site last updated August 21, 2009

Living and retiring in Baja Mexico is not just for seniors anymore!

 Pacific Coast, Punta Banda Peninsula, Northern Baja Mexico

THIS IS MY BACKYARD

I live here full time, on less than $500/month income. I am not yet 50 yrs old.

Read my story.

If you are interested in learning more about relaxed and casual Baja living from people that already live here, and have for many years, you have come to the right place.  Read about our funny -  and some not so funny experiences. Learn firsthand what it really takes to live or retire here through information gathered from many knowledgeable and friendly Baja lovers.

This site is always a work in progress but there is enough information already here to keep you occupied all week…

Heres the scoop: I pay no taxes to the U.S. because I have no ties there anymore.  I own nothing nor have any assets whatsoever in the U.S. Mexico is my new home.  I receive no SocialSecurity income, dividends, disabilities, inheritance, insurance or pensions. When and if I ever start to receive my retirement package,  this may change. For now, however, I work or don’t work whenever I want. I call it semi – retirement.

 I own this house which is fully paid for, purchased for less than $40,000. I wake up in the mornings and this view is the first thing I see.  During certain times of the year I see migrating grey whales swim past my house on their way south to breed. Dolphins play in front of my windows. Pelicans swoop down over my deck to catch fresh fish. Seals bellow on the rocks below.  I watch the most incredible sunsets at dusk. The sounds of crashing waves below lulls me to sleep every night.  Turquoise water under my house and as far as my eye can see…

 I have complete and total privacy.  My community is gated and secure. The cost of living in Baja is amazingly far less than you would expect. I work because I am  “semi” retired.  We get no money from any source, unless we work, so I like to call it being on sabbatical.  (our families thinks we are nuts and maybe we are) Our inexpensive junker cars are totally ours, so no payments necesssary there.

The point is, if you are not yet retired, and you don’t have a lot of money, (but you do at least have a little saved that you can buy a decent home very cheaply),  you can still make life happen in Baja. If your house is paid for, the rest is well, gravy. The main thing is since your house is paid for, you will be able to relax and enjoy our lives in a way that could not be possible in the United States.

♥ All images you will see within this website were shot locally in my Baja community ♥

I live in paradise and you can too. Find out how…follow me!

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for more information , visit the following article on ”How to Retire in Mexico Before the Age of 50″

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1775232/retire_before_the_age_of_50.html?cat=7

 I will keep adding more relevant, newsworthy content to this site every day, as it becomes available, so keep checking back!

“Retire Early in Mexico”

“why arent you here?!”

  If you did not grow up in California, or anywhere near the western seaboard, changes are good you will not be all that familiar with the beautifully rugged desert peninsula that is Baja.

Above  map of the United States and Mexico, Mexico being the green areas in the middle of map and in the orange square. Baja is at the very far left of the green region. (the slender peninsula or arm coming down)

Southern Baja is referred to as Baja Sur.  Baja is divided into 2 regions or states, Baja California and Baja Sur, California is the north half, Sur being the south half.

TIJUANA is the first city on the pacific coast, in northern Baja.  Tijuana or TJ, is right at the San Ysidro, California/Mexico border – you will be in TJ as soon as you cross the border.  As you continue down the coastline, 30 minutes south of Tijuana is ROSARITO. 1 hour south of Rosarito, on the pacific coast still,  is ENSENADA, where I live.  ( i actually live just a tad south of Ensenada in a little village called LaBufadora) We will talk about LaBufadora in a later post, as it is a famous tourist attraction as well as a gorgeous place to call home! 

Punta Banda Peninsula is a small peninsula within a peninsula. (that being Baja)  LaBufadora is a hamlet or village on this small peninsula.   So there you have it.  If you look at a very detailed map of Baja, you will notice this little peninsula or a little arm sticking out of the northern pacific coast. LaBufadora is at the very tip of this small peninsula or arm. It is literally at the end of the road so to speak! It is clearly shown on the map below.

Below is a large detailed map of the Baja Peninsula and Mexico Mainland. You will notice that in Baja all the mountains are in the north, which is the area this website is focusing on.  (northern baja peninsula)  Also referred to as Baja California. (BC)

Unfortunately, the  J in “Tijuana” on the map below, is covering up where this little peninsula known as Punta Banda-LaBufadora (also sometimes refered to as Ensenada Bay)  sticks out into the ocean.>>>

Detailed travel maps are shown on the “Baja Travel Maps” page above, right side

We are easily accessible by plane or boat from mainland Mexico and points north. Tijuana has a lovely international airport, Ensenada has a military landing strip.

 Visit Mexico-My Space

 This question can be answered quickly in 7 words:  inexpensive living and exceptional quality of life.  You will experience such a richly rewarding and gratifying lifestlye here, it is almost impossible to explain.  The Global Retirement Index, Global Retirement Index, (the chart you will see is, in my opinion, quite on the high end, my costs are less than half of whats stated there), has announced that Mexico is now the most affordable place to retire. Staying within northern Baja, near or in the Ensenda, or Rosarito areas; is almost like living in southern California – in that you will lack for nothing. You will have every service available to you very inexpensively, and then some. You will have everything you need. You are not going to be subjected to all the governmental BS and rules that tie one down and create huge headaches in the US.

Many things are SO very cheap in Baja. You can buy a bagful of organic vegetables for $2. My car mechanic charges me $10 a day to work on my car. Last week i had a little accident and rear-ended the pickup truck in front of me, not going more that 1 MPH but hard enough to completely bend my hood up and knock out some headlights, the horn, etc. Iwas pretty much a mess. The entire repair job was 1100 pesos or roughly $80. Now in the States, that job would have cost thousands. The job took only a day to finish as well. I get a full body message for $20/hour. A foot reflexology therapy for $20/hour. I get a full set of acrylic nails done for $12.  My top notch hair cuts run $10 and highlighting is $25.  A mans hair cut costs $4-5. I get my tires repaired for $3.  Services are very cheap. Produce is very cheap. Housing is very cheap.  Telephone service (Vonage, Magic Jack, Skype) is a snap and Telcel offers cheap cellular service to other countries and the US for very little. Telcel offers 3G internet technology to alot of northern Baja. Water is very cheap.  Electricity, right now anyways, depending on who you talk to, can run about 1/2 of what you pay in the US. When I ran my store, an average electric bill for me was about $20 per month. At this writing, gasoline for your car runs about .20-.25 cents cheaper per gallon. A complete car wash, inside and out runs about $5. Everywhere you look you see “segundas” where you can buy anything you want for 2nd hand prices. “Segunda” literally means seconds.  Basically they are large outdoor flea markets where you can buy anything from tomatoes to bedsheets.  More about “segundas” later.  See the shopping page for more information as well.

Living in this region has its advantages in that one is very close to the US border and the wonderful city of San Diego and everything it has to offer.  Many people travel to San Diego every week for shopping, doctor visits or mail pickup.

There are beautiful modern shopping plazas, state of the art movie theaters, wonderful health care facilities (or you can drive up to your US hospital in a matter of an hour or so), unimaginable and countless outdoor adventures, (lovely clean beaches, scuba diving, snorkeling, fishing, boating, tidal pool exploration, sea kayaking, world famous whale watching excursions, hiking, backpacking, camping etc) lovely landscaped neighborhoods, beautiful homesites, inexpensive rents, world class ocean side golf courses, thriving arts – and – culture scenes, gorgeous year-round warm weather and breathtaking scenery.

Speaking of weather, you wont find a better climate than northern Baja. Much like San Diego; which is renowned for having the United States consistently best weather, Baja weather is very similar.  Very rarely will you see temperatures higher than 78-80 farenheit.

Maybe you are interested in coming to live and or retire in Baja to do mission work. And MANY do. Find more informationabout that on the “missions” page.

Regardless of the reason, we are here to tell you that you can own your own home (with the land) for only a small fraction of the cost of its US counterpart. (see fideicomiso to the right)  Our cliffisde, unobstructed oceanview home would probably cost 1-2 million dollars in California. We bought it for $30,000. At this time , if were to sell, we could easily sell for $100,00 – $200,00. We never will.

