Mazatlan

As I mentioned earlier, we have three neighbors at Las Jaibas.

We met Janice first because she’s right across from us and has three very sweet little dogs: Rusty, Bailey & Morrie. Janice has two very successful doggie day care businesses in Washington State and our dogs now have three new cousins.

Rusty, Bailey & Morrie (They make Scraps look big)

John is originally from Canada, but now lives here full time. He has a two and a half year old daughter with a local lady whom we’ve yet to meet. John is super friendly and spends his days riding his bike and preparing his future RV spot in the back of the park for his imminent relocation.

Elaine & Hal have the super cool looking, aqua-colored school bus that stays here year round. They spend half their time here and half in New Mexico in a new yurt they put up recently.

All our neighbors – super cool. A good part of why we’re falling in love with Mazatlan.

Across the street – not so much love. Multi-story condos, all-inclusive resorts, beaches (which we’re burned out on), stuffy Americans.

While our goal is to open a small vacation rental biz in Belize, we’re staying open to other potential locations along the way. Next door to where we’re staying is an old RV park that closed about 11 or 12 years ago. The jungle has largely reclaimed it. We walked through and were amazed at how jungle-like it is – and yet – it's right across the road from the beach and just minutes away from any modern amenity you could imagine. A pretty ideal set-up for a vacation biz.

The parcel of land on the other side of us is for sale so we called the realtor today. $200 a square meter. Translated: $200 for a piece of dirt that your washing machine would occupy. Put another way: just shy of one million dollars an acre. Our price range? Closer to $1,000 an acre. Time to put the Mazatlan dream aside and get ready to move on toward Belize.