Dallas Morning News readers got the story last week in this report on the area’s burgeoning resort communities. It’s good weekend reading but it might help start off your week on the right foot, too.
The Riviera Maya has long offered a more laid-back version of Cancún centered on the European-flavored Playa del Carmen, with its small shops, trendy restaurants and bohemian nightlife. But the vacation experience has been tied to the traditional model of boutique hotels or all-inclusive resort complexes with hundreds of rooms crunched together and lines of vacationers in the restaurants and bars during peak hours.
[…] Caribbean in general has come into its own as one of the hottest spots on the globe. And the Riviera Maya has the advantage of being in a hip and culturally significant area.
There’s a lot to tell and there is no question the area is changing every day, both from improved infrastructure, highways and services and especially from an increase in foreign residents. Playa del Carmen has the highest concentration of Italians anywhere in Mexico!
We’re working right now to broaden our Discovery Weekend to include a few more places between Cancún and Playa de Carmen - but finding the right food has not been difficult.
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May 5th, 2008
Another good reason to get all the information you can before moving - I learned about this organization and website from the CR Central Valley Play Group - is that you also get lots of resources for things you hadn’t even expected. We hear all the time from people who want to know what to do with their free time once they’ve already fallen in love with a new country and a new people.
Volunteering and getting involved is one of the best ways to do that and Helping Hands Costa Rica is looking to be Costa Rica’s #1 Resource for information on how to get involved in the Costa Rica community and to volunteer.
HHCR’s goal is to bring awareness to issues, projects, Organizations & Foundations that exist in Costa Rica. It’s also a place for individuals and volunteers to meet other like minded people, participate in valuable discussions, and find opportunities for helping the community.
With an extensive collection of blogs on relevant topics, an unbeatable events calendar, and forums to discuss all the upcoming and recent events, it’s a worthwhile stop if you are looking to lend a hand to Costa Rica’s growing and changing community.
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May 3rd, 2008
Our Discovery Weekend Panama schedule is filling out quickly. We’ll be announcing another several weekends later on this week, but for now, you can check the Free Weekend in Panama page here for some of the properties including Hacienda Pacifica in the illustration above, plus the weekend agenda.
San Carlos is a growing and popular community along the Pacific Coast that guests will get to see a lot more of come late May. The list of properties and developments will also be added to a bit later this week.
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April 28th, 2008
Perhaps that headline is not quite fair. In fact, this International Herald Tribune article says just about the opposite. It’s still a sleepy back-water, an incredible bargain, and exactly what you hope for in any Caribbean location.
[…]Culebra, a tiny island halfway between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, still clings hard to its peaceful origins. It’s the kind of place where Carnival and Royal Caribbean don’t visit, the Four Seasons can’t be found, and you really have to work hard to spend more than $200 a night on a hotel room.
We’re working double-time on the database that backs up the homes we’re showing in Puerto Rico. We’ve got condomniums in just about the entire island, and on some of the surrounding islands too, but nothing in Culebra yet. We’ll see how the tiny island fares.
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April 22nd, 2008
There’s a great new list of properties homes announced at the bottom of the Costa Rica Discovery Weekend page. We’ll be describing each of them and some of the fantastic new places - places like the surfers paradise,Tamarindo and the golf resort area Playa Conchal, Costa Rica - in the upcoming newsletter.
Photo is the Villas at Lagos de Palama de Real, Playa Hermosa.
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April 16th, 2008
Be sure to read Lawrence Downes’ piece in the travel section of the New York Times (from which comes the illustration above. My favorite paragraph:
But Manzanillo then was jungle outpost, a nowhere port town on a two-lane road from Guadalajara. It was a place where a gringo — even a famous novelist gringo accompanied by family and friends, an abundant supply of drugs and an International Harvester school bus covered in Day-Glo paint and blaring music from a sophisticated loudspeaker system — could reasonably expect to hide out for a while.
Interest in Manzanillo remains extremely high. People interested in homes in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta often mention Manzanillo also, along with better known Pacific Coast locations like Acapulco. But Downes’ access to novelist Robert Stone’s memories makes his article extra special and worth the 3 full pages.
“In the moments after dawn, before the sun had reached the peaks of the sierra, the slopes and valleys of the rain forest would explode in green light, erupting inside a silence that seemed barely to contain it. When the sun’s rays spilled over the ridge, they discovered dozens of silvery waterspouts and dissolved them into smokey rainbows. …
“All of us, stoned or otherwise, caught in the vortex of dawn, would freeze in our tracks and stand to, squinting in the pain of the light, sweating, grinning.
“We called that light Prime Green; it was primal, primary, primo.”
Click here to tell us about “Your Ideal Home”
March 22nd, 2008
With the success of our English Language Blog Roll, we’ve been looking more and more at extending the linking capability that Livtopia.com offers.
March 12th, 2008
Believe it or not, Guadalajara is exactly what a lot of people are looking for. A huge city, yes, but a city that never feels like the over-extended and polluted metropolis. It’s a real treat to be visiting and writing about it again!
Sometimes I tend to think of Guadalajara a bit like Queretaro, in terms of sleek world-class infrastructure surrounding a gem of a colonial city center.
But really Guadalajara like the capital in exhile, Mexico’s second big claim to a world class city. It has all of the advantages of a metropolis, but without the indifference that visitors feel in the capital. Guadalajara is visitor friendly and it’s navigable - you can learn your way around, safely take the metro, it’s clean and and people-friendly. There’s some excellent and pretty comprehensive photos of the city of Guadalajara and the surrounding areas here.
And in addition to the excellent health care system and the all the shopping and the culture, you always find a team of cutting-edge designers, dedicated to sleek, modern-feeling craft and architecture. You might put down one of these houses in cities all around the world, but they feel right at home in Guadalajara. You can visit when ever you like.
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March 11th, 2008
The photo is from this USAToday article on Mexico’s newest Pacific coast get-destination. Maybe it’s not the newest, but the Riviera Nayarit is really coming of age at its own pace.
It appears as though you could glance around that outcropping of rock and see old Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta just beyond and down the coast. Of course the coast is a bit bigger than that.
The character of the 20 or so Riviera Nayarit locales varies from bustling to sleepy. The coast begins at Nuevo Vallarta, chockablock with big, all-inclusive resorts 15 minutes north of the Puerto Vallarta airport, and ends at San Blas, whose largest hotel has only 50 rooms. In between lies everything from new ultra-exclusive gated enclaves such as Punta Mita; the ’70s-vintage mass-market resort town of Rincón de Guayabitos; pristine beaches that draw campers, such as Chacala; and fishing villages with growing ex-pat populations, such as Sayulita and San Francisco.
We’re not sure when we’ll offer Riviera Nayarit as a destination in its own right though it’s probably sooner than you might think. Right now our staff in Puerto Vallarta is working on more than a few homes there, in the city itself, and to points both north and south. But our Puerto Vallarta “On-the-Ground” is showing an increasing number of homes, starting in Bucerias and up to the beautiful homes and condos of Nuevo Vallarta to more and more places.
Meanwhile, in various places along the coast, villages whose commerce once revolved around taco stands and auto repair shops have sprouted organic cafes, yoga studios — and hotels for well-heeled travelers who demand such amenities. Nineteen lodgings with more than 4,000 rooms are slated to open by 2011.
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March 7th, 2008
In last week’s newsletter, we announced that throughout the month of June we’re highlighting houses in Cuernavaca, Morelos. Next week, we’ll be announcing exactly why, though the photo above may give you a good idea. You don’t find fixer-uppers like this one every day (click on the photo to enlarge), and we’ll provide details on why it’s a terrific bargain, what more it will cost to finish it, and the considerable amount it will be worth on the day you walk in the door.
From the present owners: The designed is based entirely on construction specifications, lay outs, building materials and techniques used entirely by Spanish builders. Every single item and detail has been crafted by artisans from Morelos and Guerrero, and better than 5 years of labor has already gone into it. With the exception of the roof, the building foundation and main structural beams are steel and reinforced concrete, used to secure it’s engineering design. A masterpiece already, the land lots and layouts were also chosen to secure the best views of the always beautiful Cuernavaca Valley where unique weather conditions make it one of the world’s most perfect climates.
A system of natural cross-air window designs allows the house to always be fresh with the air from the Tzempoala forest. The kitchen and most other parts of the structure are made from stone walls covered with stucco which will allow users to always enjoy a fresh, warm environment, depending of weather conditions. Inside stucco applications and iron-work designs are hand made replicas from colonial buildings. Clay pieces were specially made and brought from Cholula in Puebla.
I’ll update this post when we load up some other pages that will highlight this incredible bargain, and the wonderful life it will certainly lend to the new owners.
But remember, we’re also scheduling Private Real Estate Tours in Cuernavaca and just about everywhere, right through June. There’s never an obligation and you’ll see homes all across Cuernavaca and the surrounding areas including the many small towns that make Morelos one of our favorites.
Click here to tell us about Your Ideal Home
March 4th, 2008
This is big news in what’s always a tricky story for those who want to import a car to Mexico. Permanently importing your car took another turn for the worse in Mexico. As of Monday, tomorrow March 3, 2008, you can only import a car from Model Year 1998. That’s presumably until next year when you’ll only be able to import a 1999 model.
According to the AP story linked above, 98 models along the border are suddenly the must-have 2008 cars
It’s a tricky story because until this new law was passed, you still couldn’t ever permanently import a car built outside the NAFTA countries. And permanently importing any car seemed like it was probably a bit tendentious a proposition anyway for many of the readers we talk to here. Your author has done it, and standing around the customs department of the airport for 11 hours is not what we recommend. The rules vary widely from state to state, even from office to office, and they do change - frequently.
We’ve mentioned temporary and tourist car imports few times in past posts. And that seems still to be the way to go, whether yours is a 2008 Lexus, or a 1997 Chrysler, the Mexican Import Authorities are going to see the same thing.
That’s why our MexRetire page on permits for auto importation is still only concentrating on Temporary Imports. It might sound like a hassle to need a new permit every 6 months, (though with a residency permit, FM-2 or FM-3, you can renew the temporary permit with your visa.) But this new ruling seems to make permanent importation seem even more possible. Our advice, import temporary, or have some fun shopping the auto-lots in your new paradise destination.
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March 2nd, 2008
As I mentioned in the post below, we are filling out a full schedule for the next several months in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. I got a lot of news about the various incredible and beautiful places we’ll be going.
They are listed on the main Costa Rica Discovery page on Livtopia which has lots of other information on the weekend and the itinerary. But I’ll be expanding on what is unique and special about each of them as the week progresses. Links to those pages will be added to the events page.
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March 1st, 2008
Punta Mita is just about the most northern point on the Bahia de Banderas, the beginnings of the new Nayarit Riviera. It’s not exactly Puerto Vallarta, but I thought these couple of photos from one of the places we’ll be going there nicely capture what Punta Mita is.
Hacienda Grand, the resort and condo hotel is planned for that yellow rough rectangle outlined in both photos. But you can see perhaps also that this is not the sort of place with condominium towers leaning out over the beach.
Puerto Vallarta proper is visible as the white developed areas in the photo below, and Vallarta does get criticized for being “over-developed.” But I think you can see from the photos also, that much of this world famous coastline is still rather pristine.
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February 29th, 2008
My favorite thing about the map above, linked to the source at GoVisitCostaRica.com, is that depiction of the long line of volcanoes between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Yes - many of them are active! Some more than others; get the full scoop on the fiery mountains at the indefatiguable Inside Costa Rica.
Volcano aficionados have declared Arenal the third most perfect volcanic cone in the world. It’s also the most active volcano in Costa Rica. You’ll enjoy sitting back with your cup of tea as night settles in the sky reddens with fire and incandescent rocks bounding down the mountain slopes.
Luckily, we’re hosting our first real “On-the-Ground” Weekend on Costa Rica’s beautiful Guanacaste coast at a good distance from any incandescent rocks. We’re still ironing out details on exactly what properties you’ll get to see if you decide to join us. But click here for an idea of the weekend’s activities.
We’ll be all over the Costa Rica’s other-worldly, almost too-beautiful coast; from Ocotal, one of the premier resort areas in the entire country, up to Playa del Coco and Playa Hermosa and certainly to Playa Panama, the sort of beaches that make Costa Rica famous for, well, beaches! We’ll have all the extras too, including a complete tour of the area, (by land and sea) and of course, everything you need to know to make Guanacaste your perfect escape.
Thinking about coming? The “Ideal Home Survey” linked below is the perfect way to tell us what you’re after, and of course, the Guanacaste OTG page on our website will be continuously updated with more information about this terrific weekend.
Click here to take Livtopia’s Survey
February 25th, 2008
At one point we were going to try to include Mérida in that list too, but alas it is too far to make it as part of our 3 day Mayan Riviera weekend.
As of now, we’ve got great reasons to check out places all around the Greater Cancún area, including Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen and just about everything in between. Quintana Roo appeals to a wildly different crowd of people than our Pacific Coast locations, so this is a great chance to meet people from divergent locations across North America and Europe.
This first free weekend is going to cover quite a bit more geography than we’ve previously covered, so a bus-tour and a boat tour are both part of the fun. And we’ve already listed dates for May and for July if you can’t make the April dates.
Plus we’re expecting some more specialists in the fields of Home-Owner’s Insurance and Mortgages geared not only toward North American’s but toward expectant Europeans as well. There is a rumor that one of the Developer’s is even offering a 4-wheeled incentive, but I will fill you in on that as details emerge.
Click here to tell us about Your Ideal Home
February 19th, 2008
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