Mexico Sight Unseen - You're Moving Where?

La Casa Que Canta (The House That Sings)

We hadn't planned on moving to Mexico. Actually, we hadn’t planned on moving anywhere.  And we certainly hadn’t planned on buying a house we had never seen, over the Internet, in a town we had never heard of, in a country we had never visited.  But in a period of two week’s time that’s exactly what we did.

Friends and relatives were in a state of shock when we announced our plans to move to Mexico. As if that shock wasn’t enough, they needed to be picked up off the floor when we told them we had wired a sizable sum of money to a realtor in Mexico to purchase a home.  Sight unseen!

Not normally impulsive people, within hours we had made the most impulsive decision of our lives. And it was no spur of the moment let’s buy that sexy little sports car decision.  This was a potentially life changing one. It’s difficult to say what prompted our new found impulsiveness. Perhaps it was an unusually brutal Maine winter.  It was only mid-winter and there were already three feet of snow piled up outside. We had endured twenty one long, dark, days of snow storms, unrelenting wind and soul numbing sleet.  It seemed like the perfect time for a change.

At first, talking about moving out of the country was nothing more than a fun idea John and I batted back and forth like a tennis ball to ward off the winter boredom. We offered up suggestions about where we might live; the south of France, Italy, or maybe Spain. We imagined ourselves basking in the sun in some sunny foreign country while learning a new language and sipping exotic cocktails.  We had read many articles in magazines about baby boomer retirees fleeing in droves to enjoy the last chapters of their lives in the sunny climes of other countries. Well, we were baby boomers, and we were retired. With the kids gone, there was nothing preventing us from making such a move. We could go anywhere in the world. Besides, it was the middle of winter in Maine.  That alone was a good enough reason to get out Dodge.

During one of our 'where would you live if you could live anywhere' discussions, we decided  Italy would be the perfect destination. Ah, the villas, the sun, the vineyards, the olive groves and all that breath-taking ancient architecture.  Not to mention the food. How we loved Italian food.Who wouldn’t want to move to Italy?  Yes, we could see ourselves simmering pasta sauce on the stove in the kitchen of our charming 400-year-old stone house overlooking the beautiful Italian countryside.  Unfortunately, that balloon was quickly burst when we realized the inflated euro and the deflated dollar had made Italy unaffordable for us.

While our fantasy about moving to Italy died a quick and unexpected death, a new plan was born just as quickly.  A friend who had a long-time love affair with Mexico suggested we consider moving there. She had been spending winters in a small town on the west coast of Mexico for 25 years and she convinced us it was worth a look.

 We Googled information about all the major Mexican hot spots;  Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabos, San Miguel and Sayulita, a charming little fishing village near Puerto Vallarta. They all looked lovely and enticing, and all claimed to have perfect sunny, warm year-round weather with  appealing real estate prices. But I discovered the Pacific coast of Mexico can be horrendously hot and humid in the summer and I was not a fan of hot or humid.

Like a snowball rolling down a hill, our daydreams and fantasies quickly gained momentum. Without realizing it, our silly game of ‘where would you live’ was morphing into reality, as I wandered around various websites hop-scotching from one Mexican town to another. 

As I ventured away from the Pacific coast, I ended up in a chat room about Lake Chapala, Mexico, an area that boasts the largest lake in the country. I was impressed with the descriptions of the quaint little towns and villages surrounding the lake, and claims that it was one of three places in the world with perfect year-round spring-like weather. With no humidity, and temperatures in the 70’s, it was described by both locals and ex-pats as the land of eternal spring. And did I mention no humidity and spring-like weather. We were hooked.  One thing led to another and quicker than we could say buenos dias I was back on the computer scanning  realtors’ websites for available homes at Lake Chapala. 

View of court yard, pool, cabana on right and house.

Within minutes I found a listing for a beautiful Mediterranean-style villa that was listed at an amazingly  reasonable price. The pictures were breath-taking.  A huge walled courtyard overflowed with lush exotic flowering trees dripping in pink and purple petals, and tall palms and cypress trees surrounded the home.  A beautiful pool and cabana graced the court yard, and the grass resembled a mat of thick, emerald velvet.  Curving paths led to the main house with its multi-domed rooftop and there were huge arched doorways and even a romantic story book style turret.

Rooftop patio (mirador).

 The pictures of the home’s interior were just as impressive as the exterior.  White marble floors graced all the rooms and there were tall domed brick boveda ceilings, gold gilded pillars and five bathrooms with marble tubs that spouted water from huge lions’ heads. Not only was the house gorgeous, it was priced right, so right that we figured the pricing must have been mistake. I couldn’t imagine finding a house like that for less than $2,000,000 in the U.S. I clicked my way through twenty or more photos of the villa, going over them repeatedly, and with each click I tumbled more deeply into love.