How’s the weather in Mexico? What’s the average temperature in Mexico?
Liliana Cota - Stewart Title Baja and Stewart Title Puerto Peñasco
In Baja, where we live, we are supposed to have rain in winter. It is almost spring but we are still not wearing any sweaters, which is not good for us because it should still be cold at this time of year in Baja.
It snows around January but it only happens in the hills like in La Rumorosa, which is next to Mexicali. La Rumorosa is all rocks and divides Mexicali and Tecate. Mexicali is known to be one of the hottest places in Mexico. It is extremely hot...
In Baja, where we live, we are supposed to have rain in winter. It is almost spring but we are still not wearing any sweaters, which is not good for us because it should still be cold at this time of year in Baja.
It snows around January but it only happens in the hills like in La Rumorosa, which is next to Mexicali. La Rumorosa is all rocks and divides Mexicali and Tecate. Mexicali is known to be one of the hottest places in Mexico. It is extremely hot there because it is close to the desert.
Our weather right now is about 25 degrees Celsius (about 77 Fahrenheit). Tijuana and Rosarito, which is only south of the border from San Diego has similar weather as in San Diego. So if you are by the ocean in the summer, it would very rarely get over 80 degrees Fahrenheit and in the winter, the average temperature is around 65 degrees.
The weather in Tijuana is very temperate. The weather in Mexicali is similar to the weather in Calexico so it could be well over 100 degrees there in the summer. When it is summer in Baja, California, you try to avoid visiting Mexicali because Mexicali is east of the hills from La Rumorosa, which divides Mexicali from Tijuana so while Tijuana gets the influence of the Pacific Ocean, which cools it off, Mexicali does not, so it is hot. We have different kinds of weather in Baja because of the difference in geography.
I was in Puerto Vallarta once and I have also visited Chiapas, which is on the border from Guatemala. I had the opportunity to visit Mazatlan, and Mexico City, too. Here in Baja, we expect rain in winter but down there, in the southern parts of Mexico, it rains in summer. That is why it is hot and humid over there because it rains in summer. In contrast, summertime in Baja, California is not humid. It could be hot here in summer but it is not humid.
(House built into the rocks at La Rumorosa, Mexico, pictured.)
Can I wear jewelry in the Panama City, Panama area of Casco Viejo and feel safe?
James Bloomfield - Bala Beach Resort
The answers already here are absolutely correct. You can wear jewelry without worrying on the very safe streets of Casco Viejo. The population are very used to wealthy or well-off foreigners and Panamanians living, working, and visiting the area, so the risk of mugging or theft is low. This relaxed attitude plus the high level of police presence (the Presidential Palace is located here) deter virtually all petty criminals.
The answers already here are absolutely correct. You can wear jewelry without worrying on the very safe streets of Casco Viejo. The population are very used to wealthy or well-off foreigners and Panamanians living, working, and visiting the area, so the risk of mugging or theft is low. This relaxed attitude plus the high level of police presence (the Presidential Palace is located here) deter virtually all petty criminals.
What do I need to know about living overseas and retiring abroad?
Kristin Wilson - Orbis Relocation
One of the things to know about living abroad is that life is going to be different, so you should be open-minded and non-judgmental about it. We're flipping sides here. We're going from being in our comfort zone, in a place where everybody looks like us and we’re going to be the minority in the new country. We're not going to fit in 100%.
I was actually having this conversation the other day with somebody who owns a very big blog about living abroad. ...
One of the things to know about living abroad is that life is going to be different, so you should be open-minded and non-judgmental about it. We're flipping sides here. We're going from being in our comfort zone, in a place where everybody looks like us and we’re going to be the minority in the new country. We're not going to fit in 100%.
I was actually having this conversation the other day with somebody who owns a very big blog about living abroad. They're saying that, once you leave, you aren't going to fit in a 100% in a country that you're going to. You’ll always a little bit of a foreigner - an outsider. And when you come back, you aren't going to 100% fit in America or the country that you're coming from, because you have changed. You have opened your eyes. You have had an experience that is not the norm and you have evolved. You’ll change in ways that you can't really expect but it's always in a good way.
