Renewable Revolution

Quote from: Palloy2 on April 11, 2018, 08:24:54 pm

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Eddie: This is the only world I ever found to live in, unfortunately. 

Ever heard of Mexico, about 2 hours drive away?

It's not that close. Maybe 4 or 5  hours to the closest border town, which from here is Piedras Negras, I think.

And yes, I've spent some time in Mexico, and I've read what a couple of ex-pats have written about living there. But I never learned the language (a failing of mine, it would even help me here, of that there is little doubt). I have enjoyed my trips to Mexico, but I haven't seen even a fraction of it.

And places I used to go with no worries are not at all safe anymore. When I was young, hippie kids went to the market in Matamoros in droves and we bought our huaraches and wedding shirts and a lot of junk. I went to Acuna, and I bought a very bad guitar when I was 16. That's the shithole where they shot the movie Mariachi. I wouldn't go there at all now. People get shot all the time.

I love Merida and Tulum, and even Cozumel, even though it's not nearly as cool as it was 30 years ago. Neither is Chichen Itza, but its still a place where you can feel the power of what it once was. Enough human sacrifices in one place, and it leaves a kind of creepy psychic residue that's palpable. I felt that anyway, and I'm fairly skeptical about such things.

I've been through the jungle to the pyramids at Coba and  Ek Balam. I've swum in deep clear sinkholes and eaten Octopus ceviche at the Casa Cenote by the Cenote Manatee on Tanka Bay. There's a tiny hotel there I used to dream of buying, but I never had that kind of money.

I'm no expert, but I have met prominent people who do what I do in Mexico, and I can tell you only the connected doctors who are from rich families and cater to rich families make real money. There is no middle class in Mexico. I couldn't make a living there.

The co-founder of this site, Peter, lost his life savings trying to make an ex-pat life in Mexico, from what I understand, and had to return to Canada. RE knows more of that story than I do.

There are some intentional communities in Mexico that I've investigated. Like the ones everywhere else, they're a mixed bag, and you have to buy in to participate, and the ones I saw aren't cheap.

As an alternative living place, I'd pick BC over Mexico, or David's northern Ontario cottage country.  Or C5's Maritime country. But, I have ties to this place. Lots of good reasons for staying, at least for the moment.