Boomers Savor Retirement Living on Boats in Mexico Alfredo Corchado - The Dallas Morning News
go to original March 10, 2014

Allyson van Os of Dallas and her husband live on their boat in La Paz, Mexico, from October to June. She is one of millions of retirees living part of their lives on boats. (Alfredo Corchado)

LA PAZ, Mexico — They’re nomads, sailing freely, crossing international waters, guided by one principle: Just float.

“Good thing is we don’t have a schedule,” said Allyson van Os of Dallas. “We just do the things we like to do, when we want to do them. That’s our schedule.”

Van Os, 62, is one of millions of baby boomers living part of their lives on boats, inspired by a lifestyle that she acknowledges is harder than it seems.

She and her husband, Ed, and two dogs, Dexter and Pequeña, dock their 65-foot boat, the Virginia Reel, in the waters of La Paz in the Baja Peninsula, the same place where Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés first docked his boat in 1535. They are joined there by more than 100 other boat owners, part of a growing nautical tourism business in Mexico that isn’t without legal hassles, including tax agents, but that is a dream many boat owners say is worth pursuing.

With an estimated 80 million baby boomers retiring in the coming years, Mexico looms large as an alternative place to live not just on land, but on sea. Recreational boating industry experts predict that the number of boomer boat owners will grow, although finding exact figures — anywhere from 10 million to 17 million, by some estimates — is difficult in part because of their nomadic existence.

Many of these retirees are living seasonally or year-round on boats, lured by the simplicity of life and lower cost of living. They are also searching for tranquillity, a place away from the fast pace and hectