Best Places In The World To Retire

Many of us here in the La Paz – Los Cabos area have a very active lifestyle. We go hiking, we ride bicycles, we live right by the ocean, and so we swim and snorkel. We like to do wind sports here. There is a lot of fishing, too. There are a lot of great bike trails that you can go to if you are into that kind of activity.  On the other hand, there are also people who are not as active and who like to have dinner and have a get together with friends.

 

Many of us here in the La Paz – Los Cabos area have a very active lifestyle. We go hiking, we ride bicycles, we live right by the ocean, and so we swim and snorkel. We like to do wind sports here. There is a lot of fishing, too. There are a lot of great bike trails that you can go to if you are into that kind of activity.  On the other hand, there are also people who are not as active and who like to have dinner and have a get together with friends.

 

The weather is always very pleasant here so that makes for a different style of living because you have a lot more outdoors living and patio living. We have gorgeous scenery here. We have the mountains, the ocean, and everybody’s yards have the opportunity of lush planting of palm trees and bougainvillea, etc. It is just a different feeling to be here.

 

Almost everything is just within walking distance. You can walk to the store, the restaurant, or down to the beach. We have a more free type of living because we don’t have the constriction of having to bundle up and get into your car. You don’t have issues with traffic here. We don’t have weather issues where you have to plan everything based on the weather because it is warm and sunny here most of the time. There is a time during summer when it gets hot and a lot of people want to spend that time going north and visiting other friends and family but you could also just stick it out and be in the air-conditioning more. But generally, throughout the rest of the year, the climate here has always been ideal. 

 

In my opinion, Cabo is more a more tourist-oriented and foreign-oriented city. I am sure that the real estate prices and the bulk of people that are migrating to Cabo is a lot greater than it is in the towns because Cabo is more popular and there are lots of gorgeous homes and tons of great restaurants there, too. Cabo has tons of golf courses and they have wonderful marinas. There are lots of opportunities to go fishing and sightseeing. Cruise ships go there. Cabo has a lot of hotel resorts that offer all kinds of amenities but for someone like me, I don’t feel like Cabo is a real city as much as it is a foreign-generated lifestyle. 

 

When you go to La Paz, which is a major city in Mexico and the capital of Baja California Sur, it is an industrial city that is not really geared towards tourist living. So that is what makes the difference. There are a lot of theaters in La Paz. There is also a lot of nice restaurants and there are courses to be taken and art festivals that you can go to. There are many things going on in La Paz that are not usually tourist-oriented but they are geared towards the ordinary Mexican people. There are also nice resorts, golf courses, and sightseeing opportunities in La Paz but it has more of the commerce feel than a tourist feel. 

 

La Ventana is a small beachfront community where I live about 40 minutes from La Paz and about two hours from the Cabo San Lucas area.  When you go to La Ventana, it is a different thing altogether because it is a small community. Most of our communities are on dirt roads. We have a health center in La Ventana but if you have a major health concern, you can certainly drive into La Paz for medical attention. We don’t have a bank or a bank machine yet here in La Ventana. We have a couple of grocery stores but we don’t have a major chain. The only major chains that we have here is a gas station and an Oxxo, which is similar to 7-eleven. The restaurants are local businesses here. We have a lot of resorts in La Ventana and we are the number one kite boarding destination in the world right now. We also have a lot of wind surfing, spear fishing, scuba diving, mountain biking, and hiking. Living in La Ventana gives you a very outdoorsy style of living. There are also people here who are active but they do not do all those extreme sports and who nonetheless enjoy the society and they are just out and about in the community.

 

(Pictured: Wind surfing in La Ventana Bay, La Ventana, Baja Mexico Sur, Mexico.)

To have a Portuguese Passport it will be necessary to apply for Portuguese Nationality first.

 

The Permanent Residence Permit allows for citizens of third states to apply for the Portuguese Nationality after 6 (six) years of residence in the Portuguese Territory.

 

Nonetheless the citizen applying for the Portuguese Nationality shall also have to comply, namely, with the following requirements:

 

...

To have a Portuguese Passport it will be necessary to apply for Portuguese Nationality first.

 

The Permanent Residence Permit allows for citizens of third states to apply for the Portuguese Nationality after 6 (six) years of residence in the Portuguese Territory.

 

Nonetheless the citizen applying for the Portuguese Nationality shall also have to comply, namely, with the following requirements:

 

a)      Proof of residence in Portuguese territory for at least 6 years;

 

b)      The applicants must be over eighteen years old;

 

c)       Sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese Language;

 

d)      Absence of conviction for crime punishable in Portugal by imprisonment for more than 3 years;

 

e)      Birth certificate;

 

f)       Passport;

 

(Electronic passport from Portugal, pictured.)

