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La Vida Cheapo
By Barry Golson, March-April 2004
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PACIFIC COAST
We won't tarry long in Puerto Vallarta here because we didn't tarry
long there. Guidebooks extol its blend of old-Mexican charm and jet-set beach
glamour. There's a large, active American retirement community in Puerto
Vallarta, an international airport 20 minutes from downtown, and plenty of the
amenities that spring up around a modern resort. Still, there's a touch of
Las Vegas to Puerto Vallarta. It's a matter of taste, I suppose, but after
four days we decide to move up the coast, where we hear life is a little less
frantic.
We wander some 25 miles north of Puerto Vallarta to the village of San
Francisco, known to locals as San Pancho. There, we are the guests of Bill
Kirkwood and Barbara Hart-Kirkwood.
Ex-Silicon Valley fast trackers who'd vacationed in the region for two
decades, Bill, 54, and Barbara, 52, moved permanently to San Pancho two years
ago along with another couple, their close friends John Levens, 56, and Judi
MacGregor-Levens, 55. Together, the couples built Casa Obelisco, a striking
5,300-square-foot open-terrace Mediterranean house with a mosaic dome perched
above a splendid beach. The two families live in separate wings and this year
began to rent out extra bedrooms as a bed-and-breakfast. While there, Thia and
I luxuriate in the canopied beds, checking our shoes in the morning for
scorpions.
Barry Golson's book Gringos in Paradise was published in November 2006. Visit our Books channel to read a review and an excerpt.
Bill and Barbara's tales about house building, making new friends, and
adapting to Mexico's what-will-be mentality are upbeat and cheery. But
outspoken Barbara, the kind of gal who'd give you the straight dope about
anything (including her "terrific" $3,500 face-lift in Mexico),
faults a "certain lawlessness" in her adopted country. Though they
always feel personally safe, she says, fighting the mordida (bribes)
system is useless. Despite ostensible reforms under President Vicente Fox,
traffic cops must still be paid off. "Taxes are absurdly low, and so is a
policeman's pay," Barbara explains. "How else can they make ends
meet?"
They say many friends come to visit, look at properties, and get the itch.
"Then, at the last minute, they back down," says Barbara while fixing
an adios sunset drink for us on their rooftop. "Why? Fear of the unknown.
In the States, you know there's always a fix; here, it's often
fix-it-yourself. You've got to have that spirit."
Which brings us to the final leg of our own quest. A couple of miles south
of San Pancho, 40 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta, lies the village of
Sayulita, estimated population 1,500. Thia and I stumble upon it while in
search of an early breakfast one Sunday morning during our stay at Casa
Obelisco.
At first, Sayulita seems a slightly grungy place, with no paved roads and
with chickens and dogs running loose. But strolling down to its gently curved
beach, sitting down to watch pelicans dive-bomb for their breakfast in the
surf, we know we've found someplace special. The village, ringed by soft
hills, has no traffic lights, paved roads, or ATMs—and just one grocery
store worthy of the name. (There are, however, three Internet
cafés.)
We quickly get advice from fellow beachcombers: "You have to go to
Rollie's." We are directed past the little town plaza near the beach,
up a dirt street just past the butcher shop. Across the street, beneath a plain
awning, is Rollie's, the town's leading breakfast establishment. The
place is packed, and there's a line out the door.
Proprietor Rollie Dick, a crinkly-eyed gent of 64, runs the short-order
grill; his wife, Jeanne, 59, waits on tables. From time to time Rollie strolls
out to sing for the patrons and waltz a delighted lady customer around the
tables.
The amateur-theater ham from Salinas, California, is Sayulita's biggest
booster and its gringo godfather. After closing time at noon, in the Dicks'
apartment above the restaurant, Rollie explains how a retired school principal
(Rollie) and a teacher (Jeanne) landed in this tiny town beside the
Pacific.
It happened, he says, while they were on a vacation five years ago. They
fell in love with Sayulita, and before leaving, Rollie asked the woman they
were staying with to contact them if a property that matched their limited
resources came on the market. Like so many others approaching retirement,
Rollie had toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant. When word came that a
building was available in Sayulita, the Dicks decided to take the chance.
The Dicks paid $50,000 in cash for a three-story building with a welding
shop on the ground floor that Rollie converted into the restaurant. "You
had to have vision," he says. "Plus, property taxes are only $32 a
year." He lived there for nearly two years on his own, understanding
little Spanish, waiting for Jeanne to retire and join him.
Later in the afternoon, on a stroll through town, Rollie expands on How
Things Are Done Down Here. "There is, absolutely, a mentality here of
living in the now, not worrying too much about the future. And you know what?
It's wonderful! We made the decision that we were going to live here as
guests of Mexico and do things their way."
The next day, Thia and I go looking for a piece of land of our own in
Sayulita.
True, we set out merely to chronicle our journey, not to put down a stake.
We're not retiring yet. But what can I say? We found a lovely little parcel
above the village. We paid cash for it and got some papers in return.
Will we build there? Will we become expatriates? Will it all turn out all
right? That's another story.
Pacific Coast Villages scorecard
- Looks 9;
- Charm 10 (those sunsets!);
- Culture 0;
- Shopping 1 (but both villages are within 30 miles of Puerto Vallarta);
- Medical facilities 2 (but again, there's Puerto Vallarta);
- Other
Americans 7 (laid-back, quirky);
- Wow factor—that surf, for beginners and hot dogs alike.
- Thia's review: "Ideally, it would be four months here, four in San
Miguel, four in New England."
- Barry's review: "Three words—que sera,
sera."
Barry Golson is the former executive editor of Playboy and TV
Guide and former editor-in-chief of Yahoo! Internet Life.
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