Here in the land of near-perfect weather, fresh food, and friendly people, medical care is of good quality, easy to acquire, and low cost, especially compared to the US. As I experienced, you can get things like an MRI of your entire core and have the results the same day for only about $325 US total cost. The national insurance can be had for about $300 a year (but I’m guessing on the current price; it could be less). Its covers you for major care with no limits, no deductibles, and the normal consults, free medicines, tests, x-rays, glasses, and dental work. However, on the day-to-day stuff, you might want to just walk in to the doc’s office, get seen, pay as you go, $450-500 pesos, or about $35, for an office consult. On the national insurance, you may or may not have to wait till next week to be seen, depending on your luck.
Medicine here focuses on keeping people healthy instead of preying on the chronically ill and bankrupting those that are unfortunate enough to have a sudden illness or accident, while enriching the insurance tycoons. The cost is low enough that people can go to a doctor without breaking the bank for good, so illnesses get taken care of early instead of waiting until it’s an emergency or life threatening before being forced to put down the money.
Here is a local example of a very nice clinic with bilingual staff and doctors that has everything on-site, docs, dentists, labs, much of the major common medical equipment, and their personal “insurance” plan.
Annual Discount Medical Contract
Elements
Unlimited office visits during normal office times
No age or previous condition restrictions
Emergency pre-hospitalization medical physician consultations at Clinica Maskaras
Two house calls per year
Annual EKG Various discounts for other services (including dental and eyes)
Cost $2800 pesos (cost subject to change with fluctuation of exchange rate
You can have this in addition to your national insurance so that you have immediate access whenever you need it. All this for about 200 bucks US. Can’t beat that with a stick!
Today was a big treat - my neighborhood friend Yolanda took me shopping all around the city center area near the big cathedral in downtown Guadalajara.
There are so many stores for everything you can imagine. There’s even a building the size of Sears or Penney’s, multiple floors, that is full, full, full of nothing but jewelry shops. Lots of police all around that one - with big dogs, beautiful Belgian Malinois.
There are some expensive fru-fru stores, but we didn’t go to those. I’m on a budget, and I need things for the heat and the beach. My heavy dark pants and tops aren’t going to cut it anymore. Usually I shop and shop and buy nothing, but today was a good day, starting with a nice little comfy artsy top for 130 pesos ($9.40).
Next we went to another store where I bought a fluffy dressy blouse for 180 pesos ($13.02) and an open-knit ziz-zag top for 130 pesos ($9.40).
We went in three shoe shops before they had my choice of sandals for my big size 8 feet. Those set me back 160 pesos ($11.57).
Got a nice jersey sundress for 120 pesos ($8.68) and some decorated jeans for 150 pesos ($10.85).
We wandered through the huge multi-story market with stalls and stalls of everything from cow feet and ankles to veggies to little birds to clothing and purses and toys and pink guitars in green cases to mariachi suits adult to baby size. I really don’t know how you would cook a cow hoof with about 10 inches of leg, but apparently somebody does. And I have a local friend who loves to eat chicken feet that are sold everywhere you buy chicken.
I bought a nice leather belt for Glenn for 180 pesos ($13.02) and Yo bought some little purses to give as gifts on her trip back to Canada in a couple of weeks.
I also bought a cotton skirt that I didn’t really want that bad, but she kept coming down on the price. It wasn’t the price I objected to but finally I felt I had to buy it. It will be great in the beach heat though. Not $250 pesos ($18.08) but 190 pesos ($13.74).
We went into the big cathedral and sat for a few minutes looking at the beautiful carving work on the arches and the stained glass.
We had lunch at Yo’s favorite restaurant downtown, El Mexicano, and arrachera that was really good, though not as good as the one we had in Tlaquepaque. It’s thin flank steak, marinated and cooked to tender perfection. So good! We have it wherever we go and judge each restaurant on it.
So amazingly I bought eight major clothing items and spent a whopping $89.69 US. Do that in Dallas!
