Latest Expat Stories

On our road trip through Mexico and on the Best Places in the World to Retire site, we and other contributors to our site are often asked to do a comparison between life in the US and life abroad.  In order to be accurate, these comparisons are almost always filled with lots of caveats because it is not often easy to do a fair one-to-one, “apples-to-apples” parallel.  However, sometimes, you can, which is exactly what happened to me a few days ago.
 
First, here’s...

The old Spanish Fort San Juan de Ulúa still stands watch over the bustling port of Veracruz, Mexico, but it is no longer filled with many tons of silver and gold.

This fort was built in 1565 on the island where the Spanish first landed in their conquest of Mexico in 1518. And it was the last place held by Spain in Mexico. Although independence was granted in 1821. Spanish troops remained until 1825. For most of the 300 year period of Spanish rule, it was the main center...

One of the great advantages of traveling, or better yet, living in a different country, is to see how others live their lives. If we are open to it, we can gain perspective and insight, not only into the human condition in general, but more pointedly, into our own condition.

 

I'll give you an example.
 

While on a road trip for Best Places in the World to Retire, we have traveled by car thousands of miles through Mexico, from the California border in...

So, you want to build a house in Panama?

 

Be patient, be real patient.  Everything will take longer than you are accustomed to.  You will have to make many phone calls.  You will need a Spanish speaking intermediary.  You will be frustrated at times.  There will be many times when you need to get a beer and go for a walk, and breathe.  But, then all of a sudden, action!

 

I've been working on my house for 3 years now...

We have been asked several times to compare the lifestyle of the very well known and established expat locations San Miguel de Allende with Ajijic, both in the Mexican Highlands.  Let’s start with what they have in common:

 

“Gringolandia,” Yes, But With Plenty of Local Flavor

 

While no reliable figures are available, a reasonable guess is that Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende may each have somewhere around 10,000 or so expats in...

Las Posadas is the name for the popular celebrations in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, the United States and Panama during the nine days before Christmas (December 16-24). Las Posadas (which is Spanish for the “inns” or “lodging”) relates to the search by Joseph and Mary for a place to stay in Bethlehem.

 

 

 

This tradition began in Mexico in 1586 when Catholic...

When starting from where we stayed in our planned community in the agricultural countryside (“campo”), we would drive into the center (centro) of San Miguel de Allende in one of two ways, depending on whether we wanted to enter from the north or from the southwest.
 
If we wanted to visit from the north, we would turn directly onto Highway 51, which from the gates of where we were staying at Los Labradores is a modern two-lane highway with cars, trucks and busses passing each...

1519 in La Antigua, Veracruz. Four years later the first chapel in the Americas was built by Hernán Cortés and is named the Chapel of the Rosary (Ermita del Rosario). It is a picturesque tiny church in the beautiful lush green setting of the tropical rain forest.

 

 

The town of La Antigua is considered to be the first real Spanish town in the country and was established...