My Seven reasons to retire to Guatemala

Recently our colleague Josh Linnes from Viva tropical , specialized in Latin America Real Estate investment post a very interesting article on Seven Reason to retire in Guatemala. His list includes a low cost of living, living among the mayan, immerse yourself into history, lakeside life, beaches life, close to home, visa options.

I would like to complement his list with mine.. 
Long time expat in Guatemala, since 26 years, I have build business and family here. Lately actively involved in Real Estate in Guatemala and particularly in Lake Atitlan.

The first reason for me to retire live and plan to retire in Guatemala.. it is weather..
Named the country of eternal spring... it has the best weather you can expect , specially staying on the highlands.. an altitude of 1500 m ASL (4300 Ft) , average.. there you find the town of Guatemala city, Antigua Guatemala, and the area of Lake Atitlan. At this level no needs for heating system or cooling system.. you live pretty much all year round in shirt and shorts.. and the doors open to nature... Then you find two location at sea level with both their own characteristics Costa Sur and Rio Dulce.. A friend just came back from El Salvador and told me so hot , when you are used to Guatemala climate everything south is too hot..

The second Reason ... Affordable life style
Despite the Guatemalan Money Quetzal is very stable, making it expensive facing the Mexican Pesos.. you can enjoy a great quality of life. In terms of housing a lot of affordable options either to buy or rent. Plus it is as well easy to have staff to help you in your daily chores. All the goods imported might feel expensive but there is plenty to buy locally to compensate it. Guatemala is now competing directly with Costa Rica for its life style.

Third .. Great Medical facilities.
Medical facilities is a big theme for anybody wanting to relocate. Guatemala for that has not to be ashamed of . Check my other blog on this theme.

Fourth great food all year round.
With its excellent weather and location Guatemala produce fresh fruit and vegetables all year round. Lots of exportations gives you a great variety of vegetables (mini zuchini, baby vegetables..) , tropical fruit that you might never heard about. (zapote, mangostine, pitaya...). Excellent meat Guatemala exports meat to the US market. Check out Procasa the guatemalan leader company in meat processing.

Fifth Small country easy to visit
For the fact to be able to take your car and drive for a couple of hours and you end up in a very different environment.. From Guatemala city, 1 hour and you are in the colonial town of Antigua, 2 1/2 hours you are on the shore of the most beautiful lake of the world, Atitlan.
Drive 1 hour and you are on the shore of the Pacific and where you can do world class fishing. To the East 5 hours and you are in Rio Dulce the river of the movies Tarzan...
All through an excellent network of divided high way. Some of my clients drive deep in the high land toward Semuc Champey and the Peten and always marvel of the beauty.
A great way to appreciate the size of the country is to visit the "Mapa en relieve" in Guatemala City. It is a 3 D map , 100 years old representing the country on 2 scales
1:10,000 for horizontal measurements , y 1:2,000 for vertical ones.

Sixth Great internet 
Internet is very important today and you can find in the cities and close to them excellent facilites. The best system is to get a hardline from Claro the biggest company and get a kind of DSL line.. if not WIFI over the cellular network is also exploding with access to 4G speed by the company Tigo..For the reasons you need.. from being able to skype with the family and the grandchildren back home or because you are digital nomad you will find the system that work for you.
With internet Satelital for the ones in real need of performance..

Seventh great country for real estate investment
Despite Guatemala is not on the map for investment overseas.. it does offer excellent opportunity of investment.
Either because you want to relocate for a while here and will resell in the near future. Either
because you would like to take advantage of this still un discover market.
Watch out the trend and take advantage of being an early bird... there are plenty of great investment opportunities check the listing of the Chamber of Realtors of Guatemala and
for lake Atitlan real estate Atitlan Solutions real estate division at www.realestateatitlan.com




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Discover the City of Health in Guatemala

In Guatemala, very often the expats to be, wonder what kind of medical services they can get...

Well I have used several hospital for different reasons.. birth, kidney stones, brain tumors and I have always found services to be top of the line and very inexpensive comparing what I would have pay in the US for example.. Easily 4 times cheaper..

In Guatemala City you have what we call the avenue of the hospital, or the medical district  which is the diagonal 6 running in Zona 10. Along this avenue you find several well known hospital..

I have used Centro Medico for a friend of mine that had cancerous tumor in his brain. It was well attended, got quickly the test needed and the hospital was very efficient in communicating with his insurance to prepare is medical evacuation by air to Norway.
The hospital has also an heliport.
Website in Spanish only.

I have also used for the birth of my second daughter Hospital Esperanza on the same avenue. I have a special relation with this hospital because my French Medicare has a special agreement with the hospital allowing me to pay only a third of the bill.. My daughter was born in water and the doctor Jose Caballos and the hospital staff were very professional and accommodating.. This hospital is a university hospital. It has also an heliport. The birth costs around $ 2,000.00

Website only in Spanish

Now there are specials buildings in Guatemala called Clinicas where you find towers with all the field of medecine represented, a kind of centralized medical real estate. Most of them are for ambulatory medecine and you don't stay over night..   I have used the place for dermatology, knee ligament surgery.I have used Multi Medica in Zona 15 a couple of time.  Website in English. 

So for the ones that would like to have an insurance.. well being French I have my own from France

but you can find in Guatemala in the biggest bank insurance as they all have an insurance division. You can also contact Bupa . They have specials plans for Guatemala and it is international. 

One thing I would like to attract your attention is that Guatemala is becoming a strong destination for medical tourism.. and a big new project is coming out of ground in the outskirt of Guatemala ciudad, easy access from the airport. It will the mega health center of Central America.. A complex of building dedicated to health...  VittaCenter..

Taking from their website :" It is the largest project in Central America directed exclusively to the health sector and the first of its kind since 1973. It will have two buildings that house more than 200 medical clinics , hospital with a capacity of over 100 beds in private rooms, commercial, professional offices apartments and more than 1,500 parking units ." Check out their website it is pretty impressive.

So if you are thinking of relocating to Guatemala or to retire here be assured you will find the best medical facilities in case you need.. Now living here in my own experience because of the healthy life style you end up never going to the hospital...