These are real stories. That's what is so great about this book. It has details of real lives of Boomers who decided to live in a warm, sunny place.
Robert Nelson's Boomers in Paradise: Living in Puerto Vallarta, profiles fourteen "baby boomers" who now reside in Puerto Vallarta.
A new retirement model can be seen among Boomers living in Puerto Vallarta. Living in Vallarta has meant working for most. Nelson gives "the good" & "the bad" -- which is good -- it's not overly romanticized.
Some boomers says they remain in "PV", as the locals call it, because the people are so "nice and friendly". Nelson covers their struggles, and their zig-zag paths: marriages end, mates pass away. Many were vacationers with "time shares" who decided to stop "sharing their time" in Vallarta and simply move there.
Here are some of their stories:
Buy a Hacienda and Fix it Up into a "B&B"
Debra Old, a widow, grew up on a Saskatchewan prairie farm. She and her husband Jim began vacationing in Vallarta in 1982. In 2002, now a widow, Deb moved to Vallarta, "based only on an emotional connection". She desired a quieter place with less traffic.
On one of her visits to a little mining village in the mountains east of Puerto Vallarta, she saw an old hacienda ("fixer-upper"), bought it and opened " Hacienda Esperanza de la Galera in January 2008. (I'd love to be sitting on that veranda now, how about you??)
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Open a Real Estate Agency
Harriet Cochran Murray -- born in Louisiana -- went to art school, taught art. Entered field of real estate. Vacationed in Puerto Vallarta. Then moved there.
She entered the time sharing business in PV. However, it differed from real estate she knew and she threw in the towel after 4 months. Friends encouraged her to open her own real estate firm, Cochran Murray Real Estate -- she did and she flourished!! The firm sells beautiful homes & villas.
Puerto Vallarta pros & cons
Pros: Advantages: foothills of Sierra Madres. gorgeous weather (same latitude as Hawaii)
Culture: art community, ecotours, whale watching
Education: University: Centro Estudios Universattarios Arcos, affiliated with Polytechnic in Mexico city. Only $45 per month!! (yikes that's great)
Economical: Winter apartment rentals as low as $800 per month
Cons: For those on a tight budget in Mexico, some people say you have to head inland, away from the tourist areas, away from Paradise, and can expect a totally different life style. For the money, Vallarta is extremely hard to beat, but it’s certainly not cheap!
Current Webcam of Puerto Vallarta:
(a picture is worth a thousand words)
Order book, click below:
I've been wishing to move to one of those lush villas for years now, but can't convince my hubby. I hear San Miguel Allende is very nice too, and a magnet for boomer women. Thanks for a nice Monday day dream...
Love=Fun
Dina
Posted by: @CuriousDina | Monday, May 18, 2009 at 09:53 AM