# Expat Community in Mahahual?



## Roxxy774

My husband and I are exploring the possibility of relocating to Mexico. We have done some limited research into different countries, including Ecuador, Panama, and Belize but Mexico's proximity to the US is influencing us to look hard at moving there.

My husband is a retired fire fighter, currently working part time for the local sheriff's office and we both do some part time fencing work. I own and operate a small tax office of 1 (me! lol) and have worked hard to grow my business in recent years. Our daughter just graduated from college so the possibility of changing locales is finally feasible. 

Our primary motivations include a more relaxed lifestyle, coastal living, and most importantly, a lower cost of living. Frankly we're both tired of pinching pennies just to have a decent lifestyle! So the information we've read about average living costs for couples in Mexico (obviously varying from community to community) is VERY appealing.

Our tentative plan is to visit for a month and just explore. We have only visited Mexican border towns (decades ago) and resort communities on cruise ports of call. If after staying for a month we still find ourselves intrigued we plan to rent for at least six months. Not until we've lived there at least that six months will we consider purchasing real estate. We're real newbies and just sticking our toes in the water at this point.

I would love to chat with other expats located in the Mahahual area, as well as those in neighboring areas, ask questions about your experiences, seek advice, and just get more information. Anyone out there?

Thanks!

Barbara & Hal


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## Isla Verde

Where is Mahahual?


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## Longford

Isla Verde said:


> Where is Mahahual?



Mahahual - wikitravel

Mahahual - Photos from Google


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## chicois8

Mahaual is the docking port for cruse ships on the Quintana Roo coast between Tulum and Chetumal...

I have been there 3 times, twice when the ships were in town and once when no ships were there...

When the ships are there the place is alive with beach clubs,restaurants, massage tables and vendors selling the usual tourist crap ....

The rest of the time its a ghost town and I am not sure how many days a week the cruisers are there...
I do not know what the OP would do there to make money......good luck

P.S. It appears the ships only port there from Oct. through May and mostly 3 to 4 days a week....


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## Isla Verde

Longford said:


> Mahahual travel guide - Wikitravel
> 
> Mahahual - Photos from Google


Thanks for posting this, Longford. QR is one part of Mexico I'm not familiar with at all.


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## Roxxy774

chicois8 said:


> Mahaual is the docking port for cruse ships on the Quintana Roo coast between Tulum and Chetumal...
> 
> I have been there 3 times, twice when the ships were in town and once when no ships were there...
> 
> When the ships are there the place is alive with beach clubs,restaurants, massage tables and vendors selling the usual tourist crap ....
> 
> The rest of the time its a ghost town and I am not sure how many days a week the cruisers are there...
> I do not know what the OP would do there to make money......good luck
> 
> P.S. It appears the ships only port there from Oct. through May and mostly 3 to 4 days a week....


Sounds like you don't have a high opinion of the area...what other place would you suggest? While we are not particularly interested in the "tourist crap" we would like to find an area near other expats with reasonable access to some modern facilities (i.e. medical care, shopping, etc).

Any suggestions?


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## Isla Verde

chicois8 said:


> Mahaual is the docking port for cruse ships on the Quintana Roo coast between Tulum and Chetumal...
> 
> I have been there 3 times, twice when the ships were in town and once when no ships were there...
> 
> When the ships are there the place is alive with beach clubs,restaurants, massage tables and vendors selling the usual tourist crap ....
> 
> The rest of the time its a ghost town and I am not sure how many days a week the cruisers are there...
> I do not know what the OP would do there to make money......good luck
> 
> P.S. It appears the ships only port there from Oct. through May and mostly 3 to 4 days a week....


It doesn't sound very appealing to me as a place to settle in for the long term, but to each his or her own. The OP said nothing about needing to work in Mexico. Since her husband is a retired fire fighter, no doubt he has a pension they'll be able to live on.


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## Roxxy774

Isla Verde said:


> It doesn't sound very appealing to me as a place to settle in for the long term, but to each his or her own. The OP said nothing about needing to work in Mexico. Since her husband is a retired fire fighter, no doubt he has a pension they'll be able to live on.


Yes, we would be completely retired if we choose to make this move. Hence the caution; being self-employed I would be starting over from scratch if I left for a year or two then decided to move back to the states.

