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Here in Playa del Carmen, Yucatan, everything is built with concrete block. It’s all pretty basic and simple. It’s concrete block and tile floors. All interior walls are concrete blocks—everything is solid. It’s one solid structure, which is great insulation for temperature and sound, and if we get any storms it’s great. You don’t have to worry about anything.
Because the buildings here are built with concrete I’d say they’re built better than the buildings In Canada. We don’t have to worry about fires because our construction is not just wood and dry wall. The only time you’ll see drywall here if is somebody has a central air and they need the duct systems but besides that everything is one big solid structure of concrete. I prefer the way they’re built here to the way they build back in Canada.
We have inspections and there are permits. The permitting in Mexico is all about who you know. You always want to know a guy for this, a guy for that, another guy for some other thing because otherwise it’s going to take forever. You wouldn’t want to come here and just say, “I’m going to build a house” and just do it all on your own. You would have to make sure that you have the right people—a contractor, an architect, everybody—and they will take care of getting all your permits. You don’t want to go to the city and try to get your permits because it’s just not going to happen, especially if you don’t speak Spanish.
We still have everything inspected. When you build a property here you have to, because the ground here is like Swiss cheese. There are a lot of underground caverns. So when you get a piece of land where you can start building a house you have to drill test the land everywhere to see how deep you hit solid rock and then you have to put concrete pile on down for your structure to hold it up. Many years ago that wasn’t the case but since the last 5 to 10 years you now have to do that. If I wanted to buy something that’s 20 years old I’d be more hesitant, but you’re fine buying all the newer stuff that was built in the last 10 years.
We do have very basic home inspections. It’s not often that we get home inspections just because the homes are so basic. If you see a big crack or looks like something sinking, that going to be an issue it will be very obvious.
(Home in Paradise Beach, south of Cancun, Mexico, pictured.)
The cost to rent an apartment in Ambergris Caye depends on the type of accommodation you are looking for. That cost varies greatly.
El Valle de Anton is in an extinct volcano up in the mountains directly up the hill from the Pacific Riviera on the Pacific Ocean coast, which runs from Gorgona to Rio Hato (a stretch of about 35 minutes by car). So, if you wanted to go surfing from El Valle, you would have to drive down the hill to the ocean, where there are quite a few beaches within an hour drive from El Valle that are used by surfers. 
The cost for landline phone service in Portugal is about €10 to €20 (US $10.75 to $21.70 or £7.21 to £14.42), which would give you unlimited calls within Portugal.
title and it’s in your name. 
Not even Goldilocks would have a problem with Ajijic. It’s “just right” and in the middle: not too cold, and not too hot. Ajijic is not too crowded, but with enough residents to have services: there’s a Wal-Mart close by, and dozens of great restaurants, day spas, etc. Guadalajara, at 40 minutes away by car, provides an international airport, high-end shopping, culture, first rate medical care, etc. just close enough to be convenient but not too close to be an...
At each of the stops on 
Several articles have been written through the years regarding the different issues when considering moving to a different country, especially as a retirement option.