Blow the lid…let the cat out of the bag…spill the beans. Call it what you will. The point is: We do it all the time. And we may be about to do it to your town right now…

The best example I can think of is Boquete, in the hills of Panama. We told IL readers about this little valley in 2000. Back then, Boquete was cheap, beautiful, peaceful, and close to most amenities you could want. It’s still most of those things…but the price of a home has gone way up since IL’s first reports.

Some of that early coverage was picked up by the Wall Street Journal. The AARP Magazine (then called Modern Maturity) ranked Boquete as the #1 retirement destination in the Western Hemisphere. The lid was well and truly blown.

At International Living, we work tirelessly on your behalf to help you expand your horizons, enjoy a better life, have fun and make money overseas. Even if you’ve yet to take out a paid subscription to the IL Magazine, you give us your time when you read these free Postcards, which we sincerely appreciate, and we work no less hard on your behalf.

One of our hardest-working roving reporters is Glynna Prentice, who called me last week to tell me about her latest discovery in the hills of Mexico. Somewhere only a few U.S. expats have discovered…a beautiful colonial town…lots to do…and low prices.

See below for Glynna’s full report. This could be big. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Len Galvin

P.S. Glynna will be at IL’s Live and Invest in Mexico Seminar in November. Earlier today you got a one-day offer to register for this event with a huge discount ($800 off per couple). Don’t forget that this discount is only good if you register today. Full details here.

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Affordable and Exotic Living in San Cristóbal, Mexico

By Glynna Prentice

San Cristóbal de las Casas in Mexico is the kind of place that quickly makes you dream of moving there. At least, that’s been my experience. And judging by the number of expatriates who have moved there, I’m not the only one this colonial city has managed to seduce.

Maybe it’s San Cristóbal’s distant mountain views, or the crisp air, or the exotic and varied indigenous life… Certainly, that away-from-it-all feeling plays a part. In San Cristóbal, located high in the mountains of Chiapas, near the Mexico/Guatemala border, you feel as though your work-a-day worries are blissfully far away. Yet with all its restaurants and shops and tourists, you don’t feel too remote from the action.

I’m struck, though, by how few U.S. expatriates I see here. Europeans discovered San Cristóbal ages ago, and they’ve settled here happily. Italians, Lebanese, French, English…they’ve opened businesses and restaurants, founded museums, and helped restore San Cristóbal’s mile-square, well-preserved colonial center. But U.S. and Canadian expats? They’re pretty rare…and with all San Cristóbal has to offer, that’s a shame.

After all, this city has one of the lowest costs of living in Mexico. I’ve eaten out in trendy little bistros here for as little as $3.50. You can buy a week’s worth of fruits and vegetables for $5—and buy a three-bedroom home (with views of those mountains) for less than $150,000. The historic center—a UNESCO World Heritage site—is a feast for the eyes, with street after street of colorful Spanish colonial buildings. That’s the sort of charm expats love—especially when it’s a bustling, lived-in city, as San Cristóbal is, with plenty of interesting little shops to browse.

And there is certainly plenty to do here. Like culture? San Cristóbal lies in one of the richest regions of Mexico for indigenous culture and handicrafts. You can’t help but notice the many Mayans who live in and around San Cristóbal—and if you can resist buying their handicrafts, you’re more disciplined than I am.

If your tastes are more modern, there are museums, jazz bars, wine bars, and more restaurants than you can count. (My most expensive meal, in a first-rate Italian trattoria, cost me only about $20 for two courses plus wine and dessert.)

It’s easy to get out of the city into the countryside, where you’ll find plenty of nearby villages worth exploring. Two that I visited, Zinacantán and Chamula, are both less than 10 miles away. In Chamula you can see locals practice their own brand of Catholicism. (Let’s just say that it’s highly laced with Maya elements.) You can get your shop on in Zinacantán, whose locals are famous for their weaving. (I snapped up an embroidered tablecloth, placemats, and a couple of scarves.)

You won’t have to worry about the heat: San Cristóbal has a cool mountain climate. Summers there are glorious, with warm days (into the 80s Fahrenheit) and cool nights (you’ll need a light jacket). Yes, temperatures in winter can drop down to freezing—which is still pretty mild compared to winter in most parts of the U.S. and Canada. And if you miss the heat, just drive down the mountains—to Chiapas’s jungle or its Pacific Coast. (Try doing that in a few hours’ drive from, say, Minnesota or Saskatchewan.)

Most of San Cristóbal’s U.S. and Canadian expats, I’m told, have traditionally been part-time. Perhaps they found the city remote for full-time living. If so, that tradition is due for a change—because it’s no longer the case. A fast highway now connects San Cristóbal with Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state capital. An easy 45-minute drive away, Tuxtla has an airport with direct flights to Mexico City, and U.S.-style shopping like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and a huge Home Depot.

But you don’t really need to go to Tuxtla for shopping. San Cristóbal today is both larger and more sophisticated than what it was even a few years ago. Today you can pretty much get everything you need in local shops, whether you’re looking for beetroot or for batteries. For groceries, San Cristóbal’s big supermarket—one of Mexico’s Chedraui chain—has one of the widest selection of products I’ve seen in Mexico. For even better prices, there is the traditional fruit and vegetable market. (There’s even a small organic market in the city center.) For hammers, nails, pipe, and a wealth of other house repair items, I saw an entire street in one neighborhood lined with small hardware shops.

And when it comes to leisure time, San Cristóbal offers a lot of entertainment options for a city its size (about 200,000 people). For instance, if you tire of the jazz clubs and museums, there’s always the Cineplex out at the mall, where you can catch first-run films, some of them in English.

For anyone seeking an exotic oasis that’s a feast for the senses and easy on the pocketbook, San Cristóbal may well fit the bill. Just come prepared to be seduced.

Editor’s note: There will never be a better time in your lifetime to start a new, fuller life in Mexico. Right now, 3 critical factors have converged in a way they rarely do. The result could change your life—get the full story here.

To read more IL articles about Mexico, see:

San Cristobal: Mexico‘s Colonial Gem at Bargain Prices