Best Places In The World To Retire

I can’t speak for the economy for the whole Yucatan, Mexico but I can speak for where I live, in Valladolid, which is mid way between Cancun and Merida. There are probably three tiers of the economy – agriculture, education, and tourism. The town I live in has roughly 70,000 people. It acts as the county seat, so there are a number of small towns that are satellites. 
 
The town has over nine institutes of higher education, so there are a lot of students here at...

I can’t speak for the economy for the whole Yucatan, Mexico but I can speak for where I live, in Valladolid, which is mid way between Cancun and Merida. There are probably three tiers of the economy – agriculture, education, and tourism. The town I live in has roughly 70,000 people. It acts as the county seat, so there are a number of small towns that are satellites. 
 
The town has over nine institutes of higher education, so there are a lot of students here at any time, plus a lot of teachers, and because of that, there are a lot of cultural activities that show up in various schools.  The only things that aren’t here are hard sciences and medicine. Almost anything else you can get as an undergraduate degree here. And a lot of the kids who go to school here live in small villages, so on Friday afternoon the bus station is packed and Sunday evening it is packed again when they’re returning from home. 
 
Before I ended up coming here, I had planned to retire in the US somewhere in New England in a college town because I like the idea of being around the culture that a college town brings that you can be exposed to. 
 
We also have agriculture here. People drive in from Cancun and all they see are trees; the road is absolutely boring. Behind those trees are fields and farms, but you can’t see them. Many people still grow crops the way their ancestors did. The northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula is limestone with a very, very thin coating of soil, so far mechanization does not exist here. People plant like they did a thousand years ago. They use a 4-foot stick with an iron point on it; they poke a hole in the ground, put the seeds in, cover it over, and look for the next spot deep enough to get the iron point in.
 
Once you leave the town, people live here literally like they did a thousand years ago. They might have a bicycle now, a machete, something like that, but they don’t necessarily have water in their house, they don’t necessarily have electricity and they cook on the floor with fire. it is a juxtaposition of – and it is one of the reasons I’m here, very specifically – indigenous Mayan culture and the colonial culture that the Spanish brought some 470 years ago.
 
From Cancun, Valladolid is the first colonial city that you hit going west. It is named after Valladolid in Spain, which is not unusual, as are many places in Mexico and Latin America that are named after places in Spain. In the town itself, there are probably 50,000 to 55,000; in the county roughly 70,000.  

 

(Traditional Mayan farming technique, milpas, where various crops are grown on one field, pictured.)

Because the infrastructure of Nicaragua is now evolving, owning and using a land line may not be necessary or possible in the beach or resort areas.  However, you can have a landline in the major cities in Nicaragua, with service running from $50 to $90/month per line.

 

More likely, you might consider the two competing wireless services for in-country use.  Claro and Moviestar have the 'monopolies' here in country, with a newcomer name...

Because the infrastructure of Nicaragua is now evolving, owning and using a land line may not be necessary or possible in the beach or resort areas.  However, you can have a landline in the major cities in Nicaragua, with service running from $50 to $90/month per line.

 

More likely, you might consider the two competing wireless services for in-country use.  Claro and Moviestar have the 'monopolies' here in country, with a newcomer name Yota coming in from Russia with plans to have internet and phone service.   My Blackberry phone costs about $80/month, with country coverage and some overseas options.

 

We use Nocuelgues a service out of Managua for INTERNATIONAL calls.  For $35/month, we have an Oklahoma number so the grandkids can call without area codes.  And I can make business calls from the home office to anywhere in North America, from Mexico to Canada without additional charge.  The line is about 90% reliable, with only internet outages affecting this VoIP technology. 

The ecotourism in Panama is very good.  Panama has a lot of hiking trails.  We also have a lot of virgin areas of the country and places where you can see exotic animals.

 

One of the more exotic animals we have in Panama is what we call the Conejo Pintado (Cuniculus paca), which is about a 20 pound nocturnal rodent-like animal which lives in the rainforest.  It is not dangerous to humans. 

