Where's the best sightseeing in and around Los Cabos - La Paz, Mexico?
Ana Maria Carranza - Diamante Associates
There are great cave paintings between La Paz and La Ventana (a small village about 40 minutes south of La Paz).
There are waterfalls between Los Barriles and San Jose where you can do zip lining near the waterfalls.
You can go scuba diving or snorkeling in the Cabo Pulmo area.
Surfing is available in the Todos Santos and Ceritos area.
The most beautiful beach would be Balandra in La Paz.
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There are great cave paintings between La Paz and La Ventana (a small village about 40 minutes south of La Paz).
There are waterfalls between Los Barriles and San Jose where you can do zip lining near the waterfalls.
You can go scuba diving or snorkeling in the Cabo Pulmo area.
Surfing is available in the Todos Santos and Ceritos area.
The most beautiful beach would be Balandra in La Paz.
Definitely a “must” for sightseeing is Isla Espiritu Santo, which is an island that was purchased by some very wealthy private people and donated to UNESCO so it is now a protected zone in which nobody can build or do any sort of development. It’s beautiful. A company called Fun Baja would take you there and you could actually camp on the island for three days to one week.
You can also go and see whale sharks in La Paz near the Mogote, which is a spit of land that is out in the Bay of La Paz. It is not quite an island but it is connected near Centenario and is how you would access Mogote by land. There is a ferry on the malecon in La Paz that would take you over to the Mogote. You will often see dolphins there as well. I was out there one time on a little Seadoo and we had about thirty dolphins swim with us for about an hour. It’s really cool!
Another nice thing to do in La Paz would be to rent SUPs (stand up paddleboards). There is a place called Harker where they rent SUPs. You can then go out on the SUPs on the Bay of La Paz and see the dolphins as well. Stand up paddle boarding is awesome to do here in La Ventana and La Paz because the water is so still because we don’t have the waves that you would get in Todos Santos, Cabo, San Jose, or even Los Barriles. I went paddle boarding on La Ventana Bay the other day and saw a fever of giant rays. There was a fever of little baby ones swimming around and they swam with us for about half an hour. Paddle boarding is a nice outdoor activity here. You’ll usually see big starfish, sea serpents, puffer fish that are about 2 feet, and all sorts of marine life, all just from your stand up paddleboard. You can just take your paddleboard and paddle out from the shore and you can see all the way to the bottom of the sea. I’ve done paddle boarding at night and it’s fantastic because I’ve gone on a full moon. If you go out when there’s no moon and it is completely dark out, when you paddle and look down at the sea, you’ll see the fluorescent algae with bioluminescence that leaves a trail behind the board as well. It’s amazing! And it is pitch dark so you will see billions of stars.
(Isla Espiritu Santo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pictured.)
How are the stores and shops in El Valle de Anton, Panama? How's the shopping in El Valle de Anton, Panama?
Bill Brunner
There are several places in El Valle de Anton to shop for food. There is a newly built shopping complex here in El Valle that is anchored by a supermarket chain that carries most of the stuff you need. So grocery-wise you can go to this shopping complex or to the Chinese stores. On the other hand, fresh produce is available at the open-air market. Hardware and building materials are also available in El Valle through three Chinese stores, one of which is just recently built.
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There are several places in El Valle de Anton to shop for food. There is a newly built shopping complex here in El Valle that is anchored by a supermarket chain that carries most of the stuff you need. So grocery-wise you can go to this shopping complex or to the Chinese stores. On the other hand, fresh produce is available at the open-air market. Hardware and building materials are also available in El Valle through three Chinese stores, one of which is just recently built.
Now having said that, everything appears more expensive in El Valle than it is in Coronado (the closest larger town, less than an hour away by car), so if you are buying lots of items, you’re better of going to Coronado, where there are four hardware stores. Another option is to go to Panama City (about two hours away by car), if you are going to buy building materials of any quantity.
Clothing, furniture, decor and others things are available in Coronado in a wide variety of stores… but not in El Valle. You are not going to find any boutique stores in El Valle yet, although, there are a number of empty spaces in that newly built shopping complex, and maybe somebody will put one in there in the future.
Do I still have to file my US income taxes if I retire, work or just live abroad?
Stewart Patton - U.S. Tax Services
Yes, Americans who live abroad are still required to file a U.S. tax return, even if there's no tax due. In fact, filing an annual U.S. tax return is actually MORE important once you live abroad. Here's why:
You may be familiar with the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (the "FEIE")--that's the rule that allows Americans living abroad to make up to about $100,000 from working without paying any U.S. income tax. Some people think that...
Yes, Americans who live abroad are still required to file a U.S. tax return, even if there's no tax due. In fact, filing an annual U.S. tax return is actually MORE important once you live abroad. Here's why:
You may be familiar with the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (the "FEIE")--that's the rule that allows Americans living abroad to make up to about $100,000 from working without paying any U.S. income tax. Some people think that it's not important to file a return if their income is below the FEIE cap.
However, the FEIE can ONLY be claimed on a filed tax return. So, if you were to fail to file a U.S. tax return and the IRS were to audit you, you would lose the ability to claim the FEIE. You couldn't tell the IRS at that point that your income was below the FEIE cap each year. You'd have to pay U.S. tax on amounts that you would have been able to earn tax-free if you'd only filed a return. So, failing to file a return could cause you to lose the golden opportunity provided by the FEIE.
For Americans who are behind on U.S. tax returns, the IRS has several amnesty programs that will allow you to catch up easily without having to pay any penalties. Talk to an experienced tax attorney to determine which amnesty program is right for you.
You don’t need to own a car in Placencia, but you probably would want to. You can get around with a bicycle, some people have golf carts, and a very few people have scooters, but that is an option.
The reason that you might want a car is because Placencia is such a small village, and though there are some 4 or 5 grocery stores, 3 banks for ATM, and hardware stores, your daily needs are met. However, you know if you're in such a small village, you're on a peninsula...
You don’t need to own a car in Placencia, but you probably would want to. You can get around with a bicycle, some people have golf carts, and a very few people have scooters, but that is an option.
The reason that you might want a car is because Placencia is such a small village, and though there are some 4 or 5 grocery stores, 3 banks for ATM, and hardware stores, your daily needs are met. However, you know if you're in such a small village, you're on a peninsula that's only at that point of the village less than a quarter mile wide. You might want to get out sometimes just to do something different or see a different view. To do so, you just have to drive along the only road along the whole peninsula for about 20 some miles. The peninsula itself is only about 18 miles and then you start going inland a little bit, but you're still just on one road until you get to another highway, which is about 24 miles away. So just to get a little a bit different experience, a car would probably something that you would want to do.
There is the Hokey Pokey water taxi that takes you across the lagoon to another village, called Independence, that costs US $5. When you get to Independence, there are some more things to do and see. But there aren't things like movie theaters and there aren't shopping centers. There's no such thing as a fast food restaurant, so while you have everything you need in Placencia, for me personally, I would get a little bit tired of just looking at the same thing day in and day out.
(Mennonite man in Belize selling his watermelon from his wagon, pictured.)
I think a woman would be better placed to respond to how women and girls are treated in Portugal, but I suppose I can provide a perspective. Women are generally respected in Portugal and having lived abroad for so many years and observing Portugal, I see a fondness for matriarchs that is perhaps not present in many Western countries. A particular concern for those visiting the country is whether women are safe – in a sense related to a sense of how women may be perceived –...
I think a woman would be better placed to respond to how women and girls are treated in Portugal, but I suppose I can provide a perspective. Women are generally respected in Portugal and having lived abroad for so many years and observing Portugal, I see a fondness for matriarchs that is perhaps not present in many Western countries. A particular concern for those visiting the country is whether women are safe – in a sense related to a sense of how women may be perceived – when visiting Portugal. I would have to say that it is one of the safest countries with which I have been associated, and in particular women can freely walk at night without substantially greater fear than men.
Women have historically had very traditional roles in Portuguese culture, namely those associated with providing a core stability of the family unit. This has unfortunately meant that tasks such as cooking, raising children, and matters relating to managing a household, are automatically associated with the mother and therefore changing this has been difficult. However, my perception is that the biggest catalyst for change is the workplace. Despite the balance still being far in favour of males in senior positions, there are many talented women who have proved their worth by choosing careers where the glass ceiling is less in evidence. Medical careers, including nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and medicine, pharmacy, life sciences and to a certain extent teaching, have propelled women into more senior roles in business, R&D and education, for example. This has not happened in engineering, politics or construction, which continue to be male-dominated. I would say however, that women are no more likely to be treated poorly in the workplace than are men, and ironically my perception is that supervision by the opposite sex often results in better people management in Portugal than being managed by someone of one’s own sex.
Of course, I am happy to admit that I may have it all wrong as regards how women are truly perceived in the workplace… what I can say is that most traditional corporate environments in Portugal still expect men to work long hours whenever necessary and place much less emphasis on the importance of a male family role than, for example, many Anglo-Saxonic countries.
How much do healthcare and medical services cost in Nicaragua?
Mario Robleto - SAENICSA Accounting and Tax Services
Healthcare and medical services in Nicaragua cost you a fraction of what you would pay anywhere else. The government of Nicaragua offers medical care, (which we call “Social Security”), which ends up being many times either free, at a reduced cost, or still, even if you were to pay full price, which a lot of foreigners do, it’s nothing like as if you would pay anywhere else.
If you go to any private hospital and you want to see a specialist such as a...
Healthcare and medical services in Nicaragua cost you a fraction of what you would pay anywhere else. The government of Nicaragua offers medical care, (which we call “Social Security”), which ends up being many times either free, at a reduced cost, or still, even if you were to pay full price, which a lot of foreigners do, it’s nothing like as if you would pay anywhere else.
If you go to any private hospital and you want to see a specialist such as a dermatologist, you can pay US $30 to $50 and immediately see the doctor or specialist, who would diagnose you, give you a prescription, and that’s it; you’re on your way.
If you use the publicly run healthcare system, you have to wait and be patient, but you would mostly likely end up getting your care for free, and the quality would be comparable to hospitals in the US or in Europe or anywhere else.
(Patient at Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas, Nicaragua, pictured.)
Since my last post I had to return to Australia to sort out finances and final arrangements, after 13 months in Chiang Rai.
Lesson 1- When you are fully committed to a permanent move, settle all that stuff well in advance of departure date; I left behind a property which in retrospect had become a burden. I should have sold up before leaving, since the ensuing sale was close to being a nightmare of new rules and bureaucracy. Banks & settlement...
When I retired, I moved to France. But I found France had become – not the political entity “The United States of America”, and not part of either of the two continents by the name, but rather America – the occidental culture (or lack thereof) of hucksterism. The one that has each person pulling what he or she can out of as many other people’s pockets as possible while trying to outyell those others in a quest for attention – the culture of multinational firms that have...
A surprising small town with evidence of a once vibrant past is located just 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the provincial capitol, David, Panama. Only 5 miles as the crow flies from Costa Rica you will find Puerto Armuelles, Panama. It is about 21 miles south of the Pan-American Highway (at the border to Costa Rica, turn left before you go through the border crossing.)
The surprisingly good two-lane highway is under construction to become...