  We have all binding contracts and legal documents necessary to prove ownership.  In our case, we do not own the land (its owned by the government, not ejido) but we do pay them a small monthly rent to lease the land, $250 a month, which comes to $3,000 a year.  We pay this in a one time, lump sum every year, so we dont have to worry about it month to month. This lease includes free trash pickup, road maintenence and round the clock security. It is like living in a trailer park where you own your home, but not the land it sits on. We cannot move our house, but we have 100% assurance in writing that the home will never be “taken”  from us to utilize the land in other ways. We rest comfortably knowing that in 10,20 or 30  years our home will be secure and we will continue to enjoy the same lifestlye we now enjoy.  We certainly hope to pass this legacy along to our children and grandchildren.

Here is an example of the wonderful first class – five star hotels that can be found all along the northern Pacific coastline in Baja. This one is just a little south of  Rosarito.  They are clean and no more expensive than any comparable hotel in the US.  I have stayed in quite a few hotels all over the Baja, and every one has been clean, neat, tidy, and I believe you can judge the atmosphere of a particular place by its hotels.  This is a large hotel because it is near a large town. As you travel further south and the towns get smaller, so will the accomodations.We have stayed in small hacienda style hotels and large high-rises in bigger cities.  We have been impressed by all of them.

If you own your home but rent your property on a lease situation as we do, you pay no property or any other foolish house taxes. Nada. (if you own your land and home together, there are enforced procedures and laws in place for payment of taxes and capital gains, see the “Real Estate” page for more information.)

We consider our small yearly lease to be our “tax” if you will, to the state of Baja.  Thats it. You are free to a certain extent, do what you want to the house. All we have to do is get a verbal A-OK on our plans from the landlord. This property has been in his family for generations and it is a virtual gold mine, an enormous cash cow for his family and always will be.  We can tear our house down, rip it apart, add on 20 rooms, put in a pool, expand our garden, whatever we so choose (as long as we dont infringe on our next door neighbor; if you happen to have one; which we dont on either side) and noone will be the wiser.  There are no enforced rules persay, here.  99% of the time, you can do whatever you want to do in Baja without interference from the local long arm of the law, health department or some silly governent agency telling you your fence is 3 inches too high. Heres an example: We recently built a garage with no permits whatsoever. We bought the materials and started building. That was it. We have complete and total privacy. We live at the very end of our street, with no neighbors too close by.  Our closest neighbor, age 54,  retired from the military, is about 100 yards away.  I could walk around outside naked and shout the Star Bangled Banner and noone would know. He travels Baja extensively and is barely ever here.

Breakdown of my basic monthly living expenditures:

Unfortunately i have no health insurance. Fortunately right now, i am in excellent health. And like i mentioned, I dont even factor in the house lease, as that comes from another account, once per year. This does also not include the $250 / month land lease which i pay for in advance so i dont include it.

water: $40

electric: $15

propane: $16

 gasoline: $65

groceries: $200

phone/internet: $100

dog food: $10  

The rest is incidentals - a car repair, house repair, a termite treatment once/yr, dentist once/yr, computer tech visits, etc.  The point is, if you are not yet retired, and you don’t have a lot of money, (but you do have a little saved that you can buy a decent home very cheaply),  you can still make life happen in Baja. If your house is paid for, the rest is well, gravy.

Here is a great new community being built just up north of here, right on the ocean. As you can see, many new developments have immaculate golf courses right on the property.  Homes in this development start around $150,000 U.S. for a smaller model.  You do not have to live in a fancy community if you don’t want. There are MANY many lovely areas and nice homes scattered all about.  All i am getting at is, if you want to live within a gated secure community,  just like any you find in the states, they are many options available.

if you want to rough it a bit and live a more rustic lifestyle, you can certainly do so.  Our home is NOT in a development like this in fact, my neighborhood, called a “rancho” in Baja; has been here since the 1960’s.  It is comprised of small 25 foot trailers to magnificent, opulent Mexican style homes.  Again, no laws dictate to us what kind of home we live in or what it should look like or how big our garden is.

RENTING.  There are some small homes (casitas) in my area;  Punta Banda peninsula, south of  Ensenada, that are renting for as little as $250 / month, long term, depending on where exactly it is. This would not be right on the ocean, (there are some a few rows back in this range) but still, this is unheard of in the US!  I went to look at a few of these places and they are wonderful. If you want a regular, mid sized house, 1000 -1500 SQF,  expect to pay anywhere from $400/month and up.  Right now, as the economy is in a slump here too, rentals are widely available.

you can truly find a rental at any roice range here.

