retiring to Merida, need good counsel

retiring to Merida, need good counsel

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I am retiring to Merida in the fall and would like to connect with expats who have practical experience of living costs and availabilty of housing, etc. Thanks Frank

Mar 7, 2007, 11:41 AM

Post #2 of 49 (3088 views)

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

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I am retiring to Merida in the fall and would like to connect with expats who have practical experience of living costs and availabilty of housing, etc. Thanks Frank

Tell me something, Frank - are you an idiot or just pretending to be one?

Gringal

Mar 7, 2007, 11:45 AM

Post #3 of 49 (3085 views)

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

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Now Bubba - this person is a newbie who only joined last month. Be kind.

fgm333

Mar 7, 2007, 11:50 AM

Post #4 of 49 (3081 views)

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

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Serious replys only PLEASE!!!!!!

Mar 7, 2007, 12:05 PM

Post #5 of 49 (3078 views)

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

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Gringal, Darling,

It was not the I am contemplating ... of perhaps retiring to the (nebulous) notion of "Merida" as if a concept that set me off but the idiocy that somehow presumes the existence of Merida as a place worthy of contemplation of existing in as of having been there as of a meritorious event. The planet seems to be rife with worms whose only function is to wriggle.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 7, 2007, 12:07 PM)

bournemouth

Mar 7, 2007, 12:16 PM

Post #6 of 49 (3073 views)

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

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Bubba - does that statement actually mean anything? Enquiring minds would like to know.

Gringal

Mar 7, 2007, 12:27 PM

Post #7 of 49 (3070 views)

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

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If you'll tell us why you intend to retire to Merida, you'll get some serious answers. Trust me.

Don't pay Bubba no nevermind. He's a big 'ol cat who likes to have some fun with the unwary. Not nice, but it passes the time.

ken_in_dfw

Mar 7, 2007, 12:40 PM

Post #8 of 49 (3061 views)

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

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There do seem to be days when Bubba is off his meds. But when he's good, he's damned good.

Too bad Mexconnect doesn't come with a warning label for the newbies!

Mar 7, 2007, 1:20 PM

Post #9 of 49 (3047 views)

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

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Well, I'll tell ya Frank. Old Bubba couldn't take the heat and he thus thinks that everyone should be cold blooded like he is and move so high up in the mountains that walking to the corner requires an oxygen tank. Or something like that.

Anyway, we are in the process of buying a house in Merida, there are others on this forum who currently live there and you should get some good advice. I recommend though that you post in the Southern Mexico section, because that is where Merida is and because it will bump off all those paeans to the lovely but freezing in the winter and too high in altitude San Cristobal and the dusty and dry and full of graffiti Oaxaca. Those of us smart enough to know that Merida is the crown jewel of southern Mexico need to express ourselves.

Have you looked at the forum at http://www.meridainsider.com?

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Mar 7, 2007, 3:05 PM

Post #10 of 49 (3028 views)

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

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http://www.jensyucatan.com/
http://www.ymbrealty.com/...roperty_listings.htm
http://www.realestateyucatan.com/...p?list=all&loc=0
http://www.mayanliving.com/
http://www.casablancayucatan.com/
http://www.patronbienesraices.com/...&operacion=Venta
http://www.mexintl.com/
http://www.meridahomes.com/
http://www.ampimerida.com/
http://www.casabarbarita.com/

The above is only some of the very active real estate companies in business. They have selections in all price ranges. Remember,you are buying in a market that is hot. You can also wander the streets and read the local paper(Dario de Yucatan) for the want ads(Here you need a good notorio and language skills)
As to cost of living, what do you live on now? Here will be about the same less your mortgage, unless you make a real effort to live on the cheap. For some that is their entertainment and raison d'etre. For those of us who like to do stuff, have an air conditioned bedroom,and eat out and entertain, read English books, travel, have high speed internet and satellite TV and occasional good beef and imported stuff, it isn't so cheap. My rule of thumb to tell someone is to tell them to take a third off what they spend now on a yearly basis. The only trick to that is to actually know what you are spending now. Most people will not be able to tell you.

If you have a more specific question ask away. I will try to answer.

(This post was edited by tonyburton on Mar 7, 2007, 3:11 PM)

Mar 7, 2007, 3:58 PM

Post #11 of 49 (3010 views)

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

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Well, I'll tell ya Frank. Old Bubba couldn't take the heat and he thus thinks that everyone should be cold blooded like he is and move so high up in the mountains that walking to the corner requires an oxygen tank. Or something like that.

Frank:

Never move to a town so unfamiliar to you that you have to ask internet crawlers what they think of it before you have even moved there. Jonna lusted after Merida for three decades before she bought there.

