# Where to live in Chiapas?



## kkondeadline

My partner (69) jis ready to flee the US for fear he'll end up smelling strawberry disinfectant in a nursing home his final years. I (44) think he believes that in Mexico we can better afford help in the home should it come to that at some point. He is interested in Chiapas. We are both fluent in Spanish, both exceed the income requirements and he has lived in Mexico for a number of years in the past. We are seeking a safe small town, high elevation, cooler temps (he has some difficulty with extreme heat). We'd prefer to rent a small furnished place in a town with a restaurant or two, a local market, etc. We'd like to be an hour or less from a big box for a monthly run and not too far from an airport, as I'll be back and forth every other month. Basically, we want very quiet, low key, and don't require an expat community. Any suggestions?


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## RVGRINGO

Chapala is half an hour from the GDL airport and an hour from Guadalajara's malls and big box stores. Elevation is a mile above sea level, yet the Pacific Ocean is half a day away by car. Ajijic, with its heavy expat presence is five miles west of Chapala. It might be the best of both worlds for you.


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## kkondeadline

*thanks for your help*



RVGRINGO said:


> Chapala is half an hour from the GDL airport and an hour from Guadalajara's malls and big box stores. Elevation is a mile above sea level, yet the Pacific Ocean is half a day away by car. Ajijic, with its heavy expat presence is five miles west of Chapala. It might be the best of both worlds for you.


Fantastic! We'll check into that one - thanks so much for the quick response. We're eager to pull this plan together.


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## RVGRINGO

It isn't Chiapas, but Jalisco does have a lot to offer.


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## conklinwh

Don't give up on Chiapas as think a much more interesting area. San Cristobal would be my choice as very mixed with heavy indigenous as well as European flavor. It is higher up and has access to airport about an hour away in capital of Tuxla Guiterrez. It is also surrounded by the most wonderful historical and natural sights. In fact if we didn't want to be within easy days drive to Texas, I would seriously consider moving there. As it is, San Cristobal has become a favorite getaway.


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## kkondeadline

*thank you!*



conklinwh said:


> Don't give up on Chiapas as think a much more interesting area. San Cristobal would be my choice as very mixed with heavy indigenous as well as European flavor. It is higher up and has access to airport about an hour away in capital of Tuxla Guiterrez. It is also surrounded by the most wonderful historical and natural sights. In fact if we didn't want to be within easy days drive to Texas, I would seriously consider moving there. As it is, San Cristobal has become a favorite getaway.


We are far from ruling anything out as we are in the very early stages of planning. Chiapas is our first choice and we'll check out San Cristobal! thanks


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## chicois8

Guess Ringo missed your last line "and don't require an expat community." Chapala ( AKA Gringolandia) is the biggest expat community in Mexico, check out San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas.............


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## kkondeadline

*uh oh*



chicois8 said:


> Guess Ringo missed your last line "and don't require an expat community." Chapala ( AKA Gringolandia) is the biggest expat community in Mexico, check out San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas.............


Ha, ha - I guess so. Nothing against expats and we wouldn't completely avoid a large expat community, but we are very comfortable without that network as well. thanks!


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## RVGRINGO

Chicois8 is quite wrong about Chapala. I think he is referring to Ajijic.


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## chicois8

It has been my experience in Mexico when some one talks about the expat community at Lake Chapala
they just say Chapala weather they are talking about the cities of Chapala, Ajijic, San Juan Cosala or Jojotepec...
It is or has been turning into one long city for awhile anyway.....


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## conklinwh

chicois8 said:


> It has been my experience in Mexico when some one talks about the expat community at Lake Chapala
> they just say Chapala weather they are talking about the cities of Chapala, Ajijic, San Juan Cosala or Jojotepec...
> It is or has been turning into one long city for awhile anyway.....


You are right in that sort of my perception as well. Whether right or wrong, perception is reality to the perceiver.


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## Hound Dog

Well, it happens thgat we live both in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas and Ajijic, Jalisco and, coincidentally, Dawg is also 69. Here is what you need to know about living in both places.

As one becomes more ancient, there are certain factors that become more important. San Crtistóbal is certainly a more interesting community than any community around Lake Chapala from an historical point of view and is a splendid colonial community. However, the climate there at 7,000 feet and modified by moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, can be a bit harsh for the high tropics whereas the climate at Lake Chapala is superb and almost always extraordinarily pleasant.

