Perhaps there’s no day that I dread more as a part-time expat than moving day, that day I put my personal things into storage in order to enable someone to live in my Denver apartment while I’m in Mexico.

At the last storage facility I used, chosen for its close proximity to my apartment, a man appeared to be living out of one of the units. Since he did rent it, he had the right to access the premises. He would use the bathroom, sometimes hide in there out of Denver’s cold and seemed to come in off-and-on throughout the day for several weeks until management put an end to it.

While I never feared for my safety (and maybe I should have), the storage building was within an office building, and the units created a lot of blind corners. I was always scared that he would unexpectedly pop out in front of me in the practically empty facility.

Someone once wrote that the people you encounter in storage facilities are people either on the way up or on the way down.

Often they are desolate places where hoarders extend their domain. Many a time I’ve glanced into an open unit and thought why in the world would someone pay to store that?

So imagine my excitement when I found a new company, Closet Box, that comes and picks up your boxes for you and then re-delivers them back to you for roughly the same price as doing it yourself.

Very excited indeed. The company has services in 27 cities, precisely the places where the cost of living might encourage people to consider a part-time expat life. For me, the service isn’t just a logistical life-saver, it’s an emotional one.

With Closet Box, I can avoid that whole depressing, occasionally even a bit threatening, storage facility experience.

Typically people want their storage units reasonably close to where they live. You may or may not find a well-lit, clean, well-managed facility with units available nearby.

Another factor for the part-time expat is that once a year, especially if you’re of the weaker sex, you have to ask a friend with a SUV to help you move, not the once or twice in a lifetime as in a normal friendship, but once a year.  Closet Box enables me so save those valuable friend chits for real emergencies.

Closet Box charged me a flat rate of $87 a month for a 5” x 5” high-ceiling locker, which was plenty large for my 17 medium-size boxes,  and one monstrous box of skis and a bicycle. They didn’t tack on any the extra charges like administration fees, insurance, and buying their lock that many storage companies hit you with after pulling you in with a low monthly rate.

I even received a coupon for $50 off the first month, then $25 for a well-deserved Yelp review. Their $87 rate was one dollar less than I paid last year for a facility that on several occasions left me and the Lucky Chosen One outside screaming into an intercom in twenty-degree weather while we waited for a remote employee to buzz us into the property.

After arranging the time to pick-up my boxes, Closet Box emailed me several times to re-confirm the time. On that morning, two cheerful people arrived at my door and whisked away my boxes ("Take then away, Jeeves!), including the eight-foot long box of skis.

Thereby saving what's already a bitter-sweet day and relieving me of that homeless feeling I always get when I have to go to a bleak storage facility and say goodbye to every physical artifact that demonstrates I ever existed.

Closet Box doesn’t own their own storage building. They work with other companies and use their available spaces.  Should I unexpectedly need to retrieve something from storage before the predetermined date, I do have an address of the storage unit where my things are being kept. Or I could simply call them they bring my stuff back to me (for an extra charge, understandably).

Now and then a new company offers a service that’s too-good-to-be-true, like when Pandora internet radio first started and had no advertising, just straight music. People went crazy for it and within a year or two even doctors’ offices were piping in Pandora.

The first few years of a company are the best days to be a customer. Customer service people are bubbling over with enthusiasm to be part of something new. Unexpected costs of doing business have not yet been tabulated and passed on to the customer.

People must not have yet taken costly advantage of the company’s dewy faith that their customers, people on their way up or on their way down, are going to be reasonable, reliable people who have everything ready on time in well-labeled boxes ready to be parted with until a predetermined date.

I will admit to you right now that I am soliciting the company to advertise on this site for them. Not too many products so uniquely match the needs of a part-time expat, the only products I’d consider advertising for.

These are the customer salad days of Closet Box. Take advantage of them while you can.

Related Links: Top tips for how to sublet or rent your current Canadians or U.S. home for a worry-free expat life. - Ventanas Mexico

The surprising things you need for a long-term versus a vacation stay. - Ventanas Mexico

Most recent: These are some of the sexiest songs in the Spanish language. Don't miss out.

About the author of this blog:  Hi, I'm Kerry Baker, now author of two books, "The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online. (Check out the reviews!) and last week released, "If Only I Had A Place," the guide on how to rent in Mexico that I wish I would have had when I was first considering part-time expat life.  

There’s a story that I love to tell and looked forward to writing about someday.

As a preface to a list of the sexiest songs in Spanish, I decided today’s the day since the story is related to the performance art known as dating.

(If you want to skip the story and go straight to the playlist I made, head to the next page.)

For the rest of you, now the story. It’s a good one, and short.

A number of years ago, newly divorced, I decided to go on Match.com, the dating site.

In what might be the most flattering thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life, someone got so taken by my profile (which didn’t yet have a picture) that he subtly changed his own profile to better “match” mine, adding things like his love of cycling and passion for the English language, which I also had alluded to in my profile.

Other than adding five years to his real age so I wouldn’t consider him too young, he didn’t lie. He only added or emphasized the things we had in common.

To indicate an interest on Match.com without a lot of time invested, you send a person a “wink.” His unusual strategy of modifying his profile was part of his online dating philosophy, which was never to wink a woman: Make her wink you (and have a great picture, even if it takes 1000 shots to get it.) His idea was to make himself irresistible to me.

Sure enough, I winked him. He was my first and only date from Match.com and we dated for six wild years. I had no recollection of his profile prior to the one with the changes he’d made.

When he confessed the individualized online strategy he’d used, I told him how shocked and creeped-out I was. He countered with a bit of hilarious wisdom that I’ll never forget.

He told me that my sudden response to his revised profile, one that mirrored so many of my own interests, after not having noticed him for months only indicated that I didn’t want to date him. I wanted to date me. In fact, I couldn’t resist me.

How true. How many times, especially after some time together, have you wished your significant other could be more... like you?

It was an obvious yet brilliant insight and a lesson that has come in handy on my nights alone. If we don’t have a choice, at least we should try to be our own best date - since that's kind of what we want anyway.

Since then, my dates with me have usually included carefully-prepared food, wine, and this music (and low lighting, just like on real dates).

This playlist was put together to get you in the mood, should you find yourself on a date with you, especially the sexy, fun you. Of course, if you happen to have a real date, all the better.

Compiling the list, with a few notes about the music, is my way of celebrating the completion of my new book, “If Only I Had a Place,” about renting luxuriously in Mexico. I hope you will like both the book, released on Amazon and the playlist as follows.

The Playlist

Imagine if you’d been in a coma for 30 years and got to hear all the best music from those years for the first time. That is what it was like for me when I started listening to music in Spanish.

This playlist includes some of the most popular songs in Spanish from a variety of countries.

So that you don’t  have to take my word for it, I have included the number of YouTube visits each song has received to date, which should give you an indication of their overall huge-ness (and their overall hotness in some cases).

Don’t let the Spanish discourage you from checking this list out. The songs stand on their own. Whether you know the words or not, I think you’ll know a good song when you hear one (After all, 80 million people on YouTube can't be wrong, right?). Don’t resist. Just let the songs soak in.

Anyway, you only need to know one thing about songs in Spanish. They are about just two things: love and dancing.

For those of you who lean toward female singers, I apologize that a majority of the songs are by men (but that’s who I like singing to me).

Duele El Corazón  (My Heart Hurts) by Enrique Iglesias (636,924,451 hits). If you like “Work” by Rihanna ft Drake (874,831,799 hits), this should appeal to you. Needing a little help with Spanish indirect pronouns and reflexive verbs? This is the song for you, as illustrated by the refrain.

Si te vas, yo también me voy (if you go, so do I)

Si me das, yo también te doy (if you give to me, I’ll give to you), Amor

Alternative: The song “Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias ft. Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona is another huge hit with (brace yourself) 2,099,203,287 hits on Youtube. Enrique Iglesias adds the rock and Gente de Zona the reggaeton beat.

La Celula Que Explota (The Cell Explodes) by Caifanes (33,375,925 hits) is a Mexican band (1987) that probably comes in second only to Maná in popularity in Mexico. If you like the operatic voice of Roy Orbison, you will appreciate the paralyzing vocals of Saúl Hernández in this song. 

Ahí Estás Tu - (You're There) Remember slow-dancing to Sade? A Spanish friend with much more sophisticated taste turned me onto Chambao, a band that carries a Flamenco-electronic sound (called “Flamenco-chill”) led by Maria del Mar Rodrieguez Carmero. If your tastes run toward female vocalists, you should also try the popular band La Oreja De Van Gogh, also from Spain, and the song “Rosas.”

Amores Lejanos  (Distant Lovers) (31,728,618 hits) by Emanitos Verdes is by another late 80’s band, this one from Argentina. Along with the song “Amores Lejanos,” you should also give a listen to the song “Guitarras Blancas”, a party song with the refrain (roughly translated, “Please, just let us dance!”) If you plug the song into Pandora, you will get the fun live version, with the whole stadium  singing, as is the custom at concerts in Latin America. Think maybe The Police?

De Música Ligera  (About Light Music) by Soda Stereo (101,940,989 hits) is a solidly alternative band (1990) and this song is considered a hymn of Latin rock. The way people in Mexico still listen to Soda Stereo, you’d think the band was new, when actually the lead singer, Gustavo Cerati left us in 2011 after a coma rumored to have been induced by an overdose of Viagra. His song “Lago del Cielo” was the first song in Spanish I fell in love with, or maybe it was that little bit of Duran Duran I heard in it.

Es Por Ti - (It's for You) the way Colombian Juanes opens this song makes it the sexiest one on the list. An easy song to sing, save this one (45,288,819 hits) for when want to serenade yourself or someone else you love.  If that’s too sweet for you, try “A Dios Le Pido,” slightly more popular (but not near as romantic) song.

El Duelo - (The Hurt) by Chilean band La Ley (120,659,479 hits), was released in 2001. The absolute best way to hear this song is by seeing and hearing the MTV video version (45,975,102 hits vs. 11,706,519 hits for the official version) which includes an astonishing duet with Mexican female vocalist Ely Guerra.  The album was the Latin Grammy Award Record of the Year and Best Rock Song of the year.

Mariposa Traicionera by Maná -  (Traitor Butterfly - 138, 794,820 hits) Practice rolling your Spanish  “r”s with the second stanza, “Yo soy un ratón en tu ratonera” (I’m a mouse in your mousetrap) in a song that Mexicans know every single word to, and aren’t afraid to prove it at any Maná concert.

With Maná being arguably Mexico’s top rock band, it was very hard to choose between this song and their hit “Muelle de San Blas” (69,514,430 hits), a beautiful song that tells the same story as the “Brandy” by Looking Glass (remember that?) of a woman who waited (and waited) for her man to return from the sea.

Another one I’d like to mention is Italian Gianluca Grignani who did “Mi Historia Entre Tus Dedos,” (roughly My Story in Your Hands - 98,129,349 hits) translated from Italian to Spanish (which I had the privilege of performing Karaoke-style with the 16-year-old daughter of a Mexican friend of mine at a New Year's Eve party - yes, it's that slow).

Hope you enjoy the list. I’m already planning the next one, “Music to Wake Up to in Mexico.”

Related Links:  My first blog about Spanish-language music and my own transition to it that began with Spanish crooner Miguel Bosé.

When you don't know Spanish, music can create the bond you're looking for when in other country.

Most recent:  A decades-old medical scam is alive and well in Mazatlán. This blog is a must-read for anyone heading to a Mexican resort town.

Kerry Baker

Hi, I am a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of two books. The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," which provides links and lesson plans to the best Spanish-learning tools online, organized into lesson plans. Check out the reviews here.  The book is supported by a book blog on this site.

The second book is "If Only I Had a Place," is my brand-new guide to renting luxuriously in Mexico for less, including a listing of rental concierges who know their towns inside and out.

Periodically, I hear stories of exotic entomological tales from travelers and residents of Mexico.  My friend Michael, a veteran of Mexico after many years of work there with a second home in Mazatlán, provides one here as a lesson to us all (Make sure to hold out for the ending...which illustrates a critical different between Mexican and American hospitals).

We have had a really great time here.  The weather has been perfect, warm sunny days and cool nights.  We made some more friends and have done lots of happy hours and listened to much live music.

However, I did have somewhat of a misadventure that I will relate to you now that I have your ear (or eyes, I guess).

On Monday I was on our rooftop about to have coffee.  I reached down to move a cushion and was stung by a tiny bee.  It hurt like a son of a bitch but I removed the stinger and figured it would continue to itch and burn for the day, which it did.  I was distracted however by beer, pescado sarandeado, surf and sunshine as we were on a field trip with Pepe to El Caimanero, a distant beach .

