Best Places In The World To Retire

I'm not aware of any diving, scuba or snorkeling activities in and around San Miguel de Allende because there isn’t anything to inspire people to come and do water activities. San Miguel de Allende is at least 300 miles from the closest beach, which is 8-9 hours by car.

 

If you lived in San Miguel de Allende, you could incorporate going to the beach into a vacation but you wouldn't take an entire day to drive out of San Miguel de Allende to engage...

I'm not aware of any diving, scuba or snorkeling activities in and around San Miguel de Allende because there isn’t anything to inspire people to come and do water activities. San Miguel de Allende is at least 300 miles from the closest beach, which is 8-9 hours by car.

 

If you lived in San Miguel de Allende, you could incorporate going to the beach into a vacation but you wouldn't take an entire day to drive out of San Miguel de Allende to engage in water activities. There is the Presa Allende Reservoir, which is like a little lake behind a dam, but no scuba or snorkeling activities are available. San Miguel de Allende is located in the middle of Mexico, so it's almost equidistant from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, which is a long way. If there are scuba divers they would go when they go on vacation or take a plane and go scuba diving.

 

(San Miguel de Allende on map of Mexico, pictured.)

Yes, in Corozal you can get by if you just speak English because most people will speak English to you. Corozal, unlike Belize City, is a predominantly Spanish-speaking place. The mother tongue here is Spanish, the second one is Creole, and then they have English. There are people who have lived here for many years that do not know Creole and don’t know Spanish but they got by just fine. There are no issues.

 

As for myself, my girlfriend is Belizean...

Yes, in Corozal you can get by if you just speak English because most people will speak English to you. Corozal, unlike Belize City, is a predominantly Spanish-speaking place. The mother tongue here is Spanish, the second one is Creole, and then they have English. There are people who have lived here for many years that do not know Creole and don’t know Spanish but they got by just fine. There are no issues.

 

As for myself, my girlfriend is Belizean so she speaks English, Spanish, and Creole, and she knows sign language, so she is very educated in those languages. I have put it on myself to learn Spanish and over the years, I have picked up quite a bit and can converse because I like to do it. For me, it is just part of assimilating. I want to learn their mother tongue but I don’t have to. I could just continue speaking in English and I would be perfectly fine to do all my commerce and business that I need to do without a problem, at all as English is spoken broadly here.

 

I love Creole. It is so interesting to listen to. I can understand it in part. It is not New Orleans / Louisiana Creole, it is not Haitian-French Creole; it is unique to Belize. In Belizean Creole, words are abbreviated. It is very “slangy.” It is a bit of a lazy language in that they do not us the “th” consonant blend. So instead of saying “thing”, they say, “ting”. It is a very succinct language. They can say in three words what it would take an English-speaking person ten words to say because Creole is so abbreviated and slangy. But overall, Belizean Creole is a beautiful and delightful language. 

 

(Street stall in Belize, pictured,)

The construction standards in Portugal are not on par as the standards in Scandinavian countries. The main concern here in Portugal is to build houses that will withstand an earthquake, so from that point of view, the basic structure is world class. The finishing and the insulation is where they fall short of the world class standard. They could not be compared to the Dutch standards, for example. Basically, Portuguese houses are cold in winter and hot in summer!

 

The construction standards in Portugal are not on par as the standards in Scandinavian countries. The main concern here in Portugal is to build houses that will withstand an earthquake, so from that point of view, the basic structure is world class. The finishing and the insulation is where they fall short of the world class standard. They could not be compared to the Dutch standards, for example. Basically, Portuguese houses are cold in winter and hot in summer!

 

Some builders or contractors who have permits but do not have work, “rent” those permits up to other builders or contractors who don’t have permits. In a situation like that you have “cowboys” free to operate in the market. Fortunately, because of the severe recession in the building industry since 2007, most of these guys have run out of business. 

 

In the US, you can rest assured that the home that you are buying met certain minimum standards because the contractors have to pull permits and the building gets inspected. That is not the case in Portugal. You don’t have to pull permits for electrical or any sort of requirement here in Portugal in order to build something. If you sell or rent a property, you have to get an Energy Certification, which is done by an engineer but it doesn’t really tell you much about the quality of the electrical installation of the building or the house.

 

It’s the local government that issues construction licenses and building permits, as opposed to the central government. Most of these guys are as corrupt as they come. You could find a builder who pays someone at the local municipality not to come around. If you are having an argument with your neighbor, you could probably go to the municipality and say, “Hey, look, these guys are putting this swimming pool in. Is this on the building permit?” It’s sort of like the “wild west.”

 

(Traditional houses in Algarve, Portugal, pictured.)

If you are going to bring your pet to Nicaragua, first of all, you have to pay for his ticket. You would have to take your pet to a veterinarian before you come to Nicaragua and get a general check-up and the vet will fill out a waiver for you. Then you will be able to bring your pet with you. Once you reach customs in Nicaragua, you are going to present that waiver that you got from your vet in the US or from wherever you are coming from.  Then the customs agent, they say,...

If you are going to bring your pet to Nicaragua, first of all, you have to pay for his ticket. You would have to take your pet to a veterinarian before you come to Nicaragua and get a general check-up and the vet will fill out a waiver for you. Then you will be able to bring your pet with you. Once you reach customs in Nicaragua, you are going to present that waiver that you got from your vet in the US or from wherever you are coming from.  Then the customs agent, they say, “Okay,” and then you leave.

 

(Koko the acting dog, getting the red carpet treatment, pictured.)