If I were to advise someone on where to move in Chiapas based upon the criteria you listed, I would suggest the small but very attractive city of Comitan in the Chiapas Highlands and not San Cristóbal which is at a higher altitude and more subject to unpleasant weather conditions. Comitan and the surrounding area in which one can find a number of small towns in which to settle, would be my first suggestion if you wish to live in Chiapas. It is essential that, should you choose Chiapas, you select a highland area at least 4,000 feet above sea level as the climate at sea level is attrocious - hot and humid beyond belief.

One thing to keep in mind and I say this as one who has been retired in Mexico for some ten years living in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The quality of medical care including doctors, hospitals and elderly care workers and facilities are all vastly superior at Lake Chapala and in Guadalajara than in any place in Chiapas and the cost of said care is very economical in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The fact is medical care in Chiapas is at best substandard but is outstanding in Guadalajara which is a short drive from the Chapala area.

When I was 67, I had an emergency gall bladder operation in Highland Chiapas in the filthiest hospital I have ever seen performed by the only surgeon not on vacation at the time. You do not want to do this.

If you are serious about this, let me know and we can discuss this further.


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## Hound Dog

Hound Dog said:


> Well, it happens thgat we live both in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas and Ajijic, Jalisco and, coincidentally, Dawg is also 69. Here is what you need to know about living in both places.
> 
> As one becomes more ancient, there are certain factors that become more important. San Crtistóbal is certainly a more interesting community than any community around Lake Chapala from an historical point of view and is a splendid colonial community. However, the climate there at 7,000 feet and modified by moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, can be a bit harsh for the high tropics whereas the climate at Lake Chapala is superb and almost always extraordinarily pleasant.
> 
> If I were to advise someone on where to move in Chiapas based upon the criteria you listed, I would suggest the small but very attractive city of Comitan in the Chiapas Highlands and not San Cristóbal which is at a higher altitude and more subject to unpleasant weather conditions. Comitan and the surrounding area in which one can find a number of small towns in which to settle, would be my first suggestion if you wish to live in Chiapas. It is essential that, should you choose Chiapas, you select a highland area at least 4,000 feet above sea level as the climate at sea level is attrocious - hot and humid beyond belief.
> 
> One thing to keep in mind and I say this as one who has been retired in Mexico for some ten years living in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The quality of medical care including doctors, hospitals and elderly care workers and facilities are all vastly superior at Lake Chapala and in Guadalajara than in any place in Chiapas and the cost of said care is very economical in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The fact is medical care in Chiapas is at best substandard but is outstanding in Guadalajara which is a short drive from the Chapala area.
> 
> When I was 67, I had an emergency gall bladder operation in Highland Chiapas in the filthiest hospital I have ever seen performed by the only surgeon not on vacation at the time. You do not want to do this.
> 
> If you are serious about this, let me know and we can discuss this further.


Please note that there are several mistakes in the above posting which I was editing but, because I took too long due to interruptions in the process, the administrator did not allow me to complete the corrections. My apologies for the obvious errors in the post.


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## conklinwh

I guess that because we are at 7500+ft that height of Chiapas doesn't much concern us. I'm also quite surprised that Tuxla doesn't have a good set of doctors and international level hospital with all the industry there.


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## kkondeadline

*airports near Comitan*



Hound Dog said:


> Well, it happens thgat we live both in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas and Ajijic, Jalisco and, coincidentally, Dawg is also 69. Here is what you need to know about living in both places.
> 
> As one becomes more ancient, there are certain factors that become more important. San Crtistóbal is certainly a more interesting community than any community around Lake Chapala from an historical point of view and is a splendid colonial community. However, the climate there at 7,000 feet and modified by moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, can be a bit harsh for the high tropics whereas the climate at Lake Chapala is superb and almost always extraordinarily pleasant.
> 
> If I were to advise someone on where to move in Chiapas based upon the criteria you listed, I would suggest the small but very attractive city of Comitan in the Chiapas Highlands and not San Cristóbal which is at a higher altitude and more subject to unpleasant weather conditions. Comitan and the surrounding area in which one can find a number of small towns in which to settle, would be my first suggestion if you wish to live in Chiapas. It is essential that, should you choose Chiapas, you select a highland area at least 4,000 feet above sea level as the climate at sea level is attrocious - hot and humid beyond belief.
> 
> One thing to keep in mind and I say this as one who has been retired in Mexico for some ten years living in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The quality of medical care including doctors, hospitals and elderly care workers and facilities are all vastly superior at Lake Chapala and in Guadalajara than in any place in Chiapas and the cost of said care is very economical in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The fact is medical care in Chiapas is at best substandard but is outstanding in Guadalajara which is a short drive from the Chapala area.
> 
> When I was 67, I had an emergency gall bladder operation in Highland Chiapas in the filthiest hospital I have ever seen performed by the only surgeon not on vacation at the time. You do not want to do this.
> 
> If you are serious about this, let me know and we can discuss this further.


