Latest Expat Stories

Sunshine Morning Invites the Camera to Come Outdoors

We enjoy our coffee on the patio in Boquete, Panama, most mornings. This recent Sunday the weather was spectacular. We filled our coffee thermos and hastily dressed for a ride around Boquete while there was time before the clouds and rain arrived!
First stop was the Tourist Information Center at the bottom of the hill from where we live. Great timing, we had the camera this time and the White-nosed Coati troupe was there as if on cue. Best to see between 8:30 and 9:00 am....

Read More


Everything Changes, However Slow it Might Be

Welcome to Boquete. This charming town View is a side street in Boquete. – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living has changed a little and a lot in the last four years. We have watched as the economy has improved for the community. A great deal is based on tourism and the influx of expats. There has also been a worldwide increase in the higher-end coffees that grow in the mountains that tower over the towns of both Boquete and Volcan. Many small businesses have come and gone in the last four years. Growth is evident as the high school is currently...

Read More


Bill Edsell of Ventana Bay Resort on the Best House Orientation, Solar, Septic and Water in Baja California Sur

Bill Edsell on patio of Ventana Bay Resort, Baja California Sur – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingFrom an interview in early July, 2016 by Jet Metier with Bill Edsell, pioneer, innovator, and proprietor of the Ventana Bay Resort.
 
Jet: I there any innovation that you’ve learned over time regarding the best way to situate a house in La Ventana?
 
Bill: Well, yeah. It’s pretty simple here. You want to face east for the view obviously and this nice breeze we’re getting today.  They also face the way they do because of...

Read More


Living in Jocotepec, on the Shores of Lake Chapala: Beauty, Free Enterprise, and Some Cupcakes

Home in Jocotepec, garden and home view – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingIf you’re like me, with typical middle-class US suburban experiences and sensibilities, when you first arrive at Jocotepec, you are confronted with several things that just don’t seem right. 
 
For starters (and this is not unusual for Mexico), what was to be our home for the next 10 days did not have any internal hallways. All the rooms were placed at the far rear of the property, closest to the mountains, so that the back wall of each room was...

Read More


The Road from Nayarit, through Puerto Vallarta, to Lake Chapala and a Great, Big House for 60% Less Than a Tiny Hotel Room

Jet Metier and Chuck Bolotin in Jocotepec home and garden – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingWhen doing a road trip anywhere, and especially in Mexico, the ability to improvise and adapt are traits that come in handy.  Case I point: unfortunately, our much-anticipated plans to visit Puerto Vallarta fell through, so we would have to content ourselves with a “drive through.”

In the lavish and lovely garden area in the front of what had been our Lo de Marcos home for eight days of various parts serenity, adventure, discovery and enjoyment in the greater Nayarit...

Read More


Why Chacala Beach?

Chacala Beach, looking to Pacific Ocan – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living
So, you think you want to make the move to retire or live and work in a perfect place, with a perfect climate, economical Map showing Chacala Beach – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Livingliving, amenities close by, possibly Oceanside, with pleasant surroundings. And who objects to plenty of outlook for a nice capital gain on your real estate investment?
 
Look no farther than beautiful Chacala Beach, Riviera Nayarit, just north of Sayulita.
 
Chacala Beach, or Playa...

Read More


Bill Edsell on the Physics of Coolness in the Baja California Sur Summers and the Beauty of Domes

Open window and stone door at La Ventana Bay Resort, Baja California Sur – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingIn this interview, Bill Edsell, of La Ventana Resorts, explains to Jet Metier how to keep buildings cool in Baja California Sur
 
Jet: Here we are, in early July, sitting in the main room of your resort, in La Ventana, about an hour southeast of La Paz, on the Sea of Cortez.  The roof is a palapa.  It’s about two o’clock in the afternoon and it’s not uncomfortable. You’ve got a stone fireplace and then I guess these are cement blocks. ...

Read More


The Six Sisters of Nayarit, Mexico: La Peñita, Guayabitos, Lo de Marcos, San Pancho, Sayulita and Punta Mita

Sayulita Beach with stored surf boardsWe wanted very much to visit the towns just to the north and south of Lo de Marcos, in the state of Nayarit. How could we not?  Lo de Marcos was beautiful, exotic and interesting, the people were friendly, the food was great, and we had never been anywhere else in the area.  We had only eight days in which to explore before our deadline to leave for the Central Mexican Highlands.
 
From side to side, Lo de Marcos is only about a half a mile wide,...

Read More


Bill Edsell on the Beauty and Usefulness of Palapas in Baja California

La Ventana Resort palapa ceiling and roof – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingFrom an interview by Jet Metier with Bill Edsell, of Ventana Bay Resort in July, 2016.
 
Jet: We're speaking with Bill Edsell, owner of Ventana Bay Resort, in a large, palapa-covered room the resort uses as a restaurant.  It is very comfortable; you don’t notice how hot it is outside. One side of the room is open to the Sea of Cortez and on the other side, a sliding glass door in the back is only half open. You can’t tell its 95 degrees with moderate...

Read More


What it’s Like To Live in Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, a Little Seaside Village About an Hour North of Puerto Vallarta

Jet Metier on the beach near Lo de Marcos, Nayarit – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingWe had loved our six weeks in the little coastal village of La Ventana, in Baja California Sur, on the Sea of Cortez.  Now, as our tour continued, we would have the opportunity to experience another little village, Lo de Marcos, in Nayarit, about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific Ocean.  While Baja was majestic, with mostly barren, expansive landscape, harder edges, and gorgeous contrasts, Lo de Marcos was vivid, infused and saturated with color.  In Lo de...

Read More


Best Places In The World To Retire