I'm not as concerned about the climate as perhaps I should be, however, North Central Texas is a pretty good training ground for relocation to a perpetually hot clime. Right at this moment it is 103 Fahrenheit outside my door.

We usually spend the months of May and September on the beach in the Florida panhandle so we're somewhat accustomed to the coastal life, although we do understand the weather and sand are about the only things similar between the Florida gulf coast and the Mexican coast!


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## citlali

The coast between Mahahual and Xcalac requires that you be a very special person to live there .It is not a ghost town outside of the cruisers but unless you are an artists or have some type of work that will keep you busy you will quicly become a serious alcoholic or get nuts or both. It is pretty isolated some of the places have water delivered and no electricity so they have those noisy generators. 
One of my ex neighbors in Chiapas was an artist and she lived there for several years, she made money when she left as she arrived before the mini boom but almost lost her mind and left the friend or husband to his bottle . I know another couple who built a house there and live somewhere else and just rent the place out..
There is only so many hours you can devote to diving, swimming or fishing..then it is back to drinking if you are not already doing that on the boat..

The cost there is not that great and has a lot of coral close to the shore. The mosquitoes can drive you nuts as well. A week there is an eternity, I like Xcalc better but it is even more isolated.

Are they foreigners there yes but not many who stay tehre very long from what we saw.


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## Roxxy774

citlali said:


> The coast between Mahahual and Xcalac requires that you be a very special person to live there .It is not a ghost town outside of the cruisers but unless you are an artists or have some type of work that will keep you busy you will quicly become a serious alcoholic or get nuts or both. It is pretty isolated some of the places have water delivered and no electricity so they have those noisy generators.
> One of my ex neighbors in Chiapas was an artist and she lived there for several years, she made money when she left as she arrived before the mini boom but almost lost her mind and left the friend or husband to his bottle . I know another couple who built a house there and live somewhere else and just rent the place out..
> There is only so many hours you can devote to diving, swimming or fishing..then it is back to drinking if you are not already doing that on the boat..
> 
> The cost there is not that great and has a lot of coral close to the shore. The mosquitoes can drive you nuts as well. A week there is an eternity, I like Xcalc better but it is even more isolated.
> 
> Are they foreigners there yes but not many who stay tehre very long from what we saw.


Well that does sound discouraging and my husband has expressed some concern about what we would spend our days doing. Definitely something to consider!

Where we live now is very remote...we are 5 miles from the nearest paved road and our nearest neighbor is about a mile away; a very rural community. We are not big partiers and frankly spend most of our time working around the place and just working. When we're at the beach we read, sight see, visit friends, stuff like that. 

Perhaps we need to rethink where to look. What would you suggest?


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## Hound Dog

Be cautious about moving to Majahual on Quintana Roo´s southern Caribbean coast as that area is slated for major development so the small town with its extended pier used for docking cruise ships may be in for significant development including a major regional airport to serve southen Quintana Roo and its Caribbean beaches to the Belize border. Today, Majahual is a small port periodically overrun by cruise ship dockings but I would not count on that staying the same in the foreseeable future. This southern area of coastal Quintana Roo is isolated and requires a special personality to cope with living there without resort to the bottle. Yet, if Mexican government planners have their way, the area will become overwhelmed by the tourist trade. It´s a gamble to move there according to your expectations. 

A few years ago, while searching for an alternate residence to the Lake Chapala area, we looked closely into Majahual, Xcalac and Laguna Bacalar in southern Quintana Roo as places to reside and rejected them all as depressive environments after one tires of the sameness of the pretty water and limited cuisine.

I asked a resident of Xcalac as to what, in a village suffering from years of hurricane destruction where Coca Cola and a bag of peanuts is a gourmet meal, there was to do there if one were to move to this totaly isolated place and he told me, "Well, in the mornings one goes diving and/or fishing until one gets bored with that day-after-day and then one gets drunk about noon and passes out and then wakes up the next day and starts the same thing all over again. Then, over time, if this dissolute lifestyle affects your health and you need medical care, the nearest clinic or hospital worth a bag of beans is a couple of hours or more distant in Chetumal but we don´t think about that too much - especially during hurricane season when, at any time we could be gone with the wind." 

