MexConnect.com Forums: Areas: Southern Mexico: retiring to Merida, need good counsel: Page 2

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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"......I didnt give you more info because I wanted to see the " Play" between gringo expats, ..." (and)
"So what did my question prove? Once again you expats...dont take this personal-because I will be one of you shortly...dont know the culture or the people, and in most cases..sorry to say...dont want to.....anywho...."
__________________________________________________________________________
First thing: How you arrived at that second quote from reading this thread is a mystery.

Second thing: I think it's spelled TROLL.

In other words, those who took the time to reply to your original post were suckered.
That does you no credit.

bournemouth

Mar 9, 2007, 12:42 PM

Post #27 of 49 (2771 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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As you already have the answers, then no more comments are necessary.

fgm333

Mar 9, 2007, 12:45 PM

Post #28 of 49 (2770 views)

Re: [Gringal] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Where is your sense of humor? My God I was called an idiot right off the bat...come on people.....

tonyburton

Mar 9, 2007, 1:03 PM

Post #29 of 49 (2766 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Ceasefire! The following sentence is NOT directed at any individual.
I believe the posts on this and other forums would be more valuable to everyone, if posters thought of the Forums more as a classroom than as a playground. If you want to discuss this concept, then please start a new thread.

Mar 9, 2007, 2:04 PM

Post #30 of 49 (2756 views)

Re: [tonyburton] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Well, given that the very first answer to his post was Bubba's "Tell me something, Frank - are you an idiot or just pretending to be one?" I think that Frank picked the best option.

We were a little rough and I don't have any problem with his getting right into it along with us.

I also think there are pearls in this thread, I enjoyed it.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Papirex

Mar 9, 2007, 2:35 PM

Post #31 of 49 (2753 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Fgm333, it is always a little surprising to read a naive post like the one above. Why anyone would think that 3 years in México City, and knowing some Mexican students would make you an expert on the culture of México is beyond me.

I lived in México City for longer than you taught there, and many of the members of these forums have lived in this country for decades. It would be advisable for any newbie to read many of the past posts, to learn who is who, and what they know, before making foolish comments.

I first started visiting the Mexconnect site around 1997or 1998. It was in a different format then, and I think I read every past post before I made my first post on these forums. (OK, maybe I didn’t read all the recipes.)

Why would anyone even dream that food costs more in México City and Puebla than it does in the rest of the country? It depends upon what you like to eat, and where you shop.

$350 or $450 US Dollars sounds about average for rents to me. Again, it depends on how you like to live. One of my wife’s cousins lives in Puebla. He rents a very nice 3 bedroom, one bath house with parking for one car for $1,500 Pesos ($134.37 US Dollars) per month. Another cousin owns a 5 year old house in Mexico City with parking for one car; he has it rented for $5,000 Pesos ($447.93 US Dollars) per month.

We are renting a four bedroom, 2½bath house with parking for three cars, cable TV and Internet, a telephone, and grounded electrical outlets for $7,000 pesos ($627 US Dollars) per month. This house was new when we rented it; we are the first occupants. We could easily find something cheaper here in Cuernavaca, but we like what we’ve got. Like anywhere else, how you want to live will determine how much you want to pay in rent.

Be careful if you have any furniture made here. We had a matching chest of drawers made for our bedroom furniture. The cabinetmaker did an excellent job of perfectly matching the new chest to the dresser and nightstand, even the drawer pulls match. The problem showed up about a year later. He had used unseasoned wood. The cabinet started warping, and the drawers started to fall down on one another. He fixed it the first time. I have since then had to rebuild that chest twice myself.

Do you believe everything a Real Estate, or automobile salesman tells you in The United States? What in the world would make you believe that a person that lives in México would lose their senses and believe everything they might tell us here?

An unwary person may very likely be taken advantage of in México, especially in tourist areas. That person is not likely to be someone that has lived here for a few years, but more likely to be someone that moves here thinking that they have all the answers, and there is nothing more they can learn about México.

Good luck, you will need it, Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

arbon

Mar 9, 2007, 3:24 PM

Post #32 of 49 (2741 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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"Once again you expats...dont take this personal-because I will be one of you shortly...dont know the culture or the people, and in most cases..sorry to say...dont want to."

That's partially true, but some expats do know part/bits of the the Mexican cultures, and even Mexicans don't know all of the Mexican cultures.