(Pictured to the right and above: teaching orphans to surf in Costa Rica.)
So you just kind of end up with maybe one foot in Ecuador and one foot in America or wherever you're from. You're never going to fit in 100% in one place. That's okay. People might not even notice when you come back to America, but you don’t notice. They'll start to notice the way in which you're different and you'll start to appreciate it more.
Another thing to know about moving abroad relates to planning. It's really actually quite good to have somebody on your team to help plan, because one of the most common things that happens is when you don't have clear plan when you move, a lot of well-meaning people will try to help you, but also a lot of people try to take advantage of you. You might attract situations and people that don't have your best interests in mind. For example, if you look different and you're moving from a different country they might assume you have money. You don't want to just take advice from the first people that you meet when you get to your new country. Sometimes, even on forums, people have their agendas in mind and their best interests, not yours.
You want to get an objective perspective. It could be anybody who has experience in that country that you're moving to and has positive reviews. That's really important because I can't tell you how many times I’ve been on an airplane and heard someone sitting next to me or behind me or in front of me, talking very loudly, giving advice to someone who's coming to Costa Rica or Mexico for the first time. The person giving the advice seems always to be a foreigner who's been there for maybe a year or even less. In some cases they've been there like 3 months or 6 months. In any case, they are giving really bad advice and very wrong information to an unsuspecting person who's sitting next to them on a plane. That's where it starts. It starts there and it doesn't end while you're in the country. People want to share their information with you but you can't be the judge of whether or not it's good or bad information.
(Pictured to the right and above: working in Punta Pacifica, Panama City, Panama.)
When people move to a new country, they tend to be very much more trusting than they would be at their country of origin. In a normal day, when we go to work, for example, we get in our cars, we drive to work and then we go off to where we work and we see all of our co-workers. We don't tend to ask any strangers for life advice or any type of advice on the side of the road or inside of a restaurant or just anywhere. What happens when people go abroad is they don't have any close connections; friends, co-workers or any family members so the first people they meet become their comfort zone. You want to be able to have some selection of who those people are and not just the first people you meet.
For example, a lot of people move to Costa Rica, for example (and this can happen anywhere) and then they want to have social gatherings, so they might invite people to come over to their home who they met in the first month or so or even in the first year that they've been living in a place. They invite a lot of the locals, like local surfers, used to tell me that these people are their friends. They come down every year for a few months and they tell me that they see them every year. Even if just one of those people is not well meaning that person could tip off somebody that you have a flat screen TV or whatever you have that has a value in your house. Somebody could break into your house and know exactly where to go to steal something because one of your acquaintances told them.
This is true especially if you're going to a country where the income is low, in Nicaragua for example, where their per capita income is one of the lowest in Latin America, just above Haiti. When you make more in a day what they can make in a year, they could be really good people but they could be in such a desperate need that they would steal or something like that to get by.
I wish I could tell every expat moving abroad, just keep a little bit of that filter and barrier and self-awareness. Before you invite people to your home and take people's advice, you really need to get to know them. If you can come from that approach where you know that these other things are possible (even though they are not necessarily going to happen to you but has happened to other people), then you can choose your friends and your inner circle with more care. If you do this, you'll end up having a more positive experience and you might even end up realizing sooner rather than later, these people are not really nice friends.
(Pictured to the right and above: overlooking Mayan ruins in Mexico.)
Your caution should extend to other foreigners as well. There are foreigners who have been in the country for a long time. Maybe they are business people. They might also be there for the wrong reasons or not have your best interest in mind when there’s a business deal, real estate transaction, or other similar events. You have got to think like this and take caution wherever you go.