Here is a rental very close to my home.  Its a popular vacation rental.  It is rented only for short term vacations. Needless to say the owners are bringing in substantial income, without lifting a finger, as this home is rented out most of the year.  This is another option for anyone to consider.  Anyone can buy a home fairly cheaply right now, and use it for income. People in Baja are doing this every day. 

But more about this later.

I say hype because thats just what it is. Over sensationalized, negative media attention which hopes to deter visitors from the US or Canada entering Mexico. They would rather you spend your dollars in the US.  They need it desperately.  Any crime that is happening in Baja is NOT in the little villages or hamlets in which we all live, nor in the big tourist destinations of Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, LaPaz or Cabo.   Its happening in the little border shanty towns and drug trafficking streets. In king pins homes and prostitute alleys.  In darkly lit slums and areas where drug lords frequent.  I never worry about random drug shooting drive bys in my area because it simply doesnt happen ever.

i will be honest here and comment on what does happen. Petty theft. House break-ins and robberies. Times are desperate here too and people are getting poorer by the minute.  This does happen with some regularity, but if you take the necessary precautions, you will be safe.  Alarms and big dogs are the answer to this problem.

Having said that, i feel safer here in Baja than i do ANYWHERE in the states.  And i do keep up with the news.  We never hear of child molesters, rapists, or serial killers.  I buy the local papers, read the magazines and i belong to a community news group.  This is simply not an issue in Baja.  Baja is as safe as ever for law abiding people.

To learn more about the crime issue, please visit the CRIME page to the right. And please note the highlighted text in the post below.  In the meantime, visit Mexico My Space and learn what real residents have to say about the “crime” wave.

Visit Mexico-My Space

 The answer to that is a resounding YES  – i have done it, I am doing it now, i will continue to work here in Baja, as long as i am physically able to.

How does one come to another country, set up house, and start working… you might ask?  I cannot stress this enough, here in Baja, at least the little community where i live, rules are VERY VERY lax. Anyone can do pretty much anything… without alot of hassle.  Now this isnt to say you should continue to get away with not going by the established rules, that are set in place. There ARE rules, it’s just that they arent really enforced. I suppose if you were to live in bigger town or city, the rules would be more enforced, but i am not sure.

Next question is:  What Can I Do and How Much Money Will I Make?  The answer to that is as varied as the wind but…

.

 Here are the 4 jobs that I have done here in Baja, that I have made an  income doing:

1) ran a  consignment shop  2)  waited tables   3) Petsitting and housesitting   

 4) PR for an online business.

click this link →  http://bit.ly/SfphY  ←for more information.

 I will explain all about each 4 positions in a moment. Lets remember that you are living in a foreign country for a minute.  RULES HERE ARE JUST NOT THE SAME – SIMILAR PERHAPS, AND A BIT LESS STRINGENT, BUT NOT ENFORCED LIKE IN THE US.  You can get away with alot of stuff. (I once saw a naked old woman walking around downtown. No kidding !)

For example, allow me to get distracted here for a second….when you are driving around on the streets, say going into Ensenada, the likelihood of you being stopped by a cop for expired plates, or not wearing a seatbelt, or having a cracked windshield, speeding, or RUNNING A RED LIGHT (which i see people do almost every single day) are pretty much zero. That is not to say it won’t happen, but i don’t lose sleep over it, it has never happened to me, and I run on all of the above; except that i have never run a red  (a yellow, yes- but never a red!)  light!  If you are caught littering from your car, chances are you won’t get pulled over as i don’t belive its a crime. I see this ALL the time too and it bothers me to no end.

Another example, when i ran the Consignment shop, i was never, in 3 years, approached by a single official asking to see my documents or FM3 paperwork showing i was a legal business. ( I WAS OF COURSE LEGAL - I TEND TO PLAY THINGS ON THE SAFE SIDE) I had all my documents proudly hanging on the wall in the event someone should ask, but noone ever did. I worked diligently to get all my ducks in a row and not one person ever came into check. Because my husband and I both obtained our working FM3 visas, we are free to work wherever we want in Baja.

