Best Places In The World To Retire

Yes, you can buy furniture in Chapala and Ajijic. You can find rustic furniture here but if you are not into rustic Mexican or colonial Mexican furniture, there are furniture stores all over the village. If you go west, you will see a big new furniture store. They offer modern furniture, which is what most North Americans are more accustomed to. They have leather covered furniture. They also have metal and glass furniture if you are more into minimalistic or modern designs. There is a...

Yes, you can buy furniture in Chapala and Ajijic. You can find rustic furniture here but if you are not into rustic Mexican or colonial Mexican furniture, there are furniture stores all over the village. If you go west, you will see a big new furniture store. They offer modern furniture, which is what most North Americans are more accustomed to. They have leather covered furniture. They also have metal and glass furniture if you are more into minimalistic or modern designs. There is a decoration store in Riberas del Pilar, which is a suburb neighborhood in between Chapala and Ajijic, that has good quality furniture and many people buy from them. 

 

Or you can go to Guadalajara, which is the second largest city in Mexico and is only about an hour away from Ajijic. You can buy the furniture in Guadalajara and have it delivered to you in Chapala or Ajijic. There are garage sales here where you can buy furniture from people who are leaving Ajijic. Many times it is still good furniture.

 

With regard to prices, if you go to the rustic furniture factory, you could probably get a full living room set for only about 6,000 pesos ($330). That would include one love seat, one sofa, one chair, and probably an ottoman or a coffee table. If you go to Liverpool, which is a big, US-style department store in Guadalajara, you can get a full living room for 55,000 pesos ($3,000). Liverpool and Palacio de Hierro are the most high end stores in Guadalajara where you can buy furniture.

 

In comparison with the quality of furniture in the US, that depends on where you buy your furniture. I also had the experience of buying horrible furniture in the US. You sit on the chair and it cracks, especially the ones that ones that you assemble yourself. Prices in Mexico are very reasonable. What you pay is what you get in proportion. There are things that are very cheap but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It’s cheap compared to what? If you pay 2,000 pesos ($110) for a full living room set, it probably won’t last that long. It is pretty much “what you see is what you get.” You will see the quality yourself and there is a whole spectrum of different kinds of furniture that will be within your budget and will fulfill your needs as long as you know what you want. The price would be much less than how much it costs in the US.

 

You will see trees and flowers everywhere in San Juan Del Sur.

 

There are picturesque places where they have bougainvillea (bottom picture), which is locally called veranera. Hibiscus (top picture) is everywhere, so there is lots of beautiful greenery. Palm trees line the beaches soaring into the skies. We have royal palms, Miami palms, robeliana, ginger, etc. San Juan Del Sur has a very tropical feel because of these trees and flowers.

You will see trees and flowers everywhere in San Juan Del Sur.

 

There are picturesque places where they have bougainvillea (bottom picture), which is locally called veranera. Hibiscus (top picture) is everywhere, so there is lots of beautiful greenery. Palm trees line the beaches soaring into the skies. We have royal palms, Miami palms, robeliana, ginger, etc. San Juan Del Sur has a very tropical feel because of these trees and flowers.

It’s easy to drive in Placencia. There are two areas where you can make a right turn and two or three where you can make a left turn.  The road is straight and evenly paved. It’s a gorgeous road that was built about 6 years ago. It has a lot of speed bumps because we love having that here in Belize. We don’t like people driving fast. I even think that we could add more speed bumps.

 

As a driver, you just have to remember that there...

It’s easy to drive in Placencia. There are two areas where you can make a right turn and two or three where you can make a left turn.  The road is straight and evenly paved. It’s a gorgeous road that was built about 6 years ago. It has a lot of speed bumps because we love having that here in Belize. We don’t like people driving fast. I even think that we could add more speed bumps.

 

As a driver, you just have to remember that there are lots of people who take bicycles and there are lots of people who are walking on the streets so you have to be careful even at night. But often times, even if there are a lot of cars, you can go up to Maya Beach and further and you might not cross another car on the road. That still happens in Placencia.

 

(Placencia, Belize aerial view that shows the road that transverses the peninsula, pictured.)