What are the expats like in Los Cabos - La Paz, Mexico?

There is a big mix of expats here in Los Cabos and La Paz areas. Based on the Tourism Board, Cabo San Lucas has approximately 30,000 US-American expats, and approximately 20,000 Canadian expats living here full time.

 

People come here for many different reasons. Some people come down here and retire mainly for medical purposes because they don’t have good healthcare in their home country. The Canadians are fortunate enough that they have different...

There is a big mix of expats here in Los Cabos and La Paz areas. Based on the Tourism Board, Cabo San Lucas has approximately 30,000 US-American expats, and approximately 20,000 Canadian expats living here full time.

 

People come here for many different reasons. Some people come down here and retire mainly for medical purposes because they don’t have good healthcare in their home country. The Canadians are fortunate enough that they have different retirement pensions and criteria so you find a lot of Canadians who come down here before they are 62 years old. Canadians retire at about 55 to 60 years old.  We also have people who come down here who are over the US retirement age.

 

Then there are people like me. I am expat to a point because I am here full time/part time and there are a lot of snowbirds that come here who are like me. They own a home here full time or rent a house full time but they own and occupy it part time. So there is a big mix at all different ages.

 

Then there are some people who come down here who are like the outlaws. They left the US because there was a reason. They are not necessarily true legal outlaws but maybe there is an ex-wife somewhere saying, “Okay, we haven’t seen you in 20 years. Where are you?” And he’d say, “I’ve been in Mexico.”

 

The expats community here is really a big mix. A lot of the expats who are living here now are retirees who left the US for good. They might have been going back and forth for several years but they have finally taken the leap, which is what I am doing. In my case, I am a little different because I am afforded the luxury of having a company that I could work for via the Internet so I can work anywhere.  Not a lot of people can do that. A lot of people come down here in the expat community that are not retired and they come here to legally work as well. 

 

There are also younger families that come down because the husband or the wife found a good job down here and they moved everybody down. I talked to one guy who was very interesting. He was a dual citizen. He is originally a Mexican citizen but then he served in the US Army so they gave him dual citizenship in the US. He was in Phoenix for many years. His kids were in high school and he owned a landscaping business, which was very successful in Phoenix but then as the market about 10 years ago, started changing and as the housing industry went down, he saw fewer and fewer people who used services. He told me that he went from thirteen employees down to himself and one guy. He had this beautiful home in Phoenix and he was living the American dream but it got harder and harder to support that American dream. All of his relatives wanted him to go back to Mexico but he was worried because his kids were raised as Americans and that was the lifestyle they were used to.

 

He went ahead and made the leap. Then his kids who were brought up very Americanized because they were born in the US and are used to everything US and spoke English as a first language absolutely loved it here in Mexico. He was able to sell his $450,000 house in Phoenix. He came down here and bought a house for $65,000.

 

Recently I saw him driving a tourist bus when he told me, “I actually have a better life here because I don’t have to worry about paying for all the things that I paid for in the US.” He has a beautiful house here and his kids are going to school here. He thought his kids would have culture shock but they really didn’t. He is almost like an expat from the US because he spent at least 20 years in the US and returned to Mexico but with a family that was truly an American family who was completely raised in an American lifestyle.

 

(Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pictured.)

The expats in Cabo are a little bit snooty compared to other places. They like going out more. They like being busy. They like to go to art shows and have dinners and maybe a concert here and a reunion over there. So they’re much more active and I’ve seen that they are more involved in organizations such as the Rotary Club, the Humane Society, etc.

 

In La Paz, the expats are mostly the same but a little bit quieter. They like more to hangout in...

The expats in Cabo are a little bit snooty compared to other places. They like going out more. They like being busy. They like to go to art shows and have dinners and maybe a concert here and a reunion over there. So they’re much more active and I’ve seen that they are more involved in organizations such as the Rotary Club, the Humane Society, etc.

 

In La Paz, the expats are mostly the same but a little bit quieter. They like more to hangout in their homes and a lot of people do activities like sailing. And here in El Sargento (about 40 minutes south of La Paz, they like to do sports. If somebody doesn’t do sports, they would probably go to Cabo, where there are people who like fishing only and going out. But La Paz is sport fishing, stand up paddle boarding, snorkeling, etc.;  people that like the outdoor adventures. 

 

The age range is Generally between 50 and 75 or 80 years old, but still very active.  

 

(Happy hour by the marina, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, pictured.)

The expats in Los Cabos – La Paz are very nice people. Grumpy people would stay home anyway. It's very rare for you to meet a grumpy expat living in Los Cabos and La Paz because people are happy that they found a new lifestyle. 

 

For retired people who have fixed incomes, La Paz would be a better place to live than Cabo San Lucas. San Jose del Cabo would be a better choice than Cabo San Lucas just because there are different economic...

The expats in Los Cabos – La Paz are very nice people. Grumpy people would stay home anyway. It's very rare for you to meet a grumpy expat living in Los Cabos and La Paz because people are happy that they found a new lifestyle. 

 

For retired people who have fixed incomes, La Paz would be a better place to live than Cabo San Lucas. San Jose del Cabo would be a better choice than Cabo San Lucas just because there are different economic demographics like how much rent is, how much buying a home is, and the price of restaurants. 

 

One thing I noticed is that because there is a Spanish school in La Paz, which is called "Se Habla" (one speaks), more of the expats in La Paz are studying, practicing, and using Spanish within the community. This practice of expats speaking in Spanish is much less in Cabo San Lucas, although people in San Jose do try a little bit more to speak in Spanish. There is no formal Spanish school that I know of in Los Cabos. 

 

If I have advice to give anyone moving to Mexico, whether there's a school in the area you're moving to or not, it would be to buy books and to enroll in online programs where you can study Spanish. Even the least bit of Spanish that you speak is going to be graciously accepted and would open a whole world for you of more friends that you can make within the community. 

 

People will never laugh at you for making mistakes. When I was learning, I made some huge mistakes. Even when I said words that were not nice words just because I put an "e" or an "o" and mixed them up, no one gasped and they just politely said, "The correct word for that is this," and we went on.

 

 

The expats in Los Cabos and La Paz come from all walks of life. You can meet people from any walk of life down in Los Cabos. The guy with the ratty shorts and t-shirts with holes in it could be a multi-millionaire and you would never know because you just can't judge people by the way they dress. We should never do that anyway. Talk to people and find out how they are and if you have something in common or not. Generally, the expat communities are very nice and extremely generous in helping out the Mexican community.

 

(Sports fishing, Cabos San Lucas, Mexico, pictured.)