So I'm a month into this new adventure called retirement. Getting used to this life, it's going to be easy. Especially being in a place like Mexico and not having the day to day responsibility to look after the house and kids. Most days I can wake up, have my coffee looking at the marina and think about what I feel like doing that day. That's the biggest decision I have. I love that feeling.
Puerta Vallarta has been great. The sun shines everyday, we've had no rain. Shorts and sandals is the only thing to wear. Food, restaurants, drinks...it's all cheap compared to Canada. I've had a friend staying with me the last few weeks, we both like cooking so we haven't actually eaten out a lot. We've had lots of shrimp, barbecued oysters, chicken and "arrachera", a marinated flank steak that's damn good on the barbecue. He's leaving tomorrow, another friend is coming in a week. So for the next week I plan on trying some of these restaurants in the marina, lot's of good ones.
A couple of times a week I go for physio appointments. Twice the time at a fifth of the cost in Canada. I'm walking a lot, averaging 10K a day. I love exploring the old "non-tourist" neighborhoods. It's a very different standard of living from the tourist areas. Dirt roads, basic bricks shacks with tin roofs with some really beautiful homes mixed in. Every few homes someone will have a shop selling basic household goods, or drinks and snacks, or they'll have a few chairs and make taco's or tostada's. Even in the poorest of places you'll see them sweeping their dirt porch, clean clothes hanging on a laundry line. Whatever they have they make the best of it.
The middle class is definitely growing here. In all these nice restaurants here, they are often filled with Mexican tourists, you don't see the rust buckets on the roads anymore, most locals have nice cars. I'm looking at yacht called the "Domani" right now. I'm guessing it's worth about $40 milliion US, it's owned by a Mexican family, there is some serious wealth in this Marina and most of it is owned by the Mexican's, not the tourists.
It seems every second day I'm doing something with friends that are in the area. Dinners, hikes, just visiting. I'm finding I need to take more time just to do nothing and relax poolside. This weekend I'm going to go to Nuevo Vallarta and find a "Beach house", where you can sit by the ocean, as long as you buy food and drinks, you don't have to pay for it.
In the stores you can find beer for just over a $1, or you can pay $5 at a nice bar, anything in between. What you spend at a place like this depends on how you want to live. I prefer the $1 I'll pay at a store but once in a while, you got to treat yourself. I plan on doing some of that next week.
I don't find Mexican women as attractive as Asian. But when you see a beautiful spanish girl...they can be stunning! I need to find one, 555.