(This post was edited by tonyburton on Mar 7, 2007, 9:24 PM)

smokesilver

Mar 7, 2007, 6:53 PM

Post #12 of 49 (2990 views)

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

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Bubba he may be going to the Southern Mexico Forum, don't let hin get away. (I am laughing).

Mar 8, 2007, 6:28 AM

Post #13 of 49 (2951 views)

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

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fgm333. What would be really helpful is to let this board know what research you have already done. What you already know about the area and about retiring in Mexico. The more information you provide about yourself, the more accurate and useful information can be given.
Yacatandreamers husband.

Mar 8, 2007, 7:14 AM

Post #14 of 49 (2941 views)

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

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OK, Frank. I know my original reply to you was rude and for that I apologize. I was a bit astonished by your comment that you had decided to retire to Merida without seeming to have done your research. Maybe I misread your post. I cannot imagine picking a place such as Merida to retire in without having carefully and thoughtfully considered that decision. The climate in Merida is, shall we say, assertive. Most would find the hot, humid climate uninviting unless they had jobs there. Except for the exceptionally beautiful historic center, the town is a scorching, almost treeless expanse of ugly, rundown housing and the more modern areas are almost universally without charm. When you go shopping there wear your bobby socks because you will be transported back in time to 1946.

Why do I say this? Because it was my dream to live either in Merida or along the nearby gulf coast. I spent weeks looking about for a home there and finally gave up the idea. That is not to say that the community is not a wonderful place and I congratulate my friend Jonna on finding a home there. As she alludes, we ended up picking San Cristóbal de Las Casas which, at 7,000 feet is an old colonial town with many problems of its own not the least of which is a scarcity of oxygen. We are thrilled that she bought in Merida and hope she will allow us to visit her in her new home but she knows from her personal experience that she likes hot, humid places exuding the decadent charm of a New Orleans or Cartagena and we know we like the cool highlands exuding the charm of colonial enclaves around the world from Kenya to Colombia to Darjeeling to the Cameron Highlands and those are choices one makes according to one´s preferences.

I cannot imagine anyone deciding to retire to either the flat, scrubby expanses of the Yucatan or the mountainous hardscrabble highland woods of Chiapas without having researched either place extensively. You seem to have made up your mind which is fine but others among you had better take these decisions seriously or you will be in for disappointment. It´s harder to pick up and move at 65 than at 35.

Mar 8, 2007, 8:19 AM

Post #15 of 49 (2924 views)

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

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Bubba is absolutely correct about living in Merida and the countryside. We have two seasons, mold and dust. The local cuisine is the same everywhere you go and most of the art and handicrafts repeat over and over. It is damn hot, last year we had a month of weather of over 100F and it was still 90F at bed time. It never gets cold enough to kill the vermin or mosquitoes. There are people who can live at the beach, with the constant blowing sand,full time but not too many. You have to wonder why many of the homes both at the beach and in town are sold furnished. The shopping has improved over the past few years, 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. On my first trip to San Cristobal I was more excited to see the trees than the town. In fact after living in Merida for a while, I found that much of San Cristobal was too damn cute, quiet and cold. There are hundreds of retirement age foreigners looking for their dream house and buying without much thought. You hear them chirping about how wonderful it is, then you hear them complaining about their construction, and then many disappear. I think that there is some fear among some some folks that they will miss out in owning their own pile of rocks in downtown Merida, so house prices and construction prices have skyrocketed, in some cases quadruple what they were when I bought four years ago. We have also attracted a large group of people with more money than good sense so you are seeing restorations that are reminiscent of the henequen boom. People with lots of money and less taste.

If the local people were not so nice, if I hadn't found a group of expats who I like, if I hadn't learned to laugh at many things Yucateco, I would have joined the exodus too. I did a lot of research, I knew it was hot, I had read the books, I had visited many times, it still was a shock to the system. Hot and humid on paper is different from trying to catch your breath while attempting to unstick your clothes from your body. Manana is charming on vacation, but less so when you need a plumber and I never, ever sing about cockroaches.

Mar 8, 2007, 8:42 AM

Post #16 of 49 (2919 views)

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

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I think I´m beginning to like you Yucatecandreamer.

I´m sitting here in my fabulous garden in Ajijic wondering what I saw in that noisy concrete hellhole San Cristóbal where the traffic is constant and the sidewalks too narrow and slippery for the fat boy and you can´t even find Best Foods Mayo or Heinz 57 Sauce and one day the weather is splendid only to freeze your ass off the next and the graffiti more often than not refers to Yanqui Imperialist Swine and the vendors in the indigenous market must be spitting at me as I pass since the back of my shirts seem to be covered with betel juice of undetermined origin and, furthermore, ******

And, what´s more, Betty Sue Johnson, the very thought of whom used to drive my 15 year old pea brain into overdrive, now weighs about 400 pounds and is the very essence of her mama except for the mustache and, by God, where-ever I go, a week later I discover that I brought my sorry ass with me so I keep moving and some day I´ll discover paradise.

Mar 8, 2007, 10:57 AM

Post #17 of 49 (2903 views)

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

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Now it's getting good.

You have to decide how you want your misery, hot or cold. You'll get one or the other for some period no matter where you land with the possible exception of Cuernavaca, and there you'll have the hordes of chilangos. I'd rather be too hot than too cold, hell I spend the summers in Cathedral City next door to Palm Springs. Of course, it's a dry heat. What a joke, over a 110* it doesn't matter.

I'm fleeing to Merida from the 'paradise' of the Riviera Maya on the Caribbean coast. I want to get away from the tidal hordes of tourists that flow in and out every week. I want to get away from the greed that overwhelms people of all nationalities who live here and feed on that tide. I want to get away from the inflated prices that also result from that tide. I'd like to speak a little spanish mixed in with the constant english over here, even if I start changing N to M and no one from off this peninsula can understand me. I'd like to not get a $5 bill when I pay my tab in pesos. I'd like to have a few miles of buffer when the hurricanes come roaring in. In fact, I want to live in a stone house that has survived more hurricanes than I have left to see.

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.

I bought one of the colonials in the centro and probably paid twice what it cost a couple years ago. I will also pay more to renovate it. I'm a veteran of the California land booms though and I know that there are more chumps coming along behind me who will pay even more than I have and then I can feel smug. They'll still get a good deal and so did I, it's in the eye of the beholder. Which is why I get weekly offers on this place in Akumal, offers that are quadruple what I paid for it 9 years ago and that I wouldn't touch now.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Papirex

Mar 8, 2007, 11:10 AM

Post #18 of 49 (2898 views)

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

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I’d sure like to know where those hordes of Capitalinos hide here. We never notice any of them.

Rex

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

Mar 8, 2007, 11:57 AM

Post #19 of 49 (2888 views)

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

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OK, so I made that up. There has to be something wrong with Cuernavaca though, what is it?

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Mar 8, 2007, 12:56 PM

Post #20 of 49 (2876 views)

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

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Sorry to tell you this but, the waches are in Merida and all that is wrong with the place is due to them.

http://www.geocities.com/elmaloso.geo/huach-e.htm

(This post was edited by yucatandreamer on Mar 8, 2007, 1:22 PM)

Gringal

Mar 8, 2007, 2:34 PM

Post #21 of 49 (2858 views)

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

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Aw geesh, Bubba, don't tell me you found warts on your new bride already?

You, Ginger and Yucutan Dreamer have me ROFL on this one.

I remember our initial research on "where to move in Mexico". First, "Climate Zones":
"The second-best climate in the world is around Guadalajara".

Did I listen? Nope. I had to go freeze my winter toes and get a lungful of dust and auto fumes elsewhere. And what part of "semi-arid" did I not understand?

The name "Merida" always called up mental images of palm trees and marimbas. Good to hear the rest of the story.

Papirex

Mar 8, 2007, 3:43 PM

Post #22 of 49 (2847 views)

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

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The INM office is a disaster here. Prices are too low. You seldom get a chance to wear a jacket in the winter. In the summer, there is only about one month that justifies using a fan in the house for part of the day.

Another impending shortfall in Cuernavaca is that Doris and I are giving serious consideration to moving to Puebla this year.

Rex

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

Mar 8, 2007, 4:32 PM

Post #23 of 49 (2836 views)

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

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That 'waches' article cracked me up. I've read some other stuff by El Maloso, he's pretty funny. I've heard the term but certainly never knew it came from the slapping of the Aztec sandals. I'm loving that.

Between the gringo queers and the waches, Merida is going to hell fast. I'm going to do my part.

Rex, Puebla? Now that is interesting. I don't think we have anyone on here from Puebla and it is another city that I find very interesting. Poor Cuernavaca, perfect weather but no Doris and Rex.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Mar 8, 2007, 5:16 PM

Post #24 of 49 (2827 views)

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

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Here's another one by El Maloso from his Yucatec dictionary.

Quote

Gringo - (GREEN-go) - noun - Anyone obviously non-Mexican gets thrown into this category, although some neurotic Canadians try to make the distinction that they are not gringos, that the term applies only to those from the United States of America. There is a negative implication to being a gringo in many cases, although it can be used as a term of relative endearment. La gringuita is that American woman who bought the hacienda and is generally nice to everyone, although we know she's kind of naive and crazy. We like her and everything and every year she buys Christmas presents for the local village children, but we still 'borrow' stuff from the hacienda when she is not there and then forget to return it. But she is nice.

The rest of the dictionary is here

http://www.geocities.com/...o.geo/Dictionary.htm

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

fgm333

Mar 9, 2007, 12:18 PM

Post #25 of 49 (2773 views)