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How To Retire Without Money
By Bob Belmont
CHAPTER 8 MEXICO
Page 1 of 15
In a
nutshell. The Federal Republic of Mexico with its area of
760,373 square miles and its population pushing 30 millions is
the third largest nation of North America (following Canada
and the United States) but the second largest in population.
Considering the fact that she is an immediate neighbor of
ours, it is astonishing how many misconceptions Americans who
have never been to Mexico have acquired. Perhaps this is
because the least colorful, the least desirable sections of
this fascinating country are right on our border and directly
across from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. In
fact, the traveler has to proceed several hundred miles into
the interior before he finds what could be called the "real
Mexico."
If I had to spend the rest of my life in any one country and
couldn't choose my own, I think it would be Mexico that I
selected. There is certainly no other country I have seen in
the world that offers so much in the way of the enjoyable
things of life. She has scenic beauty to rival anything in
Switzerland; her climate tops by far that of Spain, Italy and
Greece; her food rivals that of any European land save France,
and any Oriental country save China; her historic monuments
are surpassed only by Egypt; the variety of her countryside is
rivaled nowhere from the deserts of the north, to the cool
plateaus of her central sections, to the jungles of Yucatan.
You can ski in summer, if you wish, or swelter in winter. Or
you can abide in such high altitude towns as Cuernavaca or
Guanajuato, where the tropical climate is cooled by the seven
thousand feet that they are above sea level. Here you will be
comfortable wearing your sport jacket in August, nor will you
need more in January.
Only a few years ago Mexico was comparatively unknown to we
Americans from the United States. The majority of us had a
vague picture which involved Pancho Villa, played by Wallace
Beery, dashing over the countryside, shooting and burning, and
sneering
at "the gringos." We thought of Mexico as backward, her people
barefooted peons a hundred years behind the "civilized"
nations of the world.
But then a change began to come over us. Our art students
returning from Europe informed us that in Paris and Rome the
most famous "American" artists were not from the United
States, as far as opinion in Europe was concerned, but were
Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros and Tamayo, from Mexico. Occasional
visitors south of the border returned with the information
that Mexico city was one of the most cosmopolitan and
beautiful large cities in the world.
And then, following the war, we began to hear in earnest of
the cheap prices. Why, you could live in a fabulous beauty
spot for less than a hundred a month!
So we began to visit this land to our south. First a trickle,
then a stream of tourists, and then a fabulous rush which is
still taking place. As in any land which enjoys (or suffers,
according to how you look at it) a tourist boom, certain
cities became centers of tourism and prices there zoomed. Such
places as Acapulco, famed Pacific coast beach resort, quickly
became almost as expensive as Florida or California.
Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, became a city of
retired wealthy folk, sky-high in price by Mexican standards.
Mexico City itself began to feel the boom and American style
apartments and houses upped in price.
>>> CHAPTER
8 MEXICO Page 2
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