IL Postcard
Mexicans Say Colima Is as Good as It Gets
Date: 12/14/2007
Colima’s main square by night.
December 14, 2007
Colima, Mexico
Driving into town from Colima’s Miguel de la Madrid airport, I share a cab with a Mexican gentleman. He’s not a native of Colima, but after living here 25 years and raising five children in the city, he considers it his adopted home.
“It’s the best city in Mexico,” he tells me. “You won’t find a better place to live.”
His voice rings with pride for this small city, capital of the state of Colima on Mexico’s Pacific coast. He waves expansively to point out city parks, statues, and other landmarks as we drive toward the city center.
My taxi companion is not alone in thinking Colima a great place to live. Every year El Universal, a major Mexican newspaper, polls ordinary Mexicans for their opinions on cities throughout Mexico. This year the paper ranked Colima as the city with the highest quality of life in the country.
Considering that Mexico itself is No. 1 this year in International Living’s Global Retirement Index—its ranking of the best countries in which to retire—I have to ask myself: Is Colima the best of the best? Is this retirement and investment nirvana?
Colima, I find, is a bustling, beautiful, clean city with a colonial center and ringed with modern gated communities. Colonial fixer-uppers can run as low as $80,000, while large colonial homes in move-in condition can be in the $250,000 range. Prices for modern homes in Colima’s gated communities run $17 to $25 a square foot. And prices for lots and houses in outlying areas and in nearby Villa de Alvarez (a bedroom community for commuting locals) can run much less.
Colima looks and feels relatively small. The metropolitan area has about 230,000 people and includes Villa de Alvarez and Comala, a pueblo mágico or magic village—a Mexican government designation for certain well-maintained historic villages. This is a nice size, actually—large enough for decent hospitals, universities (there are three in Colima), and cultural amenities, and small enough to feel intimate.
Best regards,
Suzan Haskins
Latin America Editorial Director
P.S. This alert is excerpted from the December issue of Mexico Insider, our monthly e-zine covering all aspects of investing, retiring, and living in Mexico. If you’re considering Mexico, you should be considering Mexico Insider.