March 10, 2024 • 49 mins
Embark on an intimate exploration of life beyond borders with our friend Scott who traded Seattle's drizzle for Riviera Maya's dazzle. Scott, a beacon of resilience with his physical disability, shares the unexpected health benefits of Mexico's warm embrace and the cultural tapestry that awaited them. We delve into the nuances of expatriate life, from adapting to Mexico's economic shifts to facing the idiosyncrasies of local bureaucracy with a blend of patience and humor.
We are incredibly thankful for engagement and stories from our listeners, who have found their own sense of 'home' across the globe. Stay tuned as we continue to share the wisdom and wanderlust of those who've charted their unique international courses. We'd love to hear your comments and questions. Email them to expatslikeus@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't necessarily make a big decision in your life
and your lifestyle based onjust visiting one area of Mexico
.
It's a vast country and theenvironment is different the
natural, geographical, historicand just cultural differences
(00:27):
throughout this country, youknow, which shocks some people.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome to X-PATs Like Us.
A co-production with me, vitaMargarita, exploring the world
of US X-PAT life in Mexico.
In each episode, we'll meet newpeople and hear their stories.
We'll also learn more aboutX-PAT life and get a few tips on
everything from making yourmove to settling in, to living
your dreams and, most of all,having fun.
(00:58):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm your host, chris Kowalski, and today we're
thrilled to be talking to ourfriend and fellow X-PAT, scott
Lawson.
Scott and his wife Deb moved toRiviera Maya about three years
ago.
Scott is here to share hisexperience in moving from his
original home in the Seattlearea to living full-time in
Mexico and adapting to a newlife in a new country.
Scott will also share someinsight on the special
(01:31):
challenges of navigating Mexicowith a physical disability.
Hello, scott Lawson, welcome toX-PATs Like Us.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hi guys, nice to be here and appreciate you asking
me Glad to have you here.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Scott, thanks for coming in today.
So tell us about your lifepre-Mexico in the US.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Well, as Chris mentioned, prior to moving here,
we lived in the SeattleWashington area, and that was
with our two children, our dogs,and while there, I should
mention my wife, debra.
(02:11):
The dogs got to feel like theywere out of their beards.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You're going to have to distract her during this part
of the podcast.
Yes, shame on me.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And while there, we both went to the University of
Washington and she went on tobecome an engineer for our local
public utility, and I spent myentire career in construction
management, doing single family,multi-family and commercial
(02:49):
healthcare work.
And prior to being diagnosedwith my disability, which we'll
explain and talk about here in abit, I was a very active guy.
I played a lot of softball,golfed, skied and a lot of that
(03:14):
just came crashing down in mylate 40s.
Oh right and but it kind of oneof the things that precipitated
the move down here.
The warmth, the sunshine it'sreally done wonders to my health
(03:36):
, including things like bloodpressure.
I think it affects a lot ofpeople, but yeah, so that is
sort of an outline of what wedid there.
I could elaborate on it, butreally the next chapter was
(03:59):
coming here.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Right, and what inspired you to decide to move
to Mexico instead of just beingin Seattle?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, you know it.
A lot of it had to do with myhealth, of course, and I was
approaching retirement age, myfull retirement age, and both my
wife and I, we were working athome during COVID and it was in
(04:30):
a sort of that pivotal point inour lives.
Where do we?
Do we stick with this, or do wework our way back to commuting
to work rather than working athome?
And you know, there was somechallenges for myself being at
(04:52):
home as far as mobility.
I didn't get up enough.
I would sit there at my deskfor 10 hours a day without even
getting up and moving around.
You know, something that Inormally would have done pre
COVID.
So it really it kind of was thecatalyst for us to move and
(05:20):
retire.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I hear that a lot from people, that when you say
what inspired you to move toMexico, there's almost always,
at least you know, the peoplethat have probably been here
around as long as we have, butit's a consistent thing.
Where they mentioned thepandemic, yeah absolutely, and
it changed something in all ofour minds and we all decided to
(05:43):
make a big move at that time.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, well, yeah, and you know much of that is people
reflected on.
You know things just as simpleas family members becoming sick.
You know everybody and I'm sureincluding yourselves, new
people that passed away duringCOVID and you know it's one of
(06:07):
those things where you just sayyou know, do I want to work to
die or do I want to work toretire?
And it was just something thatwe just, you know, we figured.
You know we want to go to thenext chapter of our lives.
Deborah, she, she was a littlemore reluctant to retire.
(06:31):
She absolutely loved her joband it was a job that
unfortunately she couldn't doremotely.
But you know, she jumped onboard and you know, here we are
Now.
We have, we have a bit of ahistory here in Quintana Roo.
(06:51):
We we had been traveling herefor, I would say, over 50 years
since we were you know prettydarn young.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
As a matter of fact, wehoneymooned in Cancun and
(07:12):
through the course of thatperiod we we had visited Cosmow
quite extensively.
We had friends there and thatwas one of our first choices in
the area.
There were times where welooked at Playa del Carmen, and
(07:38):
then we eventually, of course,came to the Riviera Maya, where
we're at.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I'm guessing Cancun was a different place at that
time.
Oh my gosh, yeah, tell us aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, you know, many of us know that Cancun is, you
know, relative to most largercities, it's a new city.
Cancun has only been inexistence the city itself, for
roughly 50 years, and when wefirst came here, I would say it
(08:13):
was around 1988.
We decided that we would take avacation and we had all of
these different places that welooked at, and Deborah came up
(08:34):
with Cancun.
We had no idea what it was.
In simple terms, cancun becamein existence by I don't want to
get this wrong, but it wascomputer-generized.
(08:56):
The city they were looking for,the Mexican government was
looking for a place for folks tovacation or retire and they
just, you know, mixed all theseballs up in a bowl and, with you
know, all those differentcriteria, cancun was picked, and
(09:22):
I think we all know that, withits beauty, they made a pretty
good choice Back in that time Imentioned that, you know we
decided to go on vacation and wepicked one of the few
(09:44):
accommodations that were in thehotel zone.
If you're not familiar with it,the hotel zone is primarily the
zone in Cancun where peoplevacation.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And, like most people that come to Cancun, stay there
and never leave there.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Exactly, exactly.
But at the time, like I said,in the late 80s, there were a
handful of accommodations.
Now it's this high rise Meccathat you know.
It looks like a large city ifyou're across the way, in
(10:23):
Moheris, you see, you know thesethese tall buildings.
But anyways, this, this hotelthat we picked, it was horrific.
The first thing we walk in thedoor, a cockroach.
And you know, we, we just wewere not happy, so I had, my
(10:53):
trigger is pretty short and theyput us in the presidential
suite instead which was not muchbetter.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Not really not totally presidential.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Exactly, exactly.
I recall another time that wecame with some friends and we
were staying at a and this is,later in time, a different hotel
.
No, actually I think it wasthis one, deborah.