Would Tuxtla Gutierrez be the nearest airport? How long of a drive to Comitan?


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## Hound Dog

We have had occasion to use doctors in Tuxtla Gutierrez and the primary hospital in San Cristóbal de Las Casas for a few problems attendant to old folks and I did not mean to disparage the medical care we received in either place as the physicians we used were most concientious and professional. However, I will say this. There is not a single hospital in either the big city of Tuxtla Gutierrez or the small, exotic but poverty stricken city of San Cristóbal (population about 130,000 of which I estimate about 40% or more are of indigenous Maya heritage and, shall we say, reputedly quite poor although that is a misleading westernized label in a place such as Chiapas). Actually, according to my health insurance company (AXA) the best hospital in the state of Chiapas is in the Tierra Caliente capital of Tapachula on the border with Guatemala. After that is Villahermosa in Tabasco State and both of those places are very far from the lowland capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez or the traditional capital of "Los Altos de Sierra de Chiapas" of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. 

Now, you asked so I am going to answer. As we live in both Ajijic, a village that is a "delegacion" or urban precinct of the municipalty (think of a U.S. county or parish) of Chapala, Jalisco, and San Cristóbal de Las Casas which is a municipality of the state of Chiapas, we will answer what place is preferable based on criteria we will list:

If we sell one of our two houses both of which we treasure equally as homes, it will be the house in San Cristóbal even though that, of the two towns, is the one we prefer as a place to live for several reasons. The reasons are based in practicality and much of that has to do with growing old. None of this preference is based on language although the reader must bear in mind that virtually no one in San Cristóbal nor most of Chiapas, speaks English and that would certainly be a factor for readers of this forum. In fact, in San Cristóbal, more of those you meet on the street are likely to speak the Mayan languages of Totzil or Teltzal than even Spanish if you live in a barrio such as ours.

We know these factors from ten years of living in both Ajijic and San Cristóbal:

* If you are not at least conversant in Spanish and preferably fluent, forget all of Chiapas including the modern state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez which is too damn hot anyway.

If you speak at least a modicum of Spanish, read on:

* The climate at Lake Chapala is far superior to either the highland or the lowland climates in most of Chiapas unless you thrive on hot and humid tropical jungles or arid seashores on the Pacific or unpredictable cloud cover and incessant afternoon chilly inundations during the summer rainy seasons. The climate at Lake Chapala is as perfect as climates get if you are fond of temperatures hovering around 75F most of the year and late evening rainy season magnificent thundershowers followed by six months of no rain at all.
* The hospitals and physicians and shopping and sightseeing in the huge city of nearby Guadalajara can´t be beat and the climate there is amenable as well as the climate at the lake with the caveat that you wil experience some occasional air pollution. A fine and beautiful city for the most part. The city´s international airport is perhaps 30 minutes from Chapala at most and is blessed with flights everywhere including Mexico City if, as we, you mostly fly to Paris if you leave Mexico at all. 
* The local village of San Antonio Tlayacapan on Lake Chapala has the single most impressive and best stocked gourmet food store with food items from all over the world of any grocery in all of Mexico including Mexico City. That´s a fact. 
* Now, and this is important to the reader, San Cristóbal is far more impressive as an eclectic place filled with colorful and exotic people and offering extraordinary foods grown by local Maya villagers and it´s also a lot more attractive architecturally but don´t get sick there if you know what´s good for you.

Ajijic and the surrounding towns are fine if you avoid all those old goobers living there.


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## Hound Dog

The drive from Comitan to the Tuxtla Gutierrez airport would be about three hours. From San Cristóbal, about one hour. The airport is actually located outside of Chiapa de Corzo.


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## Hound Dog

I should mention for those of you considering Chiapas as a future home, that the major airports are located at Tuxtla Gutierrez the state capital with a population of about 600,000 and Tapachula, the state´s second largest city in the Soconusco region that hugs the Pacific Coast from that city to the Tonalá/Arriaga area near the state of Oaxaca. San Cristóbal has an airport that failed and has been closed down for years. I promise you it will not reopen any time soon if ever.

The reader should bear in mind that most flights to either of the regional airports mentioned fly to Mexico City from which one must proceed to most Mexican and international destinations by changing planes so Chiapas is not a convenient place for people seeking easy air travel either with Mexico or internationally.

Guadalajara, on the other hand, is a major regional airport with lots of non-stop flights to other parts of Mexico, the United States and some other countries.

You need to consider your needs if being fairly near an airport is important to you. For example, the family we visit with some regularity lives in France and one can as easily fly to Paris from Tuxtla Gutierrez as Guadalajara by flying to Mexico City non-stop and then on to Paris non-stop via Aeromexico/Air France. Now, Spokane or Yellow Knife might pose more problems and involve a few puddle-jumpers.


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## kkondeadline

Hound Dog said:


> I should mention for those of you considering Chiapas as a future home, that the major airports are located at Tuxtla Gutierrez the state capital with a population of about 600,000 and Tapachula, the state´s second largest city in the Soconusco region that hugs the Pacific Coast from that city to the Tonalá/Arriaga area near the state of Oaxaca. San Cristóbal has an airport that failed and has been closed down for years. I promise you it will not reopen any time soon if ever.
> 
> The reader should bear in mind that most flights to either of the regional airports mentioned fly to Mexico City from which one must proceed to most Mexican and international destinations by changing planes so Chiapas is not a convenient place for people seeking easy air travel either with Mexico or internationally.
> 
> Guadalajara, on the other hand, is a major regional airport with lots of non-stop flights to other parts of Mexico, the United States and some other countries.
> 
> You need to consider your needs if being fairly near an airport is important to you. For example, the family we visit with some regularity lives in France and one can as easily fly to Paris from Tuxtla Gutierrez as Guadalajara by flying to Mexico City non-stop and then on to Paris non-stop via Aeromexico/Air France. Now, Spokane or Yellow Knife might pose more problems and involve a few puddle-jumpers.


That info is very helpful - we'll be flying in and out of Atlanta so we have a lot of options. thanks!


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## Hound Dog

kkondeadline said:


> My partner (69) jis ready to flee the US for fear he'll end up smelling strawberry disinfectant in a nursing home his final years. I (44) think he believes that in Mexico we can better afford help in the home should it come to that at some point. He is interested in Chiapas. We are both fluent in Spanish, both exceed the income requirements and he has lived in Mexico for a number of years in the past. We are seeking a safe small town, high elevation, cooler temps (he has some difficulty with extreme heat). We'd prefer to rent a small furnished place in a town with a restaurant or two, a local market, etc. We'd like to be an hour or less from a big box for a monthly run and not too far from an airport, as I'll be back and forth every other month. Basically, we want very quiet, low key, and don't require an expat community. Any suggestions?


I feel I must continue this conversation as a resident of both the Lake Chapala area and San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. My reason for this is that I am also 69 years old and the OP´s partner is that same age and contemplating a future smelling like strawberry disinfectant in some hospice filled with employees despising you just beneath the surface and sometimes blatantly on the surface and, while the partner didn´t say this, obligatory , Saturday night Texas Line Dancing with other old coots in something they label "Mix & Match".

Who among us does not dread these eventualities plus the exorbitant cost of elderly health care up there in the robber baron empire.

I´ll try to be brief. Chiapas is less expensive than what is commonly known as "Lakeside" along a corridor from just east of Chapala to Jocotepec, a distance of some 30 kilometers or less. That is the concentration of "North-of-the-Border" expat artists and retirees who have settled at Lake Chapala in scores starting primarily in the 1940s. However, because of the large geriatric community, there are more services proferred for us "ancianos" than in many other places in Mexico including Highland Chiapas.

Keep this in mind. You can live incredibly cheaply and even outside of the peso economy in rural Chiapas but this is not a goal for a foreigner arriving there as a stranger and without what the Mexicans I know consider cruciially important - extended family support as one grows older and more decrepit. I know old people in the mountains of Chiapas living in what we from the U.S. middle class would consider mind-bending poverty but they have their own rustic housing and grow essentials in their own milpas and carry their "potable" water up what appears to us to be a steep and impossible cliff to negotiate and never go to town and, by the way, these are people living on indigenous lands where you, my foreign friend, are not welcome except as an anthropologist and even then you do not want to be there if someone, _anyone_, takes a disliking to you.

More later if anyone is interested.