Not good

I went to bed and in the middle of the night I realized that I could barely bend my fingers because of the swelling.  

By morning my whole hand had started to swell.  It looked like some kind of hoof, no maybe a trotter.  I sent the photo below to Lorena and she said she was going to start calling me Pig Man.  Rude!

Worse yet, I had developed purple sores on my finger:

I decided it was time to go to the doctor so I went to the little hospital across the street.

The doctor examined me, removed his glasses and said, "I have bad news for you.  This problem is the result of the bee sting, but not the venom.  You have a condition called cellulitis.  

"That bee had a dirty stinger and when he pierced your skin he infected you with either staph or strep bacteria.  The infection has now spread up into your forearm.  That purple sore is the beginning of necrosis (skin tissue death)."  

"If you had come yesterday I might have been able to treat you with oral medication, but it's too late for that.  The infection is traveling in your bloodstream.  By this time tomorrow this infection will be in your shoulder and soon after that in your lymph glands.  

The necrosis can spread quickly, causing tissue damage that is irreversible.  This is very serious.  The only option now is immediate hospitalization and intravenous medication."

You can imagine my surprise.  But what could I do?  I was picturing what I might end up looking like if my skin started rotting.

So that's how I ended up spending the next 48 hours in a hospital bed attached by tubes to one of those tall racks with plastic sacks hanging from them being pumped full of what seemed like copious quantities of saline, ciproflaxin, and painkillers (though, alas, no opioids).

All's well that ends with a bottle of fine vodka in your hand

It was boring but not that bad.  The nurses were young and really cute (though they refused my requests for a sponge bath). I got lots of sympathy and attention, both of which I thrive on.

My wife brought me coffee in the morning and bowls of fresh watermelon.  I had visits from several groups of friends who even organized Happy Hour in my room.  (Mexican hospitals are very liberal about visitation)

Lessons learned:

Keep your stinger clean.  You never know what kind of disease you might spread. (This goes for bees and mammals as well)

Oh, and don't ignore a bug bite.

Related links

Mosquitoes are the more obvious carriers of diseases such as Chikungunya.

Other tips for nasty bug bits in Mexico

Most recent:  How to stage yourself for a transition to Mexico right by working remotely right now.

Coming up: The long-awaited "Sexiest Songs in Spanish" to celebrate the release of my new book on renting in Mexico and prove conclusively that I know nothing about marketing books.

Kerry Baker

Hi, I am a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of "The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," a curation of the best free online Spanish tools on the web, organized into lesson plans. I also just released, "If Only I Had a Place," about how to rent luxuriously in Mexico for less, and includes a list of rental concierges in the most popular expat towns in Mexico.
 

Earning a living while traveling or living in a more exotic location is the Holy Grail for a lot of people. Younger people want the adventure. The rest of us want to transition to a cheaper country now but still like to work.

If you move to Mexico, remote work is the absolute best way to go. It’s very difficult to work in Mexico legally and the pay is very low. People who can earn U.S. dollars while living in a less expensive country have the achieved the ultimate nomad dream.

Begin positioning yourself now

There are several proactive steps you can take to begin your crusade. One is learning something of the language - because you are there.  Another step is learning how to perform remotely by doing it in city you live in now for a few years before taking off for the jungle.

I remember how shocked I was 25 years ago when a colleague of mine asked our boss if he could work remotely several days a week. In that era, I had never even dreamed someone could work remotely. We had a highly interactive office with tons of meetings and face-time.

He was given permission. Why? Because the CEO had a huge amount of trust in him, based on years of high production and responsiveness to everyone he worked with.

You will need to develop that same track record if you are going to convince your current employer to let you work from home if it’s not the norm.  Working remotely is a privilege usually bestowed as a reward for exceptional work, not something granted to slackers. Professionals working remote have to work even harder and take special measures to retain the privilege.

Why you should begin by working remotely in your present city

By beginning your remote work domestically, you can understand the key differences (some of which you may not like) and how to deal with them. Working from another country has its own set of challenges on top of those every remote employee encounters.

It’s much easier to tackle issues specific to remote work in general before adding the complications of widely-flung time zones, finding reliable internet (your chief priority) and figuring out why your Google searches are coming up in Spanish (“Is it a Mexican website or has it been translated?”)

One of the best pieces of advice comes from the Time Doctor: turn in your work 24-48 hours ahead of a deadline to allow for time-zone and technical snafus. Deadlines are already stressful so this gives you and idea of how much harder you have to work at times.

With over 43% of people doing at least some work remotely, an explosion of articles has been written on how to overcome common obstacles like social isolation and how be successful as a remote employee.

The more used you are to engaging people online and in social media, the better you will adjust to remote work. According to CEOs of companies that hire a lot of remote employees, even though you don’t work together physically, you have to develop relationships with colleagues online that duplicate the dynamics of a site-based smoothly running team.

To work together yet remotely, you still need to know what makes your co-workers tick. You still need the empathy and cooperation that only comes from personal relationships with colleagues.

You may need to be creative in seeking out ways to develop those relationships. Remote co-workers in some of these companies do things like join virtual running groups and book clubs to take the place of lunches together and break-room socializing. You also need to develop a daily routine to stick with. Obviously, the discipline of a martial arts master helps.

By starting out only a day or two a week, you will get used to tools like Skype, Zoom, Join.me and Google Hangout to visit and schedule meetings  In addition to document sharing programs like Dropbox and Google Docs, sophisticated project management tools like Slack and Basecamp have been developed specifically for remote teams.

Remote work emphasizes accessibility and being a proactive problem-solver. You can’t walk to the next cubicle and get advice. Good writing skills are paramount since so much more of your communication is written.

Remote Work Has Taken Off

Clearly, the numbers of remote workers wouldn’t continue to rise just because employees prefer to work in their pajamas. It’s growing because of the benefits to employers who have figured the game out.  

Those who have mainly virtual offices have learned that managing a lot of remote employees is different. They recognize the unique qualities of a good remote employee and have cultures that emphasize transparency (sharing all emails),“over-communication,” and virtual relationship-building, in a way distinct to remote teams.  

You will be amazed how many companies hire remotely. Some remote jobs are graphic and web design, book-keeping, A/V production and copywriting. I know several computer programmers and I.T. professionals in here in Mazatlán.

A neighbor of mine is geology engineer who lives here with his son. “I can work anywhere,” he told me while muscling a shopping cart full of household goods in plastic bags into the elevator.

If you don’t work for a company that allows remote work, or the work simply cannot be done remotely, now is the time to start reading the blogs of those that do and learn what skills they need.

Even if you are in the final stages of your career, their blogs will open your world to what’s happening out there in the world of remote work. It’s pretty damn amazing and I’m pretty damn jealous of the way some younger people have it wired down.

If you can’t transfer your skills to remote work, you might want to try to try a part-time job on for size that requires less specialized or technical skill.

Can you tell a fairy tale? There is a high demand for people who are simply good with young children to teach English online to Chinese pre-schoolers (and we wonder why they’re taking over the world). General transcription jobs requires a little practice bringing your typing speed up, some headphones, a foot pedal and Microsoft Office.

Many websites have cropped up specializing in remote employment opportunities, like Remote.com, We Work Remotely and even the stand-by Indeed posts many.

Working Remotely Will Save You Money

Before you even make the move to a cheaper country, by working remotely you will save as much as $4,000-5,000 a year in car wear and tear alone.

If you add the money you save on car expenses, wardrobe and meals with what you could save by living and working from a cheaper country, you might add thousands of dollars more to your retirement savings.

I save at least a thousand dollars each month I live in Mexico, and that's living on the beach (I could save more but my friends won’t let me tamper with my wine budget). I save $2,000 a month if I count what owning a car used to cost. 

All this while picking up another language and spending week-ends exploring a rich, fascinating  culture. What more could you want?

Most recent: Coming up on my three-year anniversary, here are some of the things I've learned.

Coming up: You are bound to meet more people in Mexico with stories about exotic bug bites, like my friend's.

Kerry Baker

Hi, I am the author of "The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," a comprehensive guide to the best free language tools on the web, organized into lesson plans, and "If Only I Had a Place," a guide to renting in Mexico, smartly accessorized with a list of rental concierges in the most popular expat cities in Mexico. 

What I Have Learned by Living Part-Time in a Cheaper Country for Three Years

It was 2014. Pot had just been legalized in Colorado. Same-sex marriage had become legal in several states. and the Ebola virus hit American shores in New York. None of those things seem that long ago, do they?  How much can happen in three short years.

Since moving to Mexico  in August 2014, I’ve written a lot of blogs about the American and Mexican health care system, learning Spanish, building a social life in another culture and the more curious aspects of expat life in Mexico.

This three-year point seemed like a good time to think about where I was going with this blog in the first place, and what I hoped to achieve. 

There was nothing unusual about my circumstances in 2014 when I came to Mexico. Like many of us, I had the misfortune to lose my job in the Great Recession. After five years of looking, I got it through my thick, stubborn skull that I wasn't going to get my career back post 50.  

A whopping 49% of retirees leave the work force earlier than planned, according to Mark Miller in an excellent article in Reuters on how to adjust your plan if you've been involuntarily retired.

In addition, cities have become considerably more expensive. Would I be able to afford to stay in my beloved Denver, Colorado in my new under-employed circumstances?

If you have been forced into early retirement, you may be thinking of severing your ties and moving to a smaller, cheaper town. After all, it’s not a bad plan and has worked for plenty of people.

But do you really want to give up your city and the relationships you’ve established over the years? I didn’t. Thus began the Great Experiment.

Contrary to the mindset that when I moved to Mexico or a cheaper country, I would be leaving my life and friends behind, what I've found is that living part-time in a cheaper country will be what enables me to keep them: The money that I save living in Mexico part of the year has subsidized the higher cost of living in Denver. It's just math.

But it’s not just about the money I've stretched.  I will promise you that moving to another country rather than a cheaper neighborhood will make you grow as a person.  

Adapting to another culture will test how much your beliefs have calcified since you started working (You will be surprised). You will see yourself as others see you in a way you can’t when you share a language.

You may be pleasantly surprised. I was often appalled.  The graciousness of the Mexican people was like a a mirror and I didn't always like what I saw. 

Living in another country makes you just uncomfortable enough. When have you ever grown without a degree of discomfort? 

Now maybe you’re done growing. Maybe you are who you are. I hope not because if you don’t grow and change (hopefully for the better), you disappear. 

Another thing you learn with a two-country system, especially if that system includes a Latin American country is how to let go.

In the Buddhist religion, clinging and grasping are at the root of all of our suffering.  While he wasn't a Buddhist but rather a Baptist pastor, F.B. Meyers summed it up like this:

As long as the bird lingers by the nest, it will not know the luxury of flight. As long as the trembling boy holds to the bank, or toes the bottom, he will not learn the ecstasy of battling with the ocean wave.”

Denver

It’s not always easy to let go. I have to confess that it’s difficult to leave Mexico, and in turn it’s difficult to leave the U.S.  

Each pending departure makes you look at the things and people you love in a whole new way. Your social calendar jams up in the last month as you and your friends try to spend extra together.

You might see them more in the weeks before you leave than you did in six months before you adopted this lifestyle. We all want to spend more time with our friends. You will ask yourself, “Why can’t it always be like this!”

The weeks before your departure is when the guy (or girl) you’ve been working-out next to for months at the gym decides it’s time to start a conversation. It’s when the band you’ve always wanted to see finally comes to town (ironically for me, it was Maná, a Mexican band).

Of course, moving to another country, even part-time, is for the select few. According to H.P. Lovecraft, the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown.

The only solution to any kind of fear is knowledge.  If the idea of a two-country life does intrigue you, as you do the research you can be comforted by the fact that at least a million American expats live in Mexico alone.  Most of them are probably over 50.  That doesn’t include all the part-timers and snowbirds.

Their old life in the U.S. often seems just as unreal to them as expat life may seem to you now.

Mexico

This blog has never been about abandoning your current life completely though.

For one thing, I’ve never done that, and I've always promised you only first-hand accounts (or damn close). Not that full-time expat life isn't something to consider if you're really fed up.

In the meantime, my personal experience is that you can build two equally satisfying and far less routine lives for less money than it takes to have one (I live on between $25,000-$30,000 a year, splitting my time between my apartment in the nicest neighborhood in Denver and the various places on the ocean I rent when I’m in Mexico).

