Would you choose Cancun or somewhere else? Your thoughts and comments will be much appreciated. Ben and Liza
Where? This is a tough one, because most of us who read this forum have chosen Cancun, Mexico, from everywhere we could live in Central and South America! But, certainly many of the capitals of South America could offer a lot of big city attractions, and a high level of development- if that's what you were looking for- while, for those who preferred quiet village life, you could almost throw a dart at a map, with plenty of places in between the two extremes. Speaking just for my wife and I, we didn't investigate any further south than Panama, because we didn't want to face long flights back to the U.S., nor the cost of the tickets for those longer flights (even flights between the U.S. and Panama are pretty pricey). We rejected Panama, although it had its attractions, mainly because of the heat, and heavy rains eight months out of the year, but also for the more expensive immigration hurdle we would face there. We rejected other Central American countries because of their lack of development, though many of them could be pleasant to live in, I'm sure. Mexico won out, on balance, for reasons I've mentioned on the thread, http://www.cancuncare.com/forum/living-cancun-riviera-maya/13536-why-do-you-live-cancun.html For all of its drug related violence, Mexico is (far) safer for the average foreigner than many of the places we investigated, by internet, before making our plans. Many are plagued by "express kidnapping", in which ordinary people are kidnapped for just a few thousand dollars ransom, and quickly released, following payment. We visited a family in Honduras whose car windows were darkened- so no one could see into it, and make a quick decision to target its passengers.
I love Cancun, but if I decide not to move back to the States in a few years, my fiance and I are seriously considering Merida. Not a huge difference distance-wise, but there's a lot more culture and a much more family-oriented atmosphere. I've also heard great things about Costa Rica, and it's pretty popular with expats. That might be cool.
I've never been...so I have no idea what it's actually like...but I am fascinated with Cotacachi, Equador. Sounds like one of those places I would get to and think "yep...this is it."
I choose Mexico but I am curious about CancunMole's post in this thread and I need to be enlightened. I was under the impression that all of Central America is part of the continent of North America, not just Canada, USA and Mexico. In addition, countries like Cuba, Grenada, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bahamas and more are all part of the North American continent. South America is limited to the 12 countries we learned about in high school Geography class, with the name changes of Guyana and Suriname, from British and Dutch Guiana. None of the surrounding islands are countries. Rather they are part of mainland countries or territories of other countries. I think I need a refresher geography course.
TJ - Depends on which country you're from. In the US, we are taught that North and South Ameria are 2 separate continents, North America being everything between Panama and Canada. Central America (Panama to mexico) is more of a region, not so much an official place. In Mexico, they're taught that America is one continent, running from Argentina all the way up to Canada. The regions of this are South America, Central America (Panama - Mexico) and North America (US and Canada). When I got into geography class here in Mexican college, I was like WTF?!?!
