Until proposed amendments are ratified, we still have to set up the bank trust. But once the law changes, as a foreigner, you will be able to simply close down your existing fideicomiso and will no longer have any annual fee.

Here is a translation of an article published recently in the Diario de Yucatan:

* * * * *
On April 23, the full House of Representatives approved an initiative to reform Section I of Article 27 of the Constitution, which allows foreigners to purchase land housing exclusively for non-commercial purposes in a zone of one hundred kilometers along borders and fifty along the beaches.

PAN deputy from Yucatan, Raul Paz Alonzo, author of the initiative, together with the coordinator of the PRI representatives in the House, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, says that the document was referred to the Senate, which could approve it in brief, and now needs the approval of at least 17 state legislatures.

With these changes, says Paz Alonzo, foreigners (who he says are mainly retirees) will have legal certainty, allowing them to apply for mortgage loans in their home countries in order to acquire a second home in Mexico.

The American retiree market alone is worth $2,500 million pesos, says Paz Alonzo. He believes that Yucatan state will attract some of that market, leveraging the features of the Yucatan, such as climate, security, medical services and facilities such as golf courses, all of which are of great interest to retirees.

Also, explained the deputy, many of the Canadians who come to the Yucatan coast in winter will now be able to buy houses directly with bank loans in their own country. The same will be true for those who plan to open homes for the elderly on the Yucatan Peninsula or those who already have housing developments near the coast or within one hundred miles of the borders.

Under the new law, adds Paz Alonzo, selling Mexican properties in the United States will be easier and will put Yucatan on a par with Florida, increasing the Yucatan’s share with that large market of retirees.

Trusts At a Glance

Until these changes are made, foreigners are not allowed to own land in the “zone”; they can however buy the land through a fideicomiso. In this trust, the banks are listed as “owners” of the property purchased by foreigners.

High Costs

This situation has led to non-Mexicans, in their capacity as trustees, dealing with high costs of setting up trusts and paying registration fees, as well as fees for paperwork, appraisals, taxes, permits and more.

Objectives

Therefore, one of the objectives of the initiative is to eliminate the middleman, in this case real estate companies and banks.

If you answered Mexico City, you’d be in good company – after all, Mexico is a war zone, isn’t it? But you would be wrong, on both counts.

Based on FBI crime statistics for 2010 and Mexican government data released early this year, Mexico City’s drug-related-homicide rate per 100,000 population was one-tenth of Washington’s overall homicide rate – 2.2 deaths per 100,000 population compared with 22. (Drug violence accounts for most murders in Mexico, which historically does not have the gun culture that reigns in the United States.) And while parts of Mexico can be legitimately likened to a war zone, drug violence afflicts 80 of the country’s 2,400 municipalities (equivalent to counties). Their locations have been well publicized: along the U.S. border in northern Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, and south to Sinaloa, Michoacan and parts of San Luis Potosi, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guerrero and Morelos states.

The flip side is that more than 95 percent of Mexico’s municipalities are at least as safe as the average traveler’s hometown. Yucatan state, for example, had 0.1 of a murder for every 100,000 people in 2010 – no U.S. tourist destination comes close to that. Most cities in central Mexico, outside of the scattered drug hot spots, have lower murder rates than Orlando, Florida. It would seem fairly clear – fly, don’t drive, across the border into the safe regions. Yet whenever people say they are going to Mexico, the invariable response is “Aren’t you afraid?”

Media sensationalism accounts for much of the wariness. “Gangland violence in western Mexico” “Journalists under attack in Mexico” and “Mexico mass grave toll climbs” sound as if the entire country were a killing field. The story might name the state, but rarely the town and almost never the neighborhood. And some reporters apparently are confused by the word “municipality” – some of the killings reported as being in Mazatlan, for example, actually happened in a town miles away from the city – akin to attributing murders in East Palo Alto to San Francisco. But the biggest factor may be that travelers looking for a carefree vacation simply find it easier to write the entire country off than to learn what areas to avoid.

The Mexico Tourism Board is working to change that. Efforts so far have concentrated on getting accurate information to travel agents, who funnel the lion’s share of tourism to Mexico’s popular destinations. Independent travelers’ primary source of information is the State Department travel alerts, which are finally getting better at pinpointing the trouble spots. “We are trying to work with U.S. authorities in making these travel alerts specific and not general,” said Rodolfo Lopez Negrete, the tourism board’s chief operating officer. “Unfortunately, they have projected a somewhat distorted image.”

If you’re totally spooked, there are places in Mexico that pose no more risk than Disneyland. If you’re open-minded but don’t want to take unnecessary risks, we have places in Mexico that are safer than Miami, New Orleans or Washington, D.C.

(This article is adapted from an article in the S.F. Gate)

Here is one version of the local recipe for you cooks out there who like to experiment – you won’t be disappointed! (for 4 or 5 people)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of black beans
1/2 lb of pork loin or leg, cut into small cubes
1/2 lb of pork ribs
Bacon fat
1 fresh chile “guerro” (long pale and not very hot chile)
2 while or yellow onions
1 sprig of epazote
1/2 C chopped cilantro
2 large ripe tomatoes
1/2 C chopped radish
1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
The evening before, wash and clean the beans then leave to soak, covered with water.