The information to get your feet wet is all here in these blogs. Whether or not you ever buy a book or a product, there is ample advice to get you started, written by someone who's doing it.  Aside from the more introspective blogs, here you will find out about

• The best practices in subletting your apartment or renting your home worry-free,
• How car-sharing services make a lot of sense when you live part-time in the U.S.
• Why even a little Spanish saves you money and maximizes the expat experience
• How much you save on entertainment, dining, pampering, and food
• Why you should be worried (very) about the American healthcare system and how Mexico’s compares
• Videos of different styles of living in Mexico, from mobile homes to funky expat complexes.
• How to cut your phone expense by 60% and other technical challenges

 ...along with some fun stuff like music, ridiculous language exchanges (including Canadian, who sometimes seem to outnumber Mexicans in Mexico) and cultural insights.

You will see that far from what you read, Mexico is very safe, especially for expats.

Thanks for your interest in my journey, I hope it inspires yours.

 Drop me a line if there’s anything in particular you’d like to know.

P.S. I have written a few blogs about renting, and released  If Only I Had a Place. Register to be sent notification of its  .99 promotion period.

Related Link:  The retirement crisis for Baby Boomers is real, as discussed by the Star Tribune.

Most recent:  Websites administered in Spain offer some of the best free tools, especially their radio/video sites.

Coming up:  To celebrate the publication of my new book about renting in Mexico, I'm giving you a playlist (a sure sign of my lack of marketing ability).

Kerry Baker

Hi, I am the author of this blog and two books, the Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online, and If Only I Had a Place, on the ins and outs of renting in Mexico. Recently, I released "If Only I Had a Place," a book on how to rent luxuriously in Mexico.

If you are learning a second language, you know that you will have days you feel like writing and days you feel like a more passive experience, like reading or listening. Each good website has a unique strength.  

As I detail in my resource book, the Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online, you can find hundreds of free resources online to learn Spanish if you have the time (or my book). If you have different tools available, you can mix them up and never get bored.

Americans tend to want to learn Spanish as spoken in Mexico or Latin America since they are more likely to meet people from those countries or visit there. People from the rest of the world, especially Europe, are more likely go to Spain to learn it.  

Their interest is encouraged by Spain as a country, which takes great initiative to protect and promulgate their official language, Castillian Spanish.  As torchbearers, sites based in Spain go for linguistic purity.

The sites avoid anglicizing words, never using words like “renta” for renting or “carros” for cars for example. (My Spanish friends are appalled when I blurt out that I  "rento un apartamento en Mexico." My Mexican friends raise their eyebrows when I say "Aquilo mi apartamento cada año.)  

The Spanish government takes their language mission seriously enough to devote resources from their national budget to it, funding their Instituto Cervantes world-wide and maintain websites like Alba Learning, where classic Spanish literature (even erotica) is narrated.

What makes these websites fascinating is that they are always immersion sites, meaning they usually don’t contain any English at all. As a beginner, you are treated like a Spanish child, having to figure out the context just by listening and putting it all together yourself.

Even though I researched over 300 sites for the book, including 80 language hack sites, I still get excited to come across these new ones, which are often suggested by Spanish language practice partners who live in Madrid, Sevilla, and Pamplona.

Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time on several sites that will be included in the next edition of my book and wanted give you an advance look. They are good-to-great sites and I hope you will check them out.

For more tools, check out my book, “The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online,” on Amazon.com. 

RTVE.es (intermediate and up learners) is an online news/radio/television station. Even the landing page will give you a smorgasbord of introductions worth translating. Unfortunately, without a VPN you probably can’t access the television series but you can access the radio shows and the news. The programs are classy and contemporary.

RTVE 

Aprenderespañol.org  (beginners) offers lessons for beginners starting with the most basic pronunciation. Not a fancy site, but one to include in your toolkit if you are just starting out.

Aprender Español

Eduteach.es/canciones (intermediate and up) -  A quick look through the site’s menu would have you believe the songs are for children. Not the case. The list is of songs by popular Spanish singers such as Alejandro Sanz. Each song includes its music video with the lyrics in Spanish. If you try to sing along, you will notice how it forces you to think and pronounciate quickly.

Eduteach.es/canciones

Hablemos Español  (all levels) on Youtube is a neat little find that uses a news show format. The “newscasters” cover a point and then introduce a video scene with actors demonstrating usage as skits. Make sure you go to the site with 172 videos (another site is listed by the same name with 38 videos but is for Germans). 

YouTube's Hablemos Español

Learning Spanish while you consider expat life is a great way to exercise your brain, and whether or not you ever make the move, studies have shown it improves mental acuity and memory.

Related link:  A tried and true way to make friends in Mexico with only un poquito of Spanish.

Most recent:  Thousands of Americans cross the border every year to get dental work,  and for good reason.

Up next: To celebrate the release of "If Only I Had a Place," I'm going to give you a soundtrack for your next romantic date...(as if as a promotional tool that makes any sense at all).

Recently updated:  Routine medical exams cost a fraction of what they do in the U.S. should you want a back-up system.

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online" and the upcoming "If Only I Had a Place," a book on how to rent luxuriously for less in Mexico.

Excuse me, joven, who is your dentist?

Years ago, when I told people that I was a part-time ski instructor at Snowshoe, West Virginia, they often told me how lucky I was to be that good a skier.  

I told them I wasn’t. In truth, I was an intermediate skier at best. I shrugged off their compliments by joking that all you needed in order to be hired at a ski resort in rural West Virginia was a full set of teeth.

After moving to Colorado, I would visit a friend who lived in Idaho Springs, a mining town in foothills of the Rockies only about a half-hour from Denver. A superb story-teller, when describing her new home she’d say, “Here in Idaho Springs, we have two kinds of people. Them with teeth and them with no teeth.”

It’s hardly a joke. Teeth are important professional markers. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post have recently written articles about that the skyrocketing cost of dentistry and how they are making yet another contribution to the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in America society.  

Costs are reported to have risen about 5% a year for two decades.  I contend it’s been appreciably higher in any larger city.

I became aware of the escalation when I was advised to use a mouth guard while sleeping (an attractive accompaniment to my sleeping mask and probably a contributing factor to most of my past boyfriends being at least moderate drinkers.) My bill for the upper-jaw-only plastic mold was over $600.  

A Mexican whom I dated later, a guy with an amazing, brilliant smile (the first thing I noticed about him) paid $80 for one in Mexico.

This year, while in Denver to have my yearly meeting with my C.P.A., my lower-back teeth began to radiate pain and tenderness. Thinking it was probably another cavity, I went in to see a dentist only to find I would need a root canal (and at least $1,500)

I thanked the gods-of-all-things-holy that I would be returning to Mexico soon, where I could get the work done for probably less than half of that. A legion of Mexican friends with beautiful smiles stood waiting with their periodontist referrals.  

Dental work in Mexico costs anywhere from a third to half of what the cost for the same procedure would be in the U.S., even with all the same technological features.

Then I thought of all those people in West Virginia and Idaho Springs who aren’t going to Mexico. The ones who don’t have the money, can’t live with the pain and have to actually get the tooth pulled.

When I was a child growing up in rural Oklahoma, my mother would get me out from under her feet by giving me twenty-five cents to go buy penny candy at a store a mile away. I still remember the candy necklaces.

Imagine her chagrin when her eight-year old’s first dental appointment revealed cavities in almost every single baby tooth, all of which she dutifully had filled with silver on a social worker’s salary.

I was very lucky, unlike the West Virginian girlfriend of an ex of mine who lost all her teeth before she was thirty.  

This really happens. And poor dentistry isn’t just an obvious indication of economic hardship. It’s a gateway to various other health problems, such as respiratory infections, diabetes, even dementia.

What is particularly annoying about all of this is that, like setting a cast for a broken arm, the basic technique of medically necessary dental work hasn’t changed in decades.

The advances of the last 25 years have been largely in the level of patient comfort and types of materials used, especially as related to cosmetic dentistry, which has taken off as wealthier Americans spend millions on veneers and whitening.

For those who need critical work like wisdom teeth extraction, fillings, crowns and root canals, the field of dentistry provides a wonderful example of how technology works to the disadvantage of people on a tight budget.

No reputable dentist would not use one of those saliva extraction devices. But how much more do they cost the dentist than that porcelain bowl we used to spit into?  

Dentists’ frequent unwillingness to pass along x-rays if you get a new dentist or a specialist and their insistence on unnecessary annual x-rays are other ways costs are jacked up.  

Some questionable business practices, the cost of the technology people expect in a dental office, along with high student debt that dentists in other countries don’t have are main factors in American dentistry’s high rates.  Dental insurance has always been a poor value. You practically have to have major surgery for it to have been worth purchasing and we're all optimists.

Predictably, overall utilization of dental services has been going down in the United States for 10 years. The industry seems genuinely puzzled about this. Fewer people having routine work done will only incentivize increasing fees more for remaining patients.

No one plans to go back to silver fillings, and when I had a cavity replaced in Mazatlán two years ago, I noted with some alarm the porcelain saliva bowl of my early adulthood in the dentist’s office.

The new filling was fine. The visit, with a cleaning, cost less than $50.

Most recent:  As wonderful as Mexico is, you still need to be aware of scams, especially medical ones.

Kerry Baker is the author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," a curation of the best tools on the web to learn Spanish free, all organized into lesson plans that keep learning interesting, and you motivated.  

She is also the author of "If I Only Had a Place," a guide to renting luxurously in Mexico.

The scam is as old as the hotels lining the beaches of Acapulco, where it might have been invented.

A guest is staying at a resort and has stomach pains. Being a foreigner and without a local doctor, when the pains worsen, he asks the resort if they have a doctor on call. A doctor arrives with all the gracious bedside manner you expect from a Mexican doctor (that is to say extremely caring). The pain seems a little unusual, he says. Maybe it should be checked out. Since the visitor does not’ have a car, the doctor offers to take him to the clinic himself.

He enters a nicely-appointed professional clinic for a sonogram, and sure enough, the pain is the appendix, the technician says, tapping at the film. While not a radiologist, the patient has no reason not to believe him.

In the car on the way to the hospital the doctor has selected, Clinica Del Mar, the foreigner begins to wonder what this will cost. After a long pause, the doctor gives him the amount.

This last part is where the scam begins, with the doctor testing the waters for how deep his patient’s wallet is.  The tourist has no way of knowing if the price quoted is a normal fee in a foreign country. He remains silent.

Since his regular insurance doesn’t cover him in another country, he will be charged on his credit card, beginning with a 50,000 peso “deposit,” a common practice in most hospitals.

It seems odd to him that the doctor would have such an exact figure before he’s even checked into the hospital.  Once checked in, he is introduced to one other doctor (who turns out not to be the doctor who performs the surgery. Details, details).

The surgery takes place. Whereas in the United States, insurance often won’t cover even an overnight stay in the hospital for an appendectomy if performed in the morning, in Mexico the patient stays in the hospital for two nights, not terrifically worrisome because a hospital stay in Mexico usually ranges around $130 a night.

On the morning of his check out, the patient is presented with a bill, which is exactly the same amount quoted in his ride to the hospital, and three times what a Mexican would pay for the same surgery in the same hospital.  

Being billed exactly the same amount as quoted by the primary doctor could only lead the patient to believe the figure was passed on the hospital administrators who prepared the bill as being the fee the patient is willing to pay. 

As you may have guessed by now if you’ve read previous blogs, the patient was me. The fact that the clinic would charge me three times what they would a Mexican patient did not surprise me.

As a Mexican friend puts it, "Mexican rip-offs are just a cheap copies of American ones".  True that. U.S. healthcare fraud cases often involve millions of dollars.  

Considering the shenanigans going on in American health care; $645 band-aids and $86,000 a year cancer drugs, one can hardly be shocked to find medical opportunism in a Mexican hospital.

I was able to circumvent some of the cost because I had a Mexican friend with extensive local medical contacts who was able to get what fees were normally charged at that hospital for that exact surgery.

She was also able to bring to light that the primary doctor who brought me to the clinic was the ex-wife of the doctor I’d met before surgery. Such cooperation is not illegal but certainly, raises more questions, questions I'll never be able to answer.

Four people from the hospital came in to present me with my bill the morning of my discharge. Armed with the information gathered by my friend, I was able to reduce it substantially. I admit that I buckled and paid twice, rather than three times, the normal fee. It was a fraction of what the same surgery would cost in the U.S, but in the U.S., my insurance would have covered it.

Doctors are required by international law to explain the procedure and possible outcomes in your language. While it's not unusual for the rule to be ignored, know that you can insist.

