Best Places In The World To Retire

Nicaragua is a very geographically diverse country, even though we do not have very high peaks compared to other places like Guatemala.  We do, however, have mountains, which have the advantage of being a little bit cooler the higher you go.
 
In the Pacific coast of Nicaragua we have the volcanic mountain range, which starts in the northern part of the country and ends at the lake, in Ometepe Island, which was formed by two volcanoes.  Most of the volanoes are dormant,...

Nicaragua is a very geographically diverse country, even though we do not have very high peaks compared to other places like Guatemala.  We do, however, have mountains, which have the advantage of being a little bit cooler the higher you go.
 
In the Pacific coast of Nicaragua we have the volcanic mountain range, which starts in the northern part of the country and ends at the lake, in Ometepe Island, which was formed by two volcanoes.  Most of the volanoes are dormant, but a few are still active, so it is very interesting for those adventurous people who want to learn about volcanoes, and do hiking on them, etc.
 
The coastal areas of Nicaragua are very interesting because we are one of the few countries that has two main oceans.  The bays of our coastal areas are bathed by the Pacific Ocean and by the Caribbean in the eastern part of the country, and we have about 900 kilometers (560 miles) of coastal areas on both sides together, which is mainly still virgin.  We still do not have big hotel chains on our coastal zones.  We have many small hotels in those areas that have started to be developed.

 

We have a lot of reserves in this country and Nicaragua has the biggest natural forest in Central America, which is till protected—we call it the Amazon of Central America, because after the Amazon, it is the biggest reserve in the region. It is called Bosawas Biosphere Reserve.
 
Another very important natural reserve, which is in the region of the San Juan River and the boarder with Costa Rica in the southern part of the Caribbean area is called Indio Maiz Biological Reserve (“Indian Corn”). Both Bosawas and Indio Maiz are biosphere reserves, as declared by UNESCO. 
 
Also the lake is an iconic, very important place in the country, because Lake Nicaragua is one of the 10 biggest lakes in the world, and the only one that has fresh water sharks.  (In Nicaragua, you will hear Lake Nicaragua referred to as Lake Cocibolca, which is its indigenous name).

 

The biggest island in the world on a fresh water lake is also on Lake Nicaragua-- Ometepe Island, which is made of two volcanoes, one active and the other inactive.  The inactive volcano is called Maderas Volcano, which is a natural reserve and protected as well.
 
Then we have the San Juan River in the southern part of the country, which is also a beautiful region of the country.  It is full of stories of pirates and history like Cornelius Vanderbilt and the transit route that so many Americans used during those times, where Mark Twain wrote beautiful stories about Nicaragua and a wonderful river, as well as where the Spaniards built a castle to protect themselves from the pirates in Colonial times. Pirate Morgan used the San Juan River, and the legends say (although this is disputed) that it was in this area that Lord Nelson lost his eye.
 
In the central part of Nicaragua is the region of Chontales where much of the cattle in Nicaragua are raised.  Nicaragua exports a lot of meat (including to the US), most of which comes from this region.  Boaco and Chontales are the two main cities in this area.

Yuck, bugs bother me, too. However in the area we live in the Panama highlands of Boquete we haven't seen very many bothersome mosquitoes. I have seen a couple of cockroaches. There are more flies as the weather gets more damp and it rains more.

 

When you dine out sometimes depending on the humidity you can be pestered by flies. There is a small, the size of a house fly, wasp looking little bugger that stings like a fire ant!

 

Inside our...

Yuck, bugs bother me, too. However in the area we live in the Panama highlands of Boquete we haven't seen very many bothersome mosquitoes. I have seen a couple of cockroaches. There are more flies as the weather gets more damp and it rains more.

 

When you dine out sometimes depending on the humidity you can be pestered by flies. There is a small, the size of a house fly, wasp looking little bugger that stings like a fire ant!

 

Inside our condo the first week we moved in there was a very large stinging scorpion. He was angry about being inside and kept following me as I was trying to figure our what to do with him. I am pretty much afraid of bugs and he was truly worthy of my fear! I swept him out the door and hit him with the broom. The next encounter with a very large bug was a big moth. His wing

span was four inches.

 

I have seen a few spiders in the house; I spray weekly.

 

Overall the bugs here in Boquete are not better than or worse than in the USA.

 

We have seen some beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, slugs, and ants.The occasional tarantula. Not so much that I am worried.

 

There are buttery flies, wasps, bees and thousands of other insects in Panama. Probably not enough to keep people from coming here and falling in love with the place.

