How much do restaurants cost in Chapala and Ajijic, Mexico?
Percy Pinklebutt - Percy Pinklebutt Enteprises
If your lunch choice was quesadillas and birria (a stew made from slow cooked goat and a local delicacy; try it), you might spend 100 pesos or 150 pesos (US $5-$8) in a restaurant in Chapala or Ajijic. A beer with lunch will add on an extra 30 to 40 pesos, maximum. For 3 tacos at a streetcar stand in Riberas the street, it is about 25 pesos to 50 pesos ($1.25 -$2.50).
Eating out in Chapala and Ajijic, for dinner with wine, you might spend 500 to 700...
If your lunch choice was quesadillas and birria (a stew made from slow cooked goat and a local delicacy; try it), you might spend 100 pesos or 150 pesos (US $5-$8) in a restaurant in Chapala or Ajijic. A beer with lunch will add on an extra 30 to 40 pesos, maximum. For 3 tacos at a streetcar stand in Riberas the street, it is about 25 pesos to 50 pesos ($1.25 -$2.50).
Eating out in Chapala and Ajijic, for dinner with wine, you might spend 500 to 700 pesos ($25 to $35) for two people; however, you can also eat out well and for much less. I enjoy eating in Mexican restaurants because I like Mexican food. When I feel like a change I choose one of the many international restaurants at the lake or drive to Guadalajara for an entirely different experience.
What are the best things to do in and around the Panama City, Panama suburb of Fort Clayton / Clayton?
Charles Conn - The Visitor
Clayton is known for the City of Knowledge, which is a special economic zone that was created by the government to encourage research and development type businesses to set up shop. They also have green building codes, so it is one of the more state-of-the-art places in the whole country of Panama as far as the planning and designing of a city.
They regularly hold a lot of cultural events in Clayton. The French Alliance, which is a branch of the French...
Clayton is known for the City of Knowledge, which is a special economic zone that was created by the government to encourage research and development type businesses to set up shop. They also have green building codes, so it is one of the more state-of-the-art places in the whole country of Panama as far as the planning and designing of a city.
They regularly hold a lot of cultural events in Clayton. The French Alliance, which is a branch of the French embassy that promotes culture here in Panama, often holds concerts at a theatre in Clayton called El Ateneo (pictured), which is one of the cooler venues in town for catching a show.
In addition to that, Clayton is very close to the Miraflores Locks, the top visited tourist destination in the whole country. It is open every day of the week and they close around 8 or 9 PM. They are open even on holidays. It’s one of the best places to see the ships go through the Panama Canal.
What’s great about the Miraflores Locks visitors’ center is the restaurant there. You can sit on the terrace while having a great meal. Some say it’s a tad overpriced but you are sitting there on the terrace, watching the ships, so that is a tough ticket to beat. They are also known for their 3D theatre. You can take a virtual tour of the Panama Canal in 3D, which is fun.
One very good reason to retire overseas, based on my experience working with retirees moving to Nicaragua for the past 9 years, is to have a lower cost of living and a great quality of life "south of the border".
One very good reason to retire overseas, based on my experience working with retirees moving to Nicaragua for the past 9 years, is to have a lower cost of living and a great quality of life "south of the border".
What's the overall cost of living in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua?
George Cooper - Casa de Cooper
The overall cost of living in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, will range from under US $1,000 per month to over whatever a person would want to spend. The biggest expense is the property in which you would desire to live, either purchase or rent.
Some property rental can be found for as little as $350 per month to over $3,000 per month. After the property is out of the way, you would have the utilities to deal with. Electric will run...
The overall cost of living in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, will range from under US $1,000 per month to over whatever a person would want to spend. The biggest expense is the property in which you would desire to live, either purchase or rent.
Some property rental can be found for as little as $350 per month to over $3,000 per month. After the property is out of the way, you would have the utilities to deal with. Electric will run somewhere around $0.35 per kWh in US dollars. Using 500 kWh would cost around $175 per month. Without air-conditioning, you might expect to pay $100 to $150 per month. Just as a note, the national beer is $1 in most places. Now that this is out of the way, the rest is what you want to spend on food and other necessities.
You will find the food to be reasonably priced. Eating out at the local Nicaraguan restaurants will cost you from $2 to $10 per meal. Of course, there are the upscale restaurants that will cost as much as a meal in the US. Eating in is the way to go. Learning the national food dishes will bring health to you and at a good price.