None of this was the scary part.

I had no illusions of recourse on the bill I'd signed off on once I left the hospital. However, attorneys are inexpensive in Mexico.  I thought it would be worth 600 pesos to have the medical records (which were of course in Spanish) examined.  I did so with an element of trepidation; rumors have it that a person can be murdered in Mexico for $300 dollars and I had no idea who might be behind this.

My attorney, who is also a doctor, found many irregularities in the itemized bill, including my being billed for cancer drugs, the cost of an extra surgeon in the operating room (hospitals in the U.S. pull that too) and an extra night’s stay (I suspected that already).

As he explained, the collusion between resort doctors and local clinics has been going on for decades.  He first became familiar with it in Acapulco decades ago, with doctors and the resorts themselves getting kick-backs. Any resort town catering to Canadians or Americans would be a ripe territory.  This sort of corruption in Mexico is hardly breaking news.

That’s still not the scary part.

The scary part was the letter from the doctor who documented the surgery. The letter included a page of symptoms I never had. If fact, according to my attorney, it was likely I didn’t need the surgery at all.  Along with the letter of false systems, he pointed out that appendectomies are usually performed right away, whereas mine was not scheduled for eight hours after checking in. 

Mexican doctors, in general, have excellent reputations among expats. While I would expect billing opportunism, that a doctor would fabricate a page of symptoms is utterly terrifying.

At least it wasn’t my kidney. But lying on a medical document adds a whole new and frightening prospect to getting sick (or even being examined) in Mexico, or at least in Mazatlán.

Quite possibly the corruption stems not strictly from the doctors, but the hospital and clinic owners, people who haven’t dedicated a good deal of their lives learning how to care for patients nor taken any pesky Hippocratic oaths.  

Owners of clinics and hospitals could be of any “business” background. Doctors are complicit if they falsify diagnoses but who knows what pressure they might be under from above to make money for the clinic (not unheard of in American hospitals either)?

As common as stomach pains are, the need for an appendectomy would be easy to fake and such a common surgery wouldn’t have many risks. No one needs their appendix.

I will never know.

Mexperience.com, a reputable "how-to" online resource on Mexico describes all the favorite retirement destinations for Americans, usually including details on the quality of healthcare facilities along with weather and other attributes.

Rather mysteriously, in spite of Mazatlán having at least three major hospitals including a new and modern one, Mexperience tells readers to go to Guadalajara (six hours away) for their healthcare needs in the site’s description of Mazatlán.

You might be surprised by my telling this story given the previous positive blogs I wrote about the experience. The point of the earlier blogs was to give credit to my Mexican friends, who stayed in my room both nights and did the research that enabled me to have a little leverage when I checked out.

Nurses were kind and competent. The room ample enough for overnight guests. I don’t want to discredit the entire Mexican healthcare system over a few rotten apples or a few scams. Even if the surgery was necessary, there’s not doubt about the collusion and inflated fees.

Hospitals and specialists in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, have excellent reputations for world-class care. People living in popular expat retirement destinations such as San Miguel de Allende, Lake Chapala, Guanajuato, and Mazatlán are often advised to go to Guadalajara for more serious medical care. Monterrey and Mexico City along with Guadalajara are considered the hubs for top-flight hospitals and treatment.

 Many expats choose the surrounding region in which to retire. Over the next few months, I’ll be traveling to Guadalajara to research the healthcare processes and facilities in that city and talk to expats about their experiences for future blogs.

The lesson here is to know your way around the healthcare system you choose ahead of any need. The time to find your doctors is before you need them, especially in Mexico.

Thinking about a longer-term stay?  Look for my upcoming book, "If Only I Had a Place" on how to rent luxuriously in Mexico for less.

Related links:  For an idea of the money involved in American Medical fraud, you can look at information by the National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association.

This story details a woman "held hostage" by a Nuevo Vallarta hospital until she coughed up $30,000. 

Most recent: The cost of living in America's greatest cities is going up, up.  The adventure of a foreign country can provide some spice without the price.

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online and "If Only I Had a Place," on renting in Mexico, which will be released in May 2017

The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online offers you the means to create new study plans every day, from over 80 online sources.  The guide was written specifically for expats and those considering retiring to a Spanish-speaking country. Speaking the language helps you make native friends and saves you money.  Learning a second language has been proven to be one of the best ways to protect the brain. Why not get started today?

The Golden Zone of Mazatlán by night

Cities are clearly cool places to live.

With so much to offer, American cities are growing rapidly. All but one of America’s 20 largest cities grew last year. For example, Denver, my anointed home base, picks up over 6,000 people a month and is the country’s fastest growing city.

Lucky me?  Rather than the recommended 30% of income going to housing, residents in larger cities are more likely seeing 50% of their income allocated to rents, mortgages and associated costs. My rent in downtown Denver has almost doubled since 2009. All kinds of taxes and fees are way up. Cities have pretty ingenious, annoying ways to generate income.

Already I have a number of friends who live in San Diego, Denver and Washington D.C who don’t feel they can retire in those cities. Now in their fifties, their incomes have peaked (or even declined) but the cost of living has continued to increase dramatically.

One of the most exciting aspects of city living is the stimulation of meeting a wide range of people who have different life experiences, ideas and backgrounds. You can always go out and find something new and unfamiliar in a big city. It’s always there, which is a comfort even when you’re not seeking it out.

You probably see where I’m going with this.

When you live In another country, just like being in a big city, you can go out find something you’ve never seen, heard or tasted before any time you like. Living in Mexico has continued to satisfy that craving for the unexpected in the way I thought only a big city could.  

What I feared about moving to a smaller town was knowing what was around every corner. Even the most peaceful night in Mexico often attracts a dose of the unfamiliar. Almost every day  offers at least one surprise or learning opportunity that an American town cannot.

Beyond daily discoveries, conversations with Mexicans usually ignites in me the little spark of excitement that comes from trying to connect in another language. There’s something a little exotic even in a casual conversation about the neighborhood in Sonora where someone  grew up or how their mother makes menudo (which you probably only want to hear once.)

The feeling is mutual. I doubt that any new acquaintance in the States would appreciate my American Wild West stories like my Mexican friends do*.

Mexico offers an paradoxical combination of less stress and more adventure, adventure that you don’t need to leave behind just because you want to retire.

Sorry so short - My book, "If Only I Had a Place Will be released in a few weeks!  Subscribe to receive notification of the five day free promotion period.

Most recent:  Mexico's beautiful cathedrals and what you are seeing when you look at one.

Kerry Baker is author of the Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online, a curation of the best free tools on the web, their links and lesson plans that will make every study session an unique experience. Learning a second language has been proven to be one of the best things you can do for your brain!  

As a Spanish friend of mine pointed out, when most people go into a cathedral, they don’t know what they are looking at.  

He was referring to León Cathedral in the city in Spain where he was born. Even a professed atheist like Javier can't help but submit to the power of a European Gothic church, particularly the power of the light filtering through the enormous stained glass windows of ruby reds and sapphire blues.

That light is the manifesto of Gothic cathedral architecture as envisioned by Abbot Denis Suger, who is credited with popularizing the Gothic style in Europe. He saw the light as a way to emulate being in heaven. His “light of Divine essence” in a Gothic church filters through the many-colored windows and creates with it a glow not quite of this world.

The light has been likened to the Word of God. The power of gems adorning altars also had to do with their ability to give off light and glow from within.

Almost every city popular with expats in Mexico; Guanajuato, Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende, Querétaro, Pátzcuaro, Mexico City, Cuernavaca,  Morelia, Puebla and Oaxaca as well as other cities have cathedrals.  The only cathedral in Mexico that can be classified as Gothic is Catedral Metropolitana in Mexico City, the first cathedral built in Mexico

Mazatlán, where I live, has a cathedral too, although I’m not sure how it ranks with the others since it was completed so much later than the more famous ones in Mexico. Many of the cathedrals built later than 1700 were parish churches converted as populations grew.  

So inevitably, if you visit or live in Mexico you will be faced with a Mexican cathedral and think it is quite beautiful. What else should you know?

The building of the major cathedrals in Mexico were all nearing completion by 1680. Their construction wasn’t possible until architects had mastered the principles of constructing the complex systems of massive isolated supports and vaulted roofs that seem to defy the laws of gravity which define the cathedral. The cathedral-building period was preceded by what’s referred to the “monastic period.”

Like all cathedrals, a Mexican cathedral’s high vaulted ceiling is meant to create a microcosm of the heavens and strike the worshipers with awe at the power of God and creation.  Again light, both natural and an extensive repertoire of lanterns, torches and candelabras are designed to lend even more drama to church interiors and exteriors by day and by night.  Facades and retables* in cathedrals are planned to lead the eye to distinct points of emphasis.

You can’t separate Mexican cathedrals from their Spanish roots, and many of the workers on the Mexican cathedrals actually did come from Spain, which sought artistic conquest of Mexico as well as religious and economic. A Spaniard, Lorenzo Rodriguez played a dominant role in vice regal architecture in Mexico, which is sometimes dubbed “Ultra Baroque," or Mexican Churrigueresque.

Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral

Building materials in the New World were different. Reddish pumice, grey white limestone of Mexico City, the green brown stone of Oaxaca, ashes of green and pink in San Miguel, pink trachyte of Morelia and the man-made tile for which Puebla make Mexican cathedrals distinct from European counterparts.  

Like a child’s relation to a parent, sometimes Mexican architects and craftsmen responded to a different set of values. Local artisans had to adapt their style to their native skill, leading the very word “colonial” at one time to be considered a pejorative rather than the positive connotation it's given today in travel brochures.  

Mexicans were more into the surface design than sculpture. Paintings idealized religious figures rather than carry over the realistic (and sometimes scandalously graphic) representations of medieval life you’ll find in European Gothic cathedrals.

Major Mexican church architectural periods go from 1530 to 1810 and include the Plateresque period which is named for work of Spanish silversmiths in that era and goes until 1580, the Baroque period from 1580 to 1630, to the Ultra Baroque from 1630 to 1790 and finally the Neo-Classical period from 1790 to 1810 and later. 

Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of Mary in Guadalajara

Mexico had a surprising preoccupation with the concept of grandeur: La grandeza mexicana which may account for Baroque’s long predominance in Mexico. Baroque style is characterized by towering silhouettes and dazzling facades and retables. The style has always been defined as ornate, wild, eccentric and inharmonious. Perfect!

The term “Ultra Baroque,” a somewhat contested term for the later period of Baroque in Mexico, takes on a special significance because it refers specifically to Latin America and is seen as more of a metaphor for the region’s complex ethnic and artistic racial mixture rather than the mistaken interpretation that it means "more of," or  “beyond Baroque.”

There were two basic compositional arrangements in vice regal Mexico when the major cathedrals were built. On the more ambitious facades you see various motifs associated with the estípite, a type of column with turned down spirals and elaborate carvings which are essentially Renaissance Italian, with a splash of Rococo added to later ones.

On less ambitious facades, you’ll see  a narrow stepped composition with the higher levels progressively narrower than the lowest level. These are more Islamic, influenced by designs in Seville and Granada in southern Spain.

The interior ornamentation with depictions of heads of angelic children, plates of fruit, garlands along with the design of columns is essentially Renaissance.

Sometimes styles clash jarringly, with some sculptures and paintings emphasizing a terrifying realism, with the use of actual teeth and hair and glass eyes. Gilded wood was another interior fashion specific to Mexico.

Puebla Cathedral

The word “mestizo” is a term traditionally used in Spain and Latin America to mean a person of combined European and American Indian descent, or someone who would have been deemed a Castizo (one European parent and one Mestizo parent) regardless of where the person was born.

Over time, the brilliance of Mexican architecture became it’s gift for mixing fashions and ornamental sources in a single building, giving the word mestizo a quality in a wider sense of the word.

* A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church.

Sources:  "The Churches of Mexico 1530-1810" by Joseph Armstrong Baird, Jr. and "The Gothic Cathedral" by William Swaan.

Note: Sorry this blog is a little too short as I am completing "If Only I Had a Place," a guide to renting in Mexico (which will include a directory of local rental concierges). I hope you will check it out  in a few weeks.

Next up:  Big, expensive cities are exciting. So are less expensive Mexican ones.

Most recent:  A recent trip back to Denver reminded me that sometimes the United States hurts too much to watch.    

Kerry Baker is the author of "The Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," an amazing journey through the web for the best, most effective tools to learn Spanish on your own, on line conveniently organized into lesson plans. I use the guide practically every day and find the variety keeps me studying.  

