5/23/25

Life in Glamorous Chapala Mexico

So what's the most important thing that happened for DJ once we moved to Mexico? Trying Mexican Coke, of course. We're both Dr Pepper fans at heart - like all the cool people. At home, we never drank Coke, going with Sprite or Orange or even Root Beer if Dr Pepper wasn't available. But I told DJ Mexican Coke is way better than U.S. coke, so first oppt'y we had, we each got a bottle with lunch and he agreed it's way better - and we've each had a few since we've been here (partly out of fear of ordering water).

He also had his first experience using a bottle opener - as they use more glass here. Altho it took a little doing, he was enormously pleased with himself after getting his bottle open and insisted on doing mine.

Arriving in Chapala was a bit of an adventure. We got a taxi at the airport in Guadalajara, and while dude was confident in his ablity to get down here (Chapala is about 40 miles south of Guadalajara - Mexico's 2nd largest city), he wasn't quite that familiar with the town itself and we wandered for quite awhile around town, before I could finally get him to understand our rental place was at the top of the hill - so then LOTS of wandering around there, trying to find the short street we're on (Calle 4 Milpas). Locals were very friendly and helpful, and after much back and forth we arrived.


We both really like the place. Very good size. Click HERE to see it - and it's even nicer than than the pics. Only weird thing is bathroom is only accessible through my/main bedroom. But it's good size, on top of the hill which is good in the sense we get nice breezes, but bad in the sense it's a pretty serious hill so while walks down to town are okay, the trudge back up is a bear - but it's only about 5 (down) to 10 (up) minutes so we get some good exercise.

The population of the Chapala metro area is around 50K - which includes neighboring Ajijic - and is the largest of the little towns that dot the shoreline of Lake Chapala (Mexico's largest freshwater later, but let's put fresh in quotes since too much crap is dumped in the lake to make it potable or swimmable, alas). My geography was off and I thought Guadalajara/Chapala were south of Mexico City and more central. It is not.  Lol

One down side to our digs is the barking dogs. I'm sure I'll be talking about this more as I'm blown away by how many fucking dogs bark their fucking heads off here all the fucking time. Lol  Apparently this is kind of a "thing" in Latin America and is definitely a big CON for moving here unless I'm able to land a place with no neighboring dogs. But good luck with that as there are a lot of dogs here. On the plus side, the roamers are all friendly and not aggressive - a welcome change from the mean Balkan dogs in Montenegro.

Along with dogs, though, there's a fair number of horses in our neighborhood, which tickles DJ (and me, honestly). Probably will take the little monster for his first horeseback ride at some point while we're here as there's a place in Ajijic that rents tame ones.

Final interesting thing about the place we're staying. Until about 20 years ago, there were very few, mostly hovels, up here on the hill. But the influx of gringos and moneyed folks vacationing at the Lake opened up this hill to development and lots of new/nicer places are being built (like ours). Bonus: they found the hill sits on volcanic springs which means more/fresher water, and they also built more modern plumbing so none of that 3rd world scourge of not being able to flush your toilet paper (yay!). So we CAN drink the water up here - but we don't due to all the volcanic minerals in it. But it's definitely fine for washing, brushing your teeth, cooking, etc.  

But you can tell when the reservoir in the hill gets low and refills from the volcanic spring as sometimes the water will come out hot if the reservoir has just recently re-filled.

While it's ear;y days, I still can't imagine ending up here permanently. Our first three stops on my retirement scouting tour are being done in reverse order of my initial thinking on preference. I figure I'll like Oaxaca more because of it being more urban/more stuff to do, and I'll like Quito even more due to weather. We'll see!

5/14/25

Why I'm in Mexico

So a lot of people think/assume I've left the states coz of IT (Krasnov). And while I'd love to ride that noble high horse, I actually put this current adventure/plan into motion some months BEFORE the election - and when I actually was dumb enough to think Americans would make the right choice.  

As most of you know, I ended my Peace Corps service early to come back to the states and adopt my little monster. But I made sure he knew that as soon as that was official, we'd be taking off for me to explore where I want to retire. In fact, the main reason I had selected Montenegro for my PC service was to explore it/the Balkans as a possible retirement option. Decision: No. While I enjoyed Montenegro, and it's a VERY beautiful country, well located, etc., it gets too hot in the summer AND any of the cities I'd consider retiring in - specifically coastal cities like Bar or Kotor - are already getting too expensive.

