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.

Right in my Own Backyard

Jim Conrad is a self-proclaimed naturalist who lives in the Yucatan in the winter months, and god-knows-where-else the rest of the year. According to his blog, he has been summering in Chiapas lately... but ni modo. The point is, Jim Conrad has a website and its a good one. What makes it good? It is unique and full of real information, the kind of thing that makes you bless the Internet.

The website is divided into four categories: Animals, Plants, Coast Wetland and Ecology of the Northern Peninsula.

What is a naturalist, anyway? Well, one definition would be someone who appreciates nature. And certainly, Jim fits in that category. His Animal section includes a subsection on Birds of the Yucatan. Over 20 birds are listed, each with their own page and their own story. What to know what's in that tree making that strange sound? Check out his list.

The Plant section is good, but left me wanting more. The horticultural plant section gives you photos and Latin names, but no information about care and growth patterns. The wild plants section is a little more interesting, with information about some strange trees and flowers that you might see growing during your Yucatan travels. Its a good reference if you are curious about that sort of thing. I found a link to www.ceiba.org, a whole website about Ceiba trees (we have one planted in our backyard... its the sacred tree of the Mayan, dontcha know). Great find! Did you know there are ten species of ceiba trees and that they are related to the baobab tree in Africa? Neither did I!

The Coastal Wetlands section explains the animals, fish and shellfish of the northern coast of the Yucatan, a very different ecosystem from the inland areas. These include such creatively named animals as Checkered Puffers and Turkey Wings. Fun!

Lastly, the ecology of the Northern Yucatan section talks about weather and climate. There's a section on hurricanes, on geology and on some of the smaller ecosystems.

OK, it's not terrifically well organized, but we forgive him. There's a lot of great information there and its not that hard to find. Jim Conrad seems to update the website fairly regularly, but the nice thing is that this information doesn't get old. A ceiba tree is a ceiba tree... and a magnificent one at that.

If you love the Yucatan, and you love nature, you'll love this website.

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!