People work for others every day OR trade services.  You work on my car and i will give you a free dive in the ocean. You clean my house once a week and i will supply you with all the hair cuts you want.  Of course you can opt to get paid too … If you work for an American (and Americans comprise about roughly about 85% of the population here) you can get paid in cash (dollars or pesos).  You can wash their cars, wash their house, wash their windows, (beleive me this a valuable service in desert like Baja, where there is alot of dust) wash their dogs, groom dogs, wash anything. The rate of pay will depend of course on what you do. You are not going to get rich by any means, but you may make enough to pay some bills.

As far as pay goes, this can be an issue.  Alot of people that have retired down here, after awhile, start to take on the Mexican mentality. They feel it is perfectly alright to pay $20 a day (or less in some cases) for an honest days work, for 8 hours or longer. That is after all what a typical Mexican worker earns a day. Field workers sometimes earn less.  I beleive however, this is all negotiable with whomever you work for, you should not except less than what you are worth. Ask to get paid what you feel the job is worth, keeping in mind all the while you are in another country, you are not paying taxes when you do trade work, and alot of retired people here are on fixed incomes.  With my consignment business, i didnt have to worry about relying on others to pay me – I paid myself, according to what I brought in.

You can fix cars, fix plumbing, fix electrical, fix anything if you are skilled in a certain area. You can charge or not charge. You can trade things. Its sort of like living in the Wild West. You can paint a house, paint a shed, paint a deck.  You can housesit and petsit for people while they are away. You can do gardening. You can cook for people, cater, you get the idea.   So, this means you will have to get your foot in the door, so to speak; and get established in the local community as someone who can be trusted.  Word of mouth is everything.

Let me make it perfectly clear that if you come down here and want to start a full fledged, legitimate business, you will definitely have to go through the steps necessary to get legal. (getting an accountant, a specially endorsed FM3,  paying factura to the Mexican Hacienda  (IRS)  blah blah blah….If you’re just working temporary odd jobs around and about, within the American community or amongst friends, my experience has been that you can do it without the long arm of the law breathing down your neck.

Point is, working in Mexico, amongst your neighbors or in your local community, whether it be out of necessity or just plain boredom, is very possible!

‘Live, Work, Retire in Mexico’ Seminar Offers Practical Information for Living a Life of Luxury in Mexico

 Click  >>HERE !<<  to be taken to the BAJA LIBRARY !! 

Below are just a sampling of the many books, travel guides, directories, how-to’s, camping, RVing, and motorcycling tips, photo-essays, diaries, personal journeys and maps available inside this library… it is quite an extensive and comprehensive list of anything BAJA.

1. LIVING ABROAD IN MEXICO. by Ken Luboff

Synopses, Reviews and Publisher Comments:

 Synopsis:

 3. Cashing in on a Second Home in Mexico: How to Buy, Rent and Profit from Real Estate South of the Border by Tom Kelly  no synopsis available for this book, sorry. 

Synopses, Reviews  & Publisher Comments:

The VW Beetle is uniquely suited for off-road use. Its torsion-arm front suspension and lightweight engine and transaxle make it a natural. If you didn’t know better, you’d think Dr. Ferdinand Porsche designed the Beetle to race the Baja.Veteran off-road racer Jeff Hibbard details the dos and don’ts of off-road preparation. Whether you build your car for recreation or full-race, this book has a plan for you.

Avoid building a cosmetic off-road car. Learn what breaks and how to prevent it from breaking. Learn how to spend your off-road dollars wisely. This book is a must for sedan and buggy off-roaders alike.

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5. Lonely Planet Baja California and Los Cabos.

Synopses, Reviews and Publisher Comments:

Discover Baja California and Los Cabos …Commune with whale calves as their mothers nudge them to the surface for their very first breath. Get dusty on the badder-than-bad backroad to Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. Suck down a caguama (that’s Baja for beer) as you watch the sun set in Punta Abreojos. Discover the delectable truth behind Baja’s world-renowned invention, the Caesar salad. In This Guide: 4872 miles, one black-widow spider bite, one superstar author still kicking, and 30 pages of the best damn maps anywhere. Special surfing chapter written by none other than Surfer magazine editor Jake Howard – charge on!

Mi Querida Baja California feature revealing the lives of a painter, a doctor and a few more local experts.

And, since you asked for it – we’ve incorporated more off-track coverage than any other guidebook.

  Review: ‘Lonely Planet guides are a must-pack’ –Toronto Star, February 2006

  Synopsis:  Baja receives 1.4 million visitors annually. This guide to the popular destination features a special surfing chapter written by a boarding guru, a specialist-written food section, and candid interviews with locals.

