Portugal or Mexico: Where to Travel, Where to Live?

I will be moving from the United States as soon as it becomes practical to do so; my estimate would be one to two years. There are many steps in order to reach that point of practicality: Finding a way to make money that is not location dependent. Meeting the visa requirements of whatever country I choose. Reaching a functional level of the Spanish and Portuguese languages. Traveling to each place to see if I like them. I am spending my “free time”doing this, some days I get overwhelmed by the massiveness of the undertaking.

Initially, I was contemplating Portugal or Spain. The arid weather of the Iberean Peninsula suits me. Culturally, Ireland would be my first choice, I know I’d feel at home there, but after seven years in Portland I’m done with gray, rainy weather and buses full of the smell of moldy coats.The problem with Spain is the requirement that you must have 26,000 Euros in savings (about $28,000). I get the desire to keep the riff raff out, but some of us riff raff are intermittently charming.

Spain out of the running, I sat on the couch of the trailer and racked my brain for an alternate in case Portugal ended up, you know, sucking. Unrelared: The only nickname I’ve come up with for the trailer is the Giggle Factory. Granted, it sounds like the lair of a serial killer but that is one of the few pluses of the moniker. My requirement is a country that is sunny and not overtly rainy. I messaged a friend who has lived in both Costa Rica and Mexico and she recommended the latter. It makes sense, seeing as I am already learning Spanish and Mexico is affordable and the people wonderful. Granted, there is corruption in Mexico and some parts are extremely dangerous, but you could say that about the United States.

The first place in Mexico I researched was Baja, specifically Todos Santos and La Paz. The region sounded hot and dry but I don’t have a problem with that. What is a problem is the ongoing drought. Researching other parts of the country, I was drawn to the Yucatan, towns like Progresso and Valladolid. So, next year I will fly down to Cancun and spend ten days checking out the Yucatan. The following month, I will fly to Lisbon and check out southern Portugal.

And now it’s time for my daily language lessons. I am a lot more comfortable with Spanish but Portuguese is slowly becoming less frustrating.