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## conklinwh

We don't have Hound Dog's experience in Chiapas as we just find San Cristobal such a wonderful and fascinating place. My wife is a painter and just can't get over the color bursts in the indigenous outfits. I just wander the local markets trying all the unusual things. It's interesting that most people that we spend time with there are concerned that they might be swamped with people from Mexico City as the high speed highway has made the trip to the airport in Tuxla so much faster. This is an area of Mexico that I really hope can maintain it's character.


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## Hound Dog

conklinwh said:


> We don't have Hound Dog's experience in Chiapas as we just find San Cristobal such a wonderful and fascinating place. My wife is a painter and just can't get over the color bursts in the indigenous outfits. I just wander the local markets trying all the unusual things. It's interesting that most people that we spend time with there are concerned that they might be swamped with people from Mexico City as the high speed highway has made the trip to the airport in Tuxla so much faster. This is an area of Mexico that I really hope can maintain it's character.


I should tell you something conklin. We, as you and your wife, find San Cristóbal charming, historically a treasure and awash with colorfully dressed and exquisitey copper skinned beautiful indigenous people many of whom we have befriended over the past four years since we bought a home there. The fantastic indigenous market just two blocks from our home in the mixed, bohemian barrio of El Cerrillo near the landmark Santo Domingo Ex-Convento provides us endless pleasure and has more truly homegrown vegetables than any of the phony tiaguis selling abastos products typical in much of Mexico.

The reasons we would choose Lake Chapala over San Cristóbal as we grow older is because we are growing older and more likely to become infirm. I must repeat that the climate at Lake Chapala is also superior generally speaking that the climate in San Cristóbal although when San Cristóbal experiences its splendid, crystal-clear high mountain days, the climate there is incomparable.

Now just for clarification, the new autopista from Chiapas de Corzo to San Cristóbal is the best thing that ever happened to the Jovel Valley and, believe me, there is no chance of overdevelopment in the Jovel Valley as San Cristóbal is surrounded by unwelcoming indigenous communities which will never allow development. As for toursits, mainly from Mexico and Europe, San Cristóbal is dependent upon them and , unless you wish upon them continued extreme poverty, I suggest you welcome tourists who pump tremendous amounts of money into the local economy from San Cristóbal to Palenque to Chiapa de Corzo to Tapachula to you name it. Tourism is the life´s blood of Chiapas including all those colorfully dressed indigenous people you so admire. Do not wish them the failure economically you presume would preserve the state´s heritage. Believe me, all those indigenous people you see in San Cristóbal´s historic center are absolutely dependent on tourists.


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## conklinwh

The concern that kept being raised wasn't tourism but in fact that house purchases in San Cristobal would price out the people that live and work there. I have had many similar discussions with people in San Miguel that bemoan that the locals are being pushed out of the center into more cookie cutter colonias and that the resentment this has caused could be a major negative impact.
I live in a very small community with only a few expats. The people I talk to there keep saying that they would never want to be the new San Miguel. They certainly want tourism and that drives investment but I would like to see it managed in a way that maximizes the value to the people that now live there rather than predators that sweep in to snatch land that they can then reprice and resell.
We should look at how we can drive the income and standard of living of the wonderful people that live in San Cristobal and not force them out in the name of progress. I'm all for progress, I just want the benefit to go where it belongs.


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## Hound Dog

conklinwh said:


> The concern that kept being raised wasn't tourism but in fact that house purchases in San Cristobal would price out the people that live and work there. I have had many similar discussions with people in San Miguel that bemoan that the locals are being pushed out of the center into more cookie cutter colonias and that the resentment this has caused could be a major negative impact.
> I live in a very small community with only a few expats. The people I talk to there keep saying that they would never want to be the new San Miguel. They certainly want tourism and that drives investment but I would like to see it managed in a way that maximizes the value to the people that now live there rather than predators that sweep in to snatch land that they can then reprice and resell.
> We should look at how we can drive the income and standard of living of the wonderful people that live in San Cristobal and not force them out in the name of progress. I'm all for progress, I just want the benefit to go where it belongs.



Conlkin, my friend: 
This thing that turned San Miguel d´Allende and Lakeside and a number of other places in Mexico into overpriced "******" enclaves is not going to happen 
inhe Jovel Valley. No way. Otherwise we would not have moved there.

If you do not understand this then your knowledge of the Jovel Valley is highly inadequate so move some place else. You do not belong there.


I have run out of time. More later.