And "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

And "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

bournemouth

Mar 9, 2007, 3:25 PM

Post #33 of 49 (2741 views)

Re: [sfmacaws] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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I love the waches article and the Yucatec dictionary - well worth wading through the thread just to get them - thanks to both of you for posting the links.

arbon

Mar 9, 2007, 3:51 PM

Post #34 of 49 (2731 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Ahhhhh, fresh meat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yucatandreamer

Mar 9, 2007, 4:48 PM

Post #35 of 49 (2720 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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One thing that I have learned from living in Merida is that if you have not learned all of life's lessons by the time you move here, you will. I certainly have had the opportunity to work on my own character defects since arriving.
In one aspect fgm333 is completely correct, I do not know the culture. I also know that I never will. In fact I will never be mistaken for a Mayan, a Yucateco or even a Huach. I neither fit in with old local society or the Mayans from the pueblitos. I am a foreigner and I am neither so arrogant nor so stupid to think otherwise.

I also do not know everything or even a whole lot about living in the Yucatan. One of the pleasures of living in a foreign country is learning new stuff. Today for example we went to a little visited archeological site, had lunch in a small town, saw some interesting people. We could have stayed home and saved money, but that is not why we moved here. One thing that I do know, is that most people who think that they can live here comfortably on almost nothing do not stay long.

Another thing that we all need when we move to a new place is help and friends. You don't make them by blindsiding the people who already live there.

Mar 9, 2007, 4:50 PM

Post #36 of 49 (2719 views)

Re: [fgm333] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Deleted as a courtesy to The Mod.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 9, 2007, 4:56 PM)

Bloviator

Mar 10, 2007, 5:34 AM

Post #37 of 49 (2693 views)

Re: [yucatandreamer] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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One of the pleasures of living in a foreign country is learning new stuff.

What a great comment. I'm firmly convinced that moving here has given my 71-year old brain a new lease on life. The joy of new experiences, the difficulty of learning Spanish (which I'll never accomplish with any degree of fluency), discovering a totally new culture, and dealing with the problems of living here all make my brain ache, but also keep it active.

Mar 10, 2007, 6:39 AM

Post #38 of 49 (2684 views)

Re: [yucatandreamer] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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The shopping has improved over the past few years (in Merida) , but I have learned not to actually expect to find whatever it is I am looking for. If I do find what I want, I buy two in case it is never found again.

Well put YD:

I have this pantry here at Lake Chapala full of stores of certain things which tend to appear and disappear at shops around here catering to the foreign community or affluent Guadalajarans. There are certain brands of olive oil, mayonnaise and cornichon gherkins among other things I buy in volume when I see them because I know they may not re-appear for months if ever. I buy maybe five jars of Maille Cornichons and pay $95 Pesos per jar when they periodically show up at the market only to disappear for months thereafter. Of course, this hoarding is one of the reasons certain scarce items disappear but better they disappear in my pantry than someone elses. One of the things that makes living in Ajijic fun is that in the weekly tianguis there is a French guy selling his homemade pates which require the accompaniment of some of the French style bread also sold there each week and cornichons to be an authentic experience. Try to find that at most other regional Jalisco tianguis.

When I drive back and forth from Ajijic to San Cristóbal, my trunk contains specialties available in one community not available in the other. Thus excellent hams and sausages from Chiapas to Jalisco and those Maille Cornichons from Jalisco to Chiapas.

You have reminded me of one of my favorite stories. It can be tough to find good lamb and rabbit at Lake Chapala except seasonally while both lamb and rabbit are very popular and always available in Tuxtla Gutierrez. I asked the butcher in San Antonio Tlayacapan (Chapala) who caters to the foreign and second home Guadalajaran communities why he so rarely carried good leg or rack of lamb and his explanation was vintage Mexico. I quote, "Well; there is no demand for it and whenever I get it in sells out immediately."

What a pain it must be to stock items that are so popular that they have to be constantly re-ordered. Better to just stop carrying them altogether.

Mar 10, 2007, 7:20 AM

Post #39 of 49 (2675 views)

Re: [sfmacaws] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Yeah, I'll keep my spot on the caribbean. Some of that greed has infected me too and I'm thinking I can rent it all winter and make a bundle and run over here in the spring and summer when it is too hot even for me in Merida. It beats the hell out of the Gulf coast in everything except proximity.

Jonna likes to dive so I can see why she prefers the Caribbean to the Gulf but the Gulf north of Merida is very nice indeed. Some of us are quite taken with the Gulf coastal region from Isla Holbox to around Chixculub and would buy there before the Caribbean. Unlike most of the Gulf Coast in Mexico, the beaches are almost pure white and can be very attractive here and, around Chixculub. The aquamarine Gulf waters are also very attractive and often fairly clear. I recommend, for those contemplating a move to the Merida area that you have a look at a thread dating back a bit entitled "Are The Gulf Coast Beaches Polluted". It´s informative and there are some excellent pictures of the beaches near Merida.