1. Cook the beans with 1 tsp salt IN THE SAME SOAKING WATER, covered, over medium heat until they begin to soften.
2. Add the pork and and continue to cook until everything is tender (Some people prefer to fry the meat before adding to the
beans – up to you!)
3. Fry onion until soft and slightly browned and add to the beans with epazote and the whole chile. Cook slowly a further 30
min. then remove from the heat.
4. At the same time, cook sufficient white rice for your dinner party – around 1 cup cooked per person.

For the “salsa”, finely chop the second onion, cilantro and radish. Put together in a mixing bowl, add salt, juice of the lemon or lime and mix together (blend if you prefer it more liquid than chunky).

How to serve:
Serve in soup plates with a cup of rice and garnished with chopped radish, cilantro and chopped onion to taste, and some salsa. Enjoy, and wish you were in Yucatan!

The latest arrivals, who are moving in next week, are Bruce Talbot and Sandra Gregory. This dynamic international couple met while working in London for the BBC. Sandra (English) was a producer of documentaries and Bruce, originally from New Zealand and an accomplished sax/clarinet player, was working on jazz recordings. From the BBC they moved on to Washington D.C., where Bruce helped the Smithsonian compile jazz recordings and Sandra was an executive producer with the Discovery Channel.

You can read more about Bruce here on the NPR website. And a little about Sandra Gregory’s accomplishments here.

They will be living in Centro, and I look forward so much to having such a great couple as new friends. Welcome, Bruce and Sandra!

Now we are in the two months that no one loves in Merida. Contrary to the expectations of many visitors, April and May are our two hottest and driest months. Usually April and May are VERY hot, and there is not a cloud in the sky. In this hot season, we residents stay in the shade and look forward to June’s daily thunderstorms. By the time June comes around, the rains are so welcome. They drop the temperature and bring the trees and gardens back to life.

This year the dry season has been pushed off a bit by dramatic displays of lightning and two very heavy storms over the past few days. Best of all, these storms have brought pleasant cool evenings.

One of the greatest pleasures of Merida is spending the evening on a patio somewhere, dining under the stars. For this ritual, I suggest sitting outside at Hennessy’s Irish Bar, or at the roof-top bar at Rosas y Xocolate for views of Paseo Montejo. Enjoy a glass of wine or a cold beer as a way to stay cool as you enjoy the view!

Merida was just the subject of the popular New York Times travel series, 36 Hours In…, which you might enjoy:

36 Hours in Merida, Mexico

Let me take this opportunity to wish all our friends a very happy Holiday Season and say many thanks to all of you for your support, which has made 2011 another great year for all of us! We look forward to 2012, not the end of the world but, as our Maya friends living here have said all along, the beginning of a new and exciting cycle.

Over the past few years, there have been a number of changes to the US tax code. Some of these changes affect American citizens who hold property in a foreign country, who belong to a foreign corporation or who are beneficiaries or trustees of a foreign-owned trust. My good friend Robert Schilling, a CPA in New York, has an investigation underway. More details will follow as I receive them.

Robert says that the following seems likely, although the IRS needs to provide additional rulings:

• Persons with their residential property (no cash) in a fideicomiso should probably file Forms 3520 and 3520A.
• Persons with a Mexican bank account need to file other forms (unknown at this time), in addition to the 3520 and 3520A.
• Persons with a foreign corporation need to consult a CPA who is well versed in tax law as it applies to foreign-owned property.

There is a great deal of confusion, and I think the majority of people do not file, simply because it is so difficult to get information. Bob recommends filing in order to avoid any potential penalty for not doing so.

If you want to do some investigating of your own, here are links to information and instructions about those forms on the IRS website:

• IRS Form 3520
• IRS Form 3520A

More information will be posted as we receive it.

I know many of you already know and love this amazing, vibrant city.  It had been 17 years since I had been there and it has changed so much. Many people now speak English and many are fluent in Spanish too, due to Istanbul’s increased popularity as a tourist destination for people from all over Europe.  This was my chance to get to know the city and explore alone.

Many of the old areas of Istanbul are now being “gentrified”. Just like at home here in Merida, there is a new appreciation for the old architecture and for the advantages of living in the center of the city. Unfortunately prices have sky-rocketed, although I am sure the old homes in the city center are still a good investment. Unlike Merida where most homes are single story, Istanbul’s Ottoman homes are three or four stories high and are being divided into flats. Apartments, or flats, are the most economical option for most people, whether buying a second home or retiring full-time to Istanbul. They purchase one or perhaps two levels in the home, which then is operated as a co-op or condominium.

Our huge older homes in Merida often got divided into slices as families grew, but there are separate footprints and the homes have separate titles. You can see this on some blocks in the city, where there are two to four homes that share a common architecture or even the same roofline, but are painted different colors and now have different addresses. In Merida, because of this, we have no need for the co-op model.  The other big difference between Merida and Istanbul are the construction materials.