 

g)      Incorporation about personal data as the name of the parents, profession, etc.;

 

h)      Countries where the applicant had residence besides Portugal;

 

i)        Criminal registry issued by the Portuguese entity of the county of birth or of the nationality where the applicant has its residence.

 

The Portuguese Passport allows the holder to establish residence and free movement in Portugal and in other European Union Countries. Thus, with a second passport to get into countries that require visas for certain citizens could benefit you in substantial costs and less paperwork and unnecessary bureaucracy to travel around.

 

Other advantages of having a Portuguese Passport are the access to medical assistance, to education and others publics rights on the same terms as the Portuguese without losing your American citizenship.

 

(Electronic passport from Portugal, pictured.)

Boquete is located about 3,500 feet (about 1,100 meters) above sea level so we don’t exactly have beachfront property here.   However, Panama has over 1,100 miles of coastline and since the country averages about 70 miles across, you’re never very far from the ocean.   The roads are quite good throughout the country and for a quick day surfing trip you can make it from Boquete to Barqueta beach in just about an hour. 

 

In Boquete,...

Boquete is located about 3,500 feet (about 1,100 meters) above sea level so we don’t exactly have beachfront property here.   However, Panama has over 1,100 miles of coastline and since the country averages about 70 miles across, you’re never very far from the ocean.   The roads are quite good throughout the country and for a quick day surfing trip you can make it from Boquete to Barqueta beach in just about an hour. 

 

In Boquete, serious surfers generally go to Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean side of the country or drive to Santa Catalina or Pedasi, both located near Santiago.  From Boquete, driving time to Bocas is just about 4 hours and you can make it to Pedasi or Santa Catalina in around 5 hours.  Both areas are known for high quality surfing at various times of the year.

 

What’s great about living in Boquete is that you can live in a very mild climate surrounded by lush tropical forests and jump in your car and experience some of the best surfing in Central America in just a few hours.  Since surfing conditions change throughout the year, you can drive to the areas that have the best waves when the time is right.

 

When the waves aren’t breaking, adventurous water lovers can do world class kayaking and white water rafting near Boquete for a nice change of pace.

Living on Ambergris Caye is very relaxing. I worked a bit too hard for twenty odd years in suits and ties and had stress living in Canada. I used to have a 25-minute commute in my car to go to and from work in traffic. Now, I am sitting here in my office barefoot with short pants on. I jump in my golf cart and drive back and forth for about 7 minutes from where I live.

 

We are getting more traffic here because there are now taxi vans and other modes of...

Living on Ambergris Caye is very relaxing. I worked a bit too hard for twenty odd years in suits and ties and had stress living in Canada. I used to have a 25-minute commute in my car to go to and from work in traffic. Now, I am sitting here in my office barefoot with short pants on. I jump in my golf cart and drive back and forth for about 7 minutes from where I live.

 

We are getting more traffic here because there are now taxi vans and other modes of transport here in Ambergris Caye. When I came here 15 years ago, we had all sand streets and nothing was paved. You could walk out of the bar and right on the street without getting run over. Now the traffic is getting a little bit worse but we are trying to deal with the infrastructure for the traffic. 

 

Living here in Ambergris Caye is stress-free. I have friends back home in Nova Scotia in suits and tie jobs who complain about stress. I tell them, “I have stress, too but if I want to get rid of my stress, I go to my office, get a rum and coke, walk 50 feet, and sit under a coconut tree on the beach.” That is a lot better than the stress I used to have in Canada. 

 

The sun comes up at around 5:30 in the morning and it starts to get hot at around 10 AM  or 11 AM. The temperature fluctuates anywhere on a mean average of mid to low 80 degrees Fahrenheit this time of year. We have days when we are in the mid to low 90 degrees. It’s a little warm but we have the breeze coming off the ocean all the time. When I walk out my front door, which is on the main street along the beach, it might be 92 degrees off my front door but if you walk 50 feet to the beach and sit under a coconut tree, it’s like 82 degrees.

 

Everybody here is more laidback. Nobody is rushing around. I don’t have a Day Timer anymore. When I was back in Canada, back in professional jobs, I was a healthcare CEO, I was a professional manager, etc., I had a Day Timer that controlled my life. Every morning, I would give it to my secretary for her to update. That was how we lived. There were times when I even had to refer to my Day Timer to figure out what night I could meet a girl and take her to dinner. Life’s not like that here in Ambergris Caye.  

 

(Tropical vibe of Bob Hamilton's Century 21 realty office in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)