On The Move - Part 1 - Where To?

Can you picture gambolling in a field of pretty daisies on a warm spring afternoon? 
​Well, moving house isn’t like that. 
​Stress-free move? Pffft. Forget it.

The only time that moving house is stress-free is if you’re not there, if you’re not involved.
Because believe me, if you are right bang in the middle of it, well, it’s a whole new kettle of fish. 
Raise your hand if you’ve been there and done that. 
You will indeed nod your head at what follows. We didn't make it easy for ourselves.

For those of you who don’t yet know, my husband and I moved from the island of Jersey in September 2014 to another continent, to a country with a language, people, culture, history and climate different from ours: Mexico. 

Yes, it looks like we enjoy a challenge or two. And challenging it certainly was! 

With our boys grown up and flown off the nest, my husband’s job no longer enjoyed and my own laptop asking for a change of scenery, we put our house on the market and two years later, we were gone. 

We didn’t choose Mexico at the drop of a hat. First of all, we had decided long ago that we would retire out of the island.
But where to?
This remained THE question.

In 2005, I started reading about Mexico and the city of Merida in particular. Mexico kept being voted the best place to retire year after year.

The West coast of Mexico was a bit too far away for us. However, Merida, located in the Yucatan State on the East coast, seemed the perfect place for us. 

It would only take a short flight to visit my sister who lives in Montreal and a nine hour flight to England or France.

The tropical weather (I wanted to feel sunshine in my bones),  the good and affordable healthcare (plenty of clinics and a university hospital), friendly locals and Expat community (from Canada and USA), a highly affordable lifestyle, and last but not least, safety.

You probably think that you can’t have Mexico and safety in the same sentence but Merida is said to be the safest city in the whole of Central and South America put together! 

This is how I got it into my head that Merida, Mexico, was THE place to retire.


(Please read what happens next in Part 2.)

A bientôt
Marie-Anne x

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