By the way, the mosquitoes there are so fierce, if you ever break down on the coast road from Xcalac to Majahual and try to walk to your destination you may perish from loss of blood or go insane from the incessant assult of those seriously insane creatures attacking you without mercy.


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## Roxxy774

Hound Dog said:


> Be cautious about moving to Majahual on Quintana Roo´s southern Caribbean coast as that area is slated for major development so the small town with its extended pier used for docking cruise ships may be in for significant development including a major regional airport to serve southen Quintana Roo and its Caribbean beaches to the Belize border. Today, Majahual is a small port periodically overrun by cruise ship dockings but I would not count on that staying the same in the foreseeable future. This southern area of coastal Quintana Roo is isolated and requires a special personality to cope with living there without resort to the bottle. Yet, if Mexican government planners have their way, the area will become overwhelmed by the tourist trade. It´s a gamble to move there according to your expectations.
> 
> A few years ago, while searching for an alternate residence to the Lake Chapala area, we looked closely into Majahual, Xcalac and Laguna Bacalar in southern Quintana Roo as places to reside and rejected them all as depressive environments after one tires of the sameness of the pretty water and limited cuisine.
> 
> I asked a resident of Xcalac as to what, in a village suffering from years of hurricane destruction where Coca Cola and a bag of peanuts is a gourmet meal, there was to do there if one were to move to this totaly isolated place and he told me, "Well, in the mornings one goes diving and/or fishing until one gets bored with that day-after-day and then one gets drunk anbout noon and passes out and then wakes up the next day and starts the same thing all over again. Then, over time, if this dissolute lifestyle affects your health and you need medical care, the nearest clinic or hospital worth a bag of beans is a couple of hours or more distant in Chetumal but we don´t think about that too much - especially during hurricane season when, at any time we could be gone with the wind."
> 
> Not for us.


Wow! Okay, I'm starting to realize that we've made a poor choice of locales. Hmmm...the response from the Xcalac resident is really quite depressing. As to the hurricanes you're right, the gulf and Caribbean are both vulnerable areas. Although having spoken at length with a Belize native I was led to believe that the area is semi protected and often missed by hurricanes. 

We hope to relocate to a coastal community either in Mexico or the states so hurricanes are something we will have to learn to live with. Right now we live in tornado alley and so far have managed to hang on to our hats.

I hadn't considered the Pacific coast...our family is all in Texas and Georgia so the East coast of Mexico "felt" closer...that was foolish. Just seems that so much that I've heard about that area is so California...the land of fruits and nuts...I'm not sure this Texan would transplant well there...perhaps I should look again...


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## citlali

I used to love the beach when I visited it, we lived for 10 years
on a marine reserve a few miles south of San Francisco and I called this my lost years... The ocean was beautiful but there we did not have the awful heat but the fog. and we had no sand as we were on a cliff so that was a plus for me. 
The maintenance is pretty high if you live near the water, our brand new car had a rusted underside in 3 years. Our tv in the bedroom lasted 6 motn as the foam would go theough the room once in the while, everything was destroyed pretty quickly so you have to think maintenance as well.

If you have lived in a place on a beach before then maybe you are a beach person. When I was young I lived on the mouth of a river on the gulf and that was fun , it was very isolated and I had no problem with it.
Now in Mexico I am not looking for isolation, I want a place that is not too far remote from a town with real doctors and a place where I can get decent food.
For me the beach is nice to visit but not to live anymore. The sun ispretty powerful and I like it as long as I am in the shade...things change.
Pick a place you think you are interested in and RENT live there a year or two and then decide.
You will be in a foreign country where you do not speak the language (I assume even if you do speak it you have to meet new friends get to know the people you can trust and the ones to avoid, find out who can do what fix your place so the first year is busy no matter where you go but then you hav eto be sure after you settle that it is the place for you.

Rent and give the beach a try and then see. If I were to move to Majahual I would rent on a month to month basis to start with during the summer, if you can take it you will be happy there if not you can always visit in the winter.

My husband who is from the gulf area in the States wanted to move to the beach so we rented a place in Akumal for a month, right on the beach, I went nuts after 3 days , had to go and visit places, came back after 3 or 4 days stayed anoter 3 or 4 days and I had to go to Merida,,we left after 3 weeks...never to go back.

Everyone is different but do not buy try it first.