 Synopsis: This guide to the popular Baja and Los Cabos destinations features a special surfing chapter written by a boarding guru, an expertly written section on local foods, and candid interviews with locals.

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6. Baja Diaries: Chronicles of a Paradise Lost by George E Puckett.  Highly recommended.

Synopses, Reviews & Publisher Comments:

Foreword by Kent Anderson, PhD…

For centuries, people have left their homes and familiar surroundings in search of the other. This is a term long used by anthropologists to describe the urge in so many people to seek and experience the exotic. Many humans seem willing to depart from a common culture, extended family and native tongue to enter a very different and unfamiliar setting.

What you are about to read in BAJA DIARIES are the experiences of the other by George Puckett and his wife, Tina, a Black couple from Tucson, Arizona. In 1998, they embarked on a great adventure, leaving behind the United States of America, many friends and family, to settle in a beautiful enclave near the Pacific Ocean in the Mexican city of Ensenada in Baja California.

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7. A Parents Guide to San Diego and Baja California Mexico

 

Synopses, Reviews and Publisher Comments:

This handbook for exploring San Diego and Mexico’s adjacent border cities gives parents complete information on places and activities the whole family can enjoy together. Provided are tips and insight that will make visiting San Diego’s world-famous sites, such as the San Diego Zoo and Sea World, more enjoyable, as well as information about hot spots and little-known treasure sites, like the hot springs at the beach, the grassroots Surf Museum, and funky vintage stores known only to locals. The best places to hike, bike, golf, and surf with children are revealed, and music, art, and cultural attractions are discussed. Included are driving directions, admission costs, hours of operation, suggestions of where to eat and where to shop, special items of interest and great advice on what kids like best. Even those familiar with San Diego will find new and interesting adventures in this guide-experiences that entertain and educate children of all ages and make parenting rewarding.

 Synopsis: Insider advice on finding the most entertaining and enriching attractions for kids in California’s popular beachside city and in Northern Baja California. Includes information on monuments, museums, and places of historical significance, as well as hotels, restaurants, and shopping destinations.

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About the Author

Fay Crevoshay is a journalist and radio commentator. Her work has appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News. She lives in San Diego, California.

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8. Oasis of Stone: Visions of Baja California Sur

 

Synopses, Reviews and Publisher Comments:

 

Gorgeous full-color photography by award-winning photographer Miguel Angel de la Cueva, and evocative text by Bruce Berger, bring the southern half of Baja California to life. Beginning with its unique geology, and moving on to the coastal, desert, and mountain ecosystems of Mexico’s little-known peninsula, this lush coffee-table book highlights the flora and fauna of the region.

 

 

Our story is straightforward:  We had a wildly successful business in Colorado, then we lost the business. No jobs in sight in our one stop light/vacation home/retirement community. Husband loves to fish. Droughts dry up lakes and resoirvoirs, there is no longer any good fishing holes to be found.  Definitely time to leave but where to go….. wherever there is water, duh!

Texas? Too far away. California?  Too expensive.  South of California, just below the border; seemed to make sense. How different can it be there?! Sure its a totally different country, but how bad could it be?

So we started researching Baja Real Estate. Anything we could get our hands on. After a few weeks of intense research, one ad caught my eye. I followed up on it. Turns out it was the house on the cliffs in Labufadora!!  My husband flies out to take a peek. He returns completely ga-ga over the place. (neither of us had ever been to or heard of this place before) Having had spent the night in the house — he was ready to buy.  I was a little skeptical, but I could see the excitement in his eyes and hear it in his voice. I had never seen him so definitely certain about anything. We make all the initial negotiations over the phone, with the owner of the house, a retired Brooklyn barber.   He arranges everything over the phone for the Mexico end of things.  My husband flies out to San Diego where current owner barber picks him up and drives him to the house. He takes movies of the property which i enjoyed upon his return. He spends the night on the couch and enjoys time on the deck overlooking the azure pacific ocean. I think this was the clincher.

2 few days later i pick up a radiant husband from DIA. He has fallen head over heels in love with Baja and the house on the cliffs. We sort thru the pictures and watch the video.  Turns out the house is a bit of a fixer upper, but we had extensive experience with that in Colorado and felt it was something we could tackle easily.  The pictures and video looked better than it did in person; once i later get there, let me make that perfectly clear right of the bat. I was a bit dissapointed at first but as the days and weeks went by, the house and all its oddities grew on me.

