Posts filed under 'Guaymas'
Part of our re-launch of Livtopia’s MexRetire.com and Livtopia’s Concierge has involved extensive investigation into the arena of car importation. It’s a tough area especially for people wanting to permanently import a car newer than ten years old, as the posters on this Viva Veracruz forum (registration necessary) I thought very deftly showed. Issues and procedures do vary from state to state and Livtopia’s Concierge has prioritized the project to get our own procedures in order before our re-launch next month.
But one state (or at least half of one state) has made it much easier. In half of Sonora (the green half in the Sonora map below) you can drive your American or Canadian registered and plated car all the way down to San Carlos and Guaymas. This has been a big boost in increasing the popularity of Puerto Peñasco, which has always been within the “free zone.” The Only Sonora Program effectively extends the free zone a whopping 77 kilometers from the old checkpoint at Kilometer 21 to the new one at Kilometer 98 just past Guaymas. As the Only Sonora website puts it:
As importantly, it removes psychological barriers — the less paperwork required for people to get from one place to another, the better. Sonora –and other “free zones” in Mexico’s border areas –have experienced incredible growth when we eliminate paperwork. By moving “Only Sonora” south, we’re confident that we’ll inspire new visitors and bring our states closer together.”
Click the image for a larger version.
June 24th, 2007
It’s been a little quiet here because a lot is going on in the background. Not least has been the launch of our latest Mexican featured location, Veracruz, not only at MexRetire.com, but also on the newly christened Livtopia/Mexico site. Sure to be an exciting new project. That said a lot has been going on elsewhere in our corner of the English language, Mexican blogosphere.
Living in Mexico and Mexican Travel, one of my favorite blogs already, has a nice write up of the walking tour of San Juan Cosala, near Chapala. Written like I probably would have written it, it’s not long on history (you need to take the tour for that) but more on the experience of the day and some good local information. The rest of the blog is a gold mine of the sort of sentiment that motivates people retiring to Mexico.
1st Mate is back from sailing again. This time across the Sea of Cortés, it is not at all tranquil, but she’s got good pictures and even a map. Reminded me a little bit of some of Brenda and Roy’s excellent photos.
The Ruminating Expatriot took another trip to the Immigration Authorities, as illuminating and useful as the last time we noted he’d been in.
…within 15 minutes I was seated at the desk with the same very kind woman who had processed my change of address request. She looked over the paperwork I had submitted, filled out a form, presented me with a copy of the form, and told me return in a week to pick up my renewed visa. In and out in less than a half hour.
That’s the way we like it. And Billie is finally getting her kitchen almost finished. There is a practical side to almost every Mexico blog I see. Maybe it’s cause life here is so whimsical and often requires a sense of humor that we can’t help but take note of some of the problems, and upsets that make even the slightest progress seem like it is major and worth celebrating. Sort of like the Expatriot does above. Does that help explain why Mexicans are always so friendly ?
February 7th, 2007
This is the post where I am trying to highlight some of the terrific writing, reporting and just good old blogging that we’ve seen over the past week. This is also a sort of preview of some of the highlights of our forthcoming official blogroll of the best in our ever widening field. Retirement, owning a second home, or just moving to Mexico is one of the most exciting things people can do, and that spirit shows in all of the writing I want to re-present for you below.
First of all, Brenda and Roy it seems, are learning that beautiful Guaymas can get pretty chilly. Though last week started off with a fantastic video of the orca whales swimming in the sea, subsequent posts have concentrated on the January temperatures dipping down into what sounds like sleeping weather to me. Brenda deserves kudos for seriously making those of us enjoying the sun in more southerly locations, still feel like we are next to the heater and just watching the clouds and drizzle outside. The word is “reassuring.”
Similarly, John at Viva Veracruz is getting some of the less sunny weather on the other side of Mexico. That’s been enough to inspire the words:
Living in Mexico is a real life novella. Not a fictional narrative but a real life drama about sunlight and darkness, and birth and death, blood and drunkenness, love, anguish, honor, passion, fear and stupidity, but fueled on by an inexhaustible hunger for life.
And you thought blogging about life here would just be about Mexican health insurance and a new enchillada restaurant ?
Yucatan Living has been covering some of otherwise little known aspects of the painting world in Mérida. Little known at least in the English speaking world, the Working Gringos started with last weekend’s impressive essay on Mérida painter, Alberto Castillo. This is as good as blogosphere first-hand researching gets.
But they topped that with a later post on Mexico’s ubiquitous rotulo painting, the hand-painted advertisements and anuncios that strike visiting foreigners with the brilliant colors and, dare-I-say, approachability that you only get from hand painted signs. Literally every available surface is a canvas for the Mexican rotulo painter. The working gringos discover what we probably suspected, that these painters have their hands in just about every kind of painting imaginable. The painting at left, originally by famed Mexican painter Jesús Enrique Helguera, is being re-worked by the sign painters visited by the authors. (Photo by Working Gringos)
Still more about painting, but also on the RV front, literally, RVers Mimmi and Jonna get a new mural painted on theirs. As easy and simple as getting someone to change the battery in your watch, the post is as much about making a new pal, a common feeling that comes with a lot of Mexican business transactions.
And another RVer, Gary from On the Road with Gary posted a few more of his always insightful observations from the RV. Doing some housework and remodeling, capturing a live iguana, and the sort of observations on Mexico that should make his blog famous. That is, if fame were bestowed on the good, honest people who come to Mexico seeking more of the same.
January 21st, 2007
Tomorrow is one of the most important feast days in all of Mexico. The Virgin of Guadalupe is much more than a saint or even a religious figure, but is the true symbolic mother of all Mexicans, religious or not, in Mexico, and all over the world. To understand her role in Mexico, is to understand a great deal about the Mexican mind, ethos, and understanding of the world.
As the second in our series about Christmas celebrations in Mexico, we wanted to share with you a couple of good articles on the celebrations and on the Virgin of Guadalupe herself. The first is this excellent summary from Antencion San Miguel by Maria Teresa Valenzuela that provides back-up on the pre-hispanic goddesses and celebrations surrounding them and those surrounding the Virgin and the celebrations of today.
Click on Cuernavaca also has a nice summary more specific to their area, and to the Mexico City basilica that has become a huge site for pilgrims. And clear to the south the Working Gringos at Yucatan Living have an excellent post (from which comes this photo) on the altar building, bicycle processions, promesas and feasting that make this part of Mexico so special and unique.
Brenda and Roy have written a more down to Earth account of what your experience of the celebrations might be like, complete with more stunning photographs of some of the happenings in and around Guaymas, Mexico. And that reminded us a little of this quote from the incomparable Octavio Paz:
The solitary Mexican loves public celebrations and meetings. Everything can be a reason to gather. Any excuse will do to interrupt the march of time and celebrate with parties and ceremonies, men and facts. We are a people of rituals. […] During the days before and after December 12th, time stops its race, makes a stop and instead of pushing us to an always unreachable and lying tomorrow, it offers us a round and perfect present, of dancing and parties, of communion and eating with the oldest and deepest of Mexico. Time stops being a continuous and returns to be what it was, and is, originally: a present where past and future finally reconcile.
December 11th, 2006
Finding the right Medical Care in Mexico is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine.
One of the biggest concerns we hear about from people considering retirement in Mexico, or pretty much anywhere, is how to find the right doctor. Like anywhere else, retirees and those with second homes in Mexico rely first on word of mouth and personal referrals. “But I don’t know anyone!” Of course, at MexRetire.com we’re happy to find English speaking caregivers right in your new area. We can usually do so in a matter of minutes and we’re sure you’ll be happy with the results.
We realize, also, that many, many of the retirees we talk to get involved in the email newsletters and internet groups that allow residents and those planning a move to exchange information and keep an online database of truly useful local knowledge, all of it compiled by people in the area. Almost every city in our Featured Locations has a community of people using the internet to exchange information of the most important kind, and sometimes to make new friends and just settle in, at ease with the knowledge that plenty of people are going through the same things. We’ll be happy to refer you to what we consider the best of these user groups, if you’d like to start getting to know the people in your area, and to tap into their considerable knowledge. Just drop us a line at the Customer Service window. Most of these groups have a searchable archive of information, and allow you to query members in your new area. You’ll almost always receive a handful of personal, informative and concerned replies.
Of course, we also help all the time with personal health insurance, providing quotes from our insurance broker, and a good deal of the MexRetire.com website is dedicated to easing concerns and providing general information on finding a doctor. We survey a lot of information and news related to retirement in Mexico and are always pleased that the availability, quality and affordability of medical care is nearly always high on the list of advantages to retirement here. This Time Magazine piece from last weekend is no exception:
Does Medicare coverage follow you there?
No. But Mexico has–perhaps surprisingly to Americans–an excellent medical system. Medical care can be a tenth of the price of care in the States. Doctors make house calls. They give you their cell-phone numbers. I had skin cancer, and it was treated completely and professionally for $60.
We try to make all the information we pass onto you as personalized and useful as possible. To that end we’ll refer you to Brenda of Brenda and Roy Going to Mexico, writing on her Visit to the Doctor. Brenda reflects perfectly the light-hearted and easy going nature that is so much a part of life in Mexico. Always a gardener first, her blog is a real pleasure in allowing the reader to witness first-hand how good is life in Guaymas, even while blogging about the minor upsets, life’s challenges, and the differences between a doctor in Canada and in Mexico.
December 4th, 2006