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## Hound Dog

[_QUOTE=Roxxy774;1240506]Wow! Okay, I'm starting to realize that we've made a poor choice of locales. Hmmm...the response from the Xcalac resident is really quite depressing. As to the hurricanes you're right, the gulf and Caribbean are both vulnerable areas. Although having spoken at length with a Belize native I was led to believe that the area is semi protected and often missed by hurricanes. 

We hope to relocate to a coastal community either in Mexico or the states so hurricanes are something we will have to learn to live with. Right now we live in tornado alley and so far have managed to hang on to our hats.

I hadn't considered the Pacific coast...our family is all in Texas and Georgia so the East coast of Mexico "felt" closer...that was foolish. Just seems that so much that I've heard about that area is so California...the land of fruits and nuts...I'm not sure this Texan would transplant well there...perhaps I should look again...[/QUOTE]_

Roxxy:

Citlali and I are not in fear of hurricanes and I grew up on the Alabama coast near Mobile where hurricanes are quite common. She and I also lived for some 35 years in California, mainly San Francisco - what you frivolously call the "land of fruits and nuts". I suggest that you´re being misled about the Pacific Coast of Mexico (and California, for that matter) but the Caribbean Coast of Mexico is also very nice and and there are many places that would be quite pleasant in which to reside. I suggest the Tulum or Cozomel areas on the Caribbean or, perhaps, the Bays at Huatulco on the Pacific as alternatives. There is nothing wrong, actually, with living on the beach in Southern Quintana Roo but take lots of high octane rum with you to help you get through the day.


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## Roxxy774

citlali said:


> I used to love the beach when I visited it, we lived for 10 years
> on a marine reserve a few miles south of San Francisco and I called this my lost years... The ocean was beautiful but there we did not have the awful heat but the fog. and we had no sand as we were on a cliff so that was a plus for me.
> The maintenance is pretty high if you live near the water, our brand new car had a rusted underside in 3 years. Our tv in the bedroom lasted 6 motn as the foam would go theough the room once in the while, everything was destroyed pretty quickly so you have to think maintenance as well.
> 
> If you have lived in a place on a beach before then maybe you are a beach person. When I was young I lived on the mouth of a river on the gulf and that was fun , it was very isolated and I had no problem with it.
> Now in Mexico I am not looking for isolation, I want a place that is not too far remote from a town with real doctors and a place where I can get decent food.
> For me the beach is nice to visit but not to live anymore. The sun ispretty powerful and I like it as long as I am in the shade...things change.
> Pick a place you think you are interested in and RENT live there a year or two and then decide.
> You will be in a foreign country where you do not speak the language (I assume even if you do speak it you have to meet new friends get to know the people you can trust and the ones to avoid, find out who can do what fix your place so the first year is busy no matter where you go but then you hav eto be sure after you settle that it is the place for you.
> 
> Rent and give the beach a try and then see. If I were to move to Majahual I would rent on a month to month basis to start with during the summer, if you can take it you will be happy there if not you can always visit in the winter.
> 
> My husband who is from the gulf area in the States wanted to move to the beach so we rented a place in Akumal for a month, right on the beach, I went nuts after 3 days , had to go and visit places, came back after 3 or 4 days stayed anoter 3 or 4 days and I had to go to Merida,,we left after 3 weeks...never to go back.
> 
> Everyone is different but do not buy try it first.


Absolutely...we are quite skittish about actually purchasing in Mexico. Frankly we have discussed simply renting indefinitely. It's a foreign concept to us...we bought our first house when I was just 19 and have owned ever since. Right now we own a small cattle ranch in North Central Texas and the idea of not owning what we occupy is odd. 

It's funny to me how you went so stir crazy at your beach house. It reminds me of the tales of terror I was told when I announced my decision to put my career on hold and stay home to raise my kids. All my friends said I'd be bored stiff within the first month, going crazy for daily adult contact. And I'll admit there were times I all but dragged the UPS guy inside just to have a conversation with a grownup. But it felt right at the time and turns out it was the right choice for our family. And interestingly enough, I seriously can count the number of days I was bored on one hand with fingers left over. Not a great comparison but simply an illustration that, clearly, I am easily amused and entertained by the most inane things.

I appreciate your comments...I'm really thinking that perhaps we should be looking somewhere a little less remote...


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