I did make a sojoun around the Balkans the month before I left, seeing Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia - and while I MAY go back to further "analyze" some, I have at least so far dismissed them all: Slovenia - specifically Ljubljana (which I still can't spell) - was my favorite. Charming town center closed off to autos, interesting history, great architecture, people seemed cool, etc. But, alas, others are getting the same idea and the city will be priced out of my retirement savings/reliance on SSI. I would consider living with someone, but even then I'm worried it's too hot for me in the summer.

Croatia has plusses, but too toursity and expensive and hot.  I did like Belgrade, but personally find the Serbians off-putting/arrogant/uber-nationalistitc. Bosnia has some VERY cool towns, and is quite affordable, but again the heat in the summer and much of th country still bears very large/depressing scars from the war.

So after finalizing DJ's adoption, I've whisked him away to be a nomad online learner while helping me evalutae a landing place for retirement. I don't think Mexico will be it, but I feel compelled to at least check it out due to proximity to the states, same time zones, inexpensive, etc.  But I'm guessing the summer weather will nix it (if you haven't guessed yet, weather is my #1 consideration in choosing - followed closely by cost of living).

We're spending 3 months in Chapala and then 3 in Oaxaca (U.S. citizens can stay 6 months in Mexico on your passport), before heading to Ecuador for three months. From there, we're headed to Europe where we'll spend about 4 years bouncing around the different countries I'm considering there. 3 months in each place, due mostly to visa restrictions. But I did learn in Peace Corps that 3 months is a good amount of time to really get to know a place.

Finally, I know a lot of folks seem to think I'm rich for being able to do this and/or that I'm reitring early. I wish! To both! I am still working - TRYING to get more work as a travel agent, and also doing online remote work (and looking for more). I am the opposite of rich and another reason I am doing this is because it's CHEAPER to live overseas.  From a quick analyses, it looks like our living expenses will be around HALF of what they were in Oklahoma (a notoriously cheap place to live coz you get what you pay for) - so I actually can't afford to NOT live abroad.  And thanks to miles/points I've saved up and travel agent perks, the travel side is free or very cheap (e.g., free repositioning cruise on Princess of 25 days will get us from S. America to Europe).

I've posted my itinerary in multiple places on Facebook, but if you're interested in checking it out - and/or meeting up someplace along the way (that'd be awesome) - here it is. Set in stone pretty much until we land in Europe, and can be fleixible then if folks are interested in meeting in a particular country during a particular time:

May - Oct. '25 - Mexico (2-3 months in Chapala and then 3 months in Oaxaca - we'll be there for Day of the Dead! Yay!)
Nov. ' 25 - Jan ' 26 - Ecuador (Quito)
Feb ' 26 - repositioning cruise from Buenos Aires to Rome. 25 days! and after a couple days in Rome, it's off to:
Mar - May ' 26 - (S) Portugal (Porto)
Jun - Aug '26 - Ireland or Scotland or Wales
Sep - Nov '26 - (S) Spain - probably Valencia
Dec. '26 - Feb. '27 - Morocco
Mar - May '27 - (S) Bulgaria
Jun - Aug. '27 - Macedonia/other Balkan state
Sep. - Nov. ' 27 - (S) Romania
Dec ' 27 - Feb. '28 - Georgia (this could be longer and thus push everything else back as you can stay in Georgia up to 1 year on a U.S. passport)
Mar - May - '28 - (S) Estonia
Jun - Aug. '28 - Ireland/Scotland/Wales
Sep. - Nov. '28 - (S) Poland
Dec. '28 - Feb. '29 - Croatia/Bosnia/Montenegro/Albania
Mar - May '29 - Another city in Spain or back to another Shengen country I really liked to explore more or try another city.
By this point, DJ will be almost 18 and depending on a variety of things, we may then head to SE Asia and bounce around for a year or so to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and who knows where else.
So make your plans now to join up or meet us somewhere along the way! Or if you are interested in any of those places, let me know anything in particular you'd like me to pay attention to there.