# Meet Caribbean Cat



## Caribbean Cat (May 2, 2013)

Hi, My name is Catherine and I moved to Tulum, Mexico in 2008 from Denver, Colorado. My husband and I moved here with our yellow Lab, Yeller. Yeller has since passed away but don't despair. On his last day, we gave him a steak breakfast, a swim on the beach, chocolate ice cream and lots of kisses and hugs. We wanted to send him off before his cancer got the best of him: He was still his happy-go-lucky self. 

A lot of people ask us why we left beautiful Colorado for Tulum and my usual reply is that my husband and I had a mid life crisis at exactly the same moment. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with our life in scenic Colorado. It was that I was asking myself the same question a little too often, "Is this it? Is this the way it's going to be?" My husband and I had definitely settled into the suburbia lifestyle and our life was very comfortable. Too comfortable. We were on a treadmill and I was wondering where the excitement in life went. 

Our business since 1996 had been building and operating on-line retail stores. We enjoyed our work a lot as it was fun finding new products, building the site, keeping current on SEO practices and just generally running the show. To operate our business, we only needed a phone line and internet access. Our manufacturers shipped direct to our customers, so we did not need a warehouse or store front. 

In 2007, my husband and I booked a vacation in Akumal. We brought our laptops with us so we could keep sales up while still taking an adventure. We have always been the type to rent a jeep and go exploring, and on this particular trip, we were about to "discover" the sleepy little town of Tulum.

This is where the trouble begins: I am pretty sure it was the deadly combination of steady internet access, mean mojitos, over-the-moon ceviche, wild jungle roads, pristine white beaches, aqua colored water, warm sun and cool nights that did us in. We met with a Realtor in Tulum, put our house on the market in Colorado, and announced to our family and friends that we were moving to Tulum.

The normal reaction was a blank stare followed by, "Are you crazy?"

Well, yes and no. 

Moving to a new country is not a piece of cake so I am not here to tell you that it's all going to go according to your plan. In fact, take your perfectly executed plan and keep it in your nice clean notebook on the shelf and know that another plan that you don't know about is probably what's going to happen. It's going to be uncomfortable and messy and scary but most of all, it's going to wake you up to life in all it's glorious chaos. 

I love my mid-life crisis, my husband and our adopted jungle kitten, Mosie.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Caribbean Cat said:


> Hi, My name is Catherine and I moved to Tulum, Mexico in 2008 from Denver, Colorado.


:welcome: to the Mexico Forum!


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## nuevavida (Jun 15, 2012)

Great story! Thanks for sharing! We just move to Cozumel this past January (2013), and are renting here and our home in FL is rented and covering the mortgage+. Perhaps we will take the big plunge and buy in a few years. 

Saludos


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## q_vivar (Sep 6, 2012)

Similar mid-life crisis, however I met a guy who was in the states um, illegally, while I was volunteering for a non-profit that tutored ESL. I sold my business and house and loaded my kitchen stuff, my bike and my books and his 3 years of accumulated tools into a van and drove him back here. I've been here a year and while the adjustment wasn't always easy, I think I'm staying.


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## ehw23 (Sep 21, 2012)

I think you made the right decision. Sometimes we let life get too stagnant and the change is what we need. 

Glad you made it and are happy


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## Caribbean Cat (May 2, 2013)

q_vivar said:


> Similar mid-life crisis, however I met a guy who was in the states um, illegally, while I was volunteering for a non-profit that tutored ESL. I sold my business and house and loaded my kitchen stuff, my bike and my books and his 3 years of accumulated tools into a van and drove him back here. I've been here a year and while the adjustment wasn't always easy, I think I'm staying.



The lifestyle is a little addicting, isn't it! Was it difficult to bring your boyfriend back over the border or did he sail on through?


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## q_vivar (Sep 6, 2012)

Caribbean Cat said:


> The lifestyle is a little addicting, isn't it! Was it difficult to bring your boyfriend back over the border or did he sail on through?


That was smooth sailing!


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## Greenlady (Feb 8, 2013)

Hey Catherine! Similar story here, only in my mid-life crisis I ended up separating from my life and penny pinching husband and met up with a wonderful man full of life and love for Mexico. We took a vacation and armed with a couple of years reading International Living magazine and a determination to find a retirement lifestyle we loved and could afford, ended up in Tulum and bought some property. We are just about to start building and can't wait to leave our cold Canadian winters for good.


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