This has been our second Christmas living in Panama… and whilst I cannot deny that spending Christmas day on the beach and by a gorgeous pool in glorious sunshine is a huge plus point, for us and many people we know there is that severe lack of ‘chrismassy feeling’
That is not because Christmas is not celebrated here… Christmas decorations have been up everywhere, stores have dedicated floors of Christmas paraphernalia and the shops are crammed...
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It was in December 2012 when we came to Panama. I had been researching sites, blogs, and magazines online for about two years. It was tedious and often difficult to find the information I wanted. I managed to dig up facts, statistics, places, climate, foods, picture, language, and laws. Still it wasn't long before my heart belonged to Panama. Our lives have changed, a lot. Having things doesn't matter so much in Panama. So letting material things go was a sad thing but a...
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Property taxes in Mexico are nothing compared to the amount you pay in the States. The low amount of property taxes in Mexico is one of the biggest advantages of purchasing in Mexico. 
It is possible to lower your US taxes if you qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Tax Exclusion. 
You can get by in Belize just speaking English because everyone here speaks English. Even here in Corozal, next to the Mexican border, it’s predominantly Spanish speaking but everybody speaks English also. They’re more comfortable here in Corozal speaking in Spanish only because it’s their primary language. We have a big influence of Guatemalans, of Mexicans, Hondurans, and Mestizos in Corozal.
Americans and other expats in the Algarve are treated like kings. 
The minimum wage for a full time domestic employee in Nicaragua is about US $175 a month. Personally, our housekeepers here in San Juan del Sur have been with us for a very long time and I have given them raises each year so I pay almost double that amount. 
Editor’s note: We had the privilege in early March, 2017 to talk with Michael Eager. The Eager family is a bit of an institution in the Ajijic area, where Michael’s brother Mark owns a real estate sales company and Michael runs the business that started it all in the 1970s, formerly the Posada, and now the Nueva Posada. In this interview, Michael tells us the unlikely set of events that started it all when Ajijic was just a small, out of the way village and well....JPG)