Saturday, September 24, 2011

Why Isla Mujeres?

Wow!  Pink sand beaches that stretch for miles on a narrow scimitar of land in the Bahamas - on a island named Eleuthera.  It fascinated my spouse for months, fantasizing about living on a long empty stretch of beach with no one, or nothing around.  There is a total population of approximately eight thousand people (mainly English-speaking) in this former British colony, with the nearest city of Nassau fifty miles by air.
Whoa!  Stop!  I'm good with rural, or semi-isolated, but not Robinson Crusoe remote.
Caribbean Blues!

In 2002 we fell in love with the turquoise sea of the Caribbean, and the search began for the perfect property for our dream-home.  We had a choice of over 7000 islands in and around the Caribbean Sea including 501 in the Bahamas, 43 in the British Virgin Islands, 12 in the Cayman Islands, 58 in the Turks-and-Caicos, and 81 in the US Virgin Islands. 
Ah, but then, reality pokes it's pesky little head up and says - what about obtaining building supplies for the dream-home?  A construction crew to do the work?  Furniture?  Milk?  Meat? Veggies?  Doctors? Dentists? And what do you do when you finally get bored watching the ocean?  As fascinating as it is, eventually you have to do something else with your day.

Our outdoor decision-making office.
So, when the opportunity happened to purchase a slice of heaven on Isla Mujeres we decided it was definitely worth considering.  We opened a bottle of our favourite wine, took two glasses, and a bowl of mixed nuts and retired to our home office - the lakefront patio.  After lighting dozens of candles and lanterns to set the mood for serious consideration of our future, we started to list the reasons why Isla Mujeres would be a good decision:



1.  close to the City of Cancun, population of approximately 800,000 - with shopping centers, grocery stores such as Costco, Mega Commercial, Soriana's, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart

2. Home Depot, and other large Mexican chain stores for building supplies

3. three excellent, and very affordable, hospitals in Cancun with American-trained doctors

4. only 20 minutes via water taxi (passengers only ferry) to the mainland

New Chedraui Grocery & Super Store
5. only 45 minutes via a car ferry to the mainland

6. easy air access to and from Canada to visit family 

7. easy air access to South America, as we have not had the opportunity as yet to visit that area of the world

8. an active ex-pat community from US, Canada, and Europe

9. pleasant oceanfront temperatures of between 20 degrees C (70F ) and 33 degrees C (95F)

10. cooling ocean breezes, swimming and snorkeling. (We later discovered the sea turtle nest annually in front of our casa.)

11. not much rain, even in the rainy season as the clouds skid rapidly across this low island, heading to the mainland

Four Amigos!
12. electricity available curb side

13. internet service available curb side

14. municipal water system

15. municipal sewer system - for the side of the island where we were proposing to purchase property

16. two gas stations on the island

17. a variety of small grocery stores on the island, and later in 2011 a Chedraui Super Store 

18. a fabulous variety of restaurants
Home Sweet Home!

19. a choice of banking options

20. doctors and dentists on the island with many more available in Cancun

21. The best reason of all, we enjoy the Mexican culture very, very much


By the time the wine was gone and the candles had burned down to nubs we had decided that yes - Isla Mujeres would be the perfect place to build a dream -home. 
It is!  And we are never bored!


Hasta Luego
Lynda, Lawrie and Sparky




9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love it! I am a fellow Canuck and have been going to Isla since 1993 where I fell in love with the Island.Now that I am retired I want to do exactly what you are doing other than not having the big dinero to buy a place so will rent for about 6 months a year.Hope to be heading to Isla in February...You made a very good decision!!!!
Hasta Luego

Cindy
(alias Gringa1 on myislamujeres website)
Port Moody,BC,Canada

Anonymous said...

Lynda, you definately make a good argument for locating to Isla Mujeres. It is a dream of ours, and Lawrie talked to Cal a bit about it when we were there in June. Retirement looms, in the next 4 years, decisions to be made. Thanks again for your wonderful blog! Now let's see if I can finally post! Janet

Lynda & Lawrie said...

Hi Cindy, and Janet .... It looks like I have finally figured out how to respond to comments (thanks to my neighbor Ronda who has the In Isla Mujeres blog). Glad you both enjoyed reading "Why Isla Mujeres." We think Isla is the perfect place to live!

ajbaxter said...

Great article! Nice presentation and style.

Lynda & Lawrie said...

Hi A.J. - thanks for the nice comment. Do you come to Isla often? It's a pretty special part of the world. Cheers Lynda

Edie said...

You've made it easy for the next people deciding where to live. All they need is the wine. You've always made it sound so inviting and that is why we are visiting in February.
Your pictures are also beautiful.

ajbaxter said...

Lynda,
I have not visited Isla. I have a place in Ambergris Caye, Belize (almost right next door?). Your blog has enticed me to visit your region one day on my travels. I have added your blog feed to my blog list to keep posted on your adventures.

Sherry Fauscett said...

I met you at a wedding last week and thoroughly enjoyed your blog. I am looking forward to your next post. Plus I love your blog photo!

Lynda & Lawrie said...

Hi Sherry - glad you enjoyed the blog. Would you send me your URL for your blog, so that I can add it to my list? Cheers Lynda

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