Sunday, February 23, 2014

These 5 Countries Provide The Best Health Care In The World

International Living's annual Global Retirement Index reports that France, Uruguay and Malaysia provide the best and most affordable health care in the world. And Mexico!

#5 Mexico



Given the galloping rise in health care costs in the U.S. and elsewhere, Mexico’s affordable and top-notch health care is a huge benefit to living there. Pretty much across the board, health care in Mexico costs a quarter to a half of what you would pay in the U.S. Mexico comes in fifth in the health care category of the InternationalLiving.com annual Global Retirement Index 2014. Medical insurance with Mexico’s national health care service costs less than $300 a year; private insurance will cost more, depending on age and pre-existing conditions—but still a fraction of what you’d pay in the U.S. for similar coverage. Photo: Glynna Prentice,InternationalLiving.com

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Mexico Top Choice



VOXXI explored the most popular countries for US citizens who decide they rather live abroad.
Mexico: Despite all the bad press it gets for the ongoing violence, and even lawlessness in some of its states with narcowars, Mexico remains the number one destination for expatriates from the United States to live in. It’s got 510,000 emigrants living there.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Traveling To Mexico?

Courtesy of La Casa Que Canta

Are you planning to travel to Mexico and want some suggestions about where to stay? TRAVEL + LEISURE has two articles you might like: Best Mexico Beach Resorts and Best Hotels in Mexico.

Friday, February 7, 2014

TRAVEL + LEISURE World's Coolest Underground Wonders

Cave of the Crystals, Mexico


Carsten Peter/Speleoresearch & Films/National Geographic Stock

La Cueva de los Cristales was discovered in the Naica Mine near Chihuahua in 2000 after water was pumped out of the 30-by-90-foot chamber, and there’s nothing else like it on—or under—earth. The crisscrossing gypsum columns are some of the world’s largest natural crystals. Despite its grandeur, visits are nearly impossible to come by due to dangerous conditions: near 100-percent humidity and temperatures as high as 136 degrees, warmed by a pool of magma sitting below the cave. There’s even been talk of refilling it with water. naica.com.mx

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

TRAVEL + LEISURE World's Most Mysterious Buildings

Yaxchilán, ChiapasMexico



This obscure fourth-century site, along the Usumacinta River at the Guatemala border, draped in thick strangler vines and echoing with shrieking howler monkeys, is a tourist-free standout among Mexico’s many ruins. Visitors approach by boat, then enter through El Laberinto (The Labyrinth), a limestone building with painted stucco panels and topped with decorative cresteríasdedicated to ruler kings like Moon Skull.
Mystery: Yaxchilán was mysteriously deserted in the ninth century, but pilings along each side of the river suggest that it was the site of a sophisticated suspension bridge, previously thought invented in the Western world.
Visit: Travel like Mayans, by water, on Mountain Travel Sobek’s Chiapas Wildlife Adventure, which includes whitewater-rafting runs along the Rio Santo Domingo and stops at Yaxchillán and other ancient ruins. mtsobek.com
—Adam H. Graham

San Juan Parangaricutiro, MichoacánMexico

Sergio Alfaro Romero

In 1943, an explosive volcano in Mexico’s remote mountain state of Michoacán began spewing lava, eventually burying the villages of San Juan Parangaricutiro and Paricutín under a coal-black layer of chunky lava.
Mystery: The crucifix-topped bell tower of the San Juan Parangaricutiro Church just so happened to be spared from the destructive lava, while the vacated church’s altar, at the other end of the church, is also entirely intact.
Visit: Abercrombie & Kent’s tailor-made Mexican Colonial Splendors trip takes you to the lava-buried site from the sleepy Purépecha mountain village of Angahuan, 30-minutes away.
—Adam H. Graham