[Dan Violette]

I love that Mexico is relatively affordable and close to us in SoCal, but I worry about their cartels’ increasing violence in general. Plus I don’t trust their police and being a non-spanish speaking gringo, I’m pretty sure I’d be on the short end of the law if anything serious happened to me down there.

If they had their crime under control (yes, I know just don’t go drug shopping and I should be fine, right?) I’d consider relocating to places like PV, SMA, Guadalajara, Lake Chapala.

In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for a few weeks visit every so often.

[Charles Davis]

I retired to Puerto Vallarta two years ago. PV has been everything I dreamed of and more. The beautiful beach city, the winter weather, the amazing food, Mexican heritage, and the friendly locals all contribute to that. The gay community here is awesome, dynamic, and very active. In addition, this city is very sociable and much more friendly than most cities in the US. The cost of living is cheaper here, but the devaluation of the US$ and inflation have raised the cost of living for expats.

As far as crime, violent crime is pretty low. I feel much safer here than I felt in most US cities. The US news makes headlines talking about crime in Mexico, but the US has daily mass shootings along with tons of gun violence.

If anyone has any questions about my experience getting here or living here, let me know and I’ll try to help out.

[Mark Goldstein]

Thank you Charles. I’m so happy you are enjoying your retirement in PV.

[Jim White]

I bought a 1 bd/1 ba condo in Puerto Vallarta in Nov 2021, but I still own my home in Los Angeles. I spend a month or two at a time in PV during the winter, and most of the summer in L.A. I don’t like the humidity of the PV summers (although I love the thunderstorms). I’m an L.A. native and have lived in my current home in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles for 40 years. I’m having trouble convincing myself to sell it and buy something bigger in PV (and/or another place for a summer home in SMA or Lake Chapala or somewhere not so humid). Yes, I know, summer and winter homes – so bougie. But I’ll get a lot of money from my home in L.A., – in fact, I may buy a small condo here (DTLA is very trendy) for a pied-à-terre to come back to now and then (for major health care – and my IRA account and my car need a US address). Beyond all of that, I LOVE Mexico. I speak fairly decent Spanish (I have a good accent but not a great vocabulary, which means I can say what I need to say, usually, but then I have trouble understanding the Spanish responses, especially since I sound like I know Spanish better than I do – but the locals are very understanding and they appreciate gringos trying to speak Spanish). Regardless, I love the beach, the sites, the people, the food and the culture. I hate what is happening to PV with LOTS of new big, ugly condo buildings turning it into a Mexican Miami (read: Cancún). The “charming village” feeling is disappearing. Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende are appearing more and more attractive all the time. As well as smaller beach towns up and down the coast, although I love the “gayest resort town in Mexico” side of PV. I never feel unsafe. But then at 75, I’m not out crawling drunk through the streets at 3 am much anymore (not that I ever did – very much). And, as someone else has said, with daily mass shootings in the states, I actually fell safer in Mexico that I do here. If you have questions, feel free to contact me. ¡Divertirse! (“Have fun!”)

[Mark Goldstein]

Thank you, Jim!

At this point, SMA or Ajijic sounds like a better place to live than PV. I won’t really know until I visit them all.

Good luck to you!