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Originally Posted by Luca
I would rather move to Mexico. My family has already considered moving to either Canada or Mexico a little bit this year, because they think it would be better to live in a simpler country that not everyone in the world hates. My mom is a freelance worker so she can work from just about anywhere, and my dad could probably get a job in Vancouver or Toronto. Also, our house has gained so much value and living is so cheap in Mexico that if we were to move there, they might even be able to go into semi-retirement.
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Canada is a
wonderful place. I love Vancouver and Victoria - British Columbia in general. But you really need to check on the draft thing wrt Canada. I doubt if it would matter if you lived there for a year or two. You'd still be prime material.
Wrt Mexico. My impression is that Mexico is not a very safe place. It is rife with kidnappings for ransom. Get in a cab, and you take a chance of being abducted - from what I've been reading in Newsweek over the last three years. In many cases, according to Newsweek articles, off-duty police officers and federales (federal police) were the ones doing the kidnappings!!! The Mexicans who have been kidnapped don't bother to report the crime, since if the police are involved, what's the point? So they handle the ransom themselves.
A few years ago I read that of the seven Mexican national banks, four were involved in money laundering for drug cartels.
Anyway, if I were your parents, I'd check out Costa Rica instead. I've been reading up on Costa Rica for a few years. Apparently they have a national literacy rate of 95% - which is probably *lots* better than that in the US. Their economy is quite stable. I'm not sure if the country is a transhipment point for drugs, but I don't think it is. I plan to go down there and check it out sometime in the next six or seven months. It would be great for me, because I already speak Spanish. (I lived in Mexico as a kid in 3rd-6th grades.)
I'd like to go down to CR and write books - sit on the porch (of a cottage overlooking the sea) with my sweet little 12" PB, listen to the gulls and the surf, feel the ocean breeze across my face.....and be able to afford to have someone *else* clean the cottage and wash the dishes. heh.
Luca, when I lived in Mexico as a kid, we had both a live-in cook and a chambermaid. A daily gardener and an ironing lady on Wednesdays. My mom spent all her time at the country club during the day, playing golf and bridge. My dad had a company plane that he flew up to his job site in the mountains. Living in an ex-pat community is quite exotic, really. My mom's good friend was a European countess! Once one has a taste of that kind of life, it inspires a lifetime's nostalgia. But when we were there, drugs weren't a problem; and that makes all the difference in the world!!!
Maybe there's an English-language newspaper in Guadalajara that would give some perspective on all this. Lots of retired Americans living there, I think. Maybe that paper has an online edition. If not, there must be an English online version of one of the big Mexico City newspapers. It would be worth it to check.
Carol