Expatriate Services

Well, it's been forever since I've written in this blog, but I am inclined to pick it up again now in 2010. I'll keep it short, but informational... there's a lot to talk about.

Let's start with this website, a sign of things happening and things to come.

More and more gringos are moving to Mexico... if you're one of them and moving to the Yucatan, you'll want to know about these fine people. A group of educated, intelligent, bilingual and well-connected Yucatecans that have formed a company to provide services to people moving here or owning property here or starting a business here. They've been providing this service to large corporations for a few years... now they are branching out to help the little people. Good for them and good for us!!

The accounting firm affiliated with YES (that's the acronym for Yucatan Expatriate Services) is the oldest and most respected in Merida. The law firm is headed up by a fine young lawyer who got his degree from Yale and worked in NYC for awhile afterwards. The project managers are all experienced women (at the moment they are all women...) who are efficient, effective and good at what they do.

Yucatan Expatriate Services ... YES!

Find their website at http://www.yucatanyes.com

OH, and one more thing. We've edited four (to date... more coming) Expat Guides that they have written. You can download the guides from their website. Each one is amazingly comprehensive... chock full of information on the particular subject. I've lived here for eight years and I was amazed at how much I learned from editing the Employment Guide, for example. There's also a Personal Finance Guide, Personal Insurance Guide and an Immigration Guide. I'm working on the Personal Healthcare Guide now... to be published this month.

If you are in the market for this kind of service or information, this is an awesome website and service to know about.

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!

San Felipe Mexico

On the other side of the country from where I live is San Felipe. But thanks to the Internet and a dedicated woman who goes by the name of Kat, I can find out all about it from the comfort of my own home at midnite in bed! Ah, the wonders of the 21st Century!

I've never been to San Felipe, but it's not far from my original home of California and it seems like a place I'd like to know more about... because, as you all know, I'm interested in just about anything having to do with Mexico. This website, which bills itself as the official town website, has a lot of good information on this small but growing town on the edge of the Sea of Cortez.

The website has the usual suspects of departments: Weather, News, a Photo Gallery... It has an entire page about Fishing, which gives you a clue about the nature of the place. If you click on "About San Felipe", you'll find a good concise synopsis about the place, and you'll find out that San Felipe is humid in the summertime, is a big fishing village and was founded as a commercial fishing port in 1916. As Mexican cities go, it isn't very old.

So you don't go to San Felipe for charming Mexican architecture and indigenous culture. What do you go for then? Well, sea views, apparently. Dry warm climate in the wintertime. And did we mention fishing? According to this website, about 250,000 Americans and Canadians come to San Felipe in the wintertime for the warm weather (and the fishing...). That is a very large community for a small town with only 25,000 year-round residents. Apparently, there is a lot of RV activity there, as it is only 125 miles south of the US border.

I learned something else that was interesting. Unlike many seaside communities, San Felipe does not discharge its wastewater into the sea, recognizing that its livelihood comes from tourism and yes, fishing. They have a water treatment plant in the desert and individual septic systems for those houses outside of the city limits. Sounds intelligent and thoughtful to me... I like the place already.

For the personal touch and a personal view of the town, click on the tab labeled "Kat's Korner" and get the inside scoop. Right now, Kat is out of town waiting for her daughter to deliver her first grandchild. That's pretty personal, but that's the kind of writing that makes this website a good resource. Even if you don't like to fish!!

Enjoy...

Laying Mexico Bare

Jeremy Schwartz moved to Mexico City with his wife less than a year ago. He is Cox Newspapers man with his ear to the ground in Mexico City. His blog is published on the Austin newspaper website, www.statesman.com.

I like Jeremy's writing style... it is spare and to the point. He doesn't romanticize or poeticize (is that a word?). He's all about facts, insights and the kinds of things you hear over coffee or a drink. He gives you an idea what is being talked about on the streets of Mexico City.

He also communicates, though seldom overtly, what it is like being a young professional expat in Mexico City.

Today's short blurb was a brief look at a few of the slew of books coming out this week about last year's Presidential election in Mexico. Over the last few months he has covered the President of Mexico's activities, the experience of shopping for shoes in Mexico, rich and poor at the movie theatres and Mexico City rainstorms. And everything in between.

He doesn't write every day, and when he writes something, its interesting and not too long and complicated. A nugget of information for busy minds in a busy world.

About Mexico.

In English.