Thinking of moving to a new city...suggestions, ideas etc are welcome | Page 6 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Thinking of moving to a new city...suggestions, ideas etc are welcome

jc100 said:
Your last paragraph actually describes the US for me.
Click to expand...
It's a big country and yes, there are places like that. Sadly many people I meet have lots of opinions about life in the USA -- but little to no real experience.

I lived there for a very long time, the middle class neighbourhoods near Dallas, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles were no different than where I live in Markham. I can't recall anyone I know being robbed or assaulted. I never heard a gunshot. I never worried if I forgot to lock the house.

I've spent a time working in plenty Central American and Caribbean countries -- seen and heard my fair share of nasty stuff -- enough to know why some of those countries have been referred to as sh******* -- they are. Good news for anyone who wants to go there, their locals are leaving in droves for the USA so there's lotsa room!
 
LBV said:
I actually had to google that bolded part but true. Coldest temp is in Dec at 18C and hottest in Aug is 23. Sounds like my kind of weather!!
Click to expand...
Ya - I lived there for a long time. My suburban house was close to the ocean, it had no AC and heat was a fireplace that got used once every couple of years.
 
Mad Mike said:
It's a big country and yes, there are places like that. Sadly many people I meet have lots of opinions about life in the USA -- but little to no real experience.

I lived there for a very long time, the middle class neighbourhoods near Dallas, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles were no different than where I live in Markham. I can't recall anyone I know being robbed or assaulted. I never heard a gunshot. I never worried if I forgot to lock the house.

I've spent a time working in plenty Central American and Caribbean countries -- seen and heard my fair share of nasty stuff -- enough to know why some of those countries have been referred to as sh******* -- they are. Good news for anyone who wants to go there, their locals are leaving in droves for the USA so there's lotsa room!
Click to expand...

I’ve never lived there and I’m sure things would be fine if I did. However, I’ve turned down jobs there but not for crime related reasons, there’s plenty I don’t agree with. I’ve met plenty of people who have lived there and left though for a multitude of reasons including a surgeon who came to Canada from Houston after a car jacking was the last straw for him and his family.

I go to Central America twice a year and have been doing this for the past 15 years or more. We rent houses usually and chat a lot to people who live there year round. As I said, there’s pros and cons but I find the locals often extremely friendly and genuine, the food delicious, the scenery and surroundings amazing and the weather wonderful. Having the $CDN go that much further eases any financial constraints and that would be a big consideration for retirement. When I went to Nicaragua a few years ago I felt like a millionaire but I’m certainly not.

Oh, and the only place I ever lived where I regularly heard gunfire was Manchester in the UK.
 
I was thinking about moving to the states at one point, all my friends in tech make BANK, im the only guy in trades, but
between everyone having firearms, and the horror stories about healthcare (people resorting to gofundme), price of insulin for example being 10 times higher(Bernie sanders recently did a publicized visit to windsor to make the point) and all the school shootings, its just not something I'll ever do, really makes me grateful that my parents brought me to canada when I was a kid.
 
Never forgave my father for turning down a job offer with Disney in 72. Orange County in the Golden age of MX.
 
re: dangerous places in Central and South America

I'd take Cuenca EC over any place in the southern US
great climate and culture, never had any personal security concerns
affordable public health care or private if you want it

and no need to buy property

new, 3 bedroom furnished house incl utilities
in a gated community, walking distance to markets and parks etc.
$650/month incl utilities


Fully furnished house, 3 br - 2.5 bath, small garden, great location!
 
JavaFan said:
re: dangerous places in Central and South America

I'd take Cuenca EC over any place in the southern US
great climate and culture, never had any personal security concerns
affordable public health care or private if you want it

and no need to buy property

new, 3 bedroom furnished house incl utilities
in a gated community, walking distance to markets and parks etc.
$650/month incl utilities


Fully furnished house, 3 br - 2.5 bath, small garden, great location!
Click to expand...
Damn, that's very affordable.

I had to laugh at this part. I know that is normal practice in much of the world, but telling how safe it is and then listing the gates, cameras and electric fence makes you question why all that is needed.
"The house is located in a very safe gated community with camera surveillance, electric fence."
 
  • Like
Reactions: J_F
yup
never had any personal security issues there
but anywhere there is disparity of income
you need to secure your stuff

my small city in the 613 is no different
I have an IP cam protecting the bikes
 
lol @ the name of the site.

My other half did a mission trip with her school to Ecuador, and they said they were told to not leave certain areas of the cities they were in. Said there were military (or military-ish police) along some of these "safe area" borders to keep things safe-ish.

She seemed to think it was pretty sketchy, but nothing bad also happened to her, so it's hard to tell what is perception vs reality (and I wasn't there to provide my own experience). Said she can't look at plantains anymore though (they're a staple like potato there).
 
Google Maps

it's good to get out of your comfort zone
for a gringo in Latin America
every day seems to provide something interesting
like this google image from the park near that house
every day you wander by something and ask yourself
WTF is going on here??

