S. America and Mexico once had quite an attraction but the drug and kidnapping business has made these areas unattractive to me. I took a summer session at the Tech in Monterrey and visited Mexico a dozen times but quit going in the 1990s. It’s just too dangerous.
I’m a retired oil company sales rep and have found the Missouri Ozarks very much to my liking. Low taxes, deer, turkey, great fishing, four seasons (altho summer can be hot and humid.) Lake of the Ozarks was built in 1930 and has attracted a large community of retirees like me.
Check www.funlake.com.
Yeah, that’s why I haven’t visited Mexico itself yet even though I’ve been a few other places in the Americas, every time I read the headlines about the cartels the place makes me nervous. OTOH I’ve always gotten the impression that Chile and Argentinian Patagonia for ex. are socially and culturally (and of coures geographically) a world away from Mexico. The Chileans especially seem to have been among the friendliest and happiest people I met, hard-working but also able to take nice vacations, relax and enjoy other’s company. I also found this appealing balance of qualities in the Germans to my surprise, though of course Germany’s nowhere near Chile as far as the natural beauty of the countryside and beaches.
As far as Mexico goes, I have known a few people who’ve worked or retired there, and in at least a brief aside in a casual conversation a few months ago, seemed like they loved it wherever they’d settled in, spoke enough Spanish to get along nicely and had great friendships with both the locals and fellow expats. I should have asked more about the details then, but I’m guessing they must have been in one of the nice communities that are maybe more concentrated in the Yucatan or Acapulco. I know precious little about Mexico other than it’s divvied up into a variety of different states that don’t particularly like or get along with each other, seems they have very different senses of identity and maybe different cultures too. Maybe the work/retirement destinations are just a world apart in terms of safety and quality compared to the cartel-controlled regions?