Best Places In The World To Retire

Who your neighbors would be in San Miguel de Allende would depend on where you live. There are some areas such as Centro (the central part of town) that are largely American and Canadian. Here in Centro your neighbors would be 50% Mexican and 50% expats so the experience is different here. There are people here in Centro that you might be able to relate to and talk to. The Mexicans who live in Centro are lovely and wonderful. We know all of our neighbors and we say, “Buenos...

Who your neighbors would be in San Miguel de Allende would depend on where you live. There are some areas such as Centro (the central part of town) that are largely American and Canadian. Here in Centro your neighbors would be 50% Mexican and 50% expats so the experience is different here. There are people here in Centro that you might be able to relate to and talk to. The Mexicans who live in Centro are lovely and wonderful. We know all of our neighbors and we say, “Buenos dias”, and it is fairly interactive.

 

If you live in a more Mexican neighborhood outside of Centro, you are going to have a different experience and you’re going to interact in a different way. You might feel like you want to contribute more or show your generosity more in an area like that so that you feel more welcome. I was talking to somebody about this recently and I said, “You know, if there’s a robbery in some of the bad parts of San Miguel, all they are going to do is try to take your cellphone or your TV.” And he says, “Well, if I move to that part of town, I’ll buy the whole neighborhood sets of TVs that they don’t have to worry about that.” There is some truth to that statement. You’re going to reach out and be generous and nice and make sure that you’re welcome. There is a one to one correlation between how many gringos there are and how wealthy the area is. Centro is the wealthiest part of town and therefore it has the most gringos. As you radiate out of Centro, it gets less wealthy and there are less gringos. The wealthier Mexicans also tend to live in Centro. 

 

If you get on top of some of the roofs here in Centro and look over, you would see a house that has been repaired but it’s been around for 100 years. Right here, you will not see corrugated roofs but if you go a couple of blocks away, you would see corrugated roofs even after all these years and after all these developments. So it is still possible that you would live next to your housekeeper or next to a poor family. You don’t have to be a wealthy Mexican or a gringo to live in Centro. You could live next to a family that has been here for a long time; we do. We get along well with our neighbors here even though there is still some sort of resentment due to the income disparity. We’ve been invited recently to community meetings that were set up by the Mexican residents to tackle topics about crime, traffic, noise, etc. We sat in the same meetings and do not understand Spanish as well but we get it well enough and they help us understand so we cohabitate well.

 

Mexicans live a louder life. If there are celebrations then there will be loud music associated with the celebrations. There could be fireworks associated with the celebrations, too. Mexicans use fireworks for any reason that you can imagine. There are many churches in San Miguel de Allende so you would hear them use their bells and they use them assertively. If you do not like a generally loud noise level then you wouldn’t want to live in Centro. I recommend that you live in Balcones, Atascadero, parts of San Antonio, Los Frailles, or in the outskirts of Centro.

 

(Mature garden in Los Frailes, near the reservoir, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, pictured.)

Overall, (and probably many people get shocked about this) Nicaragua has one of the lowest crime rates in all of Latin America. Specifically, in Leon, where I live, it is very safe. There have only been three murders in the entire year 2015 and there were none in 2013 and 2014. Leon has a population of around 200,000.

 

Nicaragua, in general, is a very safe country to live in. However, there are a lot of opportunistic or petty crimes here. For example, there...

Overall, (and probably many people get shocked about this) Nicaragua has one of the lowest crime rates in all of Latin America. Specifically, in Leon, where I live, it is very safe. There have only been three murders in the entire year 2015 and there were none in 2013 and 2014. Leon has a population of around 200,000.

 

Nicaragua, in general, is a very safe country to live in. However, there are a lot of opportunistic or petty crimes here. For example, there are petty thefts of bicycles or personal items that are left out in the open. A lot of the crimes that happen here are familial crime – for example, a husband and wife, who are in a violent situation. But overall, the crimes here in Nicaragua are petty crime so if you are out and you are not careful, you might get pick-pocketed. That does happen frequently, especially during the holidays so you have to exercise caution.

