Part 1 - A Move to Lake Chapala

  

A dear friend recently completed her move to Mexico.  She has graciously allowed me to post her experiences here in various episodes, beginning with this introduction.  She seems to be well settled and is learning about her new surroundings.  Her first big acquisition has been a new mexican puppy, pictured below.  Knowing of her love for dogs (in the twenty some years I have known her she has always had one) I am sure this puppy will be another pampered expat adoption.  I wish her the best.

  

 

MY JOURNEY TO MEXICO 

VIVA MEXICO!!!
For a number of years I lived and worked on an island north of Seattle.  When I began to look into retirement options it was clear I needed to find a new place to be.  It was around October of 2007 that I started thinking about moving to Mexico.  Mexico had been on my mind, remembering the experiences I had when I was younger.  I had traveled there with my mother a few times visiting Acapulco, Mexico City and Cuernavaca.  About 10 years ago I spent time in Barra de Navidad; I enjoyed it but decided against it as a place to relocate to since I am not really a coast person.  So it was time to Google.  What would we all do without Google?  I “Googled” least expensive places to live in Mexico and the Lake Chapala area was a place that came up.  It appealed to me for various reasons.  The climate is wonderful and since it is only about 40 miles south of Guadalajara it is easy to get back and forth to the states.  Lakeside, as it is referred to, has a large expat community which can be good and bad.  I will comment more on that later.
I decided to go on an exploratory trip and found a wonderful American couple in Ajijic from whom I rented a lovely one bedroom casita for a month in March 2008.  I couldn’t have made a better choice.  They introduced me to a number of their friends.  They steered me to an investment firm, Multivalores, where I set up an  account.  They introduced me to their insurance person where I made arrangements to get my Mexican auto insurance and they sent me to an attorney where I asked questions about getting an FM3 visa. 
I went there with open eyes and tried not to look at the community with rose colored glasses.  Yes, there was garbage in the streets and there were mangy dogs running loose.  I learned the meaning of manana, which only means “not today!”  The area chose me.  I didn’t choose it!
I had been emailing a woman who lives in one of the smaller villages, San Antonio Tlayacapan.  We finally made connection and met for lunch and talked for hours.  She was very helpful, telling me of her experiences for the last 10 years.  She shared with me the “pros” and “cons” of Mexican living.  Before we parted ways she told me her neighbor might have a casita for rent.  I called the woman the next day and she took me to the casita.  I fell in love with it and asked her to draw up a year’s lease.  The 2 bedroom casita was furnished so I knew that would save some of the cost of shipping goods from the states to my new home.  Everything fell into place so I knew this was where I was supposed to be.
I will be posting my journey here at Beto’s Rambunctious Rambles, so please look forward to my further experiences.
As Joseph Campbell once said, “follow our bliss”!