Best Places In The World To Retire

Chapala and Ajijic have a lot of traditions. The north shore of the lake, which has most of the expat population, is comprised of nine villages. Each Mexican village has its own series of religious and traditional events throughout the year.
 
In Ajijic, the biggest festival of the year is the Festival of Saint Andrew (San Andres), which is the patron saint of the main church in Ajijic. They have a 9-day celebration that all happens during the week of the American Thanksgiving....

Chapala and Ajijic have a lot of traditions. The north shore of the lake, which has most of the expat population, is comprised of nine villages. Each Mexican village has its own series of religious and traditional events throughout the year.
 
In Ajijic, the biggest festival of the year is the Festival of Saint Andrew (San Andres), which is the patron saint of the main church in Ajijic. They have a 9-day celebration that all happens during the week of the American Thanksgiving. They do special events for Easter, Christmas, etc. The event that caters to locals and expats alike is the Festival del Globos, which is the balloon festival. They use handmade paper balloons during this festival. People spend months making these tissue-paper balloons. Then they light up fire on a wax ring and the balloons fill up with hot air and float off at the end of the night. That’s one of my favorite festivals here.
 
The Carnival, in February, is lots of fun. There are parades and lots of mischievousness and silliness. The town of Chapala does a festival of rides and bands, which is a bit similar to a county fair. There are some fun parades in Ajijic during Carnival. As one of the local traditions, guys dress up as women but with pretty exaggerated breasts. Some of them have balloons as breasts and they wear funny masks. They have satchels full of flour  and they throw the flour on you or maybe it is confetti. You’ll never know what is inside their satchel until the last second as they start throwing it on people. There are lots of fun festivals that happen here.
 
We celebrate Thanksgiving here for both the Canadians and the Americans. If you are lucky, you get two of those per year, which happens in October and November. There are small celebrations for 4th of July. Mexican Independence Day is also celebrated.  There is always something going on.

 

(Thomas Hellyer with his family outside his office in Lake Chapala after being pelted with flour by a passing Carnivale parade, Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)

Under this program you don’t have to stamp your passport every month. In addition, you can bring many items to Belize duty free, including a car as long as it’s less than 3 years old, light aircraft as long as it’s not commercial, a boat, and...

Under this program you don’t have to stamp your passport every month. In addition, you can bring many items to Belize duty free, including a car as long as it’s less than 3 years old, light aircraft as long as it’s not commercial, a boat, and all your household goods and possessions.

Rafting is not great in the Algarve because there are not steep and fast flowing rivers here. Kayaking and canoeing, however, are good.

 

We have two, large navigable courses in Algarve, the Guadiana River on the border with Spain, which is the largest, and the Arade River, which comes down from the mountains and flows into the sea between Portimão and Ferragudo. Those are fantastic courses because they are quite flat and there are a number of courses along the...

Rafting is not great in the Algarve because there are not steep and fast flowing rivers here. Kayaking and canoeing, however, are good.

 

We have two, large navigable courses in Algarve, the Guadiana River on the border with Spain, which is the largest, and the Arade River, which comes down from the mountains and flows into the sea between Portimão and Ferragudo. Those are fantastic courses because they are quite flat and there are a number of courses along the shores where you can stop your car and load your canoe into the water and paddle from there and back. There are also a number of inlets, which allow you to do even more sheltered canoeing.

 

There is also a fantastic picnic spot, where there is a boat ramp called Sítio das Fontes, in municipality of Lagoa. This is a wonderful place to take your family out for a picnic and take your kayak or canoe and go out from there even with the youngsters so you could teach them to kayak or canoe for the first time. There is no difficulty or risk of being on a big river.

 

The Arade River, which is used for the canoeing and kayaking, is also used for jet skis. The daughter of an Italian family that settled in the Algarve was the world champion jet skier for I believe 3 years in a row and she trained on Arade River, so it is big enough for this kind of activity. In the estuary at Portimão, the World Series powerboat competition is held once a year. They come to Algarve every year and people come to the banks to see these very powerful boats on the edge as they drive around the estuary and the river.

 

In addition to the jet skiing, here is calm kayaking on these rivers. You will see the people paddling up and down from a number of the beaches such as the Batata Beach in Lagos, the Dona Ana Beach in Lagos as well, and others that often have kayaks for rent. On a calm day you can paddle along the coastline and go into the caves and onto the little inlets of the coast. 99% of all kayaking and paddling here in the Algarve is of the quiet type. 

 

There is also some kayaking on the southeast of the Algarve, but strangely enough, not as much as in other areas. The reason is that the whole estuary area called Ria de Tavira, which has low lying islands, sand banks, and the like, is very large and the distances are quite great. You would find that most of the people who explore the river in this area do so in small, motorized boats.

 

(Sítio das Fontes, Portugal,  pictured.)

The United States has a highly stringent policy when it comes to the taxation of its citizens and permanent residents (i.e., those with a green card). The US government taxes all of its citizens based on worldwide income, which means it does not matter where the money is earned. 

 

The United States has a highly stringent policy when it comes to the taxation of its citizens and permanent residents (i.e., those with a green card). The US government taxes all of its citizens based on worldwide income, which means it does not matter where the money is earned.