.jpg)
There are poisonous reptiles, snakes, insects and other dangerous animals in some places in Mexico. The biggest threat to us here is dengue from the mosquitoes and the new mosquito-borne disease, which is quite similar to dengue.
I’ve had dengue. It’s quite uncomfortable but I had a reasonably mild case. Now, there are many reports of people with dengue in Florida, South Texas, and similar places where it’s also sort of muggy and humid and they have lots of mosquitoes.
I don’t know about Mexico in general, but I can tell you that in some sections of Mazatlan, we have some fairly nasty scorpions. I don’t personally live in one of those areas. We don’t have snakes in town. There are sea snakes but I don’t go to the sea.
Mexico is a very geographically diverse country. In the forest, in the trees, in the mountains, there are jaguars, mountain lions, and those sorts of things. I’m not sure what they have out in the desert areas, but I would assume that in the Sonoran Desert there are probably rattlesnakes. I don’t have any personal involvement in that so the answer would be, we don’t have all that deadly stuff that they have in Australia, for instance, where they have the top five or six most deadly spiders and snakes in the world. But that doesn’t mean to say that the person couldn’t get bitten by a rattlesnake if they live out in the desert area or bitten by a jaguar or a mountain lion if they’re living up in the mountains. There are swamps north and south of here in Mazatlan. Just the south, and we have alligators, but there aren’t any here; they don’t come here in Mazatlan. In Mazatlan, you’d probably be more prone to be bitten by a dog.
Here in Mazatlan, in my day-to-day life, my concern over these dangers is very small. The mosquito would be the only thing I’m concerned about and on a day-to-day basis I never even think about that. We live in a hot and humid climate, but the worst roaches I ever experienced was in Austin, Texas. In some of the other places I’ve lived I have been plagued with my absolutely terrifying nemesis-- mice. But on a day-to-day basis I rarely think about it. I almost never see a spider.
(Jaguar, pictured.)
The first thing I should mention is that you don't need a Nicaraguan driver's license to drive in Nicaragua. If you have an existing driver's license from the US, that's all you need. 
The worst reasons to retire overseas are to live like a king and the idea that you want to go overseas because it is cheaper because that usually doesn’t pan out very well. The other reason is the idea of retiring overseas just because other people did it and you’re thinking that it’s a cool thing to do, so you’re going to do it. We live in a world where marketing and advertising, certainly, has a major sway on people. 
Everyone is treated equally here in Corozal, Belize, where I live. There is no discrimination, which is one of the things I like about the country of Belize in general. 
There are some absolutely beautiful islands in the Algarve near the border of Spain. To go there, you have to take a 40-minute boat ride. There are about six islands there. Only one of those six is deserted. 
We had loved our six weeks in the little coastal village of La Ventana, in Baja California Sur, on the Sea of Cortez. Now, as our tour continued, we would have the opportunity to experience another little village, Lo de Marcos, in Nayarit, about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific Ocean. While Baja was majestic, with mostly barren, expansive landscape, harder edges, and gorgeous contrasts, Lo de Marcos was vivid, infused and saturated with color. In Lo de...
Would you like to reduce your stress? 
While the wheels/tires are 21st century (oh, OK, 20th century), the technology behind this freight mover is thousands of years old. I found it interesting and amusing that the local hauler still uses oxen to pull heavy loads.