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## conklinwh

Don't think that we would ever move to San Cristobal because of need to be closer to the border so that has never been my thought. I was just reporting what I had been told by multiple people that live there so if they are all wrong, great! I do have concern where we do live and that also from locals.
I will continue to carry Chiapas and San Cristobal as a favorite place to visit and accept your view that all change will be positive. 
I will then focus on how can help where we do live and let you continue your dual focus with my best wishes.


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## Hound Dog

conklinwh said:


> Don't think that we would ever move to San Cristobal because of need to be closer to the border so that has never been my thought. I was just reporting what I had been told by multiple people that live there so if they are all wrong, great! I do have concern where we do live and that also from locals.
> I will continue to carry Chiapas and San Cristobal as a favorite place to visit and accept your view that all change will be positive.
> I will then focus on how can help where we do live and let you continue your dual focus with my best wishes.


Conklin, my friend:

Please don´t misunderstand me. We deeply share your love for Highland Chiapas and recommend that place to you without reservation. Please contact me at [email protected] if you wish to discuss this further out of the limelight. My name is Bob Plummer and I may be able to give you some ideas ona move to San Cristóbal or other Chiapas towns in the highlands. Good luck in your search.

Bob


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## conklinwh

Not sure why you thought or think that we are looking to move to Chiapas. We aren't! We think it is a great place to visit but really love our small ghost mining town and plan to use that as our base for travel. Good that we can basically get everywhere easily.
Great to talk but not sure of the subject.


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## Hound Dog

conklinwh said:


> The concern that kept being raised wasn't tourism but in fact that house purchases in San Cristobal would price out the people that live and work there. I have had many similar discussions with people in San Miguel that bemoan that the locals are being pushed out of the center into more cookie cutter colonias and that the resentment this has caused could be a major negative impact.
> I live in a very small community with only a few expats. The people I talk to there keep saying that they would never want to be the new San Miguel. They certainly want tourism and that drives investment but I would like to see it managed in a way that maximizes the value to the people that now live there rather than predators that sweep in to snatch land that they can then reprice and resell.
> We should look at how we can drive the income and standard of living of the wonderful people that live in San Cristobal and not force them out in the name of progress. I'm all for progress, I just want the benefit to go where it belongs.


Conklin, my friend:

You must understand and I know you do, the difference between isolated Deep Highland Chiapas and popular, easily reached San Miguel and you should also know that I am quite sympathetic with your stance on the pricing out of locals which is a huge issue in the foreign colony of Ajijic, Jalisco on Lake Chapala where we live about half the year each year . 

The similarity between Ajijic and San Miguel and a discussion of where these urban areas influenced significantly by foreign migration are heading is one thing. San Cristóbal de Las Casas is, in my opinion, quite another matter. There is not a significant foreign community in San Cristóbal and the foreign community that is there is mostly European, engaged in private enterprise and assimilated well into the local community. Even the small American and Canadian foreign communities living in San Cristóbal mostly speak Spanish or one of several Maya languages and mingle freely with locals (with certain limitations I can go into later since San Cristóbal is a highly stratified social environment)) while the same people living at Lake Chapala or San Miguel are far less likely to speak local languages or mingle notably with local folks from their own social strata.

San Cristóbal has several characteristics that will make it a poor candidate for any significant migration of foreigners including its relative isolation even with the new autopista, a climate which more changeable and prone to unpleasantness than San Miguel or Lake Chapala and the fact that it is surrounded by vast slums of indigenous refugees and indigenous controlled communities in mountainous areas not amenable to the development of large (or, for that matter, any) suburban foreign enclaves. As for foreigners taking over the historic center, real estate in that area has long been relatively expensive and, unlike such places as Merida , San Miguel and the foreign enclave on Lake Chapala known as "Lakeside", turnover of properties in the historic center continues at a snail´s pace and is limited by somewhat archaic marketing techniques emphasizing local word-of-mouth communication.

As for the tourists, upon whom San Cristóbal is very dependent since it is a poor city with very little industry, they simply come and go and fill local hotels and buy all sorts of bric-a-brac and fine artisanal prodfucts from locals and have no significant affect on property values or food prices outside of tourist oriented restaurants. 

One has to live in San Cristóbal and travel extensively throughout Chiapas to begin to understand that this incredibly beautiful but desperately poor state will never be home to any large foreign retirement community for any number of reasons. Not in my lifetime, anyway. This is not San Miguel nor Chapala nor Pátzcuaro nor Cabo San Lucas nor Merida nor Puerto Vallarta nor any other like places here in Mexico. Chiapas ain´t gonna be changing significantly while Dawg is alive or for many years after that. 

More later. Gotta go.


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