The International Community Foundation is pleased to announce its “Retiring Responsibly in Mexico” research series with our first report “U.S. Retirements Trends in Mexico’s Coastal Communities:  Lifestyle Trends and Demographics.”  You can access the report here:  http://www.icfdn.org/publications/retireeresearch/. 
Forthcoming research studies will address trends in health care, volunteerism, philanthropy and civic engagement, real estate as well as the environment.  For more information on the International Community Foundation, visit our website at http://www.icfdn.org.

Linda & I just returned from a 10 day drive from Ajijic,  along the north shore of Lake Chapala to LaBarca, then onto the hwy. 15 Cota (Toll) road to Mexico City, then on to Puebla. A great city where we spent  3 days, then a short driving day to Veracruz for another 3 days.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico has become one of the most popular tourist resort destinations in the world. Because Vallarta is located along the Mexican Riviera on the Pacific Ocean, a substantial portion of these tourists arrive by boat; the majority in large cruise ships, however many come in their private yachts.

There are so many exciting places to visit in the world. Many are better to visit than to live but that depends on your critera for a retirement or 2nd home location.

  1-You can not safely drink the water or eat the food !

We have visited various parts of Mexico since the ‘70s and owned in Ajijic - Chapala since '96 and traveled more. In the late 70's a group of about 150 went out for a evening cruise and party off Acapulco. It turned out that over ½ got Montezuma's Revenge. That was the 70's. The next year we went to Cancun. No one got sick. And (touch wood) in all the years since, we have not nor have many of the hundreds of friends and acquaintances.

Do you remember the 1927 novel, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", which was about a couple of down-and-out Americans that joined up with a crusty old timer to prospect for gold in Mexico? It was later adapted into a film by John Huston in 1948, who returned to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1964 to film "Night of the Iguana".

Quaint, as defined by Webster and others, means unusual or old fashioned in a pleasing way, with a charming old fashioned quality, or oddly picturesque.

Today, the term is more generally applied worldwide to about a dozen warm coastal regions popular with tourists. Mexico is blessed with two such regions; the Riviera Maya and the Mexican Riviera.