The beaches northeast of Merida are largely deserted most of the year and I highly recommend a drive from Progreso to Dzilam de Bravo along the beach. This is a lonely, mysterious and beautiful drive and the greed Jonna bemoans in the Akumal area is not a factor there. If you like deserted beaches and gorgeous wetlands, you should love this area.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 10, 2007, 7:21 AM)

Mar 10, 2007, 8:45 AM

Post #40 of 49 (2665 views)

Re: [Bubba] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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We went to a party at a beach house in Chuburna a few weeks ago, it's a Gulf beach town that is west of Progresso. The beach was very nice, the water was a pretty green and there was literally no one on the beach. The isolation might be a bit much, security would be tough and I think you'd need someone living on the property if you were gone a lot. That's true over here too but there isn't the isolation.

Bubba is right though, I ended up here in Akumal because of diving and although we don't do as much of it anymore I still prefer the clear turquoise water and the reefs. The Gulf has the advantage/disadvantage of fewer reefs so there is sand to walk out into the water on and small waves to play in. In our bay here, it's like an aquarium. We can spot rays and turtles from our 3 floor deck the water is so clear. I watched a barracuda hunting the other day from up here.

Another area of Gulf beaches that are really beautiful is along the Emerald coast north of the city of Veracruz. We usually stop there on our way south and there are miles and miles of beautiful beaches, nice resorts and really nice RV parks all along there. The water is not as shallow and the waves are bigger but still reasonable.

Mexico is truly blessed to have tropical coastlines on 3 oceans, all of them are beautiful. I will stand by my statement though, I think the Caribbean is hands down better in the areas that I find important. Clarity of the water, color, number of reefs and fish, fineness of the sand,and water temperature. It doesn't mean the Gulf is bad but it does mean that I'm not tempted to sell over here and get something over there.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Mar 10, 2007, 11:20 AM

Post #41 of 49 (2656 views)

Re: [sfmacaws] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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You know, I was fortunate enough to grow up in South Alabama and spend my summers at Destin, Florida with its mind bogglingly beautiful sugar white beaches and crystal clear , aquamarine waters. It was just a poverty stricken fishing village in the 50s with endless deserted beaches and concrete block housing waiting for the next hurricane now destroyed not by hurricanes but by "progress". When I first saw the water at Cancun and Playa del Carmen, I couldn´t believe how beautiful the water was although the beaches on the Caribbean are tiny compared to the beaches at Destin and Fort Walton Beach. I was fortunate enough to stay at Jonna´s condo in Akumal and the water and diving there are spectacular.

We lived for ten years on the Fitgerald Marine Reserve just south of Devil´s Slide near San Francisco and about a mile north of "Maverick´s" reputed to be the best (and most dangerous) surfing zone in North America and I will tell you each place is different and each place is extraordinary. The area from the reserve to Maverick´s was all dramatic crashing sea and high eroding cliffs and the most beautiful gnarled cypress forest you could ever wish to lay eyes on and right smack dab in the middle of my daily walk to see the waves crash against the rocks at Pillar Point Harbor (Maverick´s) was a bar and restaurant called the Moss Beach Distillery which had been an old speakeasy from prohibition days where the bootleggers anchored in the dangerous seas. What a fine place for a bar that was.

The ocean at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is a bit on the big, crashing wave side and when you live on a full bore ocean with the waves coming in from Japan or wherever, you find youself isolated by the continuous churning of the sea and when the tide is up and the weather violent, the waves can be maybe 50 feet high and send sea spray into your living room. This is not good for your television set but it is damn fine for your psyche if you are into the constant, intrusive but soothing sound of waves crashing against your edge of the world. When the ocean is like that it actually isolates you even though you are surrounded by other ocean front shacks inhabited by very strange non-conformists and reprobates as far as the eye can see.

So one day I´m working on the inland side of the house and I hear this shouting in dismay from the ocean side so I walked through the house and there was my wife shouting at the sea, " Just shut the hell up will you? Knock it off, damn it!" I can unequivocally attest that this doesn´t work. After a couple of years she got used to it. The television set never did, however and we had to replace it within three months of moving there. The repairman said he´d never seen anything like it and consigned it to the town dump.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 10, 2007, 11:23 AM)

Mar 10, 2007, 12:11 PM

Post #42 of 49 (2641 views)

Re: [Bubba] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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The problem with the beaches in NoCal is for me they fail the water temp test. They're beautiful though.

