Latest Expat Stories | Best Places In The World To Retire

Matt Ouellette – “The Canadian Renaissance Man: Family, Music, Business, and Sports”

Matt Ouellette came to Mexico as a vacationer and real estate investor and fell in love with the area. Originally from the west coast of Canada, Matt found a Spanish beauty in British Columbia and the two of them were married in Spain. After years of rainy cold weather in Vancouver, Matt and his wife decided they would like to explore living in a warm tropical climate so in 2000 they...

Cave Man and the Woman who Climbed Everest

Here are two contrasting characters who have crossed our path in the neighborhood. One is well-known for being homeless and without possessions, the other well-known for being the first woman from Central America and from Guatemala to plant the country’s flag on top of Mount Everest. Andrea Cardona’s story is available for anyone to read on the internet, but our connection to her is told here. The only ones who know of Cave Man’s notoriety live around this area. He...

Who are the People in Your Neighbourhood?

The first neighbor we met was Moises. He looked to me like a gangster at first glance, and I believe he wants the people around here to think so as well. He usually wears pointed-toe cowboy boots and a black leather jacket with some sparkly studs in a few places. There has been a fashion going for some time where people show their prosperity by having gold caps put on their front teeth. I mistakenly thought they had had dental repairs and had elected the gold caps; I couldn’t figure out...

My Friend Deet, 81 years old still rides her bicycle

The streets of Antigua are all stones. Some say cobblestones, but these are not well cobbled. The city is a World Heritage Site, so it must maintain the old style and flavor of most things here, so they don’t repair the stones with cement to really hold them together. They use a mixture of gravel and a substance called “cal.” It is lime, the main ingredient in cement for concrete, but it’s...

The Easiest Way to Round Out Your Wardrobe and Cookware Collection While Living at Lake Chapala in Mexico

Guadalajara Airport – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Two of the best things about living at the Lake Chapala area have to do with aviation:

1. Through what I can only assume is dumb luck, Guadalajara International Airport was placed at the south side of that huge metropolis as opposed to the north side, so us fortunate enough to live at Lake Chapala can get to the airport without having to first pass through 30 miles of the worst traffic this side of Mexico City.

2. Flying from one Mexican city to another Mexican city...

Having In-Laws of another Culture and Country

My Mother-in-Law, Dona Maria

It is really difficult to get to know the people around you when you don’t speak the same language. You can be speaking the same native language and not understanding each other. Words have meaning, but if you think about it, how many times have you said something to someone who interpreted it entirely differently than you intended? And you had to say, “That isn’t what I...

The Quest for the Elusive Mung Beans -- A Visit to Abastos from Ajijic / Lake Chapala

Like an aspiring knight in a medieval fairytale who had been told to bring back the egg of a fire-breathing dragon or a nascent American Indian brave who had been given the task of producing a specific feather from a fearsome bird on some faraway mountaintop, I now had my challenge: bring me the mung beans.

In this case, the one issuing the challenge was none other than my wife, Jet, a devoted cook who sees the world as her laboratory. “Lakeside is a ‘pot luck...

Designing + Building a House in Guatemala - Part 5b

Zaqueo hired a third friend of his from his home area named Chicalo. He was to be an “ayudante,” or assistant as they are called when they don’t have a specific trade. Chicalo had only one working eye. The other had been irreparably damaged by a bungee cord accident. I used to work with eye surgeons, and one of them told me, “Don’t EVER use bungee cords, and tell everyone you know they are very dangerous and to throw them out!” She had...

Designing + Building a House in Guatemala - Part 5a

"Why would anybody want to build a house in a foreign country?"

That’s what I asked my friend who was buying land here in Guatemala. She was looking for a partner, and I thought she was a bit crazy to attempt it. I went with her and her real estate agent to look at land. When she chose to buy this one with an amazing view, I took more interest. I told her I would start making drawings of what she wanted that she could take to an architect to have plans made. The...

The Road to “Hobbitenango” - Part 4

"What is Hobbitenango?"

Many of my stories involve a place up the hill near us called Hobbitenango, and before I write about building my house here, I must explain what Hobbitenango is. “Tenango” is a Mayan suffix to many of the names of towns in Guatemala, meaning “the place of.” Jocotenango is the place of the Jocos, Alotenango is the place of the Alos, Chimaltenango the place of the Chimals, etc. So this place near us is the place of …. you guessed, the...