These blogs may be a little shorter than usual as I wrap up my book, "If Only I Had a Place," a book on how to rent luxuriously for less in Mexico plus a listing of rental concierges. Subscribe for a release announcement)

Every year, tax season and its accompanying meeting with my C.P.A. drives me back to the U.S. from Mexico, where I’ve been living a large part of the year since 2014. It’s always a shock, un choque.

More than once, expats have said to me that in a lot of ways, living in Mexico is what living in the U.S. was like 20 years ago. 

I’m only beginning to understand what they mean. Partly it’s related to a simplicity that feels more like the U.S. in the 50’s; fewer regulations, closer families and less emphasis on technology.

It's also related to the feeling you get when you're out enjoying one of its plazas or anywhere where there are lots of people, a feeling of Mexico’s emerging middle class.  

The middle class in Mexico now makes up 47% of its population and by all accounts is growing.

Making a comparison between the two countries is admittedly apples and oranges. The poor in Mexico are really poor. The inequality between the ultra rich and poor in Mexico is the highest among its Latin peers. The definition of what makes a Mexican middle class even varies by region. However, you feel the growing power of it when you live here, a vibrancy, an optimism on the streets.

The middle class in America makes up 50% of the population now compared to 61% in 1971 and by all accounts is shrinking. If we used former traditional benchmarks; owning a home, having a car, healthcare and access to education for your children, to live a middle-class life in today’s dollars would average $120,000. In contrast, Mexico continues to grow its middle class without increasing the cost of living.

I’m the perfect age to be able to make comparisons between the quality of life for a "middle class" person today vs. 35 years ago.  

The beginning of my professional work-life almost exactly coincides with the period in which America’s middle class started its economic decent, in the early eighties, when wages began to lose ground against the cost of living.

As a recruiter in San Diego 1982, my $45,000 in yearly commissions gave me a nice life; a shared house near the beach, a car, ski vacations, a party tab and enough leftover to put a little into a 401(k).  

Three years ago, I checked into an agency very similar to the one I used to work in.  Upon noticing my interviewer’s safety-pinned skirt, I looked around and saw how poorly-dressed they all were compared to the stilettos and suits we wore in the same job 30 years ago (albeit a more technical job today). Then it occurred to me that these recruiters were probably not making much more than I had.

The fact that middle class-on-down Americans are not rioting in the streets over health care, affordable education for their (future) children and a living wage makes me feel so angry and sad that I can’t wait to leave. The growing inequality hurts too much to watch.  

Dáme pan y Díme Tonto  

In Spanish, there is a phase, “Dame pan y dime tonto” which translates, give me bread and tell me a joke.”  One has to wonder if social media and exceptionally high-quality of entertainment today is what  “bread and circuses” were to Roman emperors. When “staying at home is the new going out,” according to the New York Times, all the events that brought community together to advocate for change don't exist to the same degree.  

With a click, I can send letters and make calls to my Colorado Congressmen, even from Mexico.  Will these electronic and social media campaigns make the difference that unions, strikes and civil disobedience made generations ago?

When someone makes a billion dollars for a product as easy to dismiss as Reddit, we clearly have a big problem. Yet too many people seem willing to safety-pin their skirts (or blazers) and rationalize to themselves that money isn’t that important anyway. They don’t know what they’re missing of course, but I was there.

We all read the article that went viral about Uber’s recruiting campaign which featured an employee who worked right up until giving birth. They lauded her as representing their corporate culture of entrepreneurism without any cognizance whatsoever of what it said about the ethics of not providing health insurance or maternity benefits.

In a similar vein, while pursuing the Freelancer website for writing opportunities, I came across one of their recruitment ads featuring a testimony by an employee. After hours of churning out copy for a penny a word, the employee enthused how great it was to have the freedom to get up from her desk and put her laundry in the washing machine or feed her baby. Ah, the freedom of the gig economy.

The middle class economic house is burning down and when I'm home all I can do is watch. I can’t stand it. Call me in Mexico if there’s a revolution.

These blogs may be a little shorter than usual as I wrap up my book, "If Only I Had a Place," a book on how to rent luxuriously for less in Mexico plus a listing of rental concierges. Subscribe for a release announcement)

Related links:  

Just for fun, this song pretty much sums things up about America today, and it was written over 30 years ago:  "Ball of Confusion" by the Temptations.  

Azcentral (Part of U.S.A. Today) describes the feeling of Mexico's emerging middle class.

Most recent:  Over 10 million people take care of an elder family member in their homes. At an average cost of at least $114 to hire help in the U.S. , Could Mexico be a better option?

Recently updated:  Having a house-mate when first living in a foreign country is a great idea for many reasons.

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online" a curation of the best free tools on the web, with lesson plans (and my ready wit).

At 62, a friend of mine in Mexico is one of the most beautiful women I know.  Flowing waist-length auburn hair, huge deep-set eyes and a figure that evokes Elton’s John’s song “Tiny Dancer.”

Her attitude and thinking are just as youthful, so it was surprising to hear her talking about getting old in Mexico, and in particular about her and her husband’s plans for home health care should they ever need it.  

Costs of home health care in the U.S. vs. Mexico

The cost of home health care in the U.S. averages  $19 an hour ($10 to $36 an hour depending on your state) and is still by far cheaper than the alternatives.

Having someone around to prevent falls and monitor medication can help avoid more expensive hospital stays. Assistance and its cost depends on whether the client needs help with daily living or requires actual medical care.

In the United States, a six-hour visit by a home health aide (not a professional nurse) five days a week costs an average of $114 per day, or $29,640 per year. If billed by the hour, the costs can quickly add up, sometimes to even more than an assisted living facility.

Contrary to what many people believe, Medicare does not pay for home health care past what is medically necessary, for example care after a surgery and to those who are home bound, meaning they cannot leave their homes without assistance. It does not pay for personal assistance. The visits that are covered are short and procedural. The gap between needing some daily help and actual medical assistance is wide and expensive.

My friends in Mexico have a rather brilliant plan. The two guest casitas that they built and presently rent out would be converted into apartments for home-health care providers to live in (Or, she said, maybe we’ll live in them and give the caregivers the bigger house since the stairs might be a problem for us later).

The casitas and house are separated by a colorful and expansive courtyard, full of plants and flowers, with small pool to dip into on hot days, an outdoor kitchen and dining area.

Her attitude about the future and her ongoing love affair with her husband, a retired police detective, recalled in me memories of watching the dynamics of my own parents’ relationship in their final years. They loved each other very much, but being a loving wife or husband doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good caregiver.  

When eventually someone was hired to help my father, who was going blind, Sharon was much better at it than my mother was. A woman plays many roles in a marriage. It’s unfair to expect her to be perfect at all of them, especially when the roles can be so wildly disparate.

My mother was the principal breadwinner in a demanding job, raised two children with little assistance and worked to maintain her attractiveness to my father to the end. The fact that she wasn’t Mother Teresa to a very difficult spouse was easily forgiven.

Nearly 10 million people in the United States, mostly over 50, have to manage the care of parents or grandparents even as they try to formulate plans and save money for their own retirement.

For some, Mexico gives them an attractive option. When my business partner’s grandmother turned 100 years old, she decided to move into a new home a few blocks from her daughter in San Miguel de Allende, one of Mexico’s most popular expat destinations.  

In Mexico she could have 24-hour live in-care for a fraction of the cost of assisted living in Canada (Her 96-year old boyfriend would just have to take extended visits, she said). In the U.S. the cost of putting a relative into assisted care averages about $42,000 a year. A private room averages more than $87,000.

Not only are assisted-living facilities more expensive than staying in at home, it’s often detrimental to the emotional health of the family member.

Google-Translated copy from home care sites in Mexico may not be perfect, but I couldn’t help being drawn to this quote by the director of the company, Leonel Hernandez, in spite of the clumsy translation “Hiring a caregiver improves the health of the elderly, because the client stops being a sedentary and a sad person to become active. Usually when the 'grandmothers' are taken to an asylum they fall into depression.”  

What are the costs in Mexico? Always Mexico, an agency of nurses that offers services of caregivers, charges 7,158 pesos ($360) per month for 8 hours from Monday to Friday, 10,500 pesos ($525) for 12 hours, and 21,500 pesos ($1,075) for 24 hours five days a week.  

Based on the average $114 a day that home visits cost in the in the U.S. for only a six hour visit (as compared to eight hours quoted by Always Mexico), the same service would cost $3,420 a month based on 30 days.

The cost of nursing assistants trained to do injections, handle oxygen and check vital signs ranges from 8,200 pesos ($410) per month for an 8-hour day from Monday to Friday, 12,300 pesos ($675) for 12 hours a day or 24,000 pesos and ($1,200) for 24 hours.   

This solution ignores pretty good-sized obstacles, like a language barrier of course. If someone were moving to Mexico and bringing an elderly parent with them, the adult child could easily learn enough Spanish to train and supervise a home health provider.  In my friend's’ case, her husband speaks fluent Spanish.  She’s working on it. The appeal of the cheerful casitas she feels offer an attractive recruiting tool.

If the adult child or grandchild could still work remote from Mexico and hire a home healthcare aide at this greatly reduced cost, it would be an even better situation. Those who have to leave their jobs entirely to take care of someone means not only losing income. They also stop accruing social security and retirement benefits and have to face the prospect of their work skills being rusty if they return to work.

There are many ways to work it in Mexico and obviously many variables, language ability and temperament of the loved one being only a few.  If the general kindness of the Mexican people is any indication, I would venture that the chance of finding a compassionate health care aide is exceptionally good.

For those who have to care for an aging parent or loved one. retiring to Mexico and having a home health care provider either full or part-time could make a big difference in terms of both cost and sanity.

Combined with the overall lower cost of living, the savings could leave survivors in a much better financial situation for their own retirement years, even if they chose to return to the U.S. some day.

For couples like my friends, knowing that they could afford to hire a home health care provider, even someone (or two) to live on the premise full-time if  warranted, seems to keep them both looking forward to the future. Rather than the prospect of caring for one or the other 24/7, they can look forward to maintaining that enviable love affair.

Important advice on hiring a home health care aide by PROFECO, Mexico’s Consumer Affairs Office

Profeco is Mexico’s Consumer Affairs Office. The Profeco warns that in Mexico people have posted business cards of people offer nursing services at the pharmacy counter. People sometimes call these people for rates without researching if they have professional training, what their specialty is, if they are supported by a company, or asking for a letter of recommendation.

Having a business card posted does not mean they are not professionals, but two important things have to be considered: healthcare training and safety.

The Profeco offers the following excellent advice on hiring home health care aides, and steps you should follow no matter what country you live in.

1. Ask the doctor about the specialty or the degree of training that the healthcare provider needs for the family member to receive the appropriate care.

2. If you go to a company that specializes in nursing services, make sure that you have personal references (address, telephone) and work (letters of recommendation), and previous work experience).

3. Even if someone you trust recommends a someone, you should check their address, phone number, formal training, and request references. In order to provide a quality service, better providers in Mexico make random visits in staff at the patient's home to supervise their work, presentation, punctuality, interrelation with the patient and the family.

4.Consumers have the right to be shown official documents that prove the academic training of the health care aide or nurse before they hire.

5.Do not underestimate the work of a nurse; If your relative is bathed, combed, shaved and dressed in clean clothes, took their medication and ate at the appointed time, it is because the nurse did her job. Do not assign tasks outside their job.

6. Even if you are asleep, the nurse must be attentive to the needs of their patient.  When you hire through a company, if you are not satisfied with the service, or you feel that your loved one is not comfortable with the nurse, you can ask the company to replace that aide.  

I’m not sure if all these points, such as the right to ask for proof of credentials, is the same in the U.S., but it sure should be.

Not so crazy

While moving to Mexico may seem like an extreme solution to some people, people do it. Ventanas Mexico has had several inquiries from single people moving to Mexico with elderly parents.

Financial planning articles edge close to admonishment that people not sacrifice their own retirement security for the education of their children or caring for their elderly parents, as if it’s a choice.

Unspoken is the question of morality, not to mention love, at the heart of the decision to leave a job or go into retirement savings to take care of someone who took care of us, perhaps making their own financial sacrifices.  

None of these articles mention options like moving to Mexico.  I think they should.

Related link: Cash-strapped seniors look to Mexico for affordable assisted living by NPR.

Most recent: Think you've tried everything when it comes to facials and "rejuvenation"? Here's the scoop on the world's safest injectible. 