Deborah pulled out a postcardor the advertisement for this
(11:28):
and she goes I want this room, Ipaid for this room and it, you
know, they pushed us to adifferent suite.
Yeah, so anyways, long storyshort there is is that Cancun
hotel zone was nothing.
(11:48):
Back then they were evendumping sewage into the what do
they call the area in the center?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh yeah, the Lagoon, or whatever it is the Lagoon.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, so I mean, just read the suit we hope.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
We hope they're not doing that today.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I don't think they can confirm that but.
I think they come a long ways,but anyways that that was sort
of the start of things.
We were going to stay in, likeI said, cosmow, but we we
decided we looked at homes thereand we decided that there was
really very little new.
(12:26):
A lot of the infrastructure wasold and we just figured we have
all kinds of problems with thatSure.
If we purchased.
But anyways, playa de Carmen.
We looked at a lot there and weall know what Playa has turned
into.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
And right, it's now a .
It's now a busy, large, busycity, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And, as a matter of fact, we read somewhere that
they expect that the populationof Playa will exceed Cancun in X
amount of years.
So we'll see what that happensthere.
But it's turned into a loudcity with traffic and I think
(13:10):
we're we're happy with ourchoice.
Where we came to and I know youguys have talked about it,
sherry and Erica, and the bothof you where we live, and I
think we're all very happy withour choice.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I would say we are.
Yeah.
Had you gone to any other areasof Mexico to look, or just?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
No, you know, interesting, you mentioned that
we, we pretty much had ourhearts set on this area.
We, from being from the WestCoast, we were familiar with the
West Coast of Mexico and, asyou know, the climate is is much
(13:52):
different.
Even, you know, even areas ofSouthern California people often
think that it's it's warm, it'sin the water temperatures
freezing there, and thatcontinues all the way down along
the coast of of Mexico prettychilly temperatures.
So, you know, we did this isone of the things that we, we
(14:18):
thought that you know was, youknow, one of the one of the
things that we felt wasbeneficial to, you know, our
well-being, our health, to beable to be in an area that you
know we have, you know, bathwater warm ocean here and we're
(14:40):
all, we can all be active, youknow even even with with the
disability that we'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I mean you're, you're a very active guy.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, you know I try to be, you know, given given my
limitations, yes, but yeah, soanyways, ended up here.
Like I said, we were heremultiple times and at the time
we it wasn't that time, but wehad purchased our property here
(15:08):
about eight years ago.
I'm not sure how long you guyshave been here, but it wasn't
until three years ago that wedid retire.
But we, we, we liked it so muchthat you know, we used it as a
rental for a while andvacationed here, and that's kind
of how we kind of ended up inthe Riviera Maya.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, so tell us, in your view, what are some of the
most important things peoplewatching or listening should
think about before making a moveto Mexico.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
You know, be it Mexico or or another country,
there are differences, noquestion about it.
And you know if, if you're, ifyou're from the US or Canada,
there are similarities but thedifferences are greater.
(16:06):
And you guys have touched on it, on your, your new little
session.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, it's, it's kind of a team with us is K.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Padre K came out.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh yeah, wow, he remembers that.
That's awesome, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Absolutely.
I found it very entertaining init.
You know, kind of hit me, youknow right to heart, because
we've all been through it, andbut anyways, you know one of the
other things that you knowpeople should be aware of when
(16:43):
they come here do your research.
It's, it's ever changing, thiscountry, and you know, like I
said, either be it this countryor another country, there's a
vast amount of knowledge outthere that can assist you to to
(17:06):
make the right choices.
You know I would.
I would say that don't hit andI'm, my wife and I are a bit
guilty of this Don't necessarilymake a big decision in your
life and your lifestyle based onjust visiting one area of
(17:30):
Mexico.
Right, it's a vast country andthe environment is different.
The natural, geographical,historic and just cultural
differences throughout thiscountry, you know, would shock
some people, right?
So Bob and Sherry and Debra andI, we were just recently in
(17:55):
Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Completely different place than where we live in
every way.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yep, every way.
People are often shocked thatthey think of Mexico as a
relatively you know flat country, you know it has mountains.
But what is Mexico City?
I think it's like 8,000.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, it's somewhere out there, I mean it's something
.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
It's very high, yeah, and you sit in the middle of
the city and you look at twosnow covered volcanoes which I
personally had never imagineduntil I saw that.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah me neither.
That surprised me too.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, but you know, I know there are Debra and I
really haven't traveled, likeyou said, much throughout Mexico
and I know you guys havetraveled probably much more.
But culture has a lot to dowith it.
There simply isn't much culturehere, right In Cointanero,
(18:57):
other than you know the ruinsand you know.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Mayan culture, and by culture we mean, like music,
like you know, concerts andtheater and architecture.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah, architecture, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I mean, there certainly is culture, but not
that type of culture, Becauseyou can find that kind of stuff
all over in other cities, incentral cities in Mexico like.
Mexico City or Guadalajara even,or you know, it's very
different.
Yeah, it's.
I think part of it is.
Quintana Roo is such a youngstate.
(19:32):
We just we did a thing in atrivia contest the other day and
Quintana Roo was not even astate until the 70s, till the
mid 70s, right, I mean, it wasjungle until then, you know.
So, yeah, they don't have thetradition of culture and theater
and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, so some of the other things that you know one
should consider when they moveto Mexico.
You know I said that things aredifferent and patience goes a
long ways.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And we all learn that often the hard way.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yes, yeah, and you know, I've heard, I've heard
many people say that give it acouple years.
You know, the first year isgoing to be a test and if you
fail the test you're probablynot going to be here the second
year.
(20:30):
It's just.
It's something that you have tohave tolerance and you know we
talk about, you know things,that thing about Mexico that
resonates is things, everything,everything is consistently
(20:57):
inconsistent and you have to gowith that Right, and if you
don't, you're going to haveproblems.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah, you can't expect things to be consistent,
yeah, or you will be horriblydisappointed.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I think Bob.
Bob has a story that he shared,you know, a couple of weeks ago
about getting tabs for his orhis license plates.
And you know, one guy, they'lltell you something and another
person will tell you somethingelse, and it's just, you know,
(21:33):
it's a matter of how they rolledout a bed that morning.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
The person yeah, we just did it this week.
Yeah, yeah, you know, webrought all the paperwork in.
The guy says I don't need anyof that.
Yeah, Exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I got sent home to get more paperwork.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I'm touching on that in a second.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
But yeah, yeah, the guy next to you, you know you've
been requested, or theliterature tells you that you
need these six documents andjust for safe measure, you bring
eight and you know you'restanding there, you give them
the six, they take four, butthey want you to go home to get
(22:14):
another one Right to get anotherphotocopy of one or two.
The guy next to you only hadtwo documents and he made it
successful?
Yeah, and anyways it's.
You know it's some of thethings that you need to consider
.
And Mexico right now, thingsare changing a lot.
