Well (my 3rd grade teacher told me never to start a sentence with ‘well’ – it’s something you fall down, she said) I’m getting ready to go down Lakeside on Tuesday August 11th. I’ll be leaving Les behing, something I really don’t want to do. I’ll miss her. But I’ll be looking for a house to rent.
We’ve seen a number of good houses on realtor’s websites these past few months – but since them, many of them have been rented. The number of houses we’d like seems to be dwindling. So I’m hoping that the bulletin boards at Wal-Mart, and maybe the Lake Chapala Society, can point out some new places. I’m also going to do all the asking around I can, seeing if any of the local expats know of any. When we were down in April, as we were sitting in a restaurant, someone mentioned they had a house for rent.
On another front – selling the website for my photo biz – www.hiredavid.com – seems to be going a little slowly. I was hoping to get some good money for it to help in our move, but in this climate, selling it is getting tougher.
I’m concerned about all of this – but Les says not to worry. She’s been convinced all along that things will go just fine – that it’s meant to be.
Nancy - at CountdowntoMexico.com, is a frequent contributor here at BoomersToMexico. On the subject of rentals in Mazatlan, she mentions Jen’s new house in Mazatlan. It’s a beautiful, large place that is very affordable compared to Chapala. Check out Jen’s blog, MexScape to see pictures of it. Go to ‘Photo Gallery/Our New House’.And while you’re there, check out the pics of ‘Bike Week’. Les is from Milwaukee, where they make Harleys. Bikes are her kind of stuff, but only if they make that low throaty sound.
Nancy also suggests getting the rental price in pesos, not dollars. Good idea.
Ultimately, lifestyle will make the choice for us, but it’s nice to see what’s affordable in Mazatlan.
Les and I have been talking it over, and don’t really feel certain that the Chapala area is where we want to first settle down. Neither of us was very impressed with it – though we did visit it at what might have been the worst time of the year, weatherwise, it was April and very dry, the rains hadn’t come yet to make it beautiful.
So we’re thinking we should make a run down the pacific coast, and see what that has to offer. Mazatlan, The Riviera Nayarit. That area might be a little cheaper than the Chapala area, and both of us have always liked the ocean.
The guidebooks say that the pacific towns get ’swealteringly hot and humid’ in the summer, but we’ll see what that’s like. Heck, I live in Texas. It may not get to 90 degrees and 90% humidity – but 105 and 70-80% might be even worse. Besides, I lived in Hawaii for two years, where it’s hot and humid in the summer, and on a desert island off the coast of Africa. It wasn’t humid – but it was HOT!
So I might take a run down the coast in August and see what it’s like at it’s hottest. Then we can make a decision between the two. We’re on a budget, so cost might make a difference.
We just got a comment on the post ‘Rental Prices in San Miguel’. Cheryl, who lives right here in Dallas, wrote to say that she and her husband bought a lot in San Miguel and plan to build on it and move there in 5 years. She writes ‘Go to “Falling in Love with San Miguel” which is a forum for people interested in San Miguel. Quite frequently, there are a lot of casas and casitas posted for rent and they are cheap!’
Sounds like a great resource, and Les and I are grateful for it. We don’t have the time or money to make an extra trip to Mexico just now – it’s going to take 2 more trips just to move – 1 to rent a place, the second to actually move. But we’ll be checking out San Miguel when we get to Mexico. It’s great to know there are some affordable places.
Check out Cheryl’s complete comment under ‘Where to move’.
I just mentioned Ken Luboff’s excellent ‘Living Abroad in Mexico’ – where he names some of his favorite restaurants, hotels, B&B’s, and ex-pats he knows around the country. And of course there is Mexperience.com. A website chockful of information. Now Nancy, at CountdowntoMexico (see the blogroll on the left) has mentioned another one to us: The Expat Community Blog (see the blogroll again). It’s not just for ex-pats living in Mexico, or from the US, but for ex-pats from anywhere living most anywhere. There’s a great Mexico section where you can post questions for other ex-pats to answer. And a list of the blogs of other ex-pats in Mexico. A great resource, and a fun way to meet people as well.
We got a comment today from Beth, in the post ”Our 1st impressions of Chapala.’ Beth and her husband took an entirely different approach to visiting Mexico and deciding where to live. They actually did some research! They stayed one night at a B&B in Tlaquepaque before driving down to the Lake. Heck, for us, Tlaquepaque was an industrial area out by the airport, not a charming village! Then they spent 4 days in a B&B in Ajijik itself, seeing the town and really getting a feel for it. Les and I drove through it a few times, and down into the village, before driving back to Guadalajara.
OK-Les and I fell in love with the Guadalajara historical district – so we really spent a lot of time there. And we didn’t really read up on Aijic in several different books on Mexico. I’d recomment Ken Luboff’’s ‘Living Abroad in Mexico’, which we didn’t quite get around to reading. Ken names names. Hotels he likes, friends he knows, restaurants he’d eat at. A good book that I started after we got back!
But the move will work out anyway. We’ll likely be in the Chapala area for several weeks before we find a place to rent. Plenty of time to explore.
The entrance to a very nice 12,000/month casita in San Miguel
I’ve always heard that San Miguel de Allende was the most beautiful spot in Mexico, and the place to retire to if you didn’t choose Lake Chapala. So I thought I’d check out rental prices there. I couldn’t find any in the $500-600month range, but there were some fairly nice ones in the $2400/month range, and at $10,000/month and more, they got downright nice.
With our budget, I think we’ll be living in Lake Chapala and visit San Miguel.
A $1000/month apartment
Here are some pictures and prices of places outside Chapala. As you can see, for the most part, you get more for your money outside the Ajijic area. San Nicolas is a small village just a few miles from Ajijic. F or the same price, I’d take the Hacienda in San Nicolas, even though it is outside of town.
$600 Upper Ajijjic
$600 in San Nicolas
Small $500 home in Ajijic
Another $500 house just outside Ajijic
Here are some pictures and prices of homes I found on the www.casamexicorealestate.com website.
Les and I are on a budget and don’t have the money to buy a house, so we will be renters. Even if we had the money, renting would be a good way to start until we were sure of where we wanted to live.
I wanted to get an idea of what our money would by, so I went online and found a real-estate agent in Ajijic who had several listings for houses to rent. http://www.casamexicorealestate.com. As we had read, houses did get more expensive the closer one was to Ajijic center. If we were willing to move to Chapala, or any of the villages around there, we could get quite a house for the same price as a much smaller one in Ajijic. We’d be further from the Norte Americano action, but at the same time, we’d be closer to true Mexican culture. That sounds like fun to both Les and I. More of an adventure.