I grew up in Santa Barbara, on the beach, and couldn't sleep when I first left home because the sound of the ocean was missing. I still like white noise when I'm sleeping, like a fan or the lap of the waves here.

Here's a picture I took at the party in Chuburna on the Gulf Coast near Progresso. It was pretty windy as you can see from the palm trees, I don't know if that is constant or not. It's a beautiful beach though, I'm sorry I didn't take a pic down on the beach.

Here are 2 pics I took today from my deck, this is what I really love. I took this first one about a half hour before the second one. You can see how clear the water is and that you can easily make out turtles, rays and large fish from our 3rd floor deck.

A storm is approaching in this one, it only takes a half hour for it to go from sunny to this. As I'm typing this the rain has started, I just had to get up and close the sliders to the deck. That's a pelican that just landed in the middle of pic. You can also see a water spout forming.

The sun will probably be back in another half hour. It's endlessly fascinating to watch.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Bloviator

Mar 10, 2007, 1:31 PM

Post #43 of 49 (2631 views)

Re: [sfmacaws] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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I loved growing up in the SF Bay area in the 50s. We alternated skiing in the Sierras one week-end and body surfing - before most in NorCal knew about the surfing that SoCal people were doing - in the Half Moon Bay area the next week-end.

I never have figured why we spent time in the water around Half Moon Bay in the wintertime. Insanity is my only defense. No question NorCal beaches and the water thereof are not for the warm blooded, (Or is it cold-blooded?)

None of that sissy Destin Beach warm water for us.

smokesilver

Mar 10, 2007, 8:30 PM

Post #44 of 49 (2591 views)

Re: [sfmacaws] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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My son lived for two years in Destin/Ft Walton Beach...boring. He now has returned to NE Ohio. Joanna I must apoligize; my wife, 6 yr old grandson, son-in-law, daughter & 4 yr old grand daughter vacationed at Barcelo in Akumal in Sept last year. I did not remember to get in touch & say...HI...After we returned to USA I remembered that you were in Akumal. Sorry that I did not say hello. We have been in that area numerous times. I LOVE it. We have been in Cancun several times also. I might spend a great deal of time in Puerto Aventuras some day since I like it so much. We can't live everywhere so we must choose a 'spot'. Good luck in Merida. I know that we will go there some day as well.

Mar 10, 2007, 8:51 PM

Post #45 of 49 (2586 views)

Re: [smokesilver] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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That's fine, hopefully next trip we can get together. Anyway, I was in California in Sept so it wouldn't have worked. My annual migrations are about to change as we get more involved in this house project. I'm sad and excited, traveling these past years throughout Mexico (and the US) has been incredibly rewarding. I don't want to give that up so some kind of compromise is going to be necessary.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Mar 10, 2007, 8:52 PM

Post #46 of 49 (2584 views)

Re: [smokesilver] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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My son lived for two years in Destin/Ft Walton Beach...boring. He now has returned to NE Ohio.

You and your son are warped. As Billy Crystal said to his wife in Analyze That, "You want to go to Ohio?" This is a state I have never set foot in and I thank God for that. May I suggest Tulsa Barber College to add an exciting edge to life?

Remember Goodbye Columbus? Everybody left town as soon as they scarfed up the gefilte fish.

Ohio is the only state where the scenery was improved by the interstate highway system. It´s so flat that a hillside Stuckeys just across the border in Kentucky has one of those periscope thingies where for a quarter you can peer out at seven counties and spot three KFC franchises.

Mar 11, 2007, 3:34 AM

Post #47 of 49 (2565 views)

Re: [Bubba] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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Smoksilver:

You have a good point about the Gulf Coast being boring. It´s not the same when you are eleven and have your little pail and shovel down at the beach. When you are 65 you crave a little more action. I´m now thinking of selling everything in Mexico and retiring to NE Ohio. It´s surprising how few people see the opportunities to live out their lives in that garden spot and, besides, I actually miss Stuckies and diving in Lake Erie.

Oops! Wrong forum.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 11, 2007, 3:35 AM)

hopalog

Mar 11, 2007, 6:33 PM

Post #48 of 49 (2524 views)

Re: [sfmacaws] retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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You got rain the day of the water spout? That is amazing. We didn't. :) The water spout was just a tad frightening to me; I got the kids back from the reef until it was gone and then let them go back again (sunny and clear). Never rained though. :) Thankfully, we seem to have left the rain back on the Emerald Coast.

I haven't met a Mexican beach that I haven't fallen in love with. There is something about each one.

Hell's Half Acre

Flickrlicious

smokesilver

Mar 15, 2007, 7:24 PM

Post #49 of 49 (2464 views)