Best Places In The World To Retire

Many of the doctors in Los Cabos – La Paz have been trained in the United States and they are absolutely excellent and very well trained. 

 

All throughout Mexico you're going to see very young doctors because they can go straight to medical school. They don't have to get a four-year general education degree like we do it in the United States. For example, one of my grandsons is going through his medical education in the United States right...

Many of the doctors in Los Cabos – La Paz have been trained in the United States and they are absolutely excellent and very well trained. 

 

All throughout Mexico you're going to see very young doctors because they can go straight to medical school. They don't have to get a four-year general education degree like we do it in the United States. For example, one of my grandsons is going through his medical education in the United States right now. He already earned his four-year degree and now he is starting his pre-med courses. In contrast, in Mexico, they can go straight from high school to medical school, where their subjects are combined. 

 

I always tell people who say, "Oh my gosh! I'm afraid of that doctor. He looks like a baby" that doctors in Mexico are just as well trained as the doctors in the United States. They just look younger because they go directly to medical school, and then go on to do their specialties, do their residencies, and do their public service. They're very well trained doctors. Most of the doctors I have met in Los Cabos have also gone to the United States to study specialties and take special courses.

 

I have no issues and am not afraid to go to doctors here in Los Cabos – La Paz. As a matter of fact, I prefer it. I only had one doctor in the United States who spent as much time with me as a Mexican doctor would. I thanked him and said, "I'm so surprised that you spent this much time talking to me as an American doctor because I'm so used to and spoiled by that in Mexico when you go in and talk to a doctor there." I just feel the doctors in Mexico really listen to you, pay attention to you, and explain things.

 

One of the reasons why people want to go back to the United States or go back to Canada for medical care is because they already have doctors back home and they're familiar with their hospitals back home. In the United States, hospitals generally have much more equipment compared to hospitals in Mexico, but this depends on where you are treated in Mexico.  For example, in Los Cabos, there's a huge new hospital called the H+, which can do just about anything except a heart transplant and they have state-of-the-art equipment. 

 

The reason that most people want to come back to the United States is not because they're afraid of the doctors in Mexico, but because they want to get home so their friends and family could visit them if they're in the hospital. That counts. And of course, a lot of people have more insurance back in the United States or Canada.

 

I'm totally confident of all the doctors I have seen here in Los Cabos, La Paz, and Guadalajara.  

 

(Ad for Hospital H+ Los Cabos, Mexico, pictured.)

Generally speaking, the doctors in Granada are good.

 

If you need to have a procedure done, you’ll most likely have it done in Managua, about a 30 – 40 minute drive away from Granada, which is where the best hospitals in Nicaragua are located.

 

I’ve had several operations in Nicaragua.  I’ve found the medical care here very service oriented, very thorough, and very reasonably priced. 

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Generally speaking, the doctors in Granada are good.

 

If you need to have a procedure done, you’ll most likely have it done in Managua, about a 30 – 40 minute drive away from Granada, which is where the best hospitals in Nicaragua are located.

 

I’ve had several operations in Nicaragua.  I’ve found the medical care here very service oriented, very thorough, and very reasonably priced. 

 

I don’t know if Nicaragua has the amount or variety of specialists that they have in the US, but I would say that for most issues, you an find a very good doctor in Managua for surgery and related issues.  They’re very good.  In Managua there are some very modern hospitals with a variety of doctors who have been educated in other parts of the world and who offer very good service.

 

I often say that you feel safer if you can be sick in your own language. There are excellent hospitals and excellent doctors in Portugal, all of whom speak English. The nurses also speak English. You are very well cared for.

 

I have a lot of experience with the healthcare system in Portugal is because of my husband having been in hospital so much before he died last year. Whether you go to a public hospital or if you have private insurance, the doctors here...

I often say that you feel safer if you can be sick in your own language. There are excellent hospitals and excellent doctors in Portugal, all of whom speak English. The nurses also speak English. You are very well cared for.

 

I have a lot of experience with the healthcare system in Portugal is because of my husband having been in hospital so much before he died last year. Whether you go to a public hospital or if you have private insurance, the doctors here are very, very good. And there is a lot of ongoing very high quality research going on. I often say to visitors to Portugal that you don’t need to think about getting on a plane and flying home unless you’re doing so for a specific doctor who you don’t have here.  Other than that, from a healthcare perspective, there’s everything here. 

 

Things have changed so much regarding the language here. It’s important to perhaps pick up some words in Portuguese and there are lots of schools you can go to but the Portuguese are quite happy if speaking English to you. They prefer to speak English to you in order to practice their English rather than you struggling Portuguese, but it’s always good to say “obrigado” (please) and “faz favor”  (thank you).

 

The Portuguese spoken in Portugal is more formal than the Portuguese spoken in Brazil.  For many people it’s easier to pick up Portuguese from the Brazilians because the way Brazilians speak Portuguese is more musical as opposed to the way those the Portuguese speak it, wherein they would tend to sometimes swallow the end of the word.  I learned my Portuguese in Brazil when we were living there. The difference is it’s a little bit like the difference between American English and English from England, where you have the same word but maybe different meanings.

 

(Logo for Todos os Santos clinic, Lisbon, Portugal, pictured.)

The economy in Ambergris Caye is relatively vibrant. About 70% of tourists who come into Belize stop through Ambergris Caye.  They may come for diving, or fishing, or whatever other water expeditions that they might endeavor to enjoy. The tourism business here is very active.   The busy season here runs from Thanksgiving through Easter. Then you will see a low, which is actually the better time to come and visit Ambergris Caye because there are not as many tourists.

The economy in Ambergris Caye is relatively vibrant. About 70% of tourists who come into Belize stop through Ambergris Caye.  They may come for diving, or fishing, or whatever other water expeditions that they might endeavor to enjoy. The tourism business here is very active.   The busy season here runs from Thanksgiving through Easter. Then you will see a low, which is actually the better time to come and visit Ambergris Caye because there are not as many tourists.

 

The island’s economy is based on tourism, for the most part. Tourism is the number one contributor to the GDP of Belize. It has changed a little bit but certainly on the island, tourism is the main contributor to the economy.

 

There are other contributors to the economy like construction, which to some degree or another are based on tourism. For example, there are investment opportunities in condo rental projects or properties. People buy condos and use them from 2 weeks to a couple of months a year and for the rest of the year, they put them up for rent.  For the most part, without the tourist market, the rentals wouldn’t be there.

 

Ambergris Caye is split into the north side and the south side. On the south side of the island, there are very few oceanfront properties remaining. The north side of the island runs quite a bit farther. The island is 28 miles long and in every 2 or 3 miles, you will see a community or a development, and that construction continues.

 

There is also a little bit of commercial fishing and there is a cooperative here on the island that is for selling to the local market as well as any other tourists and the restaurant business.

 

Tourism in Ambergris Caye has been relatively steady. In fact, the island has been voted to be the number one island in the world in 2013 and then again in 2014. The level of tourist activity will tend to parallel the economy of North America. Ambergris Caye is a destination for North Americans.  We also have some people coming from Europe and other parts of the world, but mainly it’s Americans and Canadians.

 

Right now, the US dollar is on a strong run so the Canadian dollar and the other dollar currencies associated with it are taking a little bit of a beating. As a result, we have a little bit of a dip from the Canadian contingency. But for the most part, the Canadians are still coming and the tourism demand from Canada is still pretty strong.

 

(Fishing for barracuda in Ambergris Caye, pictured.)