What do YOU do all day?

Here's a homey, intimate blog written by a woman who has retired to Merida recently. I've been getting out more a bit lately (the "season" is starting here, now that the weather has cooled down) and I've noticed a lot of new faces. There definitely seems to be more extranjeros in Merida than there were, say, last year. And this woman, Theresa, is apparently one of them. Unlike a lot of them, she is writing about it.

Why do people move here? There are a million reasons, but one of them has surely got to be because they can afford to. They can retire a little early (she and her husband are in their fifties, apparently) and can live a relaxed but culture-filled life in a city not so far away from family and friends. Housing is still affordable here. Where else can you find a liveable home for under $100K USD? And be somewhere with a symphony orchestra, museums, archaeological sites, Walmart, Costco, good hospitals and the Caribbean just three hours away? In a nutshell, that explains why more and more people like Theresa and her husband are retiring here. In mine and a lot of other people's opinions, its just the beginning.

Theresa hasn't been posting for very long, so our window onto her world is still a tiny one. She seems comfortable here, even though she hasn't been here long. She posts about everything from shopping (all those people who want to know what it costs to live here? Stay tuned... unlike me, she actually seems to remember what she paid for tomatoes...) to how to bargain with the vendors that come to the door. In fact, that bargaining lesson post was particularly charming... and useful too. Bargaining is not something I'm very good at, but I learned a few things I'm going to practice later.

For a slice of a life in Mexico, this blog shows some real promise. Theresa writes well and includes the kind of little details that are both interesting and useful to someone thinking of following in her footsteps.

Andale, Theresa!