In Nicaragua, Mexico or Ecuador, you’re probably not going to be able to depend on the local justice system for anything when something goes wrong. It's not realistic in most cases. You really have to be your own judge of everything. I don't want it to seem like a dire warning but I have seen people who move abroad completely drop everything and just want to be friends with everybody at the same time and make decisions that they would not make back in California or Colorado or New York City. I would just say, keep your head on and stay smart.
On the other side, you should enjoy the place you’re moving to. Wherever you go, get to know your surroundings very well. A lot of people, because they do research on the Internet, will pick one place, move there, and then end up in their daily routines. That's great, but then they miss out on a lot more of the country. Take advantage of where you are. Usually the cost of traveling is lower once you get down there. I when I lived in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, I think that I literally drove all around the country multiple times. I don't know if there's any stone I left unturned. And I was surprised at how few of the locals or foreigners had ever been to most of the places I visited, and how people tended to just go to the main places. You really get to see the local culture and the beauty when you go off the beaten path.
In Nicaragua, for example, I went to most of the beaches between San Juan del Sur and the tip of Nicaragua, up by El Salvador. And then, one day in 2008, (I had a driver at the time that I paid US $100 per month) I decided to explore some of the towns in the towns in the mountains. I was in a little town called Aposentillo, about 45 minutes north of Chinandega. I drove from there to Estelí, Jinotega, Matagalpa, and many very small, mountain towns. Some of them didn’t even have hotels.
Along the way, I got to see a lot of beautiful pottery. Some of the towns didn’t even have a restaurant, so instead of eating at a restaurant, I remember eating at someone’s house. The locals were very surprised, even though I speak fluent Spanish. They wanted to know who was this blonde haired, 25 year old girl, driving a blue Xterra, coming into our town to walk around and visit. It was really cool. I love doing things like that, and have done similar things in every country I go to, even, for example, in Thailand, from which I just returned. I highly recommend expats do it as well.
Slow travel is better. If you can, I recommend that you go somewhere for several months or even a year and really explore the entire country and then decide where you want to live. In my experience and the experiences of my clients, that is the way you’re going to find where you would feel most at home.
Take advantage of being in a new place. You will be surprised. You’ll end up going places that aren’t really on the tourist map.
To drive in Portugal, do I need a Portugal driver’s license?
Luis Rodrigues - Gouveia Pereira, Costa Freitas & Associates, Law Firm, RL
You can drive in Portugal with your home country driver’s license. However, if you move your residency to Portugal, it is advisable to either obtain an international driver’s license or register your driver’s license at the Portuguese authorities in order to convert it into a Portuguese driver’s license.
(Old Town Madeira, Portugal, pictured.)
You can drive in Portugal with your home country driver’s license. However, if you move your residency to Portugal, it is advisable to either obtain an international driver’s license or register your driver’s license at the Portuguese authorities in order to convert it into a Portuguese driver’s license.
Is the electricity reliable in Managua, Nicaragua? Are there blackouts or brownouts in Managua, Nicaragua?
Alan Makurat
When I first started coming to Nicaragua in the 1990's to visit my wife's family, power outages were long and common. Today, they still happen but are usually short. (A few seconds to less than an hour.)
For security we do have solar powered motion detecting lights on the house and we keep a supply of batteries and flashlights available. Like the US, most power outages now are a, usually, minor inconvenience.
(Fruit stand Nicaragua,...
When I first started coming to Nicaragua in the 1990's to visit my wife's family, power outages were long and common. Today, they still happen but are usually short. (A few seconds to less than an hour.)
For security we do have solar powered motion detecting lights on the house and we keep a supply of batteries and flashlights available. Like the US, most power outages now are a, usually, minor inconvenience.
Is there good fishing in and around Placencia, Belize?
Therese Jonch - Programme for Belize
One of the things that I like about fishing in Belize is that catch and release is being promoted and practiced here.
One of the biggest things for us here in Belize right now is sport fishing and bone fishing. Getting a Grand Slam in Belize is pretty easy and it is quite a great experience. People go out around the world looking for tarpon, bonefish and permit, whereas there are areas here in Belize where you can get all of them in one place,...
