Canadians and Americans living in Mexico

When we were in San Miguel in late 2013 we were told by several sources that there were approximately 14,000 foreign residents in SM out of a population of 65,000, and about 5000 were Americans. Plus quite a few come down for the winter.

I am one of those American gringos living full time in a small (15K) town in Baja California Sur named Loreto. Maybe several hundred are gringos.
Loreto sits right on the Sea of Cortez north of La Paz about 200 road miles.
Only one highway north and south......MX highway 1.

I moved here in 2002 from San Diego, CA
First priority was the good fishing.
Then the relaxed rules and regulations as compared to SoCal.

I bought a home outright from the proceeds of the sale of my San Diego home with plenty to spare.

Yes, it's a challenge at times to just find things and navigate the foreign system of how things are done in MX. The adventure of it all keeps things interesting.

My house is within 2 blocks of the boat launching ramp and NO one cares if the boat trailer has lights or license plates.
No one cares if some kids ride in the boat from my house to the ramp and no one cares if I use an old beater Suzuki Samurai as my tow vehicle.

Labor and taxes are the 2 cheapest things going.
Day to day food stuffs are less than San Diego, especially local goods such as eggs, chicken and tortillas.

Did I mention there is only ONE signal light in town?

Clarkster I loved your post and you should know it!

clarkster wrote:
I am one of those American gringos living full time in a small (15K) town in Baja California Sur named Loreto. Maybe several hundred are gringos.
Loreto sits right on the Sea of Cortez north of La Paz about 200 road miles.
Only one highway north and south......MX highway 1.

I moved here in 2002 from San Diego, CA
First priority was the good fishing.
Then the relaxed rules and regulations as compared to SoCal.

I bought a home outright from the proceeds of the sale of my San Diego home with plenty to spare.

Yes, it's a challenge at times to just find things and navigate the foreign system of how things are done in MX. The adventure of it all keeps things interesting.

My house is within 2 blocks of the boat launching ramp and NO one cares if the boat trailer has lights or license plates.
No one cares if some kids ride in the boat from my house to the ramp and no one cares if I use an old beater Suzuki Samurai as my tow vehicle.

Labor and taxes are the 2 cheapest things going.
Day to day food stuffs are less than San Diego, especially local goods such as eggs, chicken and tortillas.

Did I mention there is only ONE signal light in town?

We have good memories of our two visits to your area in the 2008 2009 era. Although for us I think we are more attracted to the historic towns and cities of the mainland I remember being struck by two things while in that area.

1. The absolute tranquility of walking down main street at any hour of the day. It was sometimes busy but never "busy". DOn't know how to explain that any better.

2. The second thing that struck me was...one of the branches of the trees on main street. They don't trim those to a comfortable height for those of us over 6 feet. I hope you don't mind if I post a few pics of your town.















We miss Mexico so much but have a limited budget in which to travel the world. We spent the summer in Europe and just made plans for another three weeks travelling in the Andalusia regions of Spain next year. That is a prep trip to buy an RV there and hopefully tour for 9 months through Europe and Morocco. Mexico is on our radar but probably 5 years out at this point.