(22:38):
It's rapidly changing With thecurrent administration.
The laws are changing, the waythat this country operates.
It's no longer what we mighthave thought about in the past.
(23:03):
The economy is changing and, aswe all know, when we first came
here, we could take a pace onits stretching.
Yeah, and you know it was oneof the alerts of you know coming
here.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, and you know, minimum wage has gone up since
we've been here, like what, 50%at least, and slated to go up
more, which affects the pricesof everything.
But on the other hand, it meansMexico now has more of an
emerging middle class that theycan afford to buy things and buy
more goods and stuff, so theeconomy is improving.
(23:45):
Oh, this economy is on fire,yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I mean, we all know what the conversion rate is
right now between the peso andthe US dollar.
And you know, for those of uswho are taking our money from
the United States, we're gettingclobbered, yeah, and it is
becoming more expensive to livehere, and you know it's.
(24:11):
You know.
The second punch is that welive in the most expensive area
of Mexico, with the tourismregion that it is.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
When we went to Mexico City, we were surprised
at how inexpensive things were.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We were taking uvers for pocket change you know,
which you know.
It was quite a pleasure yourAll right, we're back.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Hey Scott, so we know that you lead a very active
life in retirement and wementioned earlier in the podcast
that you're a person withphysical disabilities.
Could you describe thatdisability and how it affects
your daily life?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Sure, Like you said, a lot of my neighbors they see
me walking around and most oftenI have a cane.
So I have a disease calledCharette Marie Tooth Syndrome
and a goofy name, but it's basedon the doctors that discovered
(25:52):
it.
It's a genetic, hereditarydegenerative disorder that
roughly 3% of the population inthe US has it.
(26:14):
It varies in severity.
My case is it's sort of middleof the ground.
What my symptoms are Kind of ina nutshell my nerves are dead
(26:43):
from my knees down Kind of thebest way to describe it, and
part of this disorder is with mymotor and sensory nerves.
It gets scrambled when thesignal is sent from my brain.
(27:03):
It somewhere along the way itdoesn't send the signal to my
knees and my legs.
It I wanna, kind of.
The best way I describe it is Iwanna be 20 feet ahead, but the
(27:24):
signal isn't telling my feet tobe there.
Yeah right, and with that Ihave a gate in my walk, whereas
when I walk my feet have to gohigher because if they don't I
(27:44):
am susceptible to tripping.
I have drop foot where my footdrops and much of what I have to
do is balance myself with acane.
The other walking aid I have isa articulating brace on my foot
(28:12):
and that brace allows me towalk without having to think
about every step I take, andunder normal circumstances I
have to think about every step Itake, otherwise I'm gonna trip
and that can be exhausting.
(28:33):
No, I can't even imagine.
Yeah, so this brace is a guidesign.
Most of these braces go roughlyup to the knee, and I approached
my orthotic guy doctor and Itold him that my wife and I are
(28:57):
coming to Mexico and in doing soI'm gonna be wearing shorts.
Yeah, 99% of the time, and forseveral reasons I wanted shorter
braces and my request to himwas to go ahead and cut the
braces off.
He had never heard of it,anybody doing that, so it was
(29:25):
kind of a unique request and itworks great for me.
It kind of serves the purposeof helping me not have the drop
foot or drop foot.
Cosmetically.
It still allows me to have beable to wear shorts and still
(29:49):
have the brace short enough.
And we had talked about the actof life.
If it weren't for this brace, Iwould not be able to play golf.
Oh right, and you guys are verypassionate about your
pickleball and I try to bepassionate about golf, but
(30:11):
unfortunately I don't get outenough.
We live on an incredible golfcourse.
It's one of the most beautifulcourses in Latin America and
anytime we have an opportunityto get out there.
It's special and I would liketo play more, but it's just a
(30:35):
matter of logistics and gettingpeople.
But these braces are reallysomething that, if you have the
disorder that I have, you reallyneed them and they're going to
allow you to carry on with life.
I don't wear them all the time.
(30:58):
I'm in my sandals, quite oftenand in doing so I pretty much
have to use my cane to maintainbalance.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So how is life different in Mexico, I mean in
the US, there's ADA compliancefor buildings and for everything
.
Oh, I just see.
And when heck I can trip andhurt myself walking around
anywhere?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
in Mexico.
I always say everything'shazardous in Mexico, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, I'm gonna put it on the swivel.
Yeah, it's kind of funny.
You mentioned that I justyesterday I was at the doctor
and in their parking lot theyhave if everybody's pretty
familiar with a ramp in theUnited States and Canada.
It's got a fairly gentle slopelike one inch to 12 feet or
(31:49):
whatever.
It is this particular rampgoing into the doorway.
Was it 45 degrees?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I've seen those before.
I always think, oh my God, if Iwas in a wheelchair I would
never want to go down that thingand.
I couldn't probably go up it.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, at the opposing end of this is a main
thoroughfare.
You can roll right into it.
Yeah, so, and you know.
Also, with this particular rampit went up to the doorway.
So there's no landing, there'sno staging area for somebody at
(32:27):
45 degrees to pull the door openRight, and there's no
enforcement for something likethis.
Now they may try, but theireffort is a little futile.
But anyways, you go throughoutany city here in Cancun, be a
(32:49):
plier to loom and you'll bewalking along a sidewalk and
there are junction boxes with agreat smessing, and it never
embers anybody's mind to put agrate on it Right.
Any of the municipal workers orjust the guy who has the shop
(33:12):
adjacent to it.
You think maybe throw a pieceof board on it or something.
There are few curb cuts thatare in the intersections.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And I'm assuming the places that do have that sort of
thing are they're few and farbetween, like your ramp is at a
doctor's place, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
It's not just a normal government building or
something.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
There's some irony there.
Yeah, you have to laugh.
I mean, it's as much as things.
You want to be safe, you got tochuckle.
You know parking spaces.
They do have ADA accessibleparking spaces, but in the area
(34:10):
I have to say they're highlyabused.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
They use them for loading.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I don't think they bust people for parking there
Right, and if you take a peak,80% of the cars parked there
don't have blockers Right, andthat's kind of a shame, but
there are.
You know there's no bite toanything when it comes to things
(34:36):
regarding ADA.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So do you have a placard in your car?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I do Okay, I do yeah, and is that?
Issued by the Mexicangovernment no actually mine is
from the United States and it isaccepted in Mexico and widely
accepted throughout the world.
I don't know if there is anyreciprocating agreement, but it
(35:05):
is being acceptable here.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's something I've never heard before.
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I've never, you know, had anybody try to enforce it.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
But yeah, but that's good to know because people from
the States thinking of comingdown here.
If you have a handicapped andyou do have a placard, bring it
with you.
Yeah, Because it's good here.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah absolutely, and there must be some you know
reasoning to have it, because Iwill say that one of your former
neighbors had asked me to loanthem a placard and I got stolen
out of the car.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
So somebody's using it here and there's probably not
somebody with a handicap either.
