Home is Where…

The days drift by
They don’t have names
None of the streets here look the same
And there’re so many quiet places
And smilin’ eyes match the smilin’ faces

And I have found me a home
I have found me a home
You can have the rest of everything I own
‘Cause I have found me a home

The Great Philosopher (Jimmy Buffett) sang those words in 1973. It hasn’t been quite that long since I posted here, but it’s been a while. Sorry. The days do get away from me. You may remember a previous post in which I said we had to think about whether it was Sunday or Monday or whatever. Now we are at the point where we just don’t think about it. Because it mostly doesn’t matter. The only time in our life here where what day it is has any significance is when we’re trying to figure out which band is playing in which bar, or when the DHL guy is bringing us something from Amazon. Mexico has a unique relationship with clocks and calendars. Two o’clock can mean two thirty, three forty-five, or next Tuesday. It almost never means two o’clock. Same with tomorrow. Tomorrow can mean any time between tomorrow (highly unlikely), and the return of the Christ. For example, the phone and fiber optic lines that come into our house were never buried, they’re just lying on the ground. The conduit for them is buried; the ends of it sticking out of the ground at the appropriate termini. But the wire somehow never got inside the conduit. The house has been here 11 years. Well recently the phone wire got broken by someone walking from the road in front of our house and the golf course behind it. So I went out and twisted the wires together and taped it up. Then we called the phone company. A couple days later (tomorrow) the phone guy shows up. I showed him the lines and how they run the length of our house, turn left at the cart path on the golf course, run the length of the vacant lot next door, the length of the house next to that, and then go into the ground. I showed him both ends of the conduit in which the lines should live. Here’s where it’s good that I’ve adapted. He evaluated the situation and told me the lines should not be on the ground; they should be underground. I agreed. He said this needed to be fixed. Said I: Sí, estoy de acuerdo. He said he would call his boss and someone would be here to fix it tomorrow. That was..well, it wasn’t yesterday.

Moving on. Many of our readers ask us questions about how to move to Mexico. For some reason, the number of these interrogatories have spiked since the 20^th of January. The top five questions:

Can I live there on my Social Security? / Is it really dangerous there? (Tie for # 1)
Can I own property there?
Can I start a business there?
Should I drive or fly and buy a car there?
What’s the job situation? Can I make enough money? (Tie for #5)

My answers (notice it doesn’t say THE answers):

To the Social Security question, yes, probably. Depending on your needs / wants and whether you rent or buy, you can live on as little as $400 a month or spend like a drunken sailor. If you intend to apply for temporary or permanent residence, there are minimum income requirements which, in dollars, can actually change from day to day, since they’re based on a multiple of the minimum wage in pesos, so it will vary with the exchange rate. Contact your local Mexican consulate for the latest requirements. Note: the requirements can also vary from consulate to consulate. To the violence / danger question, no, 95 percent of what you hear is bullshit.
Yes, you can. Foreigners may obtain direct ownership of property in the interior of Mexico. However, foreigners cannot own property outright within the restricted zone. The restricted zone encompasses all land located within 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) of any Mexican border, and within 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) of any Mexican coastline. However, in order to permit foreign investment in these areas, the Mexican government created the “fideicomiso,” which is, roughly translated, a real estate trust. Potential buyers should always get advice from and have a licensed Mexican attorney for all real estate transactions.
Yes, foreigners can own 100% of a business here; however, it’s a lot easier if you have a Mexican National as a part owner. Again, get a lawyer.
You can drive a foreign plated car here if you are here on a tourist card or a temporary resident visa. If you obtain permanent residency, you are not allowed to drive a foreign plated car.
You can’t just come down here and get a job. You can’t get hired for anything a Mexican National can do. You would need to be sponsored in by the company that is hiring you. There are companies out there that are like matchmakers putting together employers here with potential employees. You can work online or, with the appropriate visa, start a business.

Please note that I am not an expert (expert: Someone more than 50 miles from home with a PowerPoint presentation). If you are really considering a move, do some research. By that I don’t mean asking questions on Facebook pages or in chat rooms. Most of the answers you will get there are from people who, however well intentioned, are just as lost as you are. If you can read Spanish, get your info from the Mexican Government websites, like this one: www.aduanas.gob.mx. If you don’t speak Spanish, one of the most reliable, informative sites we’ve found is http://www.soniadiaz.mx/home.html. She runs an excellent site with real, researched information. To find your nearest Mexican consulate in the U.S. or Canada, look here: http://www.mexonline.com/consulate.htm

Anyway, back to it being home. We have embraced Mexico, and Mexico us. Will we stay here in San Carlos? Probably not. We were very acclimated to the Keys, and it gets cold here. (Cold being anything below 75F.) We don’t like cold. At all. We miss the tropics. We’ve talked a lot about it and it seems like the other coast, somewhere between Progreso, Yucatan, and Chetumal, Quintana Roo would better suit us. I’ve always been a Caribbean kind of guy and Irene is happy as long as it’s warm. So that’s probably where we’ll be headed. When? Tomorrow.