After years of traveling together, Brooke and Rick Gazer, both from Canada, were used to staying in interesting places.
And as they bedded down at a guesthouse in San Miguel, Mexico, owned by a couple from Nebraska, Brooke wondered what it would be like to move away and open up their own bed and breakfast.
“I was just observing (the owners) and thinking, ‘These people really have a wonderful life, so one day I’d like to do this,’” Brooke tells CNN Travel of that memorable stay in 1986.
Relocation dream
Over a decade later, they relocated to the North American country to do just that.
The couple, who’ve been married for 38 years, had both lived abroad previously, and enjoyed traveling together, “so it wasn’t a completely foreign idea to move out of the country.”
However, it wasn’t until Brooke lost her job as a pharmaceutical rep in 1996 that they made the decision to quit their life in Calgary, Alberta, and open up their own bed and breakfast.
Rick was skeptical about “the economics of owning a B&B anywhere,” so they resolved to try it out in their own home as something of a test run.
This proved to be “a tremendously successful experiment,” says Brooke.
As they had a frail sheep dog who “wasn’t going to relocate easily,” the couple opted to wait a few years before taking the plunge. But where would they go?
“Our criteria was, if we were going to change our lives, we’d live someplace warm near a beach,” says Brooke.
The couple say they “gave Thailand a good look,” but ultimately decided that it wasn’t the right destination for them.
“And then we said, ‘We’ve always had a good time when we went to Mexico. That might be a good place,’” says Rick. “So we started looking at Mexico seriously.”
After doing some research, they realized that Mexico, the country where they’d first considered taking this step, was the right fit for them, as well as the most financially viable option.
“In Mexico we could afford to hire help, a maid and gardener, plus a handyman when needed,” she says.
While they were pretty confident with their decision, some of their friends and family were less convinced by their choice of destination.
Selling up
“Everybody else was terrified for us,” says Brooke. “As a matter of fact, my best friend said something to the effect of, ‘Brooke, if you’re having a midlife crisis, wouldn’t it be easier to do something simple, like changing your hair color?”
Undeterred by the reaction of their loved ones, Brooke and Rick pressed ahead with their big move.
“Mexico was not at all scary to us,” says Rick. “And it’s a lot easier to learn Spanish than it is Thai.”
Once their dog passed away, the couple finally felt ready to leave Canada behind.
Although they’d initially hoped to rent out their home for six months, Brooke and Rick ultimately decided to sell up.
“We put (the relocation to Mexico) off for another several months while we sold the house,” she adds. “And then we picked up and left.”
In February 1999, they left Calgary, Alberta, and headed for Mexico.
The couple say they spent at least six months exploring the country, limiting their search to Mexico’s Pacific Coast, in order to find the perfect place for their bed and breakfast, and ultimately decided on Huatulco, a coastal town in Oaxaca.
“We both agreed this was the place,” says Brooke, before explaining that it took them a few months to find a suitable section of land where they could build their project from scratch.
“Huatulco is kind of a funny place,” she adds. “It was developed by the government, and they would put land up for sale periodically. But in between, we just had to wait.”
While they were waiting, Brooke and Rick, who were aged 49 and 54 when they relocated, traveled to Guatemala to study Spanish.
“When we came back 10 days later, they had a sale, and we put a bid in on two properties,” says Rick. “And we got one of them and we were very happy.”
The couple purchased the land for $75,000 in August 1999 and began drawing up plans to build a six-guest-room B&B overlooking Tejoncito Cove.
“It took time to get the proper papers and find an architect,” explains Brooke, adding that things sped up once they “broke ground.”
“People said that was an impossible goal but we needed to get open for the winter season. We had about 50 workers onsite through much of the process.”
As things began to take shape, they were able to get to know Huatulco and quickly settled in the town, which is a relatively recent tourist development.
“When we got there, it was still literally being uncrated,” says Brooke, recalling how she quickly noticed that the local church “had no doors.”
“We thought that was really odd, and we found out about three days later that the town itself was only nine years old.
“The government had come in and built the infrastructure and just started the town, so the church wasn’t finished.”
Building dreams
According to Brooke and Rick, the locals were incredibly welcoming and instantly made them feel at ease.
“One of the reasons we chose Mexico was because people really are nice here,” says Brooke.
They opened their B&B, Agua Azul la Villa, in January 2002. The total cost of the build came to roughly $350,000.
“Running a B&B was a wonderful lifestyle,” says Brooke. “One of the things we enjoyed most about traveling was the people you met along the way.
“With a B&B, people came to us. We met fascinating people from over the world. Everyone brought something interesting to our breakfast table.”
