Best Places In The World To Retire

Is there good fishing in and around Chapala and Ajijic, Mexico?

Michael Eager - La Nueva Posada Hotel & Restaurant

Lobina or large mouth bass fish – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Many years ago, Lake Chapala was seeded with tilapia. You can catch the tilapia with a net or a rod and a hook, but unfortunately it is not a fighting fish. Five years ago, they brought in a Mexican fish called "lobina" (largemouth bass). The lobina is great to fish because it puts up a bit of a fight. Traditionally, there have only been the tilapia and carps. Fishing has now become fun and exciting for the local fishermen because the lake now has the lobina fish.

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Do I need a second passport if I retire, work, or live abroad?

JIMJFOX

Australian e-passport with biometrics – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

True what everyone says. As a dual-passport holder having two has been both

an advantage and a trap; choosing the right one when entering a country can

avoid waiting lines but the visa has to be in only one and I sometimes took the

wrong passport when dealing with officialdom... ouch!

US holders face the very slight risk of being singled out by Islamic nut-cases in

the unlikely event of hijacking,...

In Nicaragua, do I have to worry about malaria, yellow fever and other diseases we don't generally have in North America?

Marissa Gabrielle Lolk - Jireh Dental Care

Hikers along a waterfall and stream in Nicaragua, – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

In Nicaragua, you have to worry about malaria and dengue. It usually happens around winter because our winters are full of rain and you have to be mindful of not leaving any stagnant water because then there will be a lot of mosquitoes floating around. There are mosquitoes everywhere here during the wintertime.

Most foreigners get malaria because something happens with the red blood cells. It is almost as if, if you are native,...

In Nicaragua, you have to worry about malaria and dengue. It usually happens around winter because our winters are full of rain and you have to be mindful of not leaving any stagnant water because then there will be a lot of mosquitoes floating around. There are mosquitoes everywhere here during the wintertime.

Most foreigners get malaria because something happens with the red blood cells. It is almost as if, if you are native, you have some immunity, but if you are foreign, you are most likely to get it because you don’t have the built in immunity towards these diseases. You could get a malaria shot. I had malaria and it’s not so bad. (The malaria in Central American is not the same as the Malaria in Africa.)

I came here to Nicaragua when I was very young. I was seventeen, so I just toughed it out. I had malaria, I had dengue, and I just had zika. When you get malaria in Central America, pretty much it’s just a bad flu. Your body aches for a week and that’s about it. You do need to go to the doctor, though, because they have to make a diagnosis. What they do after that is pretty simple – they give you pain relievers and lots of fluids including Pedialite so you don’t dehydrate. The virus goes in and out of you for about 8 days. It didn’t have any lasting effect on me and I never heard of anybody who had a lasting effect from having malaria.

There are, however, other diseases that would give you a lasting effect, one of which is chikungunya. Chikungunya was the virus outbreak before zika came out. Just like dengue, chikungunya is a disease that is also transmitted by mosquitoes. When you contract chikungunya, you get a really bad flu, develop a rash on your body at some point, your extremities – hands, arms, legs, feet, ankles, and wrists get really swollen, and your joints hurt incredibly. One of the ladies who works for me had it. It lasts for about 10 days, depending on your immune system. The lady who works for me does not have an amazing immune system so she got hit really hard. She had lasting joint pain and it’s been going on forever. The doctor broke it down to us in a certain way. He told us that in the first phase, people with chikungunya get really sick for about 10 days. Then on the second phase, from 10 to 30 days, you get joint pain, they don’t feel good and get fatigued. The third phase, 30 days onwards, they still feel that joint pain and they might be more inclined to have Rheumatoid arthritis. My poor employee ended up in the third phase so she had a lot of joint pain and discomfort, and she gets tired, so we had to let her have breaks during the day. Sometimes it flares up and sometimes she is fine.

Another disease that is common in Central America is dengue. It is just another flu and is also transmitted by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes lay eggs in stagnant water so you always have to be mindful when it is rainy season to make sure that you have no potted plants that have water lingering in them and you have to make sure that there’s not water lingering in your laundry area. Most of the houses here in Nicaragua have laundry areas outside. They have little areas that have built-in washboards and there is an area where you can recollect water. You have to make sure that those are clean and dry if you don’t want to get sick. You can actually work around it. If you’re good about it, such as if you always use an insect repellant and make sure that you don’t leave any water sitting around, you won’t get sick. But when you do get dengue, it’s not the end of the world. It is just another bad flu and that’s it. Dengue is very similar to malaria except that you do get a rash as well and you get really high fevers. You don’t get swollen joints but you get body aches, which is why people call it the “bone breaker,” because it feels like your bones are cracking as you are in pain.

The thing that you want to be most careful about is to not get dengue if you already had malaria because you would be prone to get the hemorrhaging dengue, which is a more complicated strain of dengue. If you get this type of dengue, you could be in the hospital for a month. The nice thing about the hospitals here, especially the ones in the capital, Managua, is that they absolutely know what to do in order to tackle these diseases. I know people who had hemorrhaging dengue and they recovered fine.

Hikers along a waterfall and stream in Nicaragua, pictured.)

How much of my stuff should I move to Belize?

Christian Burn

How much stuff you should take with you when you move to Belize depends on how long you are staying here. If you are going to Belize on a trial basis like for six months to a year or less, I don’t think you have to bring a lot of stuff. You can bring some clothes and decent shoes that you can use for all kinds of terrain. But generally, like my father says, “If you don’t have it when you are traveling, you just buy it where you are.”

The only essential...

How much stuff you should take with you when you move to Belize depends on how long you are staying here. If you are going to Belize on a trial basis like for six months to a year or less, I don’t think you have to bring a lot of stuff. You can bring some clothes and decent shoes that you can use for all kinds of terrain. But generally, like my father says, “If you don’t have it when you are traveling, you just buy it where you are.”

The only essential things that you need to bring to Belize would be your pharmaceutical things, if you need any, and toiletries like deodorant, shampoo, beauty products, etc. because they are not easy to obtain here in Belize. Another thing I have not been able to buy is contact lenses, but you can buy them online and have them sent to Belize. If you have prescription eyeglasses, bring a spare pair.

I would always recommend bringing an e-reader or any kind of tablet. People are very committed to their news sources and ultimately having access to the same news and other media that you have at your home country is a good way to ease into your new situation while still having access to the things that you love.

If you decide that you want to stay in Belize for a long time, other than your basics, you should bring your linens, because it is difficult to get decent linens here in Belize, unless you pay a fortune. If you have a hobby, you should bring the items you need for your hobby, like your fishing rods, golf clubs, hiking shoes, etc. If you are buying a car in Belize, you will pay double. So if you are coming to Belize on a Qualified Retired Person’s Residency, you could just bring your car to Belize duty free. You have a one year window to do that and that window is renewable after the third year.

My recommendation is to bring less. Just bring your essentials. Bring less than you think you are going to use. I am saying this from experience. I have a three-bedroom home in Canada that I packed up, and after numerous donations, garage sales, and friends coming to harvest, I kept the special stuff. I kept the dining table that my husband’s grandmother had given us and other essentials, and now, they are all just sitting in my mother’s basement for years because I have a small house in Belize. I do not even remember what we had, but now in hindsight, I realize I should have gotten rid of all of it, but we did not know that then. I had already gotten rid of so much of our stuff that I thought I was just keeping the essentials. It was a learning experience. So I would recommend for people to not bring lots of their stuff to Belize because you can buy most things here. You can also buy furniture here in Belize.

If you realize that you need something you left in your home country, then you can bring it into Belize later. Just because you have moved to another country, doesn’t mean you are not going back. And when you do go back, you will realize how much consumerism there is in North America; everything is “buy and buy and buy.” You have one thing and then you buy another one of that same thing. That doesn’t seem to exist in Belize nearly as much. When you move to Belize, your attitude about buying things changes. Out here, you live with less. You keep it simple, and it is a really freeing feeling. I will never forget those first few days when we were deciding what to keep and what to leave. I was panicked thinking that I could not sell my stuff; I needed them. I told myself that I would be back in three years. That’s what I said nine years ago. Now, I realize I am not going back, so I don’t need the things I used to think I needed and I can only farm them out to family members for a certain amount of time.