A6nRIRb.png
 
Last edited:
I had to sign a waiver from my hotel in El Salvador to leave the property without armed guards. We got a taxi, driver didn’t speak English and we spoke crap Spanish. Paid him for a day and drove all over the country. We were the only gringos in some places and we were followed by crowds of school kids who wanted to practice their English, it was amazing. Some ladies in the local market saw it as their personal duty to introduce me to new food and fed me local fruit and hot snacks for free. We asked the driver if it was dangerous....he said, if you see me run, you run.

There weren’t any issues. The gangs mainly cause trouble with other gangs. If you go looking for trouble you’ll almost always find it.

Amazing people. Amazing country.
 
Central America is certainly affordable, spend some time there and you'll realize you get what you pay for. I could rent or but a house downtown in the Shwa or Hammer for 1/3rd the price of Markham -- I chose not to because I'm not interested in conditions in those areas. Ditto for most of Central America .

There's more to life than cheap rent, beans and beer.
jc100 said:
I had to sign a waiver from my hotel in El Salvador to leave the property without armed guards. We got a taxi, driver didn’t speak English and we spoke crap Spanish. Paid him for a day and drove all over the country. We were the only gringos in some places and we were followed by crowds of school kids who wanted to practice their English, it was amazing. Some ladies in the local market saw it as their personal duty to introduce me to new food and fed me local fruit and hot snacks for free. We asked the driver if it was dangerous....he said, if you see me run, you run.

There weren’t any issues. The gangs mainly cause trouble with other gangs. If you go looking for trouble you’ll almost always find it.

Amazing people. Amazing country.
Click to expand...
I've spent 2 decades in the telecom biz, and lots of time in developing countries. Most don't want tourists to be 'bothered', they treat petty criminals roughly when they find them. I remember walking under a bridge and bumping into 6 Federales taking refuge from the Cabo sun -- they were polite and we spoke for a minute about how safe Cabo appeared compared to other parts of Mexico. In perfect English he told me "they (the Federales) like safety and the money that comes from tourism - he added there are no prisons nearby, only a vast lonely dry desert." I nodded showing I understood -- they all started laughing.

You won't be a target until the bandits have sized you up, their goal isn't to hurt you -- all they want is your money and things. Take that trip every day for 2 weeks, get familiar with the locals and you will certainly find someone trying to take your money or your stuff. Might be a bandit at night, might be a pretty woman in a Cantina mid day -- rest assured it will be constant once the locals know what you're worth.
 
Just start asking the locals to borrow money, you'll be good
 
I dunno Mexico, Central American, and South America definitely has an appeal. Great weather, low(er) cost of living, and friendly and engaging people. It would be wonderful to downsize your possessions, because you would be spending a lot more time outdoors in the great weather. But most of those Latin countries have a dark side, where a lot of very bad things happen well beyond anything we have going on in Canada. I visited a Home Depot in Mexico and in the fence section they were selling barb wire. Found that interesting. Just look at all the homes in those countries they are build like jails to keep you safe. Walls and bars on the windows.

If I was going to pick someplace to move it would be Spain. Same great people, beautiful weather all year around, something like 350 days of sunlight, great roads for riding/adventuring. Same relaxed lifestyle and not as expensive as the rest of Europe.
 
sburns said:
If I was going to pick someplace to move it would be Spain. Same great people, beautiful weather all year around, something like 350 days of sunlight, great roads for riding/adventuring. Same relaxed lifestyle and not as expensive as the rest of Europe.
Click to expand...

there are bad stories from everywhere
when I was in Ghana I had a co-worker bought a place in Spain
he was English and wanted to have a place in the sun

first month back at work after getting the new house
home invaders raped his wife, put her in the hospital and stole everything
guy had to fly back right away and was unable to return

this **** also happens in Canada/US and everywhere else
 
JavaFan said:
there are bad stories from everywhere
when I was in Ghana I had a co-worker bought a place in Spain
he was English and wanted to have a place in the sun

first month back at work after getting the new house
home invaders raped his wife, put her in the hospital and stole everything
guy had to fly back right away and was unable to return

this **** also happens in Canada/US and everywhere else
Click to expand...
Yeah I know, and that is a terrible experience.

The stuff I am talking about which happen's down south in a certain latin country and probably a few others are, hangings on overpasses, journalists, mayors or other government officials murdered if they even speak up against a certain criminal organization, mass murder graves, all kinds of disappearances, be heading's, and bodies wrapped in barbwire and dropped into lakes.

True there are bad stories in every country but the stuff going on in some Latin countries is extreme, none of that is very common around here but is quite typical for them.
 
South American justice system is different.A riot in a Brazilian prison this past week resulted in 57 dead,16 of them decapitated.Nice country that.
 
Wingboy said:
South American justice system is different.A riot in a Brazilian prison this past week resulted in 57 dead,16 of them decapitated.Nice country that.
Click to expand...
Plus four more that were suffocated while being transported to a new prison. All from the same gang. No one saw how it happened.
 
Wingboy said:
South American justice system is different.A riot in a Brazilian prison this past week resulted in 57 dead,16 of them decapitated.Nice country that.
Click to expand...
You mean non existent. They don't call Mexico lawless for no reason. Brazil and Mexico seem to be fighting for top murder count.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom