Archive for February, 2007
I hope not to write a post that is too snide, but this post from Greg at LifeTwo really has me thinking. Ostensibly the point is that the mid-life crisis that people born between 1978 and 1998 (Generation Y) is going to be much worse than anything we’ve seen before. According to the post, many of them are far more Narcisistic and self-satisfied and those particular maladies are difficult maladies to treat:
Perhaps more Gen Y’ers will go through classic midlife crises, and they’ll be deeper and longer than the current norm (a period from a few weeks to two years). Whether they can make the necessary adjustments is questionable — narcissism generally can’t be treated. In forty years we may have a lot of unhappy, but self-satisfied, sixty year olds.
Now, I’m firmly Generation X, though that term seems to have ceased garnering any of the lavish attention that Boomers and folks younger suffer from Marketing newsletters and Publicity blogs and such. But still I’ve spent my life working with, for and about Boomers, now so more than ever, and it bothers me not in the slightest.
Maybe actual boomers recall the first time it dawned on them that people with actual experience are worth knowing and working with? At any rate, moving abroad, one quickly learns that it is a different caliber and personality of person that one meets while traveling and living somewhere where things are less than totally familiar. Sure, I still get stuck in tourist haunts “overrun with fanny-pack wearing gringos laughing too loud,” (as Nancy at Countdown to Mexico so nicely put it), but wouldn’t you rather live somewhere where the midlife and (sigh) quarter-life crises are all miles and miles away?
February 28th, 2007
Thanks to Moneybucks Coffee for pointing me to this great, long article at WhyWork.org. John O. Andersen’s piece from a few years back is a particularly good article for people considering moving abroad or to Panama or Mexico. Most of the people that Livtopia works with lead active healthy lives, and as the article suggests one should, they embrace the full spectrum of living and try to make an income doing what they love. That is fully possible south of the border, and if you need to get paperwork in order, to make sure it’s possible in either Mexico or Panama, we’ll be glad to help with that too.
On that note, we are still seeking people for Representative and Ad Sales positions in a lot of our featured locations. These are part-time, or create your own schedule positions in Mexico where a lot of people are already retired or semi-retired. The people we’re working with now are mostly people we’ve already helped get settled, and who liked the way we work. There’s more information in the Job Opportunities page above.
February 27th, 2007
The Gringa in San Miguel does a truly excellent job summarizing this past weekend’s debate over recent articles in San Miguel, some of them a bit silly. Read her whole post for an accurate breakdown of what happened. This is an example of not only of the fine debate you can get in the newsgroups, but that I hope we can inspire in our own. It is really heartening to see so many people love and defend their city without attacking and belittling one another.
February 26th, 2007
Just because you retire to Mexico, already a great travel and tourism destination, doesn’t mean you end up traveling any less. Seems every blog I turned to this weekend had more travel stories.
Mamahop records the family adventures Hopalog Travels around Veracruz from Xico to Xalapa and places in between. Similar meanderings were recorded at Viva Veracruz.
Flor y Canto provided great advice on getting to Atla and San Pablito in the Sierra de Puebla from Mexico City. It’s a bit of a trek and Flor y Canto’s new blog looks terrific.
Gwyn from Guadalajara took off for Tulum so you’ll want to keep an eye on his Flickr page. We’re expecting more great photos to show up there.
And who knew there are Two Tequisquipans? John’s excellent Mexico Woods blog explores them both, with terrific photography and I agree on choosing the second in Querétaro state, though he followed up today with still more to consider as far as hotels, water and food.
February 26th, 2007
I’ve been planning to write this post for quite sometime, about the prolific, nearly obsessive, use of limes in Mexico and in Mexican cooking. Alas La Gringa at La Gringa’s Blogicito has beaten me to it. She’s put some good research into the whole post, and though she writes from Honduras, if you’re wondering about Limes in Mexico (as I always am) it’s worth a read. I find them rather baffling although I have gotten used to squeezing them over just about everything that comes in front of me, and to tell the truth I can not remember the last time I saw a yellow lemon. I have even enjoyed something very close to the Lime Soup referenced here. Try it. The recipe is fairly straight forward and you’ll be surprised how Mexican it tastes no matter where you are.
February 25th, 2007
This is when starting an email news group pays off. Special thanks to one of our new members, sfviking_98, for posting these terrific photos in the photos section. The photos section is there for everyone to use, so sign up and post some. And since all of our users are new, thanks to everyone who has signed up in the past couple of days, too.
I haven’t been to Ixtapa for almost a year, but just a glance at this photo sends me right back. There is a lot to be said for a place that is still only partially developed that I think is evident in the top of that mountain. Maybe they built one too many condos here, but this is nothing like the problems you see in beachfronts that are truly over-developed. You know the ones I mean… Anyway, Ixtapa is not really partially wild or anything like that, but I think this photo gives you an idea of its being a little bit untamed, a little better than merely developed. I’ll be writing in the next few weeks about some of the efforts Mexico has made, since Cancun, to develop with more ecological sensitivity. There really are a lot success stories.
February 23rd, 2007
Go-Oaxaca Blog has posted some truly extraordinary photos of the Carnaval celebrations near Ocotlan, just south of the capital of Oaxaca, (the rest of the post is must see stuff!). Carnaval is pretty quiet in Mexico’s capital, but outside it is truly something else, as I thought these photos well captured. Veracruz and Mazatlan are best known in Mexico for their Carnaval celebrations. There’s a good Flickr photostream here, if you’re interested in the celebrations in Mazatlan, and some of the big time stuff in Veracruz posted here. But there seems to be a completely different flavor to the goings-on in Oaxaca. Something for everyone?
Update: here’s another nice one from Mazatlan.
And another update: 1st Mate’s photos are also Top Notch.
February 22nd, 2007
Live Better Mexico is off the ground and I hope you will sign up for what we promise will be the number one email newsgroup about living in Mexico and all the things to see and do. I’ll follow this up with a group just for Panama and later for the next countries we’re exploring. But for now, I hope you’ll sign up to see what folks are saying about Mexico, and living in Mexico. You can join up here.
Just to be fair though, I want to share the full list of other excellent groups that I have been reading for the last couple of months. Some are a bit slower than others, but all of them contain archives of excellent email exchanges and useful information. You can do a keyword search to really try to pull info out of the archives or just go ahead and start interacting with the other members. Each of them is an incredibly valuable source of information.
Groups good for our Featured Locations:
General Mexico Groups:
Panama Groups:
If you’ve got a group, not mentioned here, or you just want to recommend one, please let me know. Thanks a lot.
February 22nd, 2007
It’s a few weeks old, but Todd Heitner’s tips on negotiating from ALLREI.com are worth remembering. These are similar to the kinds of things we tell people at Livtopia.
- Know the Property - Research, research, research.
- Know the Seller - ask questions !
- Think Win-Win If you can give the seller something they want, that will increase your chance of getting something you want.
- Negotiate Terms, Not Just Price
- Maintain Control - Use other aspects of the deal in your negotiations. Don’t re-negotiate things that have already been decided.
- Be Prepared to Move On
Of course, you’ll want to read the whole article for more clarity and ideas. And the thing, of course, to add, maybe goes without saying: Know your realtor.
February 21st, 2007
Be sure to see the updated communications page at Mexperience for the full run down on telephones and calling and options available in Mexico. It’s been a long time coming, but with the internet and some helpful changes to the law, the market in communications is, slowly but certainly, improving. Their guide is comprehensive including good stuff on internet calling and even down to faxes and the postal system. But remember, just because getting a land-line might take a little longer, and some costs, like cell-phones are a bit more, the savings and improvements to life in so many other ways will make just dealing with things well worth the hassle.
February 20th, 2007
This saving-too-much article from the New York Times has about played itself out I hope. Damon Darlin’s article has slipped behind the pay-as-you-go-wall at the Times and hopefully a few more readers paying for the article will help bump up Darlin’s own IRA. He’s going to need the help. The Mortgage Report posted what I think was the most useful part of the whole discussion to date, a link to the whole discussion to date. Interestingly though, the comments at Mortgage Report include this solid point from Marc Brinitzer:
Everyone I know who retired early discovered quickly that their friends couldn’t play and golf is fun a couple of times a week. They’ve all gone back to work in some reduced capacity. That will be a change that financial planners need to adapt their calculations to.
Most of the rest of the discussion is more or less equally dismissive. The Motley Fool much more helpfully links to a couple of terrific retirement resources.
If you really want to start stretching your retirement income, may I suggest looking at some of our figures. Housing and cost of living are the name of the game here, though, of course, the quality of living is not a small part of the bargain.
February 19th, 2007
Billie from Billieblog, helpfully points out that it is important to check the website for traffic reports at both border crossings, either at Laredo or at the Columbia crossing. You can do so here, at the CBP.gov border wait times web-site and then decide which crossing seems best.
The reason the friend with whom I was driving and I were talking about writing a series of blog-posts about the drive is that we noticed we had quite a bit of confusion finding our way back south. Following signs for Monterrey is easy enough, but after that is where we ran into some, well, confusion, if not actual trouble.
From Monterrey you want to follow signs leading you to Saltillo on highway 57, but from there, nothing indicates the direction points further south like San Luis Potosi or Querétaro, much less Mexico City herself. The road you want to follow is 57D to Matehuala, and though I could be wrong, that is the only sign we saw indicating a city south between Saltillo and San Luis Potosi.
Also we had some confusion about whether we were ever actually on the Cuota highway. Generally the Cuota highways are better and faster than the Libre highways, but even if we were on the Libre road, it was fast and offered spectacular scenery and a near perfect surface the whole way. We saved a little on tolls though in general we do reccomend the Cuota roads.
The Secretary of Communications and Transport offers a reasonably good route planning section of their website that might give you some tips for these or other destinations. You’ll need a reasonably good handle on the Spanish language and certainly, better than average knowledge of what cities are in what states.
The best thing about the website is that they give you an itemized account of mileage, travel time and tolls. The map they will generate for your trip leaves a lot to the imagination and is not particularly easy to navigate, but it can give you a general idea of the trip. That map, in combination with the perfectly good Guia Roji maps available everywhere along Mexico highways should be enough to get you where you’re going. The strangely outdated logo of Guia Roji appears here, but notice that the blindfolded traveller seems to be trusting the Guia Roji completely and voluntarily. I’d suggest that without a blindfold, and the Guia Roji in the vicinity of your front seat, you should do just fine.
February 18th, 2007
In the midst of the thousand other things with Livtopia, somehow I am now also researching everything for the new Costa Rica Livtopia site. A side by side comparison of Costa Rica with Panama does not hurt a bit. I think the value here is that the two countries are complicated places with intricate histories that are each unique. Cheers to Libby or Bust for a fine job looking at one next to the other and adding a totally different twist to both. We are still finishing a few things up in our Panama offices, so you’ll be hearing more from there over the next few weeks. Costa Rica is a whole different story that is being written even as we speak. 
February 16th, 2007
I first moved to Mexico, honestly, because in Mexico I found exactly what I wanted from European countries, terrific natural and cultural beauty and sophisticated people. I also found easy-going people with whom I felt immediately comfortable. I remember thinking to myself within a few hours of my first arrival: “In spite of all of its history, and all of its problems, this place has a terrific future.”
This great Financial Times article from today predicts much the same thing. Or truth be told, Mexico’s new finance minister, Agustín Carstens, predicts much the same thing. (That link is to an old bio, and I can’t stand linking to wikipedia but the bio there is actually up-to-date.) The article that does spell out pretty clearly what challenges and obstacles there are in trying to meet the widespread prosperity of places like Spain or Ireland, but this is the Financial Times, not exactly a cheerleader for bad investment opportunities.
His comments […] come as the country of 105m is recording its highest growth in six years. According to the finance ministry, the economy expanded 4.8 per cent last year. By contrast, average annual growth was just 2 per cent in the previous five years.
And I wish sometimes that this were one of those blogs that quotes news articles at length, but it is not: so here is the link again.
The MexFiles, which I read pretty often, expressed some concern back in October, about a former IMF head leading the finance department in Mexico, and the thought does occur to me. I am very diligent about keeping my nose out of Mexican political questions, but the quote that MF provided shows exactly why the Calderon team is a bit of a mystery, and perhaps it will even be a success. I like very much the idea of looking to such stunning success stories as Ireland and Spain for a model of going forward.
February 14th, 2007
This somewhat unpleasant story comes via Panama Investor Blog.This enormous creature was killed near a house in Lake Istapoka, near Sebring, Florida. I know, I know, it is too easy to make jokes at Florida’s expense. But there is nothing 23 feet long crawling around Panama or any of the locations where we are worrying about water and sewer hook-ups and title insurance. 23 feet long? I mean, how often did that guy have to go out and eat an entire deer just to keep swimming?
February 14th, 2007
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