When you come here to Belize to live, your attitude really shifts about how much stuff you need, and I think it’s a really healthy thing. In North America, your “wants” become “needs”, but not here.

I would highly recommend that whoever comes to Belize over the age of 45 to get a Qualified Retired Person’s Residency because it is very easy and provides a lot of benefits. All you have to prove is that you have US $24,000 per year or $2,000 per month coming into your bank account; whether you spend it or not in Belize is up to you. They are just looking to make sure you have the ability to support yourself. Once you have that residency status, you don’t need a tourist visa, and you get that one-year window to bring in your goods duty free. Also, as I wrote above, it is renewable after the third year. You will not be able to import goods for two years after the first year. But then you can re-apply and start bringing in duty free goods again.

What would my neighbors be like in Panama?

Judith Tovar - Easy Travel Panama

Your neighbors in Panama...depending where you live..could be Panamanians, Americans, Canadians, expats, Venezuelan, Colombian, Spanish. That is one of the beauties of living in Panama...you can get to meet people from all over the world...all colors and all races. We are "not" prejudiced in Panama so if you live in a building you can have people from different parts of the world, different ages, etc.

Since the construction of the Panama...

How are the stores and shops in Algarve? How's the shopping in Algarve?

Luis Teixeira da Silva - Algarve Senior Living

Moorish castle of Silves, Portugal – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Shopping in the Algarve is good but not excellent. It’s not like 5th Avenue and it’s not Oxford Street, nor is it the Champs-Elysees, although the Champs-Elysees is quite complicated. You wouldn’t come to the Algarve to do your super-duper Christmas shopping. You wouldn’t come here to find a huge variety of high end luxury items. I can think of only one or two locations where there is a little bit of a cluster of high end stores and people might go there if...

Shopping in the Algarve is good but not excellent. It’s not like 5th Avenue and it’s not Oxford Street, nor is it the Champs-Elysees, although the Champs-Elysees is quite complicated. You wouldn’t come to the Algarve to do your super-duper Christmas shopping. You wouldn’t come here to find a huge variety of high end luxury items. I can think of only one or two locations where there is a little bit of a cluster of high end stores and people might go there if they are visiting and they need a special present.

The main focus on the shopping here in Algarve is pragmatic. There are half a dozen or more shopping centers across the Algarve. The largest ones are in Faro and just outside Albufeira in a place called Guia and also in Portimão. Those are the more obvious locations in which to find malls. Then there are smaller shopping centers in next level of towns going down like in Tavira, Loulé, Lagos, etc. And then there is still the existence of smaller shops like the bakery, the green grocer, and the like.

For clothes shopping, electronics, and furniture, we have medium-sized stores scattered in a retail park, which tend to be in bigger cities or alternatively, in the center of town. You might find a special clothes store in the center of Lagos or a special jewelry store in the center of Tavira, or a cork store that sells products made of cork in Silves. You will find these kinds of specialty stores in the towns and villages around the Algarve.

Generally speaking, the prices depend on the basis of comparison, but anyone coming from North America and Northern Europe find that shopping in the Algarve to be generally cheap. However, there are some exceptions. They would never find it more expensive than where they came from but they would quickly get accustomed to the lower cost of living and what they would see is that certain items are more expensive than others. Electricity, cars, fuel, and electronic items are not as cheap in the Algarve as one would expect, given the low cost of living in Portugal, particularly if you are coming from the US, where electronic good are so cheap. Electronics products might be even more expensive in the Algarve than they would be in the US. But generally speaking, if you are coming from the UK, you could easily cut 30% to 40% off your cost of living to live as a good as, if not a better quality of life.

(Moorish castle and hillside town of Silves, Portugal, pictured.)

Recently Answered Questions

Is there good fishing in and around Chapala and Ajijic, Mexico?

Do I need a second passport if I retire, work, or live abroad?

In Nicaragua, do I have to worry about malaria, yellow fever and other diseases we don't generally have in North America?

How much of my stuff should I move to Belize?

What would my neighbors be like in Panama?

How are the stores and shops in Algarve? How's the shopping in Algarve?

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Best Places In The World To Retire