Mexico Newsletters

•Aim: a newsletter on retirement and travel in Mexico, published bimonthly by Adventures in Mexico, Apdo Postal 31-70, Guadalajara, 45050, Jalisco, Mexico. Subscriptions are $16.00 US and $25 in Canada. Detailed information and firsthand reports make this one of the most popular retirement newsletters.

•Belize First: Your Guide to Travel and Life in Belize by Lan Sluder, Equator Travel Publications, Inc., 280 Beaverdam Road, Candler, NC 28715. Fax: (704) 667-1717. This newsletter in booklet format offers everything from lists of recommended hotels and offbeat news tidbits (my favorite section) to articles on retirement, camping, cheap living, Belizean laws and customs, real estate listings, fishing, road conditions, history and whatever else editor/publisher Lan Sluder can shoehorn into 60+ pages. Subscriptions are US $29 a year in the US, Canada and Belize, and include an excellent color road map to Belize.

•Discover Baja Newsletter: A bimonthly publication of the Discover Baja Travel Club. Good articles and many advertisements, but if you're a serious Baja traveler, the ads are also of interest. Subscriptions are included with club membership of $39 a year. Call (800) 727-BAJA (see Travel Clubs).

•Guatemala Living and Retirement Newsletter, <http://www.goguatemala.com>.PO Box 669004, A-192, Miami Springs, FL 33266. This excellent bimonthly newsletter promises articles, encouragement and tips for retirees and wannabe “expats." Their booklet, The Guatemala Bus Traveler's Little Helper is crammed full of bus routes, schedules, travel tips and even hotel information. Email: folks@go2guatemala.com.

•Letters from Mexico: Mexico as Seen Through the Eyes of an Expatriate Gringo by Stan Gotlieb, 1996, B & W Enterprises, 707 Kingston Blvd., McHenry, IL 60050. Stan Gotlieb is accurately described as an irreverent, itinerant ne'er-do-well gringo malcontent who has discovered home, patience and a positive attitude while sitting in the sidewalk cafes of Oaxaca. His book, Letters From Mexico, is a mixed bag of advice, humor, politics, culture and history. Stan's writing is highly personal and personalized. From the Zapatista uprising to the current status of Mexican bathrooms, his commentaries are meant to remind old visitors of what they might otherwise forget, and to captivate and mobilize the new reader to come and find out for her/him self. Stan's website <http://www.mexconnect.com/letters_from_mexico/lettersindex.html> offers monthly musings, hosted by MexConnect. For information on his subscription-only email newsletter, contact Stan at stan@mexconnect.com.

•Mexican Meanderings: A Newsletter of Explorations in an Enchanted Land, by the Felsteds, PO Box 33057, Austin, TX 78764, 6 issues a year, $18. In Mexican Meanderings, the Felsteds successfully focus each six-page issue on a specific place or region, emphasizing history, architecture, culture and cuisine. The articles are clearly written, thoughtful and well-researched. Simple maps and well-composed black and white photographs add just the right touch. Website: <http://www.greenbuilder.com/mader/ecotravel/resources/mmex.html>, email: mexplore@aol.com.

•Mexican Travel Newsletter
An electronic newsletter for people interested in Mexican travel, customs and culture. Free subscription: subscribe@mexiculture.com

•The Mexico File by David Simmonds, Simmonds Publications, (800) 5MEXFILE. "The Newsletter for Mexicophiles" is well-written and definitely worth a look.

•Mexico Living and Travel by Jean and John D. Bryant, 1994, Mexico Retirement and Travel Assistance, PO Box 2190-23, Pahrump, NV 89041-2190. The Bryants are veteran retiree/residents of Guadalajara, who also publish a quarterly retirement newsletter ($25 a year), maps, video and a basic Spanish language guide. Mexico Living and Travel offers information on the ever-popular “retirement triangle” of Guadalajara-Ajijic-Chapala, with contributions from about three dozen writers, photographers and artists. The book is an interesting hodgepodge, with short articles on everything from golf in Mexico to descriptions of a wholesale food market, a brief history of Guadalajara, a list of neighborhood-by-neighborhood suggestions for Lake Chapala house rentals and a 25 page advertising section.

•The Mexpatriate Newsletter says about itself: