7 Reasons We’re Moving to Puerto Vallarta from Sayulita!

 We’re So Excited!

That Infinity Pool and View was Part of the Reason

     Yes, it’s true. We’re moving to the “big city” of Puerto Vallarta in about two weeks. We’ve lived in our casita in the village of Sayulita for six years and are ready for this change. Not only that, but we’re moving from a 3-bedroom home with a yard to a 2-bedroom condo. People ask us, “Why?”

     Remember when we evaluated many cities in México to make the big decision about where to retire? I wrote a blog article Retire in Sayulita,Mexico? What About in Puerto Vallarta? Or La Manzanilla? I listed many reasons why we love Sayulita, and they still hold true. I also wrote, “Puerto Vallarta is a big city, too big for us to choose as our home. We would rather keep it as a special place for a perfect sophisticated get-away.”

Sayulita Beach on a Quiet Day

     What made us change our minds six years later? Well, it started with health changes and the need to visit medical specialists and major hospitals and then grew from there. Here are the main reasons we’re moving to a condo in PV, as it’s sometimes referred to.

A SANMARÉ Clinic Private Room

     1.       High-quality Health Care is Readily Available and Relatively Inexpensive—Hospitals, medical specialists, and dentists are better and we’ll live closer to them. Medication is less expensive than in Sayulita pharmacies and can be purchased without a prescription in most cases. We pay out-of-pocket, so inexpensive, quality health care is important with our limited retirement funds. Pamela Thompson, a health care consultant in PV, has helped us find an excellent neurologist, dermatologist, urologist, a plastic surgeon (who flies in from Guadalajara to remove skin tumors), and a dentist. She also has referred us to SANMARÉ Health Care Group and La Joya Hospital for lab work and surgical procedures which we have been very happy with. We found we are taking taxis from Sayulita to PV and back for health care reasons more and more as we age. At 1500 pesos ($75 US) round-trip, it's getting expensive, and time-consuming.

     In addition, in case emergency service is needed, SANMARÉ and La Joya Hospital own an ambulance, which would arrive at our home in PV and get to the hospital much quicker. In Sayulita, a long ambulance response time and the hour-long trip (más o menos, depending on traffic) to La Joya Hospital could be life-threatening.

Celebrating At La Cappella Restaurant in PV

2.   Better Selection of Restaurants—While Sayulita has 120 restaurants according to TripAdvisor, we frequent about 20 of those. We are ready for some new and higher quality choices and Peurto Vallarta has over 600 restaurants. As we go out for breakfast or dinner every other day and to special restaurants when we want to celebrate, this is important to us. Lots of gastronomic exploring to do!

The Gym at Our New Condominium in PV

3.    Exercise Opportunities are Great—COVID-19 eliminated our Zumba and yoga classes in Sayulita and they have been slow to return. In the past year, we’ve done these exercises at home with instructors on the internet. We’re ready to get out for our exercise classes. Our condo has a well-equipped gym, a great feature we hadn’t anticipated. We’ll probably get more walking steps recorded on our Fitbits in PV since we love to walk on the Malecón and around the Romantic Zone.

Sayulita Beach During Semana Santa 2015

4.   Sayulita has Gotten Too Busy for Us, with Tourists and People Moving Here—It’s a great people-watching town and the evening street entertainment is fun. We’ll be back to visit for that, but the walkways and beaches have become too congested for us, especially on weekends and holidays. When I look at the photo of Sayulita Beach during the 2015 Semana Santa week, I realize it was busy when we moved here, too. Maybe we've just become less tolerant of it in our later years.

5.   Living Closer to Stores We Like to Shop At and New Outdoor Markets to Explore—Costco, Home Depot, Liverpool, supermarkets, and Wal-Mart are a short Uber ride away from our condo. While we only shop at the big stores once every month or two, it will be so much more convenient and less expensive to Uber there and back when we live in the city. We’re looking forward to exploring the Olas Altas Saturday Market, a farmers' market nearby, and Cuale Island Flea Market. As a side note, Sayulita does not have an Uber service, so taking a taxi anywhere has become expensive.

Swim-Up Bar at Pinnacle Condo

6.   We Couldn’t Find a Condo in Sayulita that Fit Our Needs Within Our Price Range—Real estate prices are getting quite high in Sayulita. We wanted a pool, to be close to the beach, handicap accessibility with an elevator (in case we need it in the future), an ocean view, a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with a balcony, and be pet-friendly (that's a limiting criterion, but Bella will be living there, too). Our condominium, Residences by Pinnacle has a rooftop infinity pool with a view of the city and ocean. The swim-up bar and restaurant service at the pool are special treats that we look forward to enjoying. The condo cost more than we wanted to pay, but we pushed the envelope of our finances and I think we'll be happy that we made this decision.

Can't Wait to Watch the Sunset from Up Here!

7.     We’re Ready for a New Adventure! Last year we gave up our RVing days when we would explore the country with road trips. We still take road trips with a hired driver and a car, but we haven’t gotten out of Sayulita much since last summer except to vacation in Puerto Vallarta. We spend so much time in PV, we decided we might as well live there! 

          I’m especially excited to live near Vallarta Botanical Gardens—one of my favorite places to go for a walk, take a rest with some peaceful reading time in the conservatory, and eat delicious fish tacos with the best margaritas! It’s only a 35-minute Uber ride away from our new home, rather than a 2-hour drive from Sayulita if the traffic is good.

   We can’t wait to move! Waiting for the condo real estate closing to happen is excruciating now that we’re packed and ready, but it’s another lesson in patience. Things move on Mexican time and there’s no way to speed them up.

Check out this nice review on Amazon for my ebook 

Retirement Before the Age of 59 

        5.0 out of 5 Stars A fresh look.

        "I had really enjoyed reading this book. Well written in a warm friendly trusting way. With a fresh look at our neighbors down south on the other side of the wall. A really great book." (Thank you, Jason, for reading my book and leaving a review to help others find it)

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Terry L Turrell, Author