Best Places In The World To Retire

The best things about living and retiring in Los Cabos – La Paz and especially where we are, at La Ventana, about 40 minutes south of La Paz, is that the weather is very nice 10 months of the year.  The other two months, we can have humidity and be threatened by hurricanes.  We start to get our rains in the end of August and they usually coincide with the hurricanes. And once the rains come you get humidity and that changes everything. Plus, the water in the sea warms...

The best things about living and retiring in Los Cabos – La Paz and especially where we are, at La Ventana, about 40 minutes south of La Paz, is that the weather is very nice 10 months of the year.  The other two months, we can have humidity and be threatened by hurricanes.  We start to get our rains in the end of August and they usually coincide with the hurricanes. And once the rains come you get humidity and that changes everything. Plus, the water in the sea warms up. Right now, as we’re doing this even in late June, the water is still fairly fresh and you feel the breeze right now coming in. It keeps the temperature down. But when the water warms up and you get the rain and humidity, the bugs come out.  This is an issue in September and first two or three weeks of October.  August is not too bad. It doesn’t get much hotter than in mid-June but the water starts to warm up a little bit more. But we usually don’t get any rain until end of August, or the end of September. 

 

 

Other than that, the climate is pretty nice 10 months a year. No rain. It’s a little bit windy in winter, so for people who aren’t into wind sports maybe they don’t like it so much and it can be a little bit cool in January and February. But people who are into wind sports are exercising, biking, and so on. The weather’s pretty nice all winter.

 

Also, it’s very affordable to live here in La Ventana, as far as food and even gasoline or your basic cost, electricity, all of those things.

 

Another great thing about living here is that the people are just the best. They’re so warm. Sometimes you don’t feel it because they’re shy with gringos and they don’t speak English much but once you break through that, you will see how warm and helpful they are.

 

Also related to this, there is very little crime in the La Ventana area. I just don’t know about Cabo or La Paz, but here in La Ventana, there’s very little crime and very few related problems.  As an example, and particularly in my projects, which are a little more isolated because of how I structured it to be in a residential area and we don’t really run a walk in bar and restaurant, we lock the gate but we don’t have any keys for the rooms.  Guests leave their iPhones, laptops, etc., in the restaurants and in the rooms and we’ve never had anything stolen in the entire 15 years we’ve been here.

 

As far as the bad things, from my perspective, doing business here can be frustrating, with all the red tape.   They really got a handle on the corruption which is nice because when you grow up in North America you’re just not used to that system even though in Latin countries it’s pretty standard.  From a personal perspective, I don’t pay anybody off because I just feel like once you go down that road, it’s never ending. 

 

As opposed to doing business here, if you’re just in retirement here you don’t have to interact too much with the government. The banking has gotten a lot better. Phone services are now a lot better. The Internet’s gotten a lot better.  Everything has improved. It was not that long ago when we started here there was no power, no roads, no phone, and no Internet, so it’s come a long way. The Internet is still not lightning fast but it sure has come a long way from fax speed we had when I started here.  

 

(Mountain bike riding, La Ventana Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pictured.)

It is typically more expensive to buy a new car in Portugal. It is very difficult to find a new car in Portugal unless it is a small new car that costs under € 10,000 (about US $ 10,800 or £ 7,370). Most new cars when compared to the UK, will be at a premium of about 25% to 30% and when compared to the US, will be at a premium of about 40% to 50%. 

 

The market for second hand cars hardly existed until about 5 years ago and now there are about...

It is typically more expensive to buy a new car in Portugal. It is very difficult to find a new car in Portugal unless it is a small new car that costs under € 10,000 (about US $ 10,800 or £ 7,370). Most new cars when compared to the UK, will be at a premium of about 25% to 30% and when compared to the US, will be at a premium of about 40% to 50%. 

 

The market for second hand cars hardly existed until about 5 years ago and now there are about three or four specialists but it is still more expensive than buying a second hand car in the US, where you could into Daytona Beach and buy a pickup truck for US $500 (€ 460 or £ 340). You can’t do that in Portugal. A fairly nice condition, second hand car would cost about €5,000 (US $ 5,500 or £ 3,700).  Vehicle taxes in Portugal are astronomical; they are the highest in Europe.

 

I am not really certain why we didn’t have a second hand car market in Portugal until recently but I think it is partly cultural and partly as a result of legislation. Culturally, even though Portugal is not a wealthy nation, it hates to buy things that are second hand. If you offer somebody second hand clothes, for example, they will look at you lop-sided because they consider that pretty much an insult. Until recently, any second hand items of any nature were frowned upon, whereas, if you go to England, for example, second hand sales are all the rage. In Portugal, that was frowned upon. I think that extended to vehicles. Vehicles are seen as a status symbol so people do not like to be seen in second hand cars.

