in a small, historic colonial city with a growing gringo population.
Buena suerte.
Judith

(This post was edited by jennifer rose on Jul 15, 2006, 6:00 PM)

TigerTonio

Jul 15, 2006, 8:10 PM

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Re: [juditha16] Where to Live?

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Sharyn, welcome to MexConnect!

Once you get your list of recommendations, I strongly urge you to research each location and then visit those who make the final cut on your list. Visit the places you like...not once, but perhaps even several times before you come to your final decision.

The places you mentioned -- San Miguel, Chapala are excellent and have an established infrastructure for expats. Judith's suggestion is also great. But ulitimately, it's going to be up to you and your personal preference.

I wish you the best of luck and success with this exciting endeavor!

sioux4noff

Jul 15, 2006, 8:27 PM

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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Hi, and welcome to the group of expats and expats-to-be.
You said "Hot humid tropical climates make me sloth-like, so don't want to live in one on a full time basis" but there aren't really that many places that are hot and humid all the time. We live in Bucerias, just north of Puerto Vallarta. From November until around the middle of May the weather here is beautiful. All winter it is warm enough for the beach, but not hot and cools off at night. It may drop into the high 50s on rare occasions, daytime highs in the winter are probably 75 - 80.
June through October the weather can be very sauna-like. Most people take it very easy then, a nice change from the busy winter season really.
We are very close to the mountains and of course right on the coast. Lots of plants and trees here.
We wouldn't want the summer temps and humidity year round either! No place has a perfect climate (don't believe them if they say they do) so you just have to weigh the pluses and minuses.

Ron Pickering W3FJW

Jul 15, 2006, 11:01 PM

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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One way, as I am planning to do next year, is to visit the various areas while living in a motorhome and spending a year or two visiting the various areas until I find one or two that meets my needs. I will probably spend the summer months in one area, and the winter in another until I find the right place or more probably, two places . I am also somewhat "sloth-like" in hot temps, so it may be necessary to live in two places. Smallish towns under 150,000 are generally easy to find as few towns have that many people. Probably only about 10 or 15 throughout Mexico. It seems the larger the town or the larger the expat community, the more expensive it is to live and exist comfortably.
Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts. Good luck in your endeavor.

Ron
Getting older and still not down here.

Sharyn

Jul 16, 2006, 7:45 AM

Post #6 of 48 (9311 views)

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Re: [Ron Pickering W3FJW] Where to Live?

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Ron,

Thank you for your reply. I am wondering about the possibilities of 2 places as well. Not just for weather, but for the added interest that would add. I can see that you are correct about the costs etc wherever expats are already established. I don't really speak Spanish...(want to, but don't know how fluent will I get), so I want to be where there are enough expats that I may make a few friends.
Patzcuaro is on my list. It sounds beautiful. Thanks Again.

Good luck on your search!

Sharyn

Jul 16, 2006, 7:48 AM

Post #7 of 48 (9309 views)

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Re: [sioux4noff] Where to Live?

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Thank you, maybe the coast should not be eliminated all together.

Sharyn

Jul 16, 2006, 7:50 AM

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Re: [Tio Toño] Where to Live?

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Good advice Tio Tono. Thank you...sorry, don't know how to make a tilda.

Bubba

Jul 16, 2006, 8:05 AM

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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Patzcuaro is on my list. It sounds beautiful. Thanks Again.

Patzcuaro is among the most overrated places on the planet. Move there in haste and repent in leisure. The town is pretty but superficial and one tires of it quickly sort of like some theme park in Omaha.

One can enjoy a simple lunch on the veranda of a restaurant in, say, Tours, France in 1975 and remember that experience fondly 30 years later sort of like the erection accompanying remembrance of Catherine Deneuve in her prime and that memory remains with one one´s entire life and today I walk my garden and find immense pleasure there versus the totally forgettable local restaurant scene at Lakeside.

Patcuaro is a bon bon soon forgotten. A place with two squares both unworthy of memory cell dedication. What a shithole prancing about as important.

Sharyn

Jul 16, 2006, 9:44 AM

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

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Bubba,

I love your directness. There was probably a way on this site to look up where you chose to settle, but I didn't think of that until now. Where did you decide to live in Mexico? Garden is really important to me, but so's I don't end up a recluse, I want a location where being outdoors with other people (plaza, restaurants, tianguis) is always an option.

Bubba

Jul 16, 2006, 10:37 AM

Post #11 of 48 (9259 views)

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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Sonavabitch if my post didn´t just up a disappear godamnitall. I am really pissed.

Here is what I was saying in abbreviated fashion:

I have this here house in Ajijic that has a garden that is so beyond gorgeous that I cannot leave here but I will tell you this. This north shore of Lake Chapala is the sorriest excuse for a settlement of human beings that Bubba has ever seen. This is Yazoo City without the catfish restaurants. What a poop hole.

Now, Bubba done spent the past five years looking for the true Mexican experience. In that time he done looked at Merida. Veracruz, Queretaro, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Oaxaca, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato (what a fabulous town) San Luis Potosi and on and on. Here is what he found.

They ain´t no place like San Cristobal de las Casas. No place.

That´s it.

By, by.

Ron Pickering W3FJW

Jul 16, 2006, 12:28 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

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By Gawd Bubba, Next time I'm SOB I gotta look you up & buy you a drink....
Getting older and still not down here.

Gringal

Jul 16, 2006, 12:38 PM

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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Bubba's posts run the gamut from highly entertaining to downright gross. To describe a place as a "shithole" indicates that his vocabulary is on vacation. He has been living in the Lake Chapala area for just enough years to be thoroughly sick of it, but has not lived in his new place long enough to become disillusioned. Read the Lake Chapala forum for a while and you'll get the flavor of the place. Lots of expats just love it there and would go nowhere else.

I have been living in San Miguel de Allende for several years. It seems to fit your stated preferences. There are quite a few single women living here already. The population is about 80,000 with about 10-15% expats. Good shopping and restaurants. Lots of activities, clubs and events. Home/condo prices run anywhere from slightly under 100K to as much as you can pay. Rentals are available under 500USD per month. And up.

The downside: During the tourist season it is congested, and that "season" is on all year except for the hotter months of April through June, when the snowbirds have gone home and the Texans haven't arrived yet. The publicity about San Miguel has attracted what looks like unbridled development, both in town and in the surrounding countryside. What was once a sleepy little community with quite a few artists thrown in for flavor is morphing into a playground for the wealthy; gated communities and all. That's "progress", but it's still a gorgeous colonial treasure of a town and an enjoyable place to live.

Patzcuaro is in a lushly green and beautiful area, but it does get very chilly in the winter months. There isn't very much to do there, but Morelia is an active town with good shopping and cultural events. It's about 40 miles away.

As always, my advice is to look around and rent a while before buying anywhere.
That "only" five months of heat and humidity at the beach can be hard to take if you're a full time resident. In a world of boundless options, I'd have winter at the beach until early March; the rest of the year in the cooler highlands.

May you have a successful search and find a happy landing.

bournemouth

Jul 16, 2006, 1:58 PM

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Re: [Gringal] Where to Live?

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Bubba is clearly off his medication, whatever it is, at the moment and his juvenile vocabulary is reflecting that sorry state. I suspect he will be describing his new home location in the same terms after a short stay there. Sad to see a man of his admitted years still mentally in kindergarten.

Bubba

Jul 16, 2006, 3:40 PM

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Re: [bournemouth] Where to Live?

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I must be living in a fantasy. I would have sworn that I responded most cleverly to bournemouth´s love letter to me but perhaps I only imagined that response.

Jennifer - you can´t have it both ways. Bournemouth is British cum Ajijician - a sorry combination if there ever was one and Brits are not nearly as much fun as Alabamians although about 50% of us escaped from that sorry lot. and 40% of us came from Ghana albeit involuntarily. If you cut Bubba off so quickly, you may have to depend on the Brit for your humor. That is death on wheels.

Here is an example of British humor.

I´m sorry. When one has no clever rejoinder, one resorts to gratuitous defamation. There is no such thing as British humor.

What we have here is idiot´s night out.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Jul 16, 2006, 4:04 PM)

bournemouth

Jul 16, 2006, 3:53 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

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And I hope you're enjoying your night out.

Bubba

Jul 16, 2006, 3:56 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

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I´m sorry. I mispoke. There is British humor. Manifest in Monty Python´s Life of Brian in which Bubba´s favorite song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, is featured when Brian is hanging on the cross.

I really fail to understand why bournemouth´s secret love for me bothers her so much. You know, bournemouth, I´m just down the road from you and Brigitte is in San Cristobal planning stuff like where to position the televison set so come on over and let´s share a cupa.

bournemouth

Jul 16, 2006, 6:03 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

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" Brigitte is in San Cristobal planning stuff like where to position the televison set"

______________________________________________________________

Now all is plain - the restraining influence of your wife is missing.

esperanza

Jul 16, 2006, 6:35 PM

Post #19 of 48 (9089 views)

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Re: [bournemouth] Where to Live?

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Fiddlesticks, she eggs him on.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

arbon

Jul 16, 2006, 6:44 PM

Post #20 of 48 (9341 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

"Brigitte is in San Cristobal planning stuff like where to position the television set"

¿Balanced on top of a partially opened door perhaps?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

jennifer rose

Jul 16, 2006, 7:23 PM

Post #21 of 48 (9324 views)

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Let's get back on topic

Sharyn, who is new to MexicoConnect asked a simple question. Let's get back to giving her some answers instead of prattle.

Goody2shs

Jul 16, 2006, 10:09 PM

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Re: [Ron Pickering W3FJW] Where to Live?

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Make that drink strong coffee!!!

morgaine7

Jul 16, 2006, 10:48 PM

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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Hi Sharyn,

Judy Snyder's blog gives an excellent description of searching for just the right place, almost not finding it, then practically falling into it:
http://judysny.googlepages.com/

Also a single woman alone, I started the same way, with a list of "must haves" and "no ways", then did as much research as I could to nail down a short-list of 3-4 destinations. As it happened, I fell in love with my #1 (La Paz, BCS) and never made it to the others. Instead, I went back and bought a small home that I plan to move into next spring and live in year round. All that goes against conventional wisdom, but the "This is IT!!" feeling was very strong for me and hasn't changed after a year and four visits.

La Paz probably wouldn't be right for you (mostly desert and sea, larger town than you want), but I'm mainly trying to say that it doesn't always take months of travel and multiple long-term stays to discover where you feel at home. If your time and budget allow for that, go for it. Mine didn't, so I traveled a different flight path. Plenty of time to visit other paradises and hellholes once I get settled in mine :-)

Happy landings!

Kate

Bubba

Jul 16, 2006, 10:56 PM

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Re: [Sharyn] Where to Live?

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I am selling my house so I can move to mexico (and if that doesn´t work, perhaps I will find happiness at the end of a long and pointed stick)

So, tell me Jennifer, why did this superficial inquiry by a non-serious person who seeks a place in Mexico that does not even exist invite "prattle" from your more serious contributors? I must say that these forums fairly beg for ridiculous inquiry. Why can´t we have fun with such exuberant foolishnesss without your peeing on our parade?

The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things
of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings
and why the sea is boiling hot and Bubba still has wings.

Morgain is right about one thing. La paz amy not be right for you, Sharyn. The fact is that you can sell your home and move to Mars and you will still, be Sharyn. Sorry, but Bubba can assure you that wherever you go there you are.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Jul 16, 2006, 11:11 PM)

Sharyn

Jul 17, 2006, 7:04 AM

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Re: [Bubba] Where to Live?

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That's the idea...take myself to Mexico. Cheers, Bob. Hope your day gets better.

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