 

For the people of...

The ecotourism in Panama is very good.  Panama has a lot of hiking trails.  We also have a lot of virgin areas of the country and places where you can see exotic animals.

 

One of the more exotic animals we have in Panama is what we call the Conejo Pintado (Cuniculus paca), which is about a 20 pound nocturnal rodent-like animal which lives in the rainforest.  It is not dangerous to humans. 

 

For the people of Panama (and especially around Panama City), the most popular places for ecotourism are (in rough distance from Panama City):

Hi I moved to Panama a year ago and I love it. I have lived in Puerto Rico, Peru, Miami, Atlanta, Indiana and Panama is by far the best choice for retirement. You must remember, and a lot of people often forget, that Panama is still a third world country. BUT with lots of advantages like currency, cost of living, life style, and much more. It's a lot safer than Puerto Rico and Miami. You can have a maid for $350 a month. Fruit and vegetables are always fresh. I even became...

Hi I moved to Panama a year ago and I love it. I have lived in Puerto Rico, Peru, Miami, Atlanta, Indiana and Panama is by far the best choice for retirement. You must remember, and a lot of people often forget, that Panama is still a third world country. BUT with lots of advantages like currency, cost of living, life style, and much more. It's a lot safer than Puerto Rico and Miami. You can have a maid for $350 a month. Fruit and vegetables are always fresh. I even became vegetarian in Panama. If you like sports, every weekend there is at least two sports events in the City or at any of its provinces. Panama has a lot of beauty. I do agree that the service industry needs a lot of improvement. When it comes to people and manners the average Panamanian is behind. However, my close Panamanian friends are well educated with manners, very good people. Traffic is an issue, like any cities such as Miami, New York, Atlanta. I have learned 'short cuts' and always managed my way out of it. One more thing, I have visited 75% of the country, I have been to places like Torrijos Carter, San Miguelito for business as well as Boca Chica, Las Lajas, Boquete, San Blas and great resorts. In summary, I know Panama very well and my experience has been fantastic. 

 

I am permanent resident of Panama and US citizen. During my 15 years career in Corporate America I was expatriated to the US, Peru and the Dominican Republic. With the world economic situation, I found Panama as “the land of opportunities” and decided to move abroad. My family and I have experienced the whole process of relocating ourselves. We have learned the Panamanian “system” and requirements. I must admit it was frustrating and disappointing. Finally, after loosing lots of time and money, we met the right people and were able to process our residency. There are lots of scam out there, lots of attorneys that just take your money and disappear.   

 

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW - THIS IS HOW WE DID IT! 

Executive Decree No. 806  October 9, 2012​ - If you are citizen of any of these countries you can opt for residency like we did. The process takes 6 - 8 months depeding on how soon you present the paperwork. 
COUNTRIES: Canadá; Confederación de Australia; Confederación Suiza; Corea del Sur; Estados Unidos de América; Estado de Japón; Estado de Israel; Gran Ducado de Luxemburgo; Hungría; Latvia; Nueva Zelanda; Principado de Andorra; Principado de Liechtenstein; Principado de Mónaco; Reino de Bélgica; Reino de Dinamarca; Reino de España; Reino de Noruega; Reino de Suecia; Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte; Reino de los Países Bajos; Región Administrativa Especial de Hong Kong; Republica de Argentina; Republica de Austria; Republica de Checa; Republica de Chile; Republica de 
Chipre; Republica de Croacia; Republica Eslovaca; Republica de Estonia; Republica Helénica (Grecia); Republica Federal de Alemania; Republica Federativa de Brasil; Republica de Finlandia; Republica Francesa; Republica de Irlanda; Republica de Lituania; Republica de Malta; Republica de Montenegro; Republica Oriental de Uruguay; Republica de Polonia; Republica Portuguesa; Republica de Servia; Republica de Suiza; Republica de Sudáfrica; Republica de Taiwán; Serenísima República de Marino. 

 

Let me know if you would like more information.