Back from a great cruise to MX. Found out in MX (as with most caribbean isl's) you can't own land. The Caribbean only allows "belongers" to have property rights. You can own in a zone -- tourist-- but not on island.

MX your deed is held by the bank never by you. Very interesting!!!!

Also when in Cozumel found it very interesting that almost all homes had hugh walls-- some were made of junk cars-- those that weren't had glass shards embedded into the top of the brick walls.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

I have never been outside of the U.S.

Maybe we should adopt the broken glass idea on the top of our fences. I could use all the busted storm windows I found half buried in the yard of my daughter's house (recent purchase) They say good fences make good neighbors.

(wink - I'm kidding!)

Now that's a ROUGH neighborhood.

Wow! Glad to hear you survived mexico and the wilds of Quintana Roo (where awhile back the Governor was arrested for drug trafficing). LOL Brings back memories of my wilder days of camping on the beach and drinking wine under a full moon overlooking the Caribbean while sitting on the sacraficial alter of the ruins at Tulumn.

When I lived in FL I spent a lot of my free time in central america in the later 80's, early 90's. Back then you could play the currency game if you bought your plane tickets in Honduras. The official exchange rate was 2 Limpira for a dollar, but the street rate was 6-8 to one. So you'd exchange dollars at the "black market" rate, then pay for the tickets at the official rate on Belize Air, and it was $49 round trip to fly from San Jose Costa Rica to Miami, or stop at any major city enroute, including Cancun. I'd fly down like every other weekend. Same flight bought in Miami was like $399!

I later held an FM2 work visa for Mexico. Yes, unlike our "caravan" friends coming over the border, I worked in Mexico legally for awhile. I was like the only legal foreign journalist covering the Zapatista revolt. Most were there on tourist visas and some got kicked out. I worked free lance for a large hispanic paper in SoCal separate from my main newspaper job.

Anyway, you CAN buy land in mexico, fee simple, but not in the border or coastal "exclusion zones" (I forget exactly but 50 miles from the border and 25 miles from the ocean.) In those zones (where most foreigners own) you use a bank trust. The property is titled to the trust, the bank is the trustee and you are beneficiary. I believe they are 99 year renewable, but that may have changed. Inland in places like Guadalajara you can hold title fee simple.

Before you go buying a vacation home in the most corrupt narco state in the hemisphere you might want to read this.

I remember the story well, we wrecked a car on the Estero Beach road back in the day. LOL

Most of the folks involved lost their homes with no compensation. Non mexicans get ripped off every time. My mother's law office partner invested in a gold mine in Sinola - yeah he wasn't a very smart lawyer. LOL He got ripped off for about fifty grand, but he had some fun and got to wear his Indiana Jones hat! LOL

articles.latimes.com/1999/sep/03/news/mn-6343