 

The other thing was that the taxation process, in terms of imported vehicles is so onerous. There are such high taxes in terms of imported vehicles that it just didn’t pay to import and to buy an imported, nice second hand car because the price would be too close to brand new cars. Only in the course of the last few years has that appeared to change.  

 

(Fiat Cinquecento in Portugal, pictured.)

The food in the markets in San Juan Del Sur is typical Nicaraguan food. It is nothing out of the ordinary.  You will find a little bit more seafood or fish, but generally, you will find typical Nicaraguan dish: rice and beans, meat, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables and fruits that are in season.

 

We have two kinds of markets. The first one is the artisan market, which locally called mercado artesanal. That is the lower class market where...

The food in the markets in San Juan Del Sur is typical Nicaraguan food. It is nothing out of the ordinary.  You will find a little bit more seafood or fish, but generally, you will find typical Nicaraguan dish: rice and beans, meat, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables and fruits that are in season.

 

We have two kinds of markets. The first one is the artisan market, which locally called mercado artesanal. That is the lower class market where everyone goes and it is exactly like a farmers' market. They do not accept credit cards in the artisan market. You pay everything in cash and everything is also much cheaper. There is also less hygiene there and you are not sure where the food came from. They have fresh produce that was locally grown, too.

 

You will also find eateries inside the artisan market. The typical food that you can buy from these eateries is called un servicio, which is composed of rice, beans, meat or chicken, and plantains. That goes for around 60 to 75 Cordobas (US $2 to $3) for a meal. They have chicken stew, meat stew, carne asal, pollo asal, pollo frito (fried chicken) for the same amount.

 

(Pictured is a Nicaraguan-style quesillo: a tortilla wrapped around pickled onions and a soft, white cheese.)

 

The second kind of food market in San Juan del Sur is called the Pali, which is a supermarket chain of Walmart. There you will find typical Nicaraguan food along with other imported goods. Pali is something new to San Juan Del Sur.  It was opened just about three years ago and it turned the city around. Now, you can just hop in a car, drive to San Juan Del Sur, go to Pali, and buy everything you need.

 

It is cheaper to buy food in the artisan market. As an example, a pound of rice in Pali costs around 25 Cordobas but in the market, it will only be around 19 Cordobas. A pound of red beans in Pali is around 35 Cordobas, but it is just around 28 Cordobas in the artisan market. Local cheese in Pali is around 50 Cordobas and in the artisan market, it is just around 42 Cordobas. You will not find a loaf of bread, a carton of milk, cornflakes or cereals in the artisan market. You will only find local products that people brought to the market to sell at a lower price.

For my health insurance, I use a company called Bupa, which is a British company. They specialize in Irish and British nationals. The plan I have is if I go see a doctor, I pay the bill. Then I get the receipt, send it to Bupa, and then they refund me the cost.

 

I had another health insurance plan before that. They were good as well. They increased their prices so I switched to Bupa because they were cheaper. They do a worldwide program. They were pretty...

For my health insurance, I use a company called Bupa, which is a British company. They specialize in Irish and British nationals. The plan I have is if I go see a doctor, I pay the bill. Then I get the receipt, send it to Bupa, and then they refund me the cost.

 

I had another health insurance plan before that. They were good as well. They increased their prices so I switched to Bupa because they were cheaper. They do a worldwide program. They were pretty good, but they just doubled their fees so I switched. 

 

Bupa costs roughly US $180 a month for just me personally.   When you go to the doctor, you pay it, and then send in the receipts, and then they’ll cover it. They cover everything. The main thing I remember from a list is that they’ll cover up to $1,000,000 per illness. That was the thing that I was concerned with. Whatever it is, they’ll cover it, hospitalization, etc.. 

 

Normally there’s a co-pay and deductible. It depends on the plan that you get. There are ones that are incidental as well and the deductible varies. You have to pick which one. You can decide the deductible and you can decide how expensive the plan is. The higher the deductible, the cheaper the monthly premium. But if you go for a low deductible, then you pay a higher premium. 

 

The coverage is worldwide. All I need to do is I need to let them know, for example, if I am going to go work in Costa Rica or wherever I am. The only stipulation that they had is that there’s a time limit on how long I can be in the US. They will only cover you for only 12 weeks in the US I’m assuming because the health care costs are so much more expensive there. Anywhere else, you’re covered indefinitely.  

 

(Bupa International Health Insurance logo, pictured.)