You can hire a gardener in Portugal in different ways. You may get a full time gardener, 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, or you can have them come over to your house on a monthly basis. The minimum wage for a full time a gardener is US $432 (£287) to $649 (£431) a month. If you are hiring a full time gardener, you have to pay for their Social Security and other benefits.
 
If you do outsourcing, you can hire a gardener or a maintenance man, who will come in 2 days a...

You can hire a gardener in Portugal in different ways. You may get a full time gardener, 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, or you can have them come over to your house on a monthly basis. The minimum wage for a full time a gardener is US $432 (£287) to $649 (£431) a month. If you are hiring a full time gardener, you have to pay for their Social Security and other benefits.
 
If you do outsourcing, you can hire a gardener or a maintenance man, who will come in 2 days a week or once a week and you don’t have to pay for the Social Security or have any type of contract with them. They just come and cut your grass, tidy up the garden, etc. Their wage varies, but the minimum is $216 (£144) a month.
 
The average daily wage or a gardener here is €60 (US$ 65 or £43) a day.  

 

(House covered with vines in the Azores, Portugal, pictured.)

Belize does not quarantine pets such as dogs or cats. They require documentation from a vet that your pets are up to date on their shots, basically. 
 
That's something that you would want to coordinate ahead of time.  There are companies and customs brokers that specifically handle that.  Belize Agriculture Health Authority are the ones that will qualify the pet when it comes in.  You have to send your documentation to them ahead of time.  They then...

Belize does not quarantine pets such as dogs or cats. They require documentation from a vet that your pets are up to date on their shots, basically. 
 
That's something that you would want to coordinate ahead of time.  There are companies and customs brokers that specifically handle that.  Belize Agriculture Health Authority are the ones that will qualify the pet when it comes in.  You have to send your documentation to them ahead of time.  They then will receive the pet when you arrive.  This is for a regular domestic animal, nothing exotic--- just cats and dogs.

 

(Lucy, the  dog at home at the Serafina home at Carmelita Garden Residences, Belize, pictured.)

No, you don't need a second passport if you retire, work, or live abroad. There is a misconception people have that they need to either give up their US passport or US citizenship but no, you don’t need to. You can have your US passport. 
 
As Americans, we're lucky that we come from a country where we don't really need to apply for even a visa to visit most countries. We can go with our passport. We can usually stay in countries anywhere from 1 to 6 months,...

No, you don't need a second passport if you retire, work, or live abroad. There is a misconception people have that they need to either give up their US passport or US citizenship but no, you don’t need to. You can have your US passport. 
 
As Americans, we're lucky that we come from a country where we don't really need to apply for even a visa to visit most countries. We can go with our passport. We can usually stay in countries anywhere from 1 to 6 months, depending on the regulations of each country. In Mexico, for example, we can stay up to 180 days with a US passport. 
 
A lot of people who move abroad still want to go home once or twice a year and visit their family. You might be living in Nicaragua and stay 90 days before re-entering, because, without a visa, you have to leave and come back in. If you live in Nicaragua, maybe you want to go to Costa Rica or take a flight to Colombia. That’s basically what people do. They leave once or twice a year. They either travel around or go back to the US. You can do that all with your US passport. There's no need to make any changes. Just make sure that your passport is valid for a long time so that you don't have to go get a new one. Even if you lose your passport or you need to get a new passport, you usually can do so at the consulate in that country. It's not a big deal.  Also, if you're planning on traveling a lot, you can order passports now that have extra pages that should last you a long time or you can get pages added to them about $80. 
 
You can choose to continue doing this indefinitely in many countries. What you decide to do depends on the situation and the residency attorney could tell you about that. It could be expensive to get residency. It just depends on the country.  For example, the cost of getting residency in Nicaragua is a fraction of the cost of getting a residency in the UK or in some places in the Caribbean where it can cost over a million dollars. In some countries, it costs a few hundred thousand. In Nicaragua, in Mexico or generally in Latin America, it's always going to be a lot lower, for the most part under $10,000. That might be the route that you take but even if you do that, that doesn’t mean you're going to get a passport from the country that you have residency in. You'll still be traveling on your US passport. 
 
If, for example, you travel to Nicaragua on your US passport and then you want to get a permanent residency or temporary residency in Nicaragua, it could be up to 5 years. You'll still use your US passport to travel. The only time you would need to actually get a second passport would be if you obtain citizenship in that country, which can take 10 to 20 years. You won't really need your second passport under most any circumstances especially if you have a US passport. I can't think of any reason why you would need a second passport.  It would be a luxury to have a second one but it's not a requirement by any means.

 

(Kristen Wilson, relocation export, working on Mexico beach, pictured.)