Can I get a good caregiver in Mexico and what is the cost of a good caregiver in Mexico?
Andre Bellon - Bellon Insurance Agents
The cost of a good caregiver in Mexico is going to depend if you’re going to a place to stay and live there, or if you’re going to have someone to come to your home and live with you to help you. Here in Ajijic, there are several really good places that take care of people as a place to stay.
For example, I have a customer who started a caregiving facility for people with Alzheimer’s because his wife’s Alzheimer’s was getting...
The cost of a good caregiver in Mexico is going to depend if you’re going to a place to stay and live there, or if you’re going to have someone to come to your home and live with you to help you. Here in Ajijic, there are several really good places that take care of people as a place to stay.
For example, I have a customer who started a caregiving facility for people with Alzheimer’s because his wife’s Alzheimer’s was getting worse. This facility is called Casa Anastasia, and it’s located in San Antonio, which is here in Ajijic. Casa Anastasia a really nice place, and the founder has done such marvelous things for people to have a better life.
Ajijic has one of the best places for assisted living. This place charges about 20,000-25,000 pesos ($980 - $1,230) monthly for food, a place to stay, and nursing facilities. If a patient needs some type of medication, that will be charged differently.
If you have a caregiver come to your house every once in a while, they will charge you per hour. It becomes different depending on the time you’re going to need their services. For example, if the caregiver has to be there with you for 24 hours each day during the entire week or the entire month, it’s going to cost you more or less 30,000 pesos ($1,473) just for that person to be there, plus your medication, food, and other expenses that you have.
If you needed someone to come by for 2-3 hours a day, that would cost you around 3,000 pesos ($147) a day, which means they charge about 1,000 pesos ($50) an hour. One of the reasons they charge that much is because if they charge per hour, they’re going to work those three hours only, and they are not going to have the full 8 hours daily charging it. They can’t just go to another place because there aren’t that many patients.
I would recommend going to a place for assisted living that is especially set up for groups of people instead of paying individually which can be really expensive. In the United States, any of this is going to be much more expensive.
(Therapy pool at Anastasia Care Home, near Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)
Some have businesses like the restaurant Ola Verde by the owner Carla Fjeld from California or the new beautiful Bed and Breakfast Timeless Hotel Boutique by Mr. Lindsay Heier from Canada. They can honestly say that living in Nicaragua has its benefits, for example, being the safest country in Central America.
The expats that I know are wonderful people.
The expats in Nicaragua are mostly friendly.
Some have businesses like the restaurant Ola Verde by the owner Carla Fjeld from California or the new beautiful Bed and Breakfast Timeless Hotel Boutique by Mr. Lindsay Heier from Canada. They can honestly say that living in Nicaragua has its benefits, for example, being the safest country in Central America.
Are there rivers, lakes and waterfalls in or around Cayo, Belize, including San Ignacio and Belmopan?
John M. Burgos - Belize Tourism Industry Association
We have rivers, lakes and waterfalls in Cayo, but we don’t have any lakes.
There’s the main river and then the main river has little veins and streams that might divert and reconnect with the river; there are several of those.
The river divides Santa Elena and San Ignacio, which are basically residential areas on top of hills that gives you an amazing view and also protects you from the river. The rivers have basins...
We have rivers, lakes and waterfalls in Cayo, but we don’t have any lakes.
There’s the main river and then the main river has little veins and streams that might divert and reconnect with the river; there are several of those.
The river divides Santa Elena and San Ignacio, which are basically residential areas on top of hills that gives you an amazing view and also protects you from the river. The rivers have basins but it’s not feasible for it to reach a level where it’s going to impact the town.
The rivers are extremely clean, and people do all sorts of recreational activities there all the time – everything from tubing, canoeing, kayaking, standup paddle boarding, etc. It’s part of the culture and the area. The rivers are clean and safe because they’re not so much volume that will carry you away and they’re relatively shallow. Some of the waterfalls are easily accessible and there are others that would require a tour guide to take you there.
Normally, we have very small waterfalls. All of them are accessible to people, and they have a little pool of water at the bottom. In general, t’s accessible for you to take a walk and swim underneath the waterfall. Some of them may be as large as 30 to 40 feet. They are very narrow and not that wide.
(Hiker -- bottom right, in the red-- examining the cascades of Five Sister Falls, Cayo District, Belize, pictured.)
How's the hiking and camping in and around Boquete, Panama?
Linda Jensen
Between my husband and me, only my husband has gone hiking here in Boquete. He hikes with his friends once in a while up in the mountains and they enjoy it. The pictures he has shown me were really awesome. My husband is not an experienced hiker and at the same time he’s older so he can’t hke very often. Also, the hiking routes are very steep and there are wooden bridges along the way so it’s more challenging for people in their 60s.
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Between my husband and me, only my husband has gone hiking here in Boquete. He hikes with his friends once in a while up in the mountains and they enjoy it. The pictures he has shown me were really awesome. My husband is not an experienced hiker and at the same time he’s older so he can’t hke very often. Also, the hiking routes are very steep and there are wooden bridges along the way so it’s more challenging for people in their 60s.
There are many groups here (between 5 to 20 people per group) who organize various hiking expeditions. They even have a “Wednesday hiking group”. If you’re interested, you can just go to the meeting place at a certain time and hike with the group.
There are other tour places around here that also have hiking trips which are less challenging. You can just walk out your door in most places in the Boquete area and be in a place where you can hike immediately like Volcancito road, for example.
For me, it’s pretty much fun to just walk on a dirt road. There are fantastic views and birds at every place here in Boquete, although you have to be aware of where you’re stepping because there are stones everywhere and you might trip and break your ankle. You can get a hiking stick if you want to help you with your balance.
As for camping, I have not camped here in Boquete but some people I know have. I have some friends who were from Alabama, USA and they went to the woods in the city of David to camp. It’s the closest big city from Boquete and it’s about 40 minutes away via the newly-constructed highway. They’ve also camped in some areas around here in Boquete towards the mountain as well as at some beaches in Panama.
Luis Rodrigues - Gouveia Pereira, Costa Freitas & Associates, Law Firm, RL
Yes you can obtain a mortgage home loan in Portugal as a foreigner. You would need to open a bank account and prove before the bank that you have financial capacity to repay the home loan.
(Santarém, Portugal, pictured.)
Yes you can obtain a mortgage home loan in Portugal as a foreigner. You would need to open a bank account and prove before the bank that you have financial capacity to repay the home loan.
Do I have to file my Canadian taxes if I retire, work or live abroad?
ROSALIND MCCOY - PANAMA SIGNATURE REALTY
But bear in mind, if you own any property on the soil of Canada, when you sell it, you have to submit 25% of the sale to the Canadian government. If you want to avoid that hefty tax, you may consider to sell off your property before moving overseas, or just leave the property untouched until you move back.
But bear in mind, if you own any property on the soil of Canada, when you sell it, you have to submit 25% of the sale to the Canadian government. If you want to avoid that hefty tax, you may consider to sell off your property before moving overseas, or just leave the property untouched until you move back.
A bridge. Some hills. A river. Interesting? Taken individually, maybe not so much. But wait! If you can find all three together, then you almost have a match made in heaven. I say almost. Now if you throw in a town, then – and only then – you have attained nirvana!
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