 

Managua has some of the higher crime rates in the country because it is the capital and there are many more people there. Places like Leon, Granada, or Estelí have very low crime rates. As an example, we have moneychangers here in Nicaragua, where people go to exchange their dollars into córdobas because the money changers offer a better exchange rate than if you go to the banks. You will find these moneychangers on some corners and in parks, processing thousands of dollars all day and nobody bothers them. In the US, if there is a money changer exchanging money at the corner, you wouldn’t last five minutes and you’ll get robbed. Here in Nicaragua, money changers are so common and nobody bothers them at all. It is just a way of life. People here, for the most part, are very honest.

 

Overall, Nicaragua is not a violent country compared to the US. Where I am from in Elizabeth, New Jersey, if you leave your garbage can outside, it will be gone in 10 minutes if it is not chained to something. Elizabeth is near Newark, New Jersey, which is a major city. Here in Nicaragua, many people still leave their front doors wide open. You cannot do that in Elizabeth because if you do, you will be mugged within 15 minutes of somebody seeing your door open. If you are going out at night, you just have to exercise caution as you would anywhere. Nicaragua is a pretty safe country.

 

(Children in Leon, Nicaragua, pictured.)

Boquete is a melting pot. There are several expat communities within Boquete as well as several local communities, too.

 

What your neighbors would be like depends on your cup of tea.  If you are in a gated community, the majority of your neighbors are going to be expats: Americans, Canadians, Europeans, etc. If you are in a local community, obviously, you are going to be involved with the local Panamanian culture of the area. You can definitely choose...

Boquete is a melting pot. There are several expat communities within Boquete as well as several local communities, too.

 

What your neighbors would be like depends on your cup of tea.  If you are in a gated community, the majority of your neighbors are going to be expats: Americans, Canadians, Europeans, etc. If you are in a local community, obviously, you are going to be involved with the local Panamanian culture of the area. You can definitely choose depending on your lifestyle.

 

If you live in a gated community, there are normally more amenities than in other places but of course the price is much more. In the local Panamanian community, you may not have the amenities but you can still get something very comfortable for a lot less money. Within a gated community, you would have more of that expat experience, more social events involving expats, more amenities that would cater to expats such as golf, tennis, and horseback riding. In a local community, you are going to be more with the Panamanian local culture, which would be more families, more children, probably more barking dogs, a couple of roosters and chickens crowing. That would be part of the local experience.

 

A lot of expats actually have a hard time adjusting to the more local experience, only because they are not used to the animals in the yard. A lot of local Planarians here have larger families so there are a lot more kids playing in the streets.  

 

( Rooster on Panama stamp, pictured.)

There are over 450 surf spots in Portugal. We have over 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) of coastline. We have been a recognized country for surfing for many years. In 2011, Ericeira, which is 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from Cascais (near Lisbon), was elected second as World Surfing Reserve and the first in Europe. 

 

I’ve surfed at Ericeira many times.  Surfers use a lot of slang in their terminologies. But for the first timers, I can...

There are over 450 surf spots in Portugal. We have over 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) of coastline. We have been a recognized country for surfing for many years. In 2011, Ericeira, which is 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from Cascais (near Lisbon), was elected second as World Surfing Reserve and the first in Europe. 

 

I’ve surfed at Ericeira many times.  Surfers use a lot of slang in their terminologies. But for the first timers, I can tell you, you have all sized waves—you have lefts, you have rights, you have sandbanks, you have rockbanks. Each of these makes the waves different. People at any level of expertise will find waves in Portugal. 

 

The ASP, (the professional tour of surfing, now the WSL-- World Surfing League) has one of their events in Portugal in October in which they get well known attendees like Kelly Slater, 11-time world surfing champion. 

 

In Cascais, where I am, near Lisbon, we don’t get waves for two months out of the year, but there are always places like Ericeira and further north Aveiro or Porto, which are more exposed to the Atlantic Ocean and where we get mid-sized waves.  The best time to surf in Portugal is from September to May; the whole winter and spring there are waves in Portugal all over the place.  

 

(Quicksilver sponsored surf contest, Ericeira, Portugal, pictured.)