moving to mexico -- resources

So, you have done the hard part.

You have decided to sell your house and move permanently to Mexico. Visions of sunlit beaches and snow-capped volcanoes samba in your dreams.

Now comes the learning curve. You are not even certain what questions you need to have answered. But there are some that have started gnawing at you.

• Should I bring my car?
• How do I ship all of my personal belongings?
• How do I get a visa?
• Should I buy a house or rent?
• What details should I consider in a purchase or rental contract? What terms need to be negotiated?
• Where should I live?
• What will my monthly costs be?
• Can I bring my pet King Cobra and Bengal Tiger?

I decided in 2006 that I was going to retire and live out my last few years in Mexico. And I asked myself all of those questions -- well, maybe not the one about the tiger -- and a lot more.

Because I am a traditionalist, I bought every book I could find about retiring in Oregon and pored over them every night in my hot tub. I posted a list in 2007 of the books I was reading (lamps unto my feet). Fourteen years later, I suspect the material is dated. but new editions may have been published.

The books were very helpful in covering the categories of questions I should ask, and the authors did their best to provide adequate data to answer some of the questions. But, by their very nature, the books could only provide general information. And I needed answers to questions relating to my situation.

Based on the books, I narrowed down my search to six cities in Mexico. I planned to audition each place for six months and then move on to another. (That plan fortunately soon crashed on the shoals of reality.) To prepare for those moves, I needed to find people who knew each area.

That is when I discovered Mexico blogs. Wayne on Isla Mujeres. Joanna and Teresa in Mérida. Gary in Mexico City. Jennifer in Morelia. Felipe in Pátzcuaro. Babs in San Miguel de Allende. Nancy in Mazatlan. Andee in Chacala.

Not only could I learn about living in their portions of Mexico, I could also get a feel of the lives they chose to live by reading their past posts. It is one thing to read a book written by someone whose background you do not know. It is far more reassuring to take advice from people whose lives make contextual sense.

All of them were willing to provide advice and none was bashful when it came to opinions. And that was exactly what I needed. I wanted raw reality, not Chamber of Commerce fluff.

Of that group, Wayne has hauled his writing over to Facebook, Gary has moved back to England, Teresa has moved to California, Nancy continues her blog at Lake Chapala, and Andee died just before I could meet her. In fact, most of the blogs I relied on in making my decisions are no longer being written.

Unfortunately, it appears that Facebook has attempted to fill the gap. And it fills the gap quite inadequately.

I belong to several Facebook groups that purport to offer advice to people who are considering upgrading their lives with a move to Mexico. I suppose some of the questions are answered to the satisfaction of the posters. But I am not certain that answers to such questions as "How much does it cost to live in Mexico?" are very helpful when answered by people who live all the way from a simple home in Oaxaca to a penthouse in Mexico City.

Part of the problem is the format of Facebook. Complex questions and answers are reduced to bumper sticker slogans. And the person who asks the question has no idea of the veracity of the person who answers.

I also suspect trolls are responsible for what appear to be the most inane questions: "Can you buy prescription drugs in Mexico?" -- "Do Mexican women make good wives?" -- "Are there fruit markets where I want to live?" I have often imagined that the old KGB office in Moscow is filled with operatives peppering Mexican Facebook pages with these gems.

If I were making a decision on the details of my move to Mexico right now, I would avoid all of the Facebook advice pages unless you have always wanted to play Diogenes.

I would start looking for updated versions of the books in my list (or others) to build a proper framework of questions. I would then start reading well-written blogs from the areas you are curious about. There are also some valuable internet resources listed to the right of this essay.

If you are currently going through the decision-making process, I confess that I envy you a little. Making all of these choices was one of the best experiences of my life -- even when I was fully aware that each decision would be swept away when the tide of time swept across it.

Enjoy the move. Mexico is not paradise, and life here is not perfect. But every day in Mexico will let you appreciate simply being alive.

And that is good enough for me.