Its been a couple of weeks since we returned from Mexico. Overall I have to say it was a great experience and I could definitely see myself living their in the near future. The people were nice and the pace of life is something that we all talk about when we “retire.” My viewpoint has always been..why wait?! Go and Do while you can still appreciate it.

The only negatives dealt mostly with the infrastruture of many Mexican cities. Poor drinking water and power outages were the main 2 concerns. But after speaking to a couple of expatriated Americans and 1 Candadian, I am confident that these problems aren’t a deal breaker.

I highly suggest visiting Mexico and avoiding the over Americanized spots like Cancun or Cabo San Lucas. Cities like Mazatlan and La Paz give you a real taste of life and offer the opportunity to truly get away from it all. Walking along the malecon, enjoying a chicken taco at sidewalk stand or visiting one of the many beautiful beaches (which are not overrun with people) are just a few of the daily activities you can enjoy with out much or any effort on your part.

Gail and I are already thinking/planning our next move which will get us closer to a Mexican residence.

So finally we are at our last stop. When we planned this trip I told Gail that I wanted our last location to be relaxing. So we have a condo on the beach with a pool. Since this is the off-season we practically have the condo complex to ourselves. No schedule, no bus rides, no excursions…just the pool and the beach and good food.  :)

Most people are familiar with Cabo San Lucas but not with San Jose del Cabo which is about 20 mins away. It has about 40,000 people and none of the tourist overload of San Lucas.  There’s plenty of surfing and nice wide beaches. 

We leave early Sat. morning..so we have 1 last day of fun before it’s back to flooding in DC, traffic and reality. :( 

therealitycheck asked: Would you rather see a movie at the theater or at home on DVD? Why?

Theater because you can’t beat the big screen effect. It totally helps to suck you into the movie.

We rented a car from the property manager because we were planning to go check out the town of La Ventana which is about 25 mins south of La Paz. Armed with 2 maps you wouldn’t think it would be that difficult.  We hopped in the car, a Volkswagen, which was also a stick shift. I drive stick but hadn’t done it in several…make that about 5 years. Added to that was my apprehensiveness about driving in Mexico after witnessing the locals treating 4 way stop signs as a suggestion that could be taken or ignored.  So we took the main road outta town and were looking for another major road which intersected that road. After driving about 15 minutes, we realized that something was wrong because we passed the cities university which clearly meant we had gone too far. So we turned around and  looking desperately for a road sign which would point the way. No luck! So then using the process of elimination and a little logic we took the only “major” road we saw that fit the criteria. Now after about 20-25 minutes on this road, we can to another intersection that was/wasn’t indicated on the map.  After another 5 minutes that road ended in the desert! So turn around go back to the last intersection and follow that road.  10 minutes later we ended at an all too familiar site. The ocean! We were about 15 mins NORTH of La Paz.  Reminder: The town we were trying to find was about 25 mins SOUTH of La Paz!  

We had planned to possibly spend the 2nd half of our day at the beach so instead of trying to find the town again we headed North along the coast to Playa El Tecolote. We had a great time sitting on the beach having lunch and drinks. 

Todos Santos

La Paz Centro - part 2