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Page 3: (San Miguel de Allende)
La Vida Cheapo, AARP Continued….

By Barry Golson, March-April 2004
AARP Magazine

SAN MIGUEL
The colonial silver town of San Miguel de Allende is the crown jewel of central Mexico. It boasts cobblestone streets, pastel-washed doors, art galleries nestled in every other nook, an enchanting main plaza known as El Jardin, and the Parroquia, a spired, fanciful-gothic confection of a church located in the center of town, whose bells toll at utterly unpredictable hours.

Although somewhat remote (the nearest airport is in León, an hour and a half away), this town of 70,000, which is home to an estimated 2,500 American retirees, scores high on the jet-set buzz meter. Little wonder. The restaurants are first-rate, shopping is an extreme sport (the streets are packed with art galleries and shops selling ceramics, folk art, and antiques), and the music spilling from the town's restaurants and cafés sometimes suggests a university town on perpetual fiesta.

We meet Jennifer Hamilton, a 62-year-old Audrey Hepburn look-alike, in her airy, elegant apartment just off the Jardin. Another transplanted Californian, who has lived in San Miguel for 12 years, she gives tours of San Miguel's fanciest homes, a Sunday afternoon event that draws as many as 400 gawkers at a time.

While Hamilton enjoys talking about the multimillion-dollar mansions up in the hills, she also speaks frankly about the drawbacks of San Miguel not described in the travel brochures. "It's not a little village anymore," she says. "The streets are crumbling from the weight of the tourist buses. Good homes are expensive; utilities go up every month. I'm worried that the town will price itself out; I don't want it to become only for the very wealthy and the Mexican poor. There are still tin hovels tucked between fabulous homes. Water's giving out, too. Something will have to be done." She pauses, smiles. "But I still tell people to come down here to live. There's so much to do here!"

The town's chief arbiter and critic, Archie Dean, agrees. Author of the indispensable The Insider's Guide to San Miguel, the 66-year-old Dean is a gangly, fedora-wearing, knapsack-carrying New York State native who spends his days walking the streets, stopping at restaurants and cafés to sample fare for the next edition of his book. When he arrived in 1990, he says, San Miguel was a relatively primitive town where phones were scarce and shopping limited. "Now we're all connected," he says, referring to cybercafés, cable TV piped in from the States, and direct-dial long-distance phone calls. He contradicts the notion that only rich retirees can afford the town. "There are apartment rentals at every price, from $300 to $5,000. You can live well for as little as $700 a month. And I know a lot of people living here on modest fixed incomes."

For those expats possessing the wherewithal, San Miguel's cosmopolitan charm and arty ambience can also translate into opportunity. On the leafy patio of the Casa de la Cuesta, a charming bed-and-breakfast a few minutes from the plaza, we chat with owner Bill LeVasseur, 59, a former advertising executive who lived and worked in Mexico when he was younger and returned with his wife, Heidi, an artist, in 1994. Owning a B & B was not in their plans. "We were retiring," he says, "not thinking about a new business or anything."

Nevertheless, the LeVasseurs crunched their numbers and decided that the home they'd begun building in San Miguel could be enlarged and turned into a home away from home for tourists. LeVasseur says that an income of $50,000 a year assures a retiree of a good life, "including eating out two or three times a week." The couple have three grown sons in the States, and in addition to traveling back home themselves, occasionally they send "plane tickets for the kids and grandkids" to come to Mexico.

The LeVasseurs tell us they considered retiring to other places in Mexico but decided San Miguel was the place for them. "Sure, some people like their condos in Puerto Vallarta, but the heat there in the summer is unbearable and they've got mosquitoes as big as blackbirds. They've got McDonald's and Taco Bells, and we sure don't. Life is more authentic here."

Sounds like our cue to move along—to Puerto Vallarta.

San Miguel scorecard
• Looks 10;
• Charm 7 (points off for the traffic and McMansions);
• Culture 10;
• Shopping 8;
• Medical facilities 6;
• Other Americans 7 (more points subtracted for some obnoxious wealth flaunting);
• Wow factor—a world-class language school, ditto the restaurants.
• Thia's review: "I'm leaving my heart here and coming back someday."
• Barry's review: "Love it too, but I'm not a mountain guy. I like the ocean."

Next page: Mexican Pacific Sayulita Retirement, AARP Article, "La Vida Cheapo"

Article Links
Page 1: Retire to Guadalajara, Mexico
Page 2: Lake Chapala & Ajijic Retirement
Page 3: Live in San Miguel de Allende
Page 4: Retire in Sayulita, Mexico
Page 5: Joel’s Review & Comments

Page 3 of 5

Source:  http://www.aarpmagazine.org/travel/Articles/a2004-01-21-mag-mexico.html