I got to assume.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, but you know it's, you know, one of
those things that you just haveto accept If you're traveling.
You know, part of my advice wehad talked about, you know,
looking at different citiesthroughout Mexico, you know,
(36:23):
probably, before you make achoice of living in a particular
area, not every city is evenanywhere close to the compliance
that you might see in Cancun orone of the newer cities.
You go to Merida or some of the,even Mexico City, there are
(36:46):
areas that they have cobblestoneand they don't think twice
about and the cobblestones havebeen there since horses were
walking.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, so horses could have been walking on it earlier
today, but since it was builtin, like the 1500s or something,
yeah, so there really are fewexpectations to accommodate.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
I mean, it's not like they do anything on purpose to
not.
It's you know kind of how theydo it.
A lot of it is, you know,economic.
They don't have the money.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Right, there's, yeah.
Yeah, there's been an earlierpodcast about one of the good
things we like is we pay verylow property tax.
But the bad part of that isthere's not a lot of money for
infrastructure, isn't that true?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
That sort of thing.
You know that's good and bad.
It's cheaper yeah, it ischeaper, it is, but yeah, yeah,
so yeah, those are.
Those are some of the thingsthat you wish we had a lot of
Pause and enforcement forsomething like.
(37:58):
You know, what we know is ADAin the US.
But you know, I try to prettymuch work with what you know,
what we have here.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
So what advice would you have for people with
physical challenges who arethinking about making the move
to Mexico?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Kind of what I touched on a second ago.
Look at different areas.
If it's something that's reallyimportant to you, you know,
check these places out first,because you'd be, you know,
shocked at, you know, making achoice if you're going to live
(38:42):
in a particular city and youhave those expectations that you
know are going to be realized.
You know things like you know,and I think we've seen this
maybe in our neighborhood everyso often, if you're making
(39:04):
decisions on homes and they haveelevators, you know, consider
that often our electrical gridhere in Mexico is sometimes
questionable.
It goes out a lot and you knowit sort of resonates because,
(39:28):
like I said, we've seen a coupleinstances in here in our
neighborhood that if the powergoes out it becomes a burden not
to have.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
So maybe that kind of house you know you might want
to consider keeping in mind,look at places on lower floors.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , it's.
You know those are.
Those are some of the obstaclesthat that, if you are
considering coming here, I thinkthe biggest you know takeaway
there is there are no ADA loss,right, or you know the
(40:12):
comparable requirements inCanada to that.
You know, don't haveexpectations that are not
realistic.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Right, okay, we'll take another break and we'll be
back.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Sure, okay, we're back.
Okay, scott.
So in an earlier episode weplayed a game called Cape Audre
Caymallow, which is things youlove about Mexico and things you
don't like so much.
Give me one thing you reallylove about living here, cape
Audre, and one thing that youdon't necessarily like as much
as Caymallow.
I'd love to just elaborate andyou know, play your entire game,
(41:05):
because you know one for awhile it's fun to listen to it.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
You know, I think, that which is a Cape Audre, the
things you do like 365 days ofthe year, sunshine, summer.
You know, occasionally you havea blip in weather here and
there and perhaps winter andhurricane season, but it's so
(41:39):
nice to wake up every morningand see the sunshine, especially
coming from Seattle.
Huh, yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah, you know a place where wethrive on three months a year.
You know, getting outside, butand you know I knew you and Utah
.
You know you faced snow andsame with South Dakota, yeah,
(42:00):
and, but it's just somethingthat I'm sure a lot of people
can't imagine until youexperience it.
It's just so good for the soulJust feeling now today.
Maybe a little warm outside,but you know for March, but you
(42:21):
know most often yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, okay.
And if you had a list of, likethe top thing that someone
should consider when looking toretire and making an
international move, what wouldthat one thing be?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
You know.
One comes to mind is and I'veseen in many other blogs and
podcasts, people often say rentfirst before you really make a
commitment and to doing so I,you know, it, it, it.
(43:00):
I probably should have heatedthat advice only because you
know we haven't experienced therest of the country Right, and
you know we, you're investedhere and we're invested here and
absolutely love it.
I mean no question about it, butyou know it was a thrill to go
(43:23):
to Mexico City and see thedifferent neighborhoods and our
area is growing here and youknow, I think you know we'll you
know, eventually we're going tosee.
You know some of that, yeah, butto answer your question, I
(43:44):
would say the number one thingand I don't care where you go
research, research the place,you know when we first, you know
, thought about coming here andyou know, like I said, almost 50
years ago we never had the vastamount of knowledge and tools
(44:09):
and internet, and it's.
It's out there.
You know, listen to podcastslike this.
You know it can.
It can really help you withthose choices rather than, you
know, jumping in.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
We both fade.
We, you know, we always and wetalked about this on an earlier
podcast we credit.
What's the guy's name?
It's 2xpats Mexico.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Paul, paul Paul.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Yeah, for that's.
They're the reason we moved,you know, they made us realize
we could move Paul.
Tons of good info.
Yeah, paul.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Absolutely, paul.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
We studied that for years before we came here, paul.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Absolutely yeah, and you know one of the other things
that you know I don't want todigress here, but you talk about
.
You know when you make choicesand what choices you make.
Look at realistic budgets.
(45:08):
I mean, so many times you lookat these sites and, quite
honestly, they're bogus budgets.
You know you can't live inMexico on a thousand dollars a
month.
You can perhaps, you know,somewhere in a hut in the middle
of Mexico.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
But you know often, you know it's portrayed that you
can do that, you've got to lookat all of it, and it's taken as
a blanket statement about allof Mexico too, which is
completely not true, yeah, yeah,but you know that would be some
advice when you know you'relooking at trying to make that
(45:49):
commitment.
All right?
Yeah Well, thank you, scottLawson, for joining us today on
X-PATS, like Us.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Oh, thank you very much.
Thanks, man had a great chatwith you guys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
In each episode of X-PATS, like Us, we're going to
teach you a new Mexican slangword.
This is something you may notfind in your phrasebook or your
online Spanish class or yourSpanish app or wherever you're
learning your Spanish.
Instead, this is a term usedprimarily by Mexican Spanish
speakers.
Today's word is Eres la neta.
(46:27):
Eres la neta.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Eres la neta Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
I know that Eres means you are yes.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
La neta is a slang way of saying you're the best,
you're cool, you're spot on.
Eres la neta, Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
You're the best Eres.
La neta, erika Kowalski, fromMe, vida Margarita.
We'd love to hear your thoughtson today's topic.
Just look up X-PATS.
Like Us on Facebook or send usan email at xpatslikeuscom.
(47:00):
You can also see the videoversion of today's discussion
and all of our discussions onour YouTube page.
Follow, like, subscribe andleave us a review.
Thank you to today's guest,scott Lawson.
Thanks also to my co-host,chris Kowalski and his wife
Erika, and thanks to my wife,sherry Bussey.
