La Casa

It has been a while since Allison and I have been down to Chacala and honestly we were forgetting what the house looked like and how big or in this case small it is. Thanks to the wonderful world of email Mayte was able to send us some pictures for our planning. Lets just say that buyers remorse just went away. In today's world and economy one has to question whether investing in a foreign housing market is a good idea or not. For us it is not about the investment as much as having something in this town that connects us more permanently. A place where our children's friends know every January(or whatever time works) we will be there. This house is our roots to Chacala and so it begins.


As you can see this is not the worlds largest home and it looks like the builder forgot to cut off a ton of rebar. The house was built about 3 years ago by an American builder. He built it with the intention of a major addition(very common in MX) on the next level. The wonderful thing is at the time he used all of the current building standards that we use here(massive footings, tons of steel, etc). This house was built to last and on the 2nd level I believe we may even see some ocean. The building in front is what will now act as our communal bedroom sleeping all 5 of us(so much for romance).
The middle building is the kitchen, living, dining and one bathroom. And the back building is storage and laundry. Someday we will add a garage, a second level and hopefully a pool but this is all just a dream at this point. For now this is perfect. I am sure it will not be without some struggles or cabin fever. Thank God for outdoor living. We are very excited to get here and start having family and friends come join us. I am sure we will not lack visitors.

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

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Where in the world are the Millers

It has come to our attention that we should probably indicate where Chacala Mexico actually is located. Unfortunately when you try to keep a small town a secret you probably should not be blogging about it, but we love this town and its people so much how does one not share in the experience? Chacala is located about 60 miles north of the Puerto Vallarta airport. It has about 300-400 full time residents. Christmas week and Easter weeks it turns from a remote beach/fishing town into a hustle and bustle town with up to 60 bus loads of Mexican tourist daily. These families arrive for a day of eating and drinking in a palapa restaurant with their toes in the sand while the younger members of the family frolic in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. It is not uncommon during these holidays to see a floating banana filled with screaming vacationers flying by pulled by a Panga (Mexican fishing boat), or a group of men wearing nothing but a speedo or in most cases their tighty whiteys(seriously) playing an intense game of beach soccer. Other then these holidays Chacala is very tranquil. A normal day at the beach consist of a few people from north of the border soaking up the hot sun or enjoying one of Las Brisas ice cold blended lemonades. At sunset the full time residents find their way down to enjoy the most breathtaking sunsets and spending time with their neighbors. Hopefully this gives you a small glimpse into this location and from here you will need to find it for yourself. It shouldn't be too hard though just ask for the family with 3 gringo kids at a local school.

Getting Ready to Go

With all of the Holiday business and trying to wrap up work projects, it has become very hard to believe we are leaving for Chacala in 10 days. The kids are excited to see their friends in town and see our house. I have not posted about our experience in trying to buy land and build a house. Needless to say it worked out in the end thanks to a wonderful woman in town who stepped up and made a bad situation good and will be our lifelong friend because of her integrity. To make a long story short we were wanting to build a new house but we ended up buying a small house in town. It has been a bit scary buying in a foreign country but everytime we step foot in Mexico we feel it is where we belong.

The house has nothing other than appliances. We will need to purchase furniture and every other household item while we are there. This trip will be for 6 weeks and then back in the Spring one more time before coming more full time starting in August(provided our work is wrapped up and our house has sold). Hopefully during this trip we can get our FM3 visas, then one of these days drive the landcruiser down to stay, furnish and set up the house for living, talk to a builder about an addition, and set up someone to look after the house.

We are very excited to be starting an outdoor cinema on Friday nights at the newly built cultural center (thanks Luis, Kate and Joy). We will be showing family movies in spanish with english subtitles. The kids will help with setting up, clean up, promotion and movie selection each week. Owen will be in charge of flyer design. We have talked with some of the local vendors about selling tacos and sodas at the movies. Someday it would be great to have a popcorn machine. Movies have always been a passion of mine and it will be great to share those laughs and tears with our new friends. Hopefully this is a well received addition to the town. In Chacala there is no plaza or central place to gather so hopefully the cultural center and movies will be a nice draw for local families.

Once we arrive in Chacala the kids will be taking this blog over and using it to keep their family and friends back home connected to their life in Mexico. We will also be posting about the house and transitions to ownership in Mexico so please check back often.

Adios

Deciding to move to Mexico with children

After much consideration and many years of traveling the Pacific coast of Mexico. Allison and I have decided to relocate to Chacala, Nayarit. This past January our kids had the opportunity to attend school in this charming fishing village. It is so wonderful to see kids get to grow up the way we did 30 years ago here in the U.S. They wear the tires off of their bicycles, they play in the street with their friends until dark, they are able to walk to the store without fear knowing that all the inhabitants of town know who they are and where they live or are staying even on a temporary basis. There isn't outside influence of T.V, video games, or giant billboards telling my girls what beautiful looks like. This has not been an easy decision. We know that we will struggle with the language barrier. The kids will not only have to attend local school but they will need to home school for now. The automated systems that we are used to are not in place. Water and power are luxury items. We will be moving into a new home in town. Over the next year our home will be being constructed. This blog will keep everyone up to date on the progress of construction, some of the hurdles we are facing as we get ready to go and the experiences we have going to Chacala for visits. Once in Chacala we will begin our exploration of life abroad with 3 youngsters.