Cindi and Lowell think about moving overseas

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging!  Lowell and I are living our first winter, 2010-11, in a tiny fishing village on the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan Penninsula, called Telchac Puerto.  Let me fill you in on the details that got us to this point.

Our adventure begins as we somehow got interested in living overseas for the winters, or perhaps full-time in retirement.  We had subscribed to International Living magazine, and had also seen interesting places on the HGTV program House Hunters International.  Then it was to the bookstores for more information about Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Mexico.  Some countries were more friendly to retired folks than others, and some were much easier to get to (driving, that is).

We saw the HGTV episode where someone bought a place in Merida, the large city in the Yucatan.  The colonial homes were so interesting, with high ceilings, pools and gardens located inside the homes, many interesting shops and restaurants to walk to and the lovely plazas, where the locals put on music and shows several nights a week.  We decided to plan a vacation to see it for ourselves.

We flew into Cancun the first week of May for a 10 day trip.  We rented a car at the Cancun airport area and drove 3.5 hours on the toll road over to Merida, where we spent the first half of the trip.  We stayed at the Luz en Yucatan, a guesthouse located right downtown (Centro).  Their website is an adventure in itself...check it out  www.luzenyucatan.com   This was a great location for exploring by foot, as it is not that easy to drive in colonial Merida.  The architecture from the 1600's is beautiful to see.  I highly recommend staying at the Luz when you plan a trip to Merida.

The second half of our trip we stayed at Hotel Yakuna in Progreso, which is the port town 30 minutes north of Merida.  Yakuna was also a charming place, and an easy walk to the beach and the Malecon, which is the "boardwalk" at the beach.  We enjoyed eating ceviche,  which is fresh fish marinated (cooked) in lime juice, mixed with tomatoes, cilantro and onion.


I had done a lot of research online beforehand, including many real estate websites.  I found a local realtor who spoke good English, and had good reviews, and contacted him by e-mail. While staying at Yakuna, he met us at the hotel one day and drove us to see several homes.  Some of the I'd picked out and requested, others he showed us in the general price range.  Most of the homes were in the Chelem area, just west of Progreso, where a lot of Americans and Canadians are buying homes.  

The house we wanted to see the most was in Telchac, which is east of Progreso about 1/2 hour, so the next morning Jorge (our realtor) drove us out there.  It was a cute yellow house with white trim, a swimming pool located in the middle of the home open to the sky, and several coconut trees out back in the sandy yard.

This was the one!  We decided to think it over after arriving back in Virginia.

While on this trip, we managed to find time to visit one of the Mayan ruins, Uxmal.  It was a very hot day, but fascinating to see the ruin.  We also stopped by a place to swim in a cenote,  which is an underground fresh water pool.  

 We drove back to Cancun, staying at the Marriott on the beach, before flying back to Virginia the next morning.  Back to work and thinking about whether to buy this little casa in Mexico!