Best Places In The World To Retire

I can’t really answer what is the cost of a gardener for Los Cabos but for here in the small village of La Ventana, about 40 minutes by car south of La Paz, it depends on if you’re talking about a full time gardener who’s working 6 days a week or you’re talking about a part time guy who comes in a couple of days a week for a few hours. 

 

For example, we have gardening service for our homeowners for which they pay around 900...

I can’t really answer what is the cost of a gardener for Los Cabos but for here in the small village of La Ventana, about 40 minutes by car south of La Paz, it depends on if you’re talking about a full time gardener who’s working 6 days a week or you’re talking about a part time guy who comes in a couple of days a week for a few hours. 

 

For example, we have gardening service for our homeowners for which they pay around 900 pesos (less than US $50) a month. But they’re sharing him so that keeps that cost down. If you had to hire that guy for your home on an individual basis, he’s going to charge you more than just to come for a couple of hours. But because we have this guy working, he’s going from house to house, he gets his full 8 hour a day and he gets his pay so the cost is very low for the home owner, and our arrangement here works well.

 

A lot of people don’t understand that here in Mexico there’s a burden on the employer to pay a lot of different things such as medical, worker comp., retirement, and vacation pay.  It’s a lot and you need to know that because if you hire somebody and you don’t have an agreement, if the government finds out, they will fine you and they’ll go for back pay. A lot of people don’t understand that and a lot of people don't pay for these things and get away with it.  The government wants that money because that’s what provides the health service and so on. 

 

(Grounds of Ventana Bay Resort, Ventana Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pictured.)

 

As a result of all this, it’s a hard to say what does a gardener cost, but as I said above, here’s how we’re doing it.  We pay a very good price because we have a community set up in which they share in the cost of his deductions as well. So that keeps overall costs down. But if you’re just going to hire a guy for your house, he might give you a good price like, "‘Oh, give me $100 a month’ or something like that but you have to be aware that there are requirements. The guy can have his own company and then you’re not liable but you have to know those details.

 

 

Panamá Backpacking, Hiking, and Camping

 

Panamá is a place where green vegetation, primary and secondary forests and exuberant flora and fauna are on display all over the county.  Some local species are in danger of extinction, like the golden frog, among others.

 

In some countries, sports like backpacking, hiking, rope courses, canopy and hiking are very  popular.  In Panamá, even though...

Panamá Backpacking, Hiking, and Camping

 

Panamá is a place where green vegetation, primary and secondary forests and exuberant flora and fauna are on display all over the county.  Some local species are in danger of extinction, like the golden frog, among others.

 

In some countries, sports like backpacking, hiking, rope courses, canopy and hiking are very  popular.  In Panamá, even though their beautiful nature offers all the elements for these sports as well as many more opportunities for outdoor adventures, some of these activities are not well known or popular among the local residents.

 

One thing that a visitor to Panamá should take into consideration is the thickness of the jungle (especially in the provinces of Darién, and some places in Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro provinces), as well as great volume of the rivers, and the snakes or other animals that live in these regions.

 

With thousands of visitors every year (many of whom enjoy these outdoor activities), Panamá continues to increase its outdoor adventure tours, and with them, the related tourism regulations.

 

Even though, PRUDENCE AND INFORMATION should always be your guide.

 

Never go into a region to do these activities without a knowledge of the region.  It is good advice to always go with a licensed tour guide company, or an individual with enough credentials for these types of activities, especially if you do not speak Spanish.

 

Panamá doesn´t offer the same types of camping areas you will find in North America or Europe, other than the very basic Environmental National Authority restricted areas, like in Campana or Coiba.   There are administrative offices in some National Parks for the visitor´s orientation, though.

 

Special Parks:

National Parks:

In Belize, healthcare workers and the government work to maintain open cooperation.  There is also some significant crossover between private and public sectors.

 

For example, if a private facility needs some particular equipment it does not have, in certain circumstances they will be allowed to use government facilities.

 

About 14% of Belize's health care workers provide services in both private and public sectors. ...

In Belize, healthcare workers and the government work to maintain open cooperation.  There is also some significant crossover between private and public sectors.

 

For example, if a private facility needs some particular equipment it does not have, in certain circumstances they will be allowed to use government facilities.

 

About 14% of Belize's health care workers provide services in both private and public sectors.  It is not unusual for those working at a public healthcare facility during the day to provide private services outside normal business hours.

There are natural disasters in Algarve but we have not had one for many centuries.  The entire country of Portugal is actually on an earthquake zone. The last major earthquake was in 1755, so it was clearly some time ago.

 

The Algarve gets tens, if not hundreds, of little ground tremors, which are sometimes too weak to be felt by a human being, but they do happen because we are on an earthquake zone. 

 

The Algarve is...

There are natural disasters in Algarve but we have not had one for many centuries.  The entire country of Portugal is actually on an earthquake zone. The last major earthquake was in 1755, so it was clearly some time ago.

 

The Algarve gets tens, if not hundreds, of little ground tremors, which are sometimes too weak to be felt by a human being, but they do happen because we are on an earthquake zone. 

 

The Algarve is not a flooding zone. The biggest risk or the biggest natural disaster, I would say, that the Algarve faces is brush fires. There are a lot of natural areas that are fairly dense with shrubs and bushes. Unfortunately, we have bush fires every 5 to 6 years. The bush fires here are not at the scale of the bush fires that happen in Australia or California but nonetheless, it is probably the biggest natural disaster on a local level. However, very rarely does a home get damaged by bush fires. The last that I remember where a house got burned or damaged by a bush fire happened around 10 years ago when there was a bush fire in the Eastern Algarve. Because the fires mostly happen in the densely foliated areas, the density of homes in these areas is also very low. The loss of property is fortunately low and the loss of life is very rare. There could be a loss of sheep or cattle, which are generally a loss of natural environment rather than a physical, material, or human loss.

 

Relevant to flooding, about two months ago, Algarve had probably one of the worst floods that occurred in Albufeira in living memory. Generally, flooding is not common here in the Algarve because we are in an area where there is very little rain. We are always praying for rain. What happens in some coastal towns, because they built their buildings very close to the water, is that they get flooded when it is a high tide and it is a full moon. This is what happened in Albufeira a few months ago. There are other villages that are prone to flooding such as Ferragudo, and the downtown area of Tavira. So, overall, there are one or two towns or villages that can be flooded but flooding is not a common thing.

 

Relative to hurricanes, they don’t happen here in Portugal. We send them towards the US; we don’t receive them. The hurricanes start typically in an area near the Cape Verde Islands, then tend to go towards the West Coast of Africa, and then towards the East Coast of the US. We have high winds and we sometimes have windy days but gale force winds are very rare.

 

( Tile mural of Lisbon before the Portuguese earthquake in 1755, pictured.)