In Istanbul, wood was and still is plentiful. And between the wood, they use brick, another Merida rarity.  Here in Merida, when you open a wall,  you find rock and more rock, held together with lime mortar. In Istanbul, both old and new construction includes wood and brick.

The narrow winding lanes lined with tall houses on each side have meant that major fires have gutted and destroyed much of Istanbul’s old architecture. Still,  much remains and can be a challenge to restore…  so much so that in some cases I wasn’t sure whether I was seeing a house being built from scratch or a restoration!  It was quite difficult to get good photographs, too. The owners thought it would be dangerous to have me wandering about on their scaffolding and I also felt sure that some work was being done without all permits being entirely in place. This doesn’t mean that the work was being done badly or not up to standard. I have been told paperwork can be extremely tedious and time consuming in Turkey… always one more rubber stamp to be obtained and another few month’s wait while paperwork sits in the pile.

Here in Merida, while that may have been the case years ago, nowadays we are thankful to have a far more organized permitting system, making it relatively easy and cheap to get your plans approved and work started.

Unless there is some highly unusual weather pattern,  mornings will be sunny and bright… in other words, perfect weather for doing almost anything there is to do in Yucatan. It will be hot.. in the high 80s or mid- 90′s many days. And it may be a little humid. But the humidity here is nothing like I have experienced on the US Eastern seaboard.

Our very hot months are April and May when the heat can be scorching. You might even call that time of year the Yucatan summer.  But I have found that most visitors, are not uncomfortable in July, August and September in Yucatan.  As Yucatan has no standing water, other than fresh-water cenotes that are constantly being refreshed from underground, you will find surprisingly few mosquitoes. And the benefits of being here during this time far outweigh the drawbacks.

Rainy season is actually my favorite time of the year.  The heavy thunderstorms that we get on many afternoons around 4-5 PM drop the temperatures into the 80s or even the 70s in the evening. The countryside is lush and green, and the corn is “as high as an elephant’s eye”.

Best of all are the literally thousands of butterflies of all sizes and colors.  It is worth venturing out for a day in the country onto the smaller roads just to experience the butterflies.  While use of chemical fertilizers and weedkillers is growing, these  are generally only applied on a few small parcels of land. This leaves the vast majority of Yucatan chemical-free.  As agricultural plots are very small and cash is limited, I have never seem aerial spraying.

Growing up in England as a child, I remember the many butterflies most of all. It is a sadness and disappointment now to go back in summer and see very few of my beautiful friends, even though my parents live in the countryside.  On Yucatan’s back country roads, they rise up around you in clouds – yellow, brown, blue, black, big and small.  And the summertime is the best time to view them. Take a trip out to the countryside in the Yucatan and you’ll see what I mean.

The town of Mardin, is carved into terraces of rock beneath a steep cliff topped with a ruined citadel. It looks out from its perch over the dry plains which run uninterrupted the short distance to the border with Syria. Here, there is one drivable street and a spider’s web of narrow alleys running up and down and around the terraces on which the town is built. Mardin reminded me a little of Zacatecas, Mexico! The town is flanked on both sides with three- and four-story stone houses. No wood here. I noticed this in other parts of Turkey too… stone where we would use wood. In the photo you can clearly see the stone corbels supporting the second story. (Even here in Yucatan where there is much more stone than wood, our corbels are always made from wood.)

This contrasts with Istanbul, where the old houses are almost entirely wood, and few remain after fires, neglect and termite attacks. In Mardin, stone protects your home from these hazards, and the snake goddess will protect it from all others! Just to be on the safe side, locally made Mardin soap, pure and natural will take care of any physical ailments.

We detoured through the town of Diyarbakir, one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey. At 1.5 million people, it’s about 50% larger than Merida is today. We went there to see the famous black basalt walls which form a 3.4 mile circle around the city and have protected the city for more than a thousand years. These are second in length only to the Great Wall of China.  There are four gates and 82 watchtowers along the walls, all built in antiquity and RESTORED in 349 A.D. (I wonder if any of Merida’s restored houses will last that long…).

In the 20th Century, the city went through many turbulent times, including massacres of Armenians and Kurds.  It was also the site of a major NATO Air Force Base for many years, but this was closed down in 1997. And Diyarbakir has been a center for Kurdish guerilla activity…but as you can see, the locals were singularly unthreatening! (And THAT reminded me of almost all of Mexico… reported in the press to be dangerous, but warm and welcoming and safe when you actually go there…)

Diyarbakir is situated on the banks of the Tigris and was once a hub of the ancient Silk Roads.  It became known for its craftsmen who produced glass and metalwork.  For instance, the gold and silver decorated doors of the tomb of Imam-i Azam in Baghdad were made by craftsmen from Diyarbakir.  There are still some jewelry makers and silversmiths in the city, but the fame of the craftsmen from here has long passed.

Today this city is relatively unvisited by tourists. This is a city where I would love to spend more time.

The main joy of traveling and the impetus to get out and see the world is always the people we meet along the way.

Here in my last photo are two more little friends from Eastern Turkey.