Brooke and Rick stress that things weren’t always smooth sailing when it came to their business, and there were years when they struggled, but they managed to keep going by living “frugally.”
The couple found that their money went much further in Mexico, but it took them a little while to navigate some of the cultural differences.
According to Brooke, the somewhat laid-back approach to time and scheduling appointments in the country has been one of the most challenging aspects for them.
“Sometimes people will say that they’re going to come,” she says. “And they intend to come, but something comes up and it just doesn’t occur to them that they need to tell you they’re not coming that day.
“That does seem to be part of the culture that time is not of the same essence that we allot it to.
“But generally speaking, I just find that people are very, very considerate and very pleasant and caring.”
In fact, Brooke says she’s found Mexico to be a “kinder and gentler society” overall.
This sentiment is echoed by Rick, who has a heart condition, and says that he’s always struck by how well he’s cared for whenever he receives medical care.
Cultural differences
“There’s a culture of caring that is non-existent in Canada,” he says. “Nothing against Canada, but there’s a civility (here).”
After happily living in Huatulco for two decades, the couple decided to sell up and move to a bigger city due to Rick’s health issues.
“He has undergone several stent surgeries,” says Brooke, before explaining that they couldn’t find a cardiologist in or near Huatulco.
“Fortunately, we bought medical insurance years ago.”
According to Brooke, they currently pay 114,000 pesos (around $5,970) annually “with a hefty deduction” for medical insurance.
Keen to stay in Mexico, the couple opted to move to Merida, a much larger city in Yucatán with more medical facilities.
“At fifty, we felt immortal, but in a blink of an eye, that can change,” says Brooke, who has written a memoir, “House of Blue Water” about their experiences in Huatulco.
“We have no regrets about our time in Huatulco. In fact, it was the best time of our lives. and I miss the natural beauty that surrounded me. But there are times to be practical.”
The couple have been living in Merida, known for its Spanish-colonial architecture and traditional Mayan culture, since 2021 and say they feel blessed to be there.
The US State Department currently advises against traveling to six of Mexico’s 32 states, with crime and kidnapping listed as the cause for advisories for the majority.
The Government of Canada advises its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution” while visiting the country and avoid “non-essential travel” to specific regions, including central Mexico’s Guanajuato.
Although their friends and family initially expressed concern about their safety when they decided to move to Mexico, Brooke and Rick say it’s never been an issue for them, pointing out that they are far removed from the areas of the country with high crime rates.
“There are people who will read about one incident that happened five years ago, and they tar the whole country, which is ridiculous,” says Rick.
“We’ve traveled in many parts of Mexico, and there are a few I won’t go back to. But other than that, to me it’s a safe country.”
They rarely return to Canada now – Brooke’s last visit was in 2022 – and can’t really imagine living there again.
“We really like it here,” she says. “And quite frankly, when I go back to Canada, even in the summer, I find it a little bit chilly.”
Brooke goes on to recount being stunned at the price of a “simple breakfast” during her last visit.
“It was like $25 Canadian (dollars),” she says. “And here we can go out for a nice breakfast and it would be $8 or $10.”
Although Brooke and Rick originally entered the country on tourist visas and went on to get resident visas, they both became Mexican citizens a few years ago.
“We did this because we can never afford to live in Canada again,” says Brooke. “Ditto for the USA.”
Rick says he rarely feels the urge to go home, and returned last year to visit family for the first time in about 14 years.
“Home is where you hang your hat,” he says. “We hung our hat here 25 years ago, and this is home.”
The couple say they’d advise anyone thinking of relocating to a country like Mexico to rent somewhere in their intended destination first and avoid committing to buying a property until they’re absolutely sure.
“Mexico is a big country, and there’s a lot of choices,” says Brooke. “And we also have had neighbors that have moved here.
“And within a year or two, they decided it wasn’t for them for one reason or another, and they moved back. And things aren’t that easy to sell (here).”
While they say they’re able to communicate reasonably well, both still struggle with aspects of the Spanish language.
“We’ve been able to communicate fairly well for years,” says Rick. “But 100% fluency? No, I’m ashamed to say, I’m not 100% fluent. But then I’m not in English either.”
But the couple, who are now retired, absolutely love the lives they’ve built in Mexico and are looking forward to the future.
“We’ve been very lucky,” says Brooke. “I know people who have come in their late 70s or early 80s and they’ve had trouble getting health care.
“So the trick is to do it sooner rather than later. And in fact, if people ask if we have any regrets, the only regret that we have is that we couldn’t afford to do it sooner.”
