Coming for scouting visit

My wife and I will be coming to Lakeside in August for a short visit (1 week) with the intent of checking it out for future retirement possibilities.  I have been following this site for the past 6 months or so to get an idea of life at Lakeside.  The question I would like to ask is "are there any specific suggestions as to the most profitable (information gathering) way to spend our week there?" Thanks for any and all thoughts, suggestion or recommendations.

DaveW
Ontario, Canada

Check the events page. Enjoying a free or inexpensive concert makes striking up conversations easy... and everyone has something to share about living lakeside.
Plan to spend a couple of hours at one of the tianguis or markets. Again a great place to meet people.
LCS for a coffee and conversation or any number of cafes and restaurants.
While feeding yourselves you get the added pleasure of garnering information and being entertained at the same time. Most of us are at the least entertaining.

if you have done a lot of research already, 2 weeks is better. 1 week will not be sufficient for something as important as retirement consideration. but have a nice visit. august is very pleasant.

I came down here for one week on vacation--wasn´t even thinking about retirement. I spent most of my time walking around Chapala and Ajijic, looking around, eating in popular places and was amazed at how easy it was to meet interesting, friendly people. I talked with them about their lives, interests, got invited to a couple of parties and went from there.
If you think about how you imagine your retirement to be, your interests and how you would like to spend your days you will know the right questions to ask. Less than three months after my one-week vacation, I was down here for a one-year extended vacation that years later has turned into retirement.
Everybody does it differently and has a story about how they ended up here. Come on down for whatever amount of time you have and open yourself up to the experience of being here. Have fun!

And some people are informative, too!
Lady Otter Latté's advice to have fun sums it up best!

Hook up with a realtor for just one day -- or they will take up all your time! -- and get a feel for the kind of housing available down here.  Definitely follow all the other suggestions to get a feel for life here.  I just like to see what kind of housing stock is available where I'm thinking of living.....

Visiting the weekly tianguis and farmer's market is a good suggestion.  Visit the places you might be shopping; e.g. SuperLake, Walmart, a seafood shop, a fruit and veggie shop.  If you have any idea of how you'll be spending your time in retirement then investigate appropriate activities.  Check out some restaurants. 

When we did our checkout visit in 2005 we had most of our questions before we came down.  We carried with us a list of questions for which we needed answers.  e.g. what would car insurance cost?  What was the cost of our maintenance medications, etc.

LCS is a good place to get info.  A lot of Realtors have home tours, check out which ones do which days and go on the tours.  Go to the restaurants and you will see tons of gringos who would be happy to talk to you.  Take a bus or cab from one village to the other and walk around.  Don't be shy to ask a stranger a question we're all quite pleasant (well most).  And definitely go to the stores like David suggests. 
Use the forum to ask questions while you are down here too.
Have a great time.

Take a day's drive (or be driven) all across the north shore from Mezcala to Joco.    Or split it into two separate trips.   

There are a lot of great places outside of Chapala & Ajijic, both to see as tourists, and to consider, depending on your lifestyle / preferences.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We will follow through on all that we can. This is just a short visit. If it looks promising we will return for a longer and more serious look.  I am not sure if my wife could retire that far away from family (I understand this is a common issue with many wives) but we will see what she thinks after the week's visit.

DaveW

You're a flight away and the airport is 35 minutes away. And it's not just wives... my husband was the hesitant one initially.

Bring lots of socks.

I am in Ontario right now (Belleville area) visiting with family and friends.

It only seems far on a map

my daughter went to albert college,belleville

she's one of them yanquis that think all us canadians wear black knee socks with sandles

It's a canadian/PNW thing.  S².  Sandals with socks. Not exclusive to black socks.

What kind of information do you want? If you could be more specific we could offer more options, and we are loaded with information here

lunateak wrote:It's a canadian/PNW thing.  S².  Sandals with socks.  Not exclusive to black socks.

PNW thing is Berkies\Keens with white/tan/ or thick wool socks. I never saw the black sock thing in PNW.

Z

The black sock/sandal thing is "an old man" thing. Go to the retirement communities in Miami and check it out.

Dave, I shouldn't have made a joke at your expense and I'll try to respond to your question.  It's hard to gather much information in a week, but we managed.  We had friends of friends who took us under their wings and shared their experiences.  Also, I had found a realtor who offered houses that appealed to me.  I spent several months emailing back and forth with the realtor, developed a relationship, and then had two follow-up days here.  Finally, we had lived in a number of different countries and had learned to quickly evaluate what we liked and wanted.  I did not go to the LCS until after we moved here.  I might have been discouraged had I gone to the LCS first.  For us, it's a little too sanitary--it reminds me of the Lions or Rotary clubs.  It's not bad, it just isn't inspirational.  

We visited both San Miguel and this area in the same visit--a week each.  I think that helped because we had a quick basis for comparison and that helped us identify what we liked better here.  I was surprised because I was sure we would choose San Miguel, but we didn't.

Charter Club, a travel agency has a lot of one day trips to areas close by - Guadalajara, Tequila, around the lake, etc.  This is their website.  http://www.charterclubtours.com.mx/tours.html  Their trips are reasonably priced and you will get an English speaking guide.  There are a lot of other travel companies but this one does one day trips which is a good way to explore areas just outside lakeside and get some information about the areas.

I have read what I consider much good advice.  Circulate, and ask questions.
BUT, I would stay away from Realtors (using much of your time-plenty of time for that if you are serious about living here.  They will only try to impress you & put their hand in your pocket)
The big Question, in retirement is, "What am I going to do with my time?"  Examine your "free time interests & see if you can expand on those & investigate new ones.
Ask questions about Medical care!  You are coming here to "Grow old"..
There are thousands of Expats here with a million reasons to stay!!
Have fun, Be aware of your safety!

Hi Dave - we are from Guelph Ontario - came down here scouting three years ago - stayed 10 days - loved it, loved it, loved it. Bought our home here on day 8!! So, you never know - may happen to you too!! Good luck, hope you love the area as much as we do. We have grown kids and grandkids - takes a little getting used to but easy flight, not too expensive to get home, Skype and majic jack - we make it work!
Enjoy ! You may want to make that 10 days instead of 7. The two days travel only give you 5 days - don't think it's quite enough.

Guiness wrote:Hi Dave - we are from Guelph Ontario - came down here scouting three years ago - stayed 10 days - loved it, loved it, loved it.    

Guiness - sent you a pm.

Dave