Most of all, thank you fortuning into X-PATS.
(47:22):
Like Us and thank you forinteracting with us on social
media.
Next time we'll bring you morefirst-hand information about
your international move.
We'll see you again in twoweeks.
Until then, remember our homesare not defined by geography or
one particular location, but bymemories of events, people and
places that span the globe.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Thank you.
Don't necessarily make a big decision in your life
and your lifestyle based onjust visiting one area of Mexico
.
It's a vast country and theenvironment is different the
natural, geographical, historicand just cultural differences
(00:27):
throughout this country, youknow, which shocks some people.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome to X-PATs Like Us.
A co-production with me, vitaMargarita, exploring the world
of US X-PAT life in Mexico.
In each episode, we'll meet newpeople and hear their stories.
We'll also learn more aboutX-PAT life and get a few tips on
everything from making yourmove to settling in, to living
your dreams and, most of all,having fun.
(00:58):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm your host, chris Kowalski, and today we're
thrilled to be talking to ourfriend and fellow X-PAT, scott
Lawson.
Scott and his wife Deb moved toRiviera Maya about three years
ago.
Scott is here to share hisexperience in moving from his
original home in the Seattlearea to living full-time in
Mexico and adapting to a newlife in a new country.
Scott will also share someinsight on the special
(01:31):
challenges of navigating Mexicowith a physical disability.
Hello, scott Lawson, welcome toX-PATs Like Us.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hi guys, nice to be here and appreciate you asking
me Glad to have you here.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Scott, thanks for coming in today.
So tell us about your lifepre-Mexico in the US.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Well, as Chris mentioned, prior to moving here,
we lived in the SeattleWashington area, and that was
with our two children, our dogs,and while there, I should
mention my wife, debra.
(02:11):
The dogs got to feel like theywere out of their beards.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You're going to have to distract her during this part
of the podcast.
Yes, shame on me.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And while there, we both went to the University of
Washington and she went on tobecome an engineer for our local
public utility, and I spent myentire career in construction
management, doing single family,multi-family and commercial
(02:49):
healthcare work.
And prior to being diagnosedwith my disability, which we'll
explain and talk about here in abit, I was a very active guy.
I played a lot of softball,golfed, skied and a lot of that
(03:14):
just came crashing down in mylate 40s.
Oh right and but it kind of oneof the things that precipitated
the move down here.
The warmth, the sunshine it'sreally done wonders to my health
(03:36):
, including things like bloodpressure.
I think it affects a lot ofpeople, but yeah, so that is
sort of an outline of what wedid there.
I could elaborate on it, butreally the next chapter was
(03:59):
coming here.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Right, and what inspired you to decide to move
to Mexico instead of just beingin Seattle?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, you know it.
A lot of it had to do with myhealth, of course, and I was
approaching retirement age, myfull retirement age, and both my
wife and I, we were working athome during COVID and it was in
(04:30):
a sort of that pivotal point inour lives.
Where do we?
Do we stick with this, or do wework our way back to commuting
to work rather than working athome?
And you know, there was somechallenges for myself being at
(04:52):
home as far as mobility.
I didn't get up enough.
I would sit there at my deskfor 10 hours a day without even
getting up and moving around.
You know, something that Inormally would have done pre
COVID.
So it really it kind of was thecatalyst for us to move and
(05:20):
retire.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I hear that a lot from people, that when you say
what inspired you to move toMexico, there's almost always,
at least you know, the peoplethat have probably been here
around as long as we have, butit's a consistent thing.
Where they mentioned thepandemic, yeah absolutely, and
it changed something in all ofour minds and we all decided to
(05:43):
make a big move at that time.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, well, yeah, and you know much of that is people
reflected on.
You know things just as simpleas family members becoming sick.
You know everybody and I'm sureincluding yourselves, new
people that passed away duringCOVID and you know it's one of
(06:07):
those things where you just sayyou know, do I want to work to
die or do I want to work toretire?
And it was just something thatwe just, you know, we figured.
You know we want to go to thenext chapter of our lives.
Deborah, she, she was a littlemore reluctant to retire.
(06:31):
She absolutely loved her joband it was a job that
unfortunately she couldn't doremotely.
But you know, she jumped onboard and you know, here we are
Now.
We have, we have a bit of ahistory here in Quintana Roo.
(06:51):
We we had been traveling herefor, I would say, over 50 years
since we were you know prettydarn young.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
As a matter of fact, wehoneymooned in Cancun and
(07:12):
through the course of thatperiod we we had visited Cosmow
quite extensively.
We had friends there and thatwas one of our first choices in
the area.
There were times where welooked at Playa del Carmen, and
(07:38):
then we eventually, of course,came to the Riviera Maya, where
we're at.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I'm guessing Cancun was a different place at that
time.
Oh my gosh, yeah, tell us aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, you know, many of us know that Cancun is, you
know, relative to most largercities, it's a new city.
Cancun has only been inexistence the city itself, for
roughly 50 years, and when wefirst came here, I would say it
(08:13):
was around 1988.
We decided that we would take avacation and we had all of
these different places that welooked at, and Deborah came up
(08:34):
with Cancun.
We had no idea what it was.
In simple terms, cancun becamein existence by I don't want to
get this wrong, but it wascomputer-generized.
(08:56):
The city they were looking for,the Mexican government was
looking for a place for folks tovacation or retire and they
just, you know, mixed all theseballs up in a bowl and, with you
know, all those differentcriteria, cancun was picked, and
(09:22):
I think we all know that, withits beauty, they made a pretty
good choice Back in that time Imentioned that, you know we
decided to go on vacation and wepicked one of the few
(09:44):
accommodations that were in thehotel zone.
If you're not familiar with it,the hotel zone is primarily the
zone in Cancun where peoplevacation.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And, like most people that come to Cancun, stay there
and never leave there.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Exactly, exactly.
But at the time, like I said,in the late 80s, there were a
handful of accommodations.
Now it's this high rise Meccathat you know.
It looks like a large city ifyou're across the way, in
(10:23):
Moheris, you see, you know thesethese tall buildings.
But anyways, this, this hotelthat we picked, it was horrific.
The first thing we walk in thedoor, a cockroach.
And you know, we, we just wewere not happy, so I had, my
(10:53):
trigger is pretty short and theyput us in the presidential
suite instead which was not muchbetter.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Not really not totally presidential.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Exactly, exactly.
I recall another time that wecame with some friends and we
were staying at a and this is,later in time, a different hotel
.
No, actually I think it wasthis one, deborah.
Deborah pulled out a postcardor the advertisement for this
(11:28):
and she goes I want this room, Ipaid for this room and it, you
know, they pushed us to adifferent suite.
Yeah, so anyways, long storyshort there is is that Cancun
hotel zone was nothing.
(11:48):
Back then they were evendumping sewage into the what do
they call the area in the center?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh yeah, the Lagoon, or whatever it is the Lagoon.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, so I mean, just read the suit we hope.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
We hope they're not doing that today.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I don't think they can confirm that but.