No, not that kind of liver! I should probably explain…
Most everyone doing what we are doing refers to it as travel. If we have a blog, we’re ‘travel bloggers.’ If someone asks what we do, family and friends tell them we are traveling. But we’ve been taking care of this house here in Chapala, Mexico for three months now. That’s not traveling! We live here.
Sure, it’s only temporary. In July we are going to travel across half of Mexico and go visit some people that will be housesitting in Antigua, Guatemala. We’ll be taking the wonderful first-class buses they have here in Mexico. Tons of legroom, reclining seats, your very own video screen with tons of movie selection. We will stop in Guanajuato and San Miguel again, and we’ll probably check out a pyramid and maybe a volcano. After spending a few days in Guatemala we can renew our visas and return to Mexico.
Then we will spend a month taking care of some pets at a yoga retreat near Puerto Escondido.
So sure, some travel is involved, but then we stop and move in to some home or building and stay for an extended period. Technically most people refer to this as slow travel. Maybe it could also be called fast living! No, wait - that doesn’t sound right either…
But seriously - by the time this is all over we will have spent seven or eight or more months in Mexico. That ain’t travelin’, that’s livin’!
The morning was warm and sunny - no big surprise here in Mexico - and we went and picked up our friend Rebecca and went up to do our hike up to see the chapel and the views and get some exercise. The trail was steep and slippery with rocks and scree, which made for some interesting noises and gestures - and only a couple minor falls. Rebecca had the foresight to print out a map of the area and the trails, lucky for us. We still hiked a different trail than we intended, but that was okay. We weren’t going anywhere in particular, so how could we be lost?
We’re going to try to post a picture a day. Sometimes they will have a caption, sometimes not. This is one of the many horses from the recent fiesta parade, Fat Tuesday. Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
Our friends in the neighborhood, Jean-Pierre and Yolanda Luisser, French-Canadians from Quebec, invited us to join them on a day trip to Guadalajara on Sunday, March 25. Oh, boy! A trip to the big city with someone who knows where to go and what to see - and most importantly, how to drive in that crazy place! So we set out about 10 in the morning, first stop Tlaquepaque, a town on the outskirts that I first heard about on The Travel Channel long ago.
By the time you read this, all of the new site design and hosting changes should be complete. If not, they will be shortly. We hope you like the new layout! We also hope you will take advantage of the new features available, and we hope the changes keep you coming back for more! These changes will also hopefully allow us to post more often.
First, let me go over the cool new things, then I’ll go into more detail about why we made the big switch if you would like to know all of the behind-the-scenes stuff…
There are some expensive fru-fru stores, but we didn’t go to those. I’m on a budget, and I need things for the heat and the beach. My heavy dark pants and tops aren’t going to cut it anymore. Usually I shop and shop and buy nothing, but today was a good day, starting with a nice little comfy artsy top for 130 pesos ($9.40).
Next we went to another store where I bought a fluffy dressy blouse for 180 pesos ($13.02) and an open-knit ziz-zag top for 130 pesos ($9.40). 
We went in three shoe shops before they had my choice of sandals for my big size 8 feet. Those set me back 160 pesos ($11.57).
Got a nice jersey sundress for 120 pesos ($8.68) and some decorated jeans for 150 pesos ($10.85). 
you would cook a cow hoof with about 10 inches of leg, but apparently somebody does. And I have a local friend who loves to eat chicken feet that are sold everywhere you buy chicken. 
We went into the big cathedral and sat for a few minutes looking at the beautiful carving work on the arches and the stained glass.
Sure, it’s only temporary. In July we are going to travel across half of Mexico and go visit some people that will be housesitting in Antigua, Guatemala. We’ll be taking the wonderful first-class buses they have here in Mexico. Tons of legroom, reclining seats, your very own video screen with tons of movie selection. We will stop in Guanajuato and San Miguel again, and we’ll probably check out a pyramid and maybe a volcano. After spending a few days in Guatemala we can renew our visas and return to Mexico.