Recently updated:  A boring topic I know, but it's better than the excitement of a $500 electric bill. Read about how electricity is billed in Mexico before you think about renting long term in a coastal or warmer climate region.

Kerry Baker

I'm a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," curated tools and lesson plans for learning Spanish from your e-reader or laptop.  

I recently released "If Only I Had a Place" a guide to renting luxuriously in Mexico. It includes a listing of rental concierges.

(Note: Over the next few months my blogs might be a little "lighter" as I allot more time to research on the Mexican healthcare system and wrap up my book on renting in Mexico, "If I Only Had a Place.")

Maybe Kim just needed a better doctor.

A year or two ago, in my blog “Great Beauty Products You’ll Want to Try” about products and procedures in Mexico, I described platelet-rich plasma therapy, the so-called “Vampire Facial” and that I was planning to try it.

Fortunately, I didn't hear about the treatment from articles in the American press (see right). Instead, during my initial stay in Mexico, the first thing I noticed about my now-friend Lupita was her amazing skin - smooth, clear and flawless. I couldn’t even begin to guess her age. How old can a person with perfect skin be?

When I had asked her secret, she told me that she regularly received plasma therapy treatments, where your own blood is separated by its platelets and plasma in a centrifuge. The plasma is then injected with needles as a natural filler.

I loved the idea that unlike Botox, you can’t have a reaction to it. After all, it’s your own blood, not one of the world’s deadliest poisons.

Now on a mission, I asked several of my Mexican friends with lovely skin their secret and learned that indeed, they all did it.  

The therapy isn’t illegal of course, but it took so long to get names of the doctors they went to that I began to suspect a conspiracy. I would ask the question, there would be a pause before giving me the name then, “Oh look!  There’s Isabel!” Or they'd faint.  I finally extracted a referral from a stunning Polish girl in town who got a big laugh out of my conspiracy theory.

When I went online to see what was involved in the procedure I was horrified. Women (most famously Kim Kardashian) with faces bloody from having their blood re-injected and paying $1,000 -$2,000 per treatment! For their own blood?

Once I was seated in the patient chair of the general doctor who administered the therapy (not an aesthetician) and told her what I’d read and the pictures I’d seen, she scoffed and said, “Those doctors must not be very good at it!”  

In the three treatments I had, not a drop of blood was shed. Why should there be?  The doctor takes a syringe of your own blood from your arm. The blood is then put into a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the platelets. She injects the plasma, not the platelets. Am I missing something here?

Incidentally, you shouldn’t eat any fatty foods and should drink a lot of water beforehand. I hadn’t been given any pre-procedure instructions (that's "very Mexico"), but luckily all I’d had was a fruit smoothie and a glass of water with some lemon juice in it that day. She remarked that my plasma was perfect (Savor the small victories in your life). Ideally what they want is a clear, cloudless plasma to inject.

My blood was drawn and while it was being centrifuged, my face and other areas to be treated were cleansed, exfoliated and toned as they would be for a traditional facial.

At first, the doctor made deeper injections of the plasma in a few more deeply-lined areas, like around my mouth which were a little more painful, similar to Botox injections.

Then she moved on with what felt like a ball-point pen equipped with a micro-needle and made hundreds of tiny stabs in my face (Clearly, I'd want someone with a little lighter touch than Kim's doc had, but I guess that's Hollywood), chest and hands, injecting the serum to stimulate collagen growth and smooth my skin. The jabs were practically painless, but then needles don’t bother me much.

According to my doctor, if done properly, there shouldn't be any blood during the injections, although she admitted it did happen from time to time, a few drops maybe, certainly not the bloody mess you see online in articles about plasma therapy.

With a little of the remaining plasma, my doctor created a gel and smoothed it over my face like a masque, instructing me to leave it on for the night.  The gel tightened my now-glowing skin. Afterward, not a single person thought I'd gone through a windshield.

More intriguing was that she noticed a terrible burn I had on my right ring finger from a lid coming off a teapot one morning while pouring my tea. Steam burns are the absolute worst. My finger was about half-way healed and still a little blackened.

She smoothed some serum on the burn as well.  It healed beautifully, only the slightest shade of pink darker than the rest of my hand. I have far worse oven burn scars.  Plasma therapy can be used anywhere; face, throat, hands or for scars. If fact, I think that it was originally developed for burns.

My friends recommended that I get several treatments, spaced a few weeks apart, to get the full benefit. I got three. My friend Mary got six. We could afford to.  Each therapy cost $70.  I even got a special, three for the price of two and a half. In all fairness, I have to add that my salon in Denver has begun to offer them at the bargain price of $500 as opposed to $1,000. 

The results? My face definitely looked fuller, enough that I felt I could forgo the much more expensive Sculptra injections that I get every year or two in the U.S. A couple of people who had no idea I’d had the therapy made remarks on my appearance that led me to think that the improvement wasn’t my imagination.

This type of injection doesn’t take the place of Botox for what it can do for crows-feet or forehead wrinkles. I’d suggest a light combination, maybe combining this therapy with Botox for crow's feet every year or two if you feel you need it (studies indicate that if you do Botox too often, it loses its effectiveness).

All of this should be done in Mexico of course, where you can get plasma therapy for $70-80 a treatment or your entire face “done” with Botox by an actual dermatologist rather than a nurse for $250 (about half of what you pay in the U.S.). I received the best Botox injection ever in Mexico two years ago, more skillful than any I’d received in the U.S.

I’ve always said that a person could come to Mexico for a vacation, get some dental work, some procedures like platelet-rich therapy and/or Botox and still come out ahead financially, and without all the Hollywood drama.

Related:  Just like plasma therapies, there are many little luxuries that I can now afford in Mexico. - Ventanas Mexico

Next up: At an average of $114 a day for non-medical home healthcare in the U.S. even while many are trying to save for their own retirement, could living in Mexico be the answer?

Most recent:  I can't believe I just said that: Uber Confessions.     

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," a curated guide to the best free tools on the web, organized into lesson plans.  Check out the reviews on Amazon, many are by well-known expats who know how important Spanish is to having the richest expat experience. 

Note: Blogs might be a little shorter than usual for the next few months, as I wrap up my upcoming book on renting in Mexico and conduct research on Mexico’s healthcare system.

Uber Confessions

I will say darn near anything in an Uber or Lyft ride, especially in Mexico.

Since Uber came to Mazatlán, I can count my life as complete. Taking cabs has always been a positive thing in my life as an expat in Mexico, giving me the opportunity to have a 15-20 minute Spanish practice session on practically any topic several times a week.  Cab drivers in Mexico are typically friendly and many are well-read.  

To have Uber in Mexico lets me take the conversations to a whole new level. Like in the U.S. most of the drivers in Mexico have other jobs, many quite successful in them. Salaries across the board are lower and even educated, successful professionals often work several jobs to maintain an upper-middle class lifestyle.

These jobs are also often disparate, unrelated.  A doctor may maintain a working farm, a psychologist work as a secretary, an architect as an artist.  It's a great way to learn about people's lives and working in Mexico.

For people as naturally social as Mexicans, driving around and chatting with people for 20 minutes at a time for actual money probably seems like the easiest work they could ever do.

I try to make my trips exercises in creativity. Sometimes I blurt out something like “I just bought new socks!” Or try out a joke, “How many Juans does it take to screw in a light bulb?...Just Juan!” or bemoan the disappearing habitat of polar bears. It's all up for grabs.

Everything and anything is on the table, including giving the young drivers a laughing ration of grief for depending too much on their GPS systems in a practically ancient Mexican colonial town that they were most likely born in (Mexicans on a whole don’t migrate outside of the cities where they have their networks, but that’s changing with each generation).  

Mexican Uber drivers (most the drivers are men, but not all) are unusually good-natured about the whole thing, probably owing to characteristically having close relationships with their mothers, which they tend to transfer in their attitude toward any older woman. They almost expect a certain amount of nuttiness.

You thought this was a rather intimidating picture of a Mexican Uber driver, didn't you? It's actually New York Dolphin Defensive Tackle A.J. Francis, who moonlights as an Uber driver in that city. Fooled you! Makes me think you should check out my article, "U.S. Home to Five of the World's Deadliest Cities."

The one somewhat uncomfortable thing about Uber drivers in Mexico is that they will almost always try to hustle you for off-the-book work, pressing upon you their private phone numbers, something that never happens in the U.S.

 I felt a little threatened initially until almost every subsequent driver did the same thing. It feels a little like being a 23-year old in a bar again, "Yes, yes, of course I'll call you."

Although I did keep the number  with one female Uber driver who is also a house-keeping supervisor at the Hotel El Cid, it’s Uber’s tracking system that makes ride-services safe.  And I wouldn't undercut Uber - I want it to stay around. It has made my life infinitely easier and a good bit more amusing.

Once I had the opportunity to be one very young driver’s first passenger ever. Although he had lived in Mazatlán practically his whole life, he didn’t know where the El Cid Marina was, prompting me to ask if it was his first Uber ride or his first time driving a car.  

In spite of my brashness, I’ve never lost my five-star rating (I ask the drivers to check for me from time to time) but I’d be a little afraid to read their comments. In my defense, I’m a ridiculous tipper - the least I can do in exchange for their putting up with my (There’s just no other way to say it)... bullshit.

Another difference with Uber in Mexico is that you have the option to pay and tip in cash, Mexico being a cash-driven country where far fewer people have credit cards.  Like the U.S., the fares tend to be a little lower than a cab.

If your Spanish isn’t good, it’s essential to have the exact complete address (which are often more complicated and exotic-sounding in Spanish) of where you’re going and as much information about nearby landmarks as possible.  If you don’t speak any Spanish at all, I’d stick with traditional cabbies who have more experience with tourists and sign language.

Thirty cities in Mexico, and many of the popular expat destinations like Mérida and San Miguel de Allende now have Uber.  

While the idea of car-sharing hasn't caught on in Mexico to the extent it has in major American cities (I think they are more fond of their cab drivers than we were), it's interesting to note that Mexicans I talk to consider it at least as safe as cabs, maybe safer.

Related links:

How all this nonsense began: My taxi-rides in Mexico

If you are thinking about part-time expat life, Uber and Lyft make it that much more possible.

Most recent: A phone conversation becomes a matter of life and death without even knowing it.

Kerry Baker is the author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online." Making every day different has really helped me be consistent with learning Spanish and daily study is essential. These curated tools keep it fresh and interesting.  I will soon be releasing, "If Only I Had a Place" on renting in Mexico.

Note: Over the next few months, my blogs might be a little shorter as I concentrate on finishing my book on how to rent in Mexico and researching the country’s healthcare system for future articles.

Funny Expat Stories

You may think that since I wrote a book on Spanish tools and speak it well enough to have a few Mexican friends, my days are seamlessly spent moving from one conversation to another. Ja-ja (ha-ha).

Although my Skype language practice partners in Spain compliment me on my usage and vocabulary, huge swaths of conversation pass between my Mexican girlfriends and me where I don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.  

Mexicans, especially the women, talk fast. They emote. It’s a lot to take in at once - the words, the emotion, all while trying to determine what they need and expect from you. Throw translation into the mix and you’re in for an evening of adventure, all without even leaving your living room.

You can count on your Spanish to contribute at least one hilarious moment. Phone conversations provide great opportunities too.

Like the time I casually mentioned to a friend on the phone that I didn’t call her to cancel an proposed meeting between us and an expat friend whom I wanted her to meet because he had died. I followed this with profuse apologies for forgetting to tell her sooner, that it had just slipped my mind.

“Se murió!?” (“He died?!) asked my understandably horrified friend. Yes, I said. It was terrible. He had really swollen up in the hospital during the ordeal too, I elaborated.

The verb “morder” in Spanish is “to bite.” In my efforts to tell my friend that a bee had bitten Michael and that he’d had an allergic reaction (insects biting is “picar,” instead of “morder” in Spanish I would come to find), the unanticipated “le mordió” sounded over the phone like “se murió,” and yeah, Estella (I probably stifled a yawn at this point), it was terrible and I should have mentioned it sooner, “So what are you up to tonight?”

"My friend couldn't meet us...he died."

The fact that my friends continue to accept the smiling yet slightly incredulous expression on my face that I’ve learned can convey anything from surprise to compassion when I truly don’t know what’s going on and still remain my friends endears yet amazes me. I am beginning to understand how men must feel all the time.

Mexican women, thank god, are talkers. I like talkers. You know where they stand. Their occasional stream-of-conscientiousness dialogues always reveal golden nuggets about them without the patient digging and delicate inquiry required by the more private among us. I've never had an awkward silence when talking to a Mexican woman.

Even single phrases in a conversation can be watershed moments in your learning the language. How to use a reflexive verb was pegged in my memory forever when I tried to throw a pesky cricket out my 12th story condo window. Estella rushed toward me waving her arms and exclaiming, “No! Se va a morir!”  

"What did you say?"

In moments like these, as a language student I find myself pondering the sentence structure as much as the content.  Even as I held the singing insect up by its tiny legs before her protests, I was thinking, “But where did the “a” before “morir” come from? Does it always come after the present tense of “to go,” or does it have something to do with the verb “to die?”... I’m sorry, Estella...what were you saying?

Seriously. I don’t know why they put up with it.

Related:  Reading as well as speaking can be unexpectedly titillating, as I learned when I read my first Mexican emails. 

Next up:  More Uber confessions.

Most recent:  Bourbon, egg-timers and cooking in Mexico.

I'm Kerry Baker, a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the upcoming, "If Only I Had a Place," a complete guide to renting in Mexico for potential expats and the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online," a curation of the best free teaching tools on the web along with suggested lesson plans.  Check out the reviews on Amazon!

For the next several months, I will be changing the format of the blogs somewhat, keeping in touch with you with a “lighter” version. The posts will be shorter and be on more simple subjects related to living in Mexico, like the more amusing one at the bottom third of this post on Mexican cooking websites.

The reason for these briefer blogs is to have more time to put the finishing touches to my book on how to rent in Mexico, which will also include a directory of rental concierges, and to focus more research on the country’s healthcare system.

Figuring out your healthcare as an expat has been the biggest knot to untie in my decision to move to Mexico. Information on the basics on public Mexican healthcare, Segura Popular (free) or IMSS (around $400 a year) that many expats purchase is easy to find in expat forums and online.

The consensus seems to be that getting private insurance is the better option, particularly if you are a permanent resident, rather than count on public insurance. Generally, people cite the inefficiency and red tape rather than the quality of the care that is at question in the case of IMSS insurance.

Private insurance is still much cheaper than in the U.S.  For a healthy person of 55 or so a comprehensive plan would run around $1,400 dollars a year. You need to get on it by age 62 however.

Doctors in Mexico, especially specialists and those in larger cities, are deemed first-rate, often being trained in the U.S. Mexican doctors are appreciated especially for their superior bedside manner, willing to spend the extra time with you that can be lacking in the U.S.

Folks on Medicare who live in Mexico often buy the public insurance mainly as a safety net for emergencies until they can get back to the U.S. for treatment of more serious illnesses. Other permanent residents either buy the private insurance, still much cheaper than the U.S. or buy expat insurance, the most expensive option.

Expat insurance is more expensive than Obamacare coverage and average U.S. policies, but they allow the ensured to be treated in any country (or sometimes any country other than the U.S. and Japan). Some buy expatriation riders that will ensure they are flown to wherever the best care is.

It’s common knowledge that the cost of drugs and routine tests, annual exams, MRI’s and blood tests in Mexico come in at fraction of the cost of the U.S. So much cheaper are they that many expats simply pay out of pocket than use their insurance at all.  

My own recent experience with an appendectomy leaves me in some doubt about the quality of Mexican surgical care, but one experience in one ill-chosen clinic doesn’t make it the norm. I’m keeping an open mind.

For many Americans, the cost of American healthcare is a prime motivator to living in Mexico.  

In the coming days, I'm going to begin my research on Mexican healthcare starting with the topic of conventional cancer care in Mexico.  One in three of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lives. The obscene cost of newer cancer drugs in the U.S. and lack of confidence many except those with the best, most expensive coverage have that their plan will be enough makes this a good place to start.

The recent American press regarding the Republican drive to shift more costs onto consumers for their care, if enacted, will most assuredly be felt in the out-of-pocket costs of cancer treatment and other more expensive illnesses, like diabetes. Let’s face it, few of them are cheap. Heart medicines seem to be the only category with a number of less expensive drugs.

Too many people have already died for lack of coverage or poor coverage. Others have spent their entire savings and now live with the illness along with additional pallor of being poor. Fifty-percent of bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses even though most of them had health insurance when they fell ill.  

In spite of these facts, many of us would rather think their government or insurer will come through when it comes to them, that a rabbit will be pulled out of a hat somewhere.

It’s almost impossible to tell exactly which costs will be approved by an insurer until we’re sick and someone has to ask. For example, I only have to look at the difference in cost of Retin-A (a skin cream) in one former health care plan ($15) to an earlier health care plan ($300) to extrapolate how the variances could be applied to more critical drugs.

These variations exist based on what deal the insurer can strike with the drug manufacturer. The government could probably drive a pretty hard bargain when it comes to Medicare or health plans it subsidizes. Too bad Congress won’t allow that.

Most of us are just living with our fingers crossed. Some will go bankrupt, others will be relieved and most of us won’t know which we’ll be until we have to actually use our coverage in a major way.

I don’t know if Mexico offers viable options for quality health care other than what I previously noted; cheaper tests, drugs and hospital visits and some exceptional hospitals in larger cities.

Since I will be researching Spanish-language websites and having to translate, the research will take longer. In the meantime, the blog will feature shorter, and more cheerful posts because really, who wants to scare themselves silly over health care every week (No question mark there because its a rhetorical question.)

Ultimately though, I hope to be able to provide a series of posts to help others make better decisions about how to plan for their healthcare if they are considering living either full-or part-time in Mexico.

Mexican Cooking Sites

On to more cheerful subjects as related to Mexico. One of the activities that has always soothed my solitary Saturday nights as a single person, and considerably revved up my Saturday nights as part of a couple with no money has been not-completely-sober cooking.

When I was part of a couple, my ex-boyfriend and I sometimes had all the stove top burners going at once.

Several egg-timers were used concurrently to prevent disaster during our alcohol-fueled cooking adventures. The trick was remembering which egg timer belonged to which burner. I told him I feared it was a technique only one step shy of being a professional alcoholic.

Things have calmed down considerably since then (tristemente) but I still enjoy a challenging recipe accompanied by a good bourbon and a little Miguel Bose or Alejandro Sanz.  If any of you women aren't familiar with Miguel Bosé, I invite you to view his video for International Women's Month, and challenge you to view it only once.

But back to cooking (sigh). Since coming to Mexico, the difference in the availability of recipe ingredients and the fact that I am, "duh" in Mexico, has motivated me to want to learn to cook more Mexican meals.

The challenge, as I’ve stated in earlier posts, is that it’s not as easy as you’d think. A real Mexican food recipe with easily obtained Mexican ingredients most likely is in Spanish, otherwise it’s been adapted to American tastes and grocery stores.

Translating is trickier than you’d imagine too. Measurements are in the metric system and I've discovered bourbon mixes poorly with math. Sometimes an ingredient isn’t defined in a dictionary (“secreto de cerdo” anyone?).

The answer might be cooking videos. Recently, a Mexican girlfriend has posted several recipe videos from Mexican cooking websites on my Facebook page.

My favorite so far is Cocinavital.mex with loads of videos. The other is from a Facebook page called Kiwilmon, which also includes many videos.

These are not all enchilada and taco recipes. They reflect contemporary Mexican dishes that can be distinctly different from what you have in your cookbooks at home. Once you get past the Spanish names for the dishes and watch the sped-up videos, the recipes appear to be easy to follow.

I look forward to posting my culinary successes on Ventanas Mexico Pinterest page, "Recipes that Translate", and blaming my failures on...Miguel Bosé and Alejandro Sanz.

Post-note - The videos work really well! I did the Pechugas Rellenas and they were terrific!

Related (and updated) links:

(Healthcare) Washington Post on escalating cost of cancer drugs.

Someday you may see a glossy picture of me on a brochure smiling broadly from aboard a catamaran heading towards Mazatlan’s Stone Island.  Until then, the picture someone really should take is of me grinning as leaving the grocery store [more...] Ventanas Mexico

Next up:  Never lack material for your next comedic routine when you're learning another language. "Se Va a Morir," and other tales.

Most recent:  Regardless of my book sales, I must confess that you don't have to speak Spanish to live in Mexico.

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online." She is also the author of the upcoming, "If Only I Had a Place," a guide to renting in Mexico. 

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Most people wonder if you can live happily in Mexico without speaking Spanish.

Since I sell a book of curated tools to help you learn Spanish in a way that won’t leave you numb, you probably think this is a trick question.  

The truth is that you can live very happily in Mexico without Spanish. While you cannot pick up the language well enough to be conversant without deliberate study, you can learn enough to operate day to day through a little exposure and attention.

I’d calculate that most retired expats in Mexico don’t speak it conversationally. Usually they don't want to assimilate into the culture in a traditional sense although they assimilate in other ways; by volunteering or organizing fund-raisers for local Mexican charities and causes. They find ways to contribute. 

I have younger friends in Mexico who have children with English-speaking Mexican husbands and have also have never learned beyond the basics. 

Life in Mexico is undeniably less frustrating, cheaper and socially richer if you’re conversant. This I know first-hand from comparing my very first visit, when I hardly spoke any of the language, to my experiences after committing myself to it (post-50 BTW) for a few years.  For this article though, let’s put the advantages of having it aside.

Expats don’t learn Spanish for obvious reasons. They think they’re too old to get started. They have other hobbies they enjoy more. Studying is too boring. They tried to learn many times and found it too frustrating or weren’t making the progress they thought they should.

I have a friend that always invites me hiking. I know the exercise and the fresh air would be good for me and I’d love meeting a few new people. In spite of these and a host of other substantial reasons, I just don wanna (the same way I don' wanna give up Girl Scout thin mints).  I imagine that’s how most people feel about learning Spanish. For this post at least, I am not going to try to convince you otherwise.

Any place you’re considering retiring or moving to part-time in Mexico probably has a reasonably large expat community. The mutual bond of being an expat, while often times making for strange bedfellows, makes friendships easy to make. It’s perfectly natural to approach strangers simply by virtue of your shared status, far less awkward than at home.

For all the disparaging things you hear about “gringo gulches,” enclaves and gated communities where expats who don’t speak the language often live, many expats are very content, ecstatic in fact, living in them.

Being happy is what matters, not what other people think.  Just like neighbors who live in American suburbs and rarely find the need to go into the anchor city,  pot luck dinners and happy hours, socializing with expat neighbors and supporting one another if they're sick is the order of the day in expat communities.

Some of the enclaves are surrounded by golf courses and other amenities. Life is good. (If you want a book that really captures the spirit of the "non-assimilated" expat, read Fran Lebowitz's hilarious "Tales from a Broad: An Unreliable Memoir.")

When you arrive to Mexico, if you can't practice Spanish do practice a little forethought. Find the English speaking doctors as soon as you arrive; don’t wait until you need one. Find out which hospitals/emergency rooms will most likely have English-speaking staff or serve tourist areas. When traveling by car, make sure to take a pocket dictionary in case of a breakdown. 

You will also need a few bilingual friends who can help you with phone calls to the electric, cable and telephone companies. Even when you speak good Spanish, phone conversations are more of a challenge in a second language.

Mexicans are very tolerant of non-Spanish speaking expats. In most cases, the Mexicans you meet when you don't speak the Spanish at all will be in service industries that rely upon, at least desire expat clients. Restaurant and bar staff, shop keepers, house-keepers, tour operators, property management personnel, some plumbers and electricians will largely be used to communicating with non-Spanish speaking clients.

Along the same lines, many Mexicans fool you into thinking the speak English well when they only speak it well within the context of their business and topics that come up in relation to it.

As long as you’re as kind and patient as they are, you will be rewarded. The websites Linguee and Google Translate can help you translate entire phrases before a service call. Gratitude really helps too.

Many Mexicans actually prefer practicing their English to your speaking Spanish. Several times I have found myself in conversations where a Mexican is speaking English and I’m speaking Spanish. We’re both trying to improve our second language and then find ourselves at an impasse, neither one of us willing to give up our ground.

We must look ridiculous to bystanders too, stubbornly plowing along in a linguistic wrestling match until stumbling upon a topic where the one with the stronger grasp of the second language does a take-down.  When you speak only English, you avoid this competitive situation completely.

I will offer a few tips however from observing non-Spanish speakers, mistakes I’ve even made myself.

First, don’t raise your voice.  There is some type of cognitive dissonance that makes us think if we speak louder, they will understand us better. No idea why. My Mexican friends learning English never do this. From that we might assume it’s a cultural dominance issue.

Somewhat related to talking loudly when someone can’t understand you is the common sight of seeing a passenger yelling in English across the aisles or to someone in front or behind them while taking public transportation (Pssst, they can still hear you). This is the social equivalent of talking on your cellphone in a public place. My Spanish friends comfort me by saying Italians are just as bad as Americans are. What a relief!

I can honestly say I have never, ever heard Mexicans yelling at each other while taking public transportation, unless it’s a hired party bus.  This is not to be confused with how loud they can be socializing in their neighborhoods though.

The closest I’ve seen to loudness by locals on public transportation are drunk or out of work Mexicans making rather poetic appeals to riders on a bus for donations.  

As you’re speaking in English to someone who doesn't, speak slowly and clearly. That will allow your listener to more easily pick up the cognates - the nouns and verbs that are very similar in both English and Spanish.  As the cognates accumulate, eventually you will get your point across.

The main reason for the large number of cognates between the two languages is because English borrowed  heavily from two other languages that are closely related to Spanish- Latin and French. Both Spanish and French developed from Latin, which is why they are called ‘romance” languages.

If you don’t speak any Spanish at all, you might pay more because you will need to find service providers who speak English, and sometimes they charge more.  For those instances, an English-speaking Mexican friend who knows what Mexicans pay, some survival Spanish and that pocket Spanish dictionary are highly recommended for even the most linguistically challenged.  

ITunes has many free survival Spanish podcasts, clearly designed for people who want to know enough just to get by. They focus more on memorizing phrases and useful daily vocabulary rather than grammar or building blocks.  From my “Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online,” here are some I liked:

• One minute Spanish
• Finally Learn Spanish/Spanish A+
• Insta- Spanish Lessons by Tracy Tipton
• Learn Spanish with Comentarios
• Five Minute Spanish
• Spanish the Easy Way.

Mexico is a country of softer voices and meaningful glances. You will come to love that. If you can even just match their tone and the general graciousness they exhibit in their communication style, you can still go far in Mexico.

Related Links:

Related to living without Spanish are the reasons to learn it:

Taking Uber is more difficult without Spanish, as they are not professional taxi-drivers 

Should a medical emergency come up, it might be helpful until the English-speaking medics arrived.

Even a little Spanish will go a long way to making Mexican friends in Mexico.

Learning a language is one of the best things you can do to exercise your brain. 

Next Up: The why and how on including cooking websites and information on Mexican healthcare in the same blog.

Most recent: On the practical matter of testing for particle matter in your water in Mexico.

Kerry Baker is the author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online,' a book of online tools curated into lesson plans, along with tips on learning the language as a potential expat.  If living in a Spanish-speaking country is in your future, get started today. 

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water - Loren Eislely"

Sure, it sounds cliche but water is a miracle, always accompanying us. It makes up about 60% of our bodies. We are born from it.  States from California to Florida have fought for decades over it. Historically, people have displayed their wealth by ostentatious display of it via vast green lawns and ornate fountains. It provides our most basic need, even more basic than food. 

No wonder we are obsessed with water, it’s quality and availability. Since contaminated water is one of the leading sources of health problems in the world, everyone should care about it.  While Mexico has made progress in the availability of potable water, there are plenty of situations in which you can’t know for sure of its quality.

Even where I live, a resort where the water is supposedly filtered, disturbing yellow particles are at the bottom of a drinking glass within a few hours. Even Mexicans drink beverages like their ubiquitous Coca-cola's, more often without ice than we do. Ironically, many a girl trying to eating a healthy salad in Mexico has fallen ill because of lettuce washed by impure water.

This might be more than you really want to know, but the most common cause of waterborne illness is bacteria, which include cholera, E. coli and salmonella, but illness can also be caused by protozoa and viruses (like hepatitis A, polio, retroviruses) and chemical pollutants.  

Everyone who lives in Mexico either has filtrated water or they get drinking water delivered in 20 liter bottles (garrafones) for around 28 pesos a bottle. The major suppliers in Mexico are Epura, Ciel and Bonafont.  Efficient, sinewy men deliver these big water bottles and take the empties away for you.  

This digital water tester was recommended by the water service and costs about $75 dollars ($1,483 pesos) through Mercado Libre

So, if you don’t drink the water from a tap, you take caution with ice, you make sure to wash vegetables with bottled water and you avoid exposure by not brushing your teeth with tap water, you’re done, right? Maybe, maybe not.

After 13 years in Mexico, my business partner and I  were introduced to digital water testers by one of the water suppliers in town.  

One of the most surprising things we learned was that even the bottled water that was delivered had varying levels of sediment and the quality of pureness varied from bottle to bottle, company to company.

The fact is that the water quality can be less than perfect even in bottled water that’s delivered to you. If you are a real water purist, you may want to consider one of these testing devices.

True, she’s never been ill (nor have I), possibly because after 13 years she’s adapted to certain pathogens like the locals do.  With time, it becomes less and less likely you'll get sick, although even Mexicans aren't completely cavalier about drinking tap water.  

That being said and just so you know, Mexicans are rightfully insulted by the big stink we North Americans make about their water.  That you'd would come to a country with all of Mexico's charms and complain about the water seems pretty small-minded to them.  

Taking a few precautions is just not that big a deal. Their water quality challenges are more common in the world than our cleaner water is.  In a few months, you won’t even think about it.

Related links:  Mercado Libre seems to have the largest selection [Spanish]

There are a multitude of things to test for, according to this article by Life Hacker.

Most recent: Everyone dreams of what their little hacienda will look like in Mexico. Visit a few local shops with me to see how wide the range is. [videos]

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico, which provides information and resources to potential expats about living in Mexico, like the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online,' a curation of the best tools on the web, organized into lesson plans.

Just like the decor in my little ski-hut in West Virginia reflects where it’s located (although I did tell a friend that I decided to bring the washing machine in from the front porch), I dream of a place in Mexico with decor totally different from the minimalism of my urban-chic apartment in downtown Denver.  

When you live in Mexico, you can’t help but be drawn to the hand-painted tiles and the warmth of its wood-carved doors and furniture common in homes, You begin to appreciate the vibrant palates of both warm and cold colors, the textures of wall-hangings, the Mayan influenced artifacts and the Talavera pottery.

So every now and then, I get my nesting fix in by strolling through a few of my favorite stores in Mazatlan. The stores seem totally different to anything I’d see in the U.S but similar to offerings to be found in decorating boutiques throughout Mexico.

One thing I've learned is to try to get the story or the meaning of the piece before hanging it all the wall...you just never know.

Video Music information

"Impact Andante", "Impact Moderato"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Related links

If you'd like to see Mexican elements beautifully put together, Mexican magazines Homify and Cultural Collectiva have great photo spreads on some modern Mexican homes.

Even if you can't decorate it yourself, these rentals in Mazatlan do a fine job. {Ventanas Mexico]

Next up:  Afraid of the water? Tips and tests you can do to make sure.

Most recent  -  All the little luxuries that you used to not think twice about seem so much more expensive these days, don't they?  Pamper yourself in these eight ways Mexico.

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online" - get your Spanish fix in with the Guide and never get bored again.  Interactive links take you to the best tools on the web and the Guide organizes them into lessons by level and skill developed.

Living like it’s 1985 in Mexico

Tell me if I am recalling this correctly, that you have experienced the same thing.  Back 30 years ago, as a young professional recruiter making about $45,000 a year in San Diego, I remember being able to afford occasional pampering; an expensive haircut, a massage or a training session at the gym.  I wore nice, if not expensive clothing and had enough for the omnipresent bar bill of every twenty some-thing.

Twenty years later, making considerably more money, even as part of a two-income couple I became less inclined to make the expenditure.

Today, thirty years later, I am loathe to pay the upwards to $200 for that salon appointment or the $80 charged by personal trainers at my health club in Denver.

Costs have gone up more than wages. Eliminating these small luxuries is one of the insidious little ways these cold statistics manifest in our lives. 

The luxury of personal services are weightier decisions than they used to be for a "middle income" earner in the U.S. There is some debate on how much you need to make to be classified as middle-class anymore. If defined by a home, healthcare, a car and being able to afford educating your children, which used to be the standard, the calculation is you'd need to be making around $130,000 in most mid-sized and larger cities.

I remember my first six months in Mexico.  I was sharing a house and my housemate informed me that her masseuse was coming to the house that day if I wanted to join her and a friend of her’s for a massage and a glass of wine. Cost: $30.

The sweet spot for most personal services in Mexico is 350-500 pesos or between $17.50 and $25.  Often, they will come to your home.  I never realized how much small luxuries could contribute to your sense of well-being.  Other services you can more easily afford in Mexico:

• Private Spanish tutor  500 pesos  ($25) -  I need work on compound verbs in a way that only a tutor can provide. My tutor is an attorney and comes to my home.  If you are willing to travel to a language center, you might pay 350 pesos.
• Root-touch up or haircut at a local salon - 350 pesos ($17)
• Hair color done by professional at your home - 400 pesos ($25)
• Housekeeping service - 350 - 400 pesos (sometimes this is included with the rent)
• Massage - 350 pesos ($17)
• Complete body exfoliation at a nice salon - 500 pesos plus tip ($27)
• Manicure or pedicure - 350 pesos ($17)
• Personal training session at local gym - 400 pesos ($20 - my gym in Denver charges $80)

Not surprisingly, the ambiance in a spa in Mexico may not be quite up to the level of elegance that you may be used to in some North American spas, although still attractive. I will happily give up a little window dressing not to have to pumice my own feet every time.

One Example: Getting a personal trainer in Mexico

Every year in March, I return to Denver to meet with my accountant and file taxes.  Since I arrive in March, I am hoping to take advantage of the phenomenal amount of snow Colorado has received and do a little spring skiing when I get there.

To prepare, I I hired a trainer, Juan Carlos, from my gym in Mexico for 400 pesos and requested that he put together a special work-out for skiing. Of course you don’t really need Spanish to hire a personal trainer since everything is demonstrated.

It’s quite possible that the guy had never even seen snow before. He admitted he’d never skied.  I was curious about how his session would stack up to similar sessions I’ve had over the years. The day before, I smiled and said, “Be prepared.”  Adorably, he answered earnestly, “Confies in me! (Trust me!)”

In the last decade, in typical U.S. gyms, I’ve noticed that trainers are (usually) no longer the bodybuilders and Greek gods of the past.  Nowadays, they look fit, but nothing that would draw your attention from across a street.

Some people say that in many ways Mexico is like America was in the fifties. Trainers in Mexican gyms still look like they did in the U.S. years ago. That is to say "cut".  They have a different system of working with their clients too.

Rather than staying with you the whole hour like personal trainers in the U.S, they move from client to client. I love this. No one needs a trainer watching you every set, do they? Their movement throughout the gym creates a motivating energy that everyone feels a part of, whether they’re working with a trainer or not.

Incidentally, at my gym in the U.S., there are days where every single person in the gym has earplugs in. Not here. I think that people being aware of one another contributes to greater energy emanating from the room.

In my ski-training session in Mexico, only two exercises were ones I knew.  Equipment in Mexican gyms is usually inferior to good American gyms. Trainers compensate by using free weights and what they do have more creatively.  

My ski work-out did lack a few of the stand-bys, like wall sits. It also seemed to have more upper body exercises than I’ve ever been given for a ski-workout (I think he overestimated the upper body strength needed for pole planting) but I recognized he was working the right muscle groups, including core training.

The most surprising element in my gym is the number of women weight-training there. In all my years of working out, I have never seen so many women in a single gym doing serious weight-training.  On some days, women outnumbered men by 2:1, regardless of the heat. I guess they heard about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's weight work-out before even I did.

Whether it’s a personal training session or consultation on homeopathy, with a little Spanish and some networking, you can find competent Mexicans in practically any personal service profession.  People who can help you live like it’s 1985.

Related links:  Mother Jones has been doing some good work these days, like this piece that includes 12 charts on how overworked Americans are compared to to the past.

Don't forget dinners out in Mexico when you're pampering yourself, which will likely cost less than $20 for an excellent, well-presented meal.  [Ventanas Mexico]

Next up:  Come do a little shopping with me and imagine you're decorating your own place in Mexico {video]

Most recent:  Where would you be right now had you not pushed the outer limit of your comfort zone?    

Kerry Baker is a partner with Ventanas Mexico and author of the "Interactive Guide to Learning Spanish Free Online."  

Spend a little time on the web and you will read how important it is to get started learning Spanish before you go.  The Interactive Guide was written specifically for adults thinking about retiring to Spanish-speaking countries.