I think they come a long ways,but anyways that that was sort
of the start of things.
We were going to stay in, likeI said, cosmow, but we we
decided we looked at homes thereand we decided that there was
really very little new.
(12:26):
A lot of the infrastructure wasold and we just figured we have
all kinds of problems with thatSure.
If we purchased.
But anyways, playa de Carmen.
We looked at a lot there and weall know what Playa has turned
into.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
And right, it's now a .
It's now a busy, large, busycity, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And, as a matter of fact, we read somewhere that
they expect that the populationof Playa will exceed Cancun in X
amount of years.
So we'll see what that happensthere.
But it's turned into a loudcity with traffic and I think
(13:10):
we're we're happy with ourchoice.
Where we came to and I know youguys have talked about it,
sherry and Erica, and the bothof you where we live, and I
think we're all very happy withour choice.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I would say we are.
Yeah.
Had you gone to any other areasof Mexico to look, or just?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
No, you know, interesting, you mentioned that
we, we pretty much had ourhearts set on this area.
We, from being from the WestCoast, we were familiar with the
West Coast of Mexico and, asyou know, the climate is is much
(13:52):
different.
Even, you know, even areas ofSouthern California people often
think that it's it's warm, it'sin the water temperatures
freezing there, and thatcontinues all the way down along
the coast of of Mexico prettychilly temperatures.
So, you know, we did this isone of the things that we, we
(14:18):
thought that you know was, youknow, one of the one of the
things that we felt wasbeneficial to, you know, our
well-being, our health, to beable to be in an area that you
know we have, you know, bathwater warm ocean here and we're
(14:40):
all, we can all be active, youknow even even with with the
disability that we'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I mean you're, you're a very active guy.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, you know I try to be, you know, given given my
limitations, yes, but yeah, soanyways, ended up here.
Like I said, we were heremultiple times and at the time
we it wasn't that time, but wehad purchased our property here
(15:08):
about eight years ago.
I'm not sure how long you guyshave been here, but it wasn't
until three years ago that wedid retire.
But we, we, we liked it so muchthat you know, we used it as a
rental for a while andvacationed here, and that's kind
of how we kind of ended up inthe Riviera Maya.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, so tell us, in your view, what are some of the
most important things peoplewatching or listening should
think about before making a moveto Mexico.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
You know, be it Mexico or or another country,
there are differences, noquestion about it.
And you know if, if you're, ifyou're from the US or Canada,
there are similarities but thedifferences are greater.
(16:06):
And you guys have touched on it, on your, your new little
session.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, it's, it's kind of a team with us is K.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Padre K came out.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh yeah, wow, he remembers that.
That's awesome, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Absolutely.
I found it very entertaining init.
You know, kind of hit me, youknow right to heart, because
we've all been through it, andbut anyways, you know one of the
other things that you knowpeople should be aware of when
(16:43):
they come here do your research.
It's, it's ever changing, thiscountry, and you know, like I
said, either be it this countryor another country, there's a
vast amount of knowledge outthere that can assist you to to
(17:06):
make the right choices.
You know I would.
I would say that don't hit andI'm, my wife and I are a bit
guilty of this Don't necessarilymake a big decision in your
life and your lifestyle based onjust visiting one area of
(17:30):
Mexico.
Right, it's a vast country andthe environment is different.
The natural, geographical,historic and just cultural
differences throughout thiscountry, you know, would shock
some people, right?
So Bob and Sherry and Debra andI, we were just recently in
(17:55):
Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Completely different place than where we live in
every way.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yep, every way.
People are often shocked thatthey think of Mexico as a
relatively you know flat country, you know it has mountains.
But what is Mexico City?
I think it's like 8,000.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, it's somewhere out there, I mean it's something
.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
It's very high, yeah, and you sit in the middle of
the city and you look at twosnow covered volcanoes which I
personally had never imagineduntil I saw that.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah me neither.
That surprised me too.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, but you know, I know there are Debra and I
really haven't traveled, likeyou said, much throughout Mexico
and I know you guys havetraveled probably much more.
But culture has a lot to dowith it.
There simply isn't much culturehere, right In Cointanero,
(18:57):
other than you know the ruinsand you know.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Mayan culture, and by culture we mean, like music,
like you know, concerts andtheater and architecture.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah, architecture, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I mean, there certainly is culture, but not
that type of culture, Becauseyou can find that kind of stuff
all over in other cities, incentral cities in Mexico like.
Mexico City or Guadalajara even,or you know, it's very
different.
Yeah, it's.
I think part of it is.
Quintana Roo is such a youngstate.
(19:32):
We just we did a thing in atrivia contest the other day and
Quintana Roo was not even astate until the 70s, till the
mid 70s, right, I mean, it wasjungle until then, you know.
So, yeah, they don't have thetradition of culture and theater
and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, so some of the other things that you know one
should consider when they moveto Mexico.
You know I said that things aredifferent and patience goes a
long ways.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And we all learn that often the hard way.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yes, yeah, and you know, I've heard, I've heard
many people say that give it acouple years.
You know, the first year isgoing to be a test and if you
fail the test you're probablynot going to be here the second
year.
(20:30):
It's just.
It's something that you have tohave tolerance and you know we
talk about, you know things,that thing about Mexico that
resonates is things, everything,everything is consistently
(20:57):
inconsistent and you have to gowith that Right, and if you
don't, you're going to haveproblems.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah, you can't expect things to be consistent,
yeah, or you will be horriblydisappointed.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I think Bob.
Bob has a story that he shared,you know, a couple of weeks ago
about getting tabs for his orhis license plates.
And you know, one guy, they'lltell you something and another
person will tell you somethingelse, and it's just, you know,
(21:33):
it's a matter of how they rolledout a bed that morning.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
The person yeah, we just did it this week.
Yeah, yeah, you know, webrought all the paperwork in.
The guy says I don't need anyof that.
Yeah, Exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I got sent home to get more paperwork.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I'm touching on that in a second.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
But yeah, yeah, the guy next to you, you know you've
been requested, or theliterature tells you that you
need these six documents andjust for safe measure, you bring
eight and you know you'restanding there, you give them
the six, they take four, butthey want you to go home to get
(22:14):
another one Right to get anotherphotocopy of one or two.
The guy next to you only hadtwo documents and he made it
successful?
Yeah, and anyways it's.
You know it's some of thethings that you need to consider
.
And Mexico right now, thingsare changing a lot.
(22:38):
It's rapidly changing With thecurrent administration.
The laws are changing, the waythat this country operates.
It's no longer what we mighthave thought about in the past.
(23:03):
The economy is changing and, aswe all know, when we first came
here, we could take a pace onits stretching.
Yeah, and you know it was oneof the alerts of you know coming
here.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, and you know, minimum wage has gone up since
we've been here, like what, 50%at least, and slated to go up
more, which affects the pricesof everything.