After many many nights debating whether to move, we decide to put our house in Colorado up for sale. (this was before the current economic downturn luckily)  It didnt end up selling right away.  We sorted thru all our personal “stuff” and belongings, to decide what to keep/take with us and what to get rid of. We had so much accumulated junk! We had to keep in mind what were actually able to move down with us – our hauling capacity. Then a few weeks later, we have a huge yard sale to liquidate. This required alot of preparation, it was an immense job. We had to run it for several days, just to get rid of it. Even then it did not all sell, it the end, we placed it all on the curb with a “FREE” sign and after a couple of days, it was mostly all gone. I ended up taking alot to local charites.                  

our house in Salida Colorado >>>>>>>>

We had to live in a bare house for a several weeks, while final preparations to move to Baja were being made.  The house was on the market but not many buyers were coming to look at it. We couldn’t understand why. This was long before the current housing slump.  Lots of homes were being sold in our community,  just not ours!  it was downright discouraging. The inspection report came back stating that the roof was not built to code so we chalked it up to that.  The house was over a 100 years old for Gods sake, what do they expect.  (thank goodness we dont have to deal with this sort of thing anymore)

After a few weeks with no prospects, a new idea popped in our heads and within a few days we had the house rented to a wonderful young couple who later ended up buying our house. We were set to go to Baja and start our newest adventure. With passports and house contents strapped in the cars, we started the trek to Ensenada and beyond.

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When we first arrived, and went inside, I took a quick look and the very first thing i did was grab a broom. The house had not been lived in in Years. Decades. There were bugs, dust, dirt, dead animals and never ending cobwebs.  I was ready to strangle my smiling husband. I thought to myself  “this is going to take years to recover”.  There was no electricity, no water, no indoor plumbing, no heat, (yes you need heat here in winter, Jan-Feb-March, regretably) just a shell. I learn the house had only been used periodically, for short vacations – by a single man, so those things were unecessary to him. There was some very old furniture,  most of which was thrown away later or burned in the fireplace.  The ugly stained carpets upstairs were rotten and falling apart from years of mold, mildew, and repeated roof leaks. I was very upset. What had we done? I think i cried for a week straight.

The weather was beautiful when we first arrived – it was December, which is a gorgeous time to be in northern Baja. It was sunny every day, so we got right to work. And work we did. This would turn out to be the biggest, most challenging remodeling job we would ever tackle.  We fell into bed everynight for months almost dead from exhaustion. We always did all the work ourselves, not hiring out help, and this job was no exception. We could’nt afford that — not even at Mexican wages.  There was just too much to do.

 Without a doubt, Rocket Spanish is the highest rated and best home study course, hands down, for learning the language in my opinion. It combines both audio lessons with interactive computer games.  And fortunately, this is one case where “you get what you pay for” simply doesn’t hold true. The audio lessons really focus on building your ability to actually speak the language and they do it in a way that’s both interesting and efficient. There is no learning of useless, boring phrases here. The computer games also make it a fun and easy way to build vocabulary, learn your verbs and improve your verbal recognition skills. Of course, for those of you who just love grammar, there is plenty of information regarding some of the more technical aspects of Spanish.

The courses are built around conversational learning which help you learn a language faster than any repetition based system. The grammar and culture lessons not only help you with what to say, and when to say it, but also provides an insight on how to act in certain situations. What other foreign language course does that?

Interactive Audio courses lets you speak a language naturally and confidently whenever and wherever you want. 

Each Rocket Languages course provides:

• 112 hours of instruction
• 31 interactive audio tracks
• 31 Grammar and Culture lessons
• 1200 words for you to learn in its Mega computer Games Series
• 24/7 access to Language Communities

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To get your Instant Downloadable Premium Package….

Click HERE >>> Rocket Spanish – The Ultimate Guide To Learning Spanish

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 “I am a teacher in an area that has a lot of Spanish speaking parents and some Spanish speaking children… Rocket Spanish has helped me as a teacher communicate with students and parents and they really appreciate it!”
- Jamie Roberts (Pennsylvania, U.S.A)