Be conservative and you can expect to live comfortably for as little as you would want to budget. The best way to get a feel is a visit to San Juan del Sur for a week and experience the life of leisure.
Carol Bartlett Ribeiro - Carol Bartlett Ribeiro, Property Consultant
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.)
How good are the medical centers, hospitals and health clinics in Cayo, Belize, including San Ignacio and Belmopan, and how close are they?
Roberto Harrison - Chaa Creek
We have a clinic in San Ignacio and we have the Western Regional Hospital, which is the main hospital in the Cayo District and which is located in Belmopan. The clinic in San Ignacio is good for minor injuries or medical care.
However, if you need a surgery or if you have something serious or if you need to deliver a baby, you would be taken to the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan, which is around 30 minutes away from San Ignacio by car. For CAT scans...
We have a clinic in San Ignacio and we have the Western Regional Hospital, which is the main hospital in the Cayo District and which is located in Belmopan. The clinic in San Ignacio is good for minor injuries or medical care.
However, if you need a surgery or if you have something serious or if you need to deliver a baby, you would be taken to the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan, which is around 30 minutes away from San Ignacio by car. For CAT scans and similar procedures, they might take you to Belize City where better equipped hospitals like the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital are located. Belize City is about an hour and half away from San Ignacio by car.
More and more Belizean physicians are going abroad to study and they come back here to Belize to help their own people. Recently, the government has been acquiring better hospital equipment as well.
(Western Regional Hospital, New Born Project, Belmopan, Belize, pictured.)
Driving south on Highway 1 from after it intersects Highway 5 is fairly uneventful, if by “uneventful” you mean "the hundreds of times when you’re confronted with the fact that even a slight miscalculation on your steering wheel will result in certain death." A half inch to the left, and you’ll crash head-on into a semi barreling towards you at 60 miles per hour. A half inch to the right, and you’ll go over the roughly 12-inch shoulder to plunge either into...
Here are two contrasting characters who have crossed our path in the neighborhood. One is well-known for being homeless and without possessions, the other well-known for being the first woman from Central America and from Guatemala to plant the country’s flag on top of Mount Everest. Andrea Cardona’s story is available for anyone to read on the internet, but our connection to her is told here. The only ones who know of Cave Man’s notoriety live around this area. He...
As you meander through the village of Boquete you would have to be blind not to notice the beautiful Latin faces. Handsome men and boys; beautiful women and girls, precious babies coming and going up and down the streets each day. The Indian women in their brightly colored dresses; children in school uniforms; teenagers wearing the fashionable logos and labels they love. Even the poorest people are very clean, (unless they are working or just running errands while working.)
If your lunch choice was quesadillas and birria (a stew made from slow cooked goat and a local delicacy; try it), you might spend 100 pesos or 150 pesos (US $5-$8) in a restaurant in Chapala or Ajijic. A beer with lunch will add on an extra 30 to 40 pesos, maximum. For 3 tacos at a streetcar stand in Riberas the street, it is about 25 pesos to 50 pesos ($1.25 -$2.50). 
Clayton is known for the City of Knowledge, which is a special economic zone that was created by the government to encourage research and development type businesses to set up shop. They also have green building codes, so it is one of the more state-of-the-art places in the whole country of Panama as far as the planning and designing of a city. 
on my experience working with retirees moving to Nicaragua for the past 9 years, is to have a lower cost of living and a great quality of life "south of the border". 
Nicaragua, will range from under US $1,000 per month to over whatever a person would want to spend. The biggest expense is the property in which you would desire to live, either purchase or rent. 
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. 
We have a clinic in San Ignacio and we have the Western Regional Hospital, which is the main hospital in the Cayo District and which is located in Belmopan. The clinic in San Ignacio is good for minor injuries or medical care. 
Driving south on Highway 1 from after it intersects Highway 5 is fairly uneventful, if by “uneventful” you mean "the hundreds of times when you’re confronted with the fact that even a slight miscalculation on your steering wheel will result in certain death." A half inch to the left, and you’ll crash head-on into a semi barreling towards you at 60 miles per hour. A half inch to the right, and you’ll go over the roughly 12-inch shoulder to plunge either into...
Here are two contrasting characters who have crossed our path in the neighborhood. One is well-known for being homeless and without possessions, the other well-known for being the first woman from Central America and from Guatemala to plant the country’s flag on top of Mount Everest. Andrea Cardona’s story is available for anyone to read on the internet, but our connection to her is told here. The only ones who know of Cave Man’s notoriety live around this area. He...