So I promised to share our experience with our first trip to Mexico. We chose Cabo San Lucas. A close friend of ours had recently returned and provided a positive report. We selected the same all-inclusive resot Riu Palace Baja California – Adults Only. This, in my opinion, was the first mis-step, if you can characterize it as such, we made in our Mexican sojourn. I say that because we were immediately falling into the trap many aspiring ex-pats make which is to approach a task with the sensibilities of our home country. We thought being on an all inclusive resort alleviated having to be worried about where to stay, eating, drinking, etc. All of those things are true, but this wasn’t just a vacation. If one is just taking a short trip for rest and relaxation with no plans of a possible relocation, then it’s a good move. However, given that we were considering this trip as the first advance scouting trip of what could possibly be many, we should have opted for finding an AirBnb in town were we could experience the real flavor of the locale. We did meet with a realtor while in Cabo and we looked as some pre-construction options. We went to the marina which is where most tourists end up and we were underwhelmed. The resort was ok, but I can’t say I was that impressed with the food, and we felt as though the alcoholic beverages were lacking as well. We did enjoy the beach although the constand pestering by peddlers was very annoying! Back to the realtor. We found him from an episode of House Hunter’s International so we figured he was reputable. Our only complaint was that he had a financial stake in the pre-construction develpment he showed us and it was just a lot. He did have nice portfolios with renderings, but we would much rather have actually seen an existing property that we could walk through and imagine ourselves living there! Pre-construction has it’s financial advantages, but I don’t know that I’d be comfortable making a purchase for something that doesn’t currently exist nor do I have the patience to wait! In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to have found time to visit San Jose del Cabo which is about 20 miles up the road from Cabo San Lucas. We’ve been told it’s much more laid back and “less touristy”. The realtor we met with lived in San Jose del Cabo, but told us he was moving to Cabo San Lucas in the near future because he was tired of driving back and forth. All in all, we didn’t really feel that Cabo met our expectaton of what we were looking for as far as a potential move so it was on to the next spot on our list – Puerto Vallarta!