Papirex
Feb 28, 2010, 10:57 PM
Post #2 of 2
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Re: [steve2709564] opinions of towns around cuernavaca, morelos?
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Cuernavaca has not gotten much bigger in recent decades, but many of the smaller cities have grown up right next to us here. You can drive through an intersection here, and you have just changed towns. If you didn't live here, you would never know it.
There is a little village about 20 miles from here named Tepoztlan. It is attractive to many newcomers, but people seem to be moving out as fast as they are moving in. There is limited shopping up there, you would need to come to Cuernavaca to do most of your routine shopping.
When we moved here, Tepoztlan was the kidnapping capital of Morelos state. The victims were almost always murdered and their bodies were never found, whether a ransom was paid or not. I sometimes wonder how many of the ex-pats up there might have a body or two buried in their back patio. About 6 or 7 years ago, a lot of the highest ranking police officials in Cuernavaca were accused of running a kidnapping ring.
The police officials picked the victims, rented the houses where they were to be held prisoner, and hired criminals to do the actual kidnappings, and guard the prisoners. The police officials were all fired, they were apparently never prosecuted because there was never any more mention of them in the news here. Kidnappings here fell off to practically none after the policemen were fired though.
It was a real no brainer not to live in Tepoztlan at that time. We do like to go up there for lunch at a nice restaurant after church on a Sunday sometimes. There is a nice tiangus up there on Sundays, and a kind of small, crappy pyramid there too. In my opinion, it is not a good place to retire, but there are a lot of retirees up there.
If you do find a safe village away from the city, there will probably be zero services and precious little shopping.
I never encourage, or discourage anyone from moving to Cuernavaca. It seems more like a big town to me than a city though. If anyone does decide to live here, they should be prepared to live in a Spanish speaking city, where very, very little English is spoken, practically none in government offices or banks. You will soon learn to read a menu in Spanish and how to order a meal in Spanish.
It took a while to tell my barber how I like my hair to be cut. I now have a Canadian educated Dentist from Canada that speaks north American English too. Little victories, but important for me.
I personally like the absence of a lot of English speaking foreigners here. It makes it better for me. People are often very surprised to learn that I am an American.
Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
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