But on the other hand, it meansMexico now has more of an
emerging middle class that theycan afford to buy things and buy
more goods and stuff, so theeconomy is improving.
(23:45):
Oh, this economy is on fire,yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I mean, we all know what the conversion rate is
right now between the peso andthe US dollar.
And you know, for those of uswho are taking our money from
the United States, we're gettingclobbered, yeah, and it is
becoming more expensive to livehere, and you know it's.
(24:11):
You know.
The second punch is that welive in the most expensive area
of Mexico, with the tourismregion that it is.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
When we went to Mexico City, we were surprised
at how inexpensive things were.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We were taking uvers for pocket change you know,
which you know.
It was quite a pleasure yourAll right, we're back.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Hey Scott, so we know that you lead a very active
life in retirement and wementioned earlier in the podcast
that you're a person withphysical disabilities.
Could you describe thatdisability and how it affects
your daily life?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Sure, Like you said, a lot of my neighbors they see
me walking around and most oftenI have a cane.
So I have a disease calledCharette Marie Tooth Syndrome
and a goofy name, but it's basedon the doctors that discovered
(25:52):
it.
It's a genetic, hereditarydegenerative disorder that
roughly 3% of the population inthe US has it.
(26:14):
It varies in severity.
My case is it's sort of middleof the ground.
What my symptoms are Kind of ina nutshell my nerves are dead
(26:43):
from my knees down Kind of thebest way to describe it, and
part of this disorder is with mymotor and sensory nerves.
It gets scrambled when thesignal is sent from my brain.
(27:03):
It somewhere along the way itdoesn't send the signal to my
knees and my legs.
It I wanna, kind of.
The best way I describe it is Iwanna be 20 feet ahead, but the
(27:24):
signal isn't telling my feet tobe there.
Yeah right, and with that Ihave a gate in my walk, whereas
when I walk my feet have to gohigher because if they don't I
(27:44):
am susceptible to tripping.
I have drop foot where my footdrops and much of what I have to
do is balance myself with acane.
The other walking aid I have isa articulating brace on my foot
(28:12):
and that brace allows me towalk without having to think
about every step I take, andunder normal circumstances I
have to think about every step Itake, otherwise I'm gonna trip
and that can be exhausting.
(28:33):
No, I can't even imagine.
Yeah, so this brace is a guidesign.
Most of these braces go roughlyup to the knee, and I approached
my orthotic guy doctor and Itold him that my wife and I are
(28:57):
coming to Mexico and in doing soI'm gonna be wearing shorts.
Yeah, 99% of the time, and forseveral reasons I wanted shorter
braces and my request to himwas to go ahead and cut the
braces off.
He had never heard of it,anybody doing that, so it was
(29:25):
kind of a unique request and itworks great for me.
It kind of serves the purposeof helping me not have the drop
foot or drop foot.
Cosmetically.
It still allows me to have beable to wear shorts and still
(29:49):
have the brace short enough.
And we had talked about the actof life.
If it weren't for this brace, Iwould not be able to play golf.
Oh right, and you guys are verypassionate about your
pickleball and I try to bepassionate about golf, but
(30:11):
unfortunately I don't get outenough.
We live on an incredible golfcourse.
It's one of the most beautifulcourses in Latin America and
anytime we have an opportunityto get out there.
It's special and I would liketo play more, but it's just a
(30:35):
matter of logistics and gettingpeople.
But these braces are reallysomething that, if you have the
disorder that I have, you reallyneed them and they're going to
allow you to carry on with life.
I don't wear them all the time.
(30:58):
I'm in my sandals, quite oftenand in doing so I pretty much
have to use my cane to maintainbalance.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So how is life different in Mexico, I mean in
the US, there's ADA compliancefor buildings and for everything
.
Oh, I just see.
And when heck I can trip andhurt myself walking around
anywhere?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
in Mexico.
I always say everything'shazardous in Mexico, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, I'm gonna put it on the swivel.
Yeah, it's kind of funny.
You mentioned that I justyesterday I was at the doctor
and in their parking lot theyhave if everybody's pretty
familiar with a ramp in theUnited States and Canada.
It's got a fairly gentle slopelike one inch to 12 feet or
(31:49):
whatever.
It is this particular rampgoing into the doorway.
Was it 45 degrees?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I've seen those before.
I always think, oh my God, if Iwas in a wheelchair I would
never want to go down that thingand.
I couldn't probably go up it.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, at the opposing end of this is a main
thoroughfare.
You can roll right into it.
Yeah, so, and you know.
Also, with this particular rampit went up to the doorway.
So there's no landing, there'sno staging area for somebody at
(32:27):
45 degrees to pull the door openRight, and there's no
enforcement for something likethis.
Now they may try, but theireffort is a little futile.
But anyways, you go throughoutany city here in Cancun, be a
(32:49):
plier to loom and you'll bewalking along a sidewalk and
there are junction boxes with agreat smessing, and it never
embers anybody's mind to put agrate on it Right.
Any of the municipal workers orjust the guy who has the shop
(33:12):
adjacent to it.
You think maybe throw a pieceof board on it or something.
There are few curb cuts thatare in the intersections.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And I'm assuming the places that do have that sort of
thing are they're few and farbetween, like your ramp is at a
doctor's place, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
It's not just a normal government building or
something.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
There's some irony there.
Yeah, you have to laugh.
I mean, it's as much as things.
You want to be safe, you got tochuckle.
You know parking spaces.
They do have ADA accessibleparking spaces, but in the area
(34:10):
I have to say they're highlyabused.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
They use them for loading.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I don't think they bust people for parking there
Right, and if you take a peak,80% of the cars parked there
don't have blockers Right, andthat's kind of a shame, but
there are.
You know there's no bite toanything when it comes to things
(34:36):
regarding ADA.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So do you have a placard in your car?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I do Okay, I do yeah, and is that?
Issued by the Mexicangovernment no actually mine is
from the United States and it isaccepted in Mexico and widely
accepted throughout the world.
I don't know if there is anyreciprocating agreement, but it
(35:05):
is being acceptable here.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's something I've never heard before.
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I've never, you know, had anybody try to enforce it.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
But yeah, but that's good to know because people from
the States thinking of comingdown here.
If you have a handicapped andyou do have a placard, bring it
with you.
Yeah, Because it's good here.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah absolutely, and there must be some you know
reasoning to have it, because Iwill say that one of your former
neighbors had asked me to loanthem a placard and I got stolen
out of the car.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
So somebody's using it here and there's probably not
somebody with a handicap either.
I got to assume.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, but you know it's, you know, one of
those things that you just haveto accept If you're traveling.
You know, part of my advice wehad talked about, you know,
looking at different citiesthroughout Mexico, you know,
(36:23):
probably, before you make achoice of living in a particular
area, not every city is evenanywhere close to the compliance
that you might see in Cancun orone of the newer cities.
You go to Merida or some of the,even Mexico City, there are
(36:46):
areas that they have cobblestoneand they don't think twice
about and the cobblestones havebeen there since horses were
walking.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, so horses could have been walking on it earlier
today, but since it was builtin, like the 1500s or something,
yeah, so there really are fewexpectations to accommodate.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
I mean, it's not like they do anything on purpose to
not.
It's you know kind of how theydo it.
A lot of it is, you know,economic.
They don't have the money.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Right, there's, yeah.
Yeah, there's been an earlierpodcast about one of the good
things we like is we pay verylow property tax.
But the bad part of that isthere's not a lot of money for
infrastructure, isn't that true?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
That sort of thing.
You know that's good and bad.
It's cheaper yeah, it ischeaper, it is, but yeah, yeah,
so yeah, those are.
Those are some of the thingsthat you wish we had a lot of
Pause and enforcement forsomething like.
(37:58):
You know, what we know is ADAin the US.
But you know, I try to prettymuch work with what you know,
what we have here.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
So what advice would you have for people with
physical challenges who arethinking about making the move
to Mexico?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Kind of what I touched on a second ago.
Look at different areas.
If it's something that's reallyimportant to you, you know,
check these places out first,because you'd be, you know,
shocked at, you know, making achoice if you're going to live
(38:42):
in a particular city and youhave those expectations that you
know are going to be realized.
You know things like you know,and I think we've seen this
maybe in our neighborhood everyso often, if you're making
(39:04):
decisions on homes and they haveelevators, you know, consider
that often our electrical gridhere in Mexico is sometimes
questionable.
It goes out a lot and you knowit sort of resonates because,
(39:28):
like I said, we've seen a coupleinstances in here in our
neighborhood that if the powergoes out it becomes a burden not
to have.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
So maybe that kind of house you know you might want
to consider keeping in mind,look at places on lower floors.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , it's.
You know those are.
Those are some of the obstaclesthat that, if you are
considering coming here, I thinkthe biggest you know takeaway
there is there are no ADA loss,right, or you know the
(40:12):
comparable requirements inCanada to that.
You know, don't haveexpectations that are not
realistic.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Right, okay, we'll take another break and we'll be
back.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Sure, okay, we're back.
Okay, scott.
So in an earlier episode weplayed a game called Cape Audre
Caymallow, which is things youlove about Mexico and things you
don't like so much.
Give me one thing you reallylove about living here, cape
Audre, and one thing that youdon't necessarily like as much
as Caymallow.
I'd love to just elaborate andyou know, play your entire game,
(41:05):
because you know one for awhile it's fun to listen to it.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
You know, I think, that which is a Cape Audre, the
things you do like 365 days ofthe year, sunshine, summer.
You know, occasionally you havea blip in weather here and
there and perhaps winter andhurricane season, but it's so
(41:39):
nice to wake up every morningand see the sunshine, especially
coming from Seattle.
Huh, yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah, you know a place where wethrive on three months a year.
You know, getting outside, butand you know I knew you and Utah
.
You know you faced snow andsame with South Dakota, yeah,
(42:00):
and, but it's just somethingthat I'm sure a lot of people
can't imagine until youexperience it.
It's just so good for the soulJust feeling now today.
Maybe a little warm outside,but you know for March, but you
(42:21):
know most often yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, okay.
And if you had a list of, likethe top thing that someone
should consider when looking toretire and making an
international move, what wouldthat one thing be?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
You know.
One comes to mind is and I'veseen in many other blogs and
podcasts, people often say rentfirst before you really make a
commitment and to doing so I,you know, it, it, it.
(43:00):
I probably should have heatedthat advice only because you
know we haven't experienced therest of the country Right, and
you know we, you're investedhere and we're invested here and
absolutely love it.
I mean no question about it, butyou know it was a thrill to go
(43:23):
to Mexico City and see thedifferent neighborhoods and our
area is growing here and youknow, I think you know we'll you
know, eventually we're going tosee.
You know some of that, yeah, butto answer your question, I
(43:44):
would say the number one thingand I don't care where you go
research, research the place,you know when we first, you know
, thought about coming here andyou know, like I said, almost 50
years ago we never had the vastamount of knowledge and tools
(44:09):
and internet, and it's.
It's out there.
You know, listen to podcastslike this.
You know it can.
It can really help you withthose choices rather than, you
know, jumping in.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
We both fade.
We, you know, we always and wetalked about this on an earlier
podcast we credit.
What's the guy's name?
It's 2xpats Mexico.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Paul, paul Paul.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Yeah, for that's.
They're the reason we moved,you know, they made us realize
we could move Paul.
Tons of good info.
Yeah, paul.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Absolutely, paul.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
We studied that for years before we came here, paul.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Absolutely yeah, and you know one of the other things
that you know I don't want todigress here, but you talk about
.
You know when you make choicesand what choices you make.
Look at realistic budgets.
(45:08):
I mean, so many times you lookat these sites and, quite
honestly, they're bogus budgets.
You know you can't live inMexico on a thousand dollars a
month.
You can perhaps, you know,somewhere in a hut in the middle
of Mexico.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
But you know often, you know it's portrayed that you
can do that, you've got to lookat all of it, and it's taken as
a blanket statement about allof Mexico too, which is
completely not true, yeah, yeah,but you know that would be some
advice when you know you'relooking at trying to make that
(45:49):
commitment.
All right?
Yeah Well, thank you, scottLawson, for joining us today on
X-PATS, like Us.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Oh, thank you very much.
Thanks, man had a great chatwith you guys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
In each episode of X-PATS, like Us, we're going to
teach you a new Mexican slangword.
This is something you may notfind in your phrasebook or your
online Spanish class or yourSpanish app or wherever you're
learning your Spanish.
Instead, this is a term usedprimarily by Mexican Spanish
speakers.
Today's word is Eres la neta.
(46:27):
Eres la neta.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Eres la neta Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
I know that Eres means you are yes.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
La neta is a slang way of saying you're the best,
you're cool, you're spot on.
Eres la neta, Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
You're the best Eres.
La neta, erika Kowalski, fromMe, vida Margarita.
We'd love to hear your thoughtson today's topic.
Just look up X-PATS.
Like Us on Facebook or send usan email at xpatslikeuscom.
(47:00):
You can also see the videoversion of today's discussion
and all of our discussions onour YouTube page.
Follow, like, subscribe andleave us a review.
Thank you to today's guest,scott Lawson.
Thanks also to my co-host,chris Kowalski and his wife
Erika, and thanks to my wife,sherry Bussey.
Most of all, thank you fortuning into X-PATS.
(47:22):
Like Us and thank you forinteracting with us on social
media.
Next time we'll bring you morefirst-hand information about
your international move.
We'll see you again in twoweeks.
Until then, remember our homesare not defined by geography or
one particular location, but bymemories of events, people and
places that span the globe.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
Thank you.
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