Chapter 1: Time to Escape Winter
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It started innocently enough over a bottle of red wine. One cold April evening, I suddenly blurted out to my husband, Soren, “I hate Toronto, I hate the climate”. Even for me that was a little odd, having lived there for 61 years. And so began the search of where to spend the winter, with an eye out for a possible future move. Retired at 60 from advertising, we were fully expecting to enjoy our relaxed life in Toronto. All the ingredients were there: we belonged to a golf club,we were members of a tennis club. The club joining was a carefully planned and financed path - golf courses, tennis courts, gyms and yoga mats were waiting for us during the day. What a concept.
Except the retirement recipe wasn’t working for us, it was more like a sunken soufflé. Midway through year two of retirement, we both decided we were bored out of our minds. Fortunately, not with each other. We were just so bone tired of Toronto’s icy cold climate. The daily question became “is Toronto where we want to spend our last 25 years?”
That’s an easy question for us to ask, as we have no children, no parents, no pets. Nothing was keeping us in Toronto, we were absolutely free to explore. As the research progressed I realized how desperate I was for a complete change. We both agreed to a five month test, obviously avoiding another Ontario winter.
We both loath:
- Camping
- Road trips
- Packing/unpacking
- Hunting/hiking/river rafting/ or anything resembling extreme sports or adventure
We both have travelled in the US/Canada/Europe/Australia/NewZealand/Scandinavia and Mexico. We batted countries around like tennis balls but most didn’t make it over the net, because of climate, culture and budget.
We both wanted an urban environment, so the criteria became:
- must be on the ocean
- a decent population with a working infrastructure
- must have a manufacturing backbone, not just tourism
- superb climate, hot not temperate
- long term affordability
Being Canadians we are, of course, obsessed with health care. Every time Mexico came up, it was a giant red flag, but we kept saying “it’s only for five months, how bad can it be?”
Over the years I had visited these cities in Mexico: Cabo (too cold, too touristy); Puerto Vallarta (ideal climate, way too touristy); Manzanillo (good climate, too small); Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (too cool, too touristy); Cancun (never an option); and San Miguel de Allende (inland, too cold). Mazatlan rose to the top of the list.
Mexico? Truly an unusual choice for two people who don’t speak a word of Spanish, and are whiter than a full moon. I was about to have my complete change wish fulfilled at our fully furnished apartment at Villa Serena, Centro Historico, Mazatlan.
You can email Sheila at sheilamadsen[a]helloboomers.com
Look for the next chapter January 15
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Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.