One of the things that I like about fishing in Belize is that catch and release is being promoted and practiced here.
One of the biggest things for us here in Belize right now is sport fishing and bone fishing. Getting a Grand Slam in Belize is pretty easy and it is quite a great experience. People go out around the world looking for tarpon, bonefish and permit, whereas there are areas here in Belize where you can get all of them in one place, which is every fisherman’s dream.
We also have sport fishing for marlin. We have about four fishing tournaments being held here in Belize every year. It is not that much advertised as most places in the Caribbean, but Belize competes as one of the best places for tarpon, bonefish (pictured), and permit for catch and release fishing.
Las Posadas is the name for the popular celebrations in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, the United States and Panama during the nine days before Christmas (December 16-24). Las Posadas (which is Spanish for the “inns” or “lodging”) relates to the search by Joseph and Mary for a place to stay in Bethlehem.
This tradition began in Mexico in 1586 when Catholic...
One can look at a map of Panama and see it as would an early engineer, as an earth moving project. There, where the raised land is as narrow as a sandbar on the globe, and the two giant fraternal land masses balance on either side of the equator, Panama is like the stretched middle of a twisted water balloon, and anyone with an imagination tuned to navigation, would place an inland waterway there to connect the oceans, dug to accommodate the cargo of deep-hulled ships. But when one...
In Panama City, there is one place that is not normally included in general city tours; the Presidential Palace (located in Casco Viejo), a recently renovated, beautiful old building that offers every visitor a significant part of history. A unique place to visit, totally free. All you have to do is send a note in advance, with names and passport numbers (for security reasons), and request a specific date. They will reply with confirmation, or...
In Baja, where we live, we are supposed to have rain in winter. It is almost spring but we are still not wearing any sweaters, which is not good for us because it should still be cold at this time of year in Baja. 
One of the things to know about living abroad is that life is going to be different, so you should be open-minded and non-judgmental about it. We're flipping sides here. We're going from being in our comfort zone, in a place where everybody looks like us and we’re going to be the minority in the new country. We're not going to fit in 100%..jpg)
Another thing to know about moving abroad relates to planning. It's really actually quite good to have somebody on your team to help plan, because one of the most common things that happens is when you don't have clear plan when you move, a lot of well-meaning people will try to help you, but also a lot of people try to take advantage of you. You might attract situations and people that don't have your best interests in mind. For example, if you look different and you're moving from a different country they might assume you have money. You don't want to just take advice from the first people that you meet when you get to your new country. Sometimes, even on forums, people have their agendas in mind and their best interests, not yours.
This is true especially if you're going to a country where the income is low, in Nicaragua for example, where their per capita income is one of the lowest in Latin America, just above Haiti. When you make more in a day what they can make in a year, they could be really good people but they could be in such a desperate need that they would steal or something like that to get by.
You can drive in Portugal with your home country driver’s license. However, if you move your residency to Portugal, it is advisable to either obtain an international driver’s license or register your driver’s license at the Portuguese authorities in order to convert it into a Portuguese driver’s license. 
When I first started coming to Nicaragua in the 1990's to visit my wife's family, power outages were long and common. Today, they still happen but are usually short. (A few seconds to less than an hour.) 
One of the things that I like about fishing in Belize is that catch and release is being promoted and practiced here. 
Las Posadas is the name for the popular celebrations in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, the United States and Panama during the nine days before Christmas (December 16-24). Las Posadas (which is Spanish for the “inns” or “lodging”) relates to the search by Joseph and Mary for a place to stay in Bethlehem. .png)
not normally included in general city tours; the Presidential Palace (located in Casco Viejo), a recently renovated, beautiful old building that offers every visitor a significant part of history. A unique place to visit, totally free. All you have to do is send a note in advance, with names and passport numbers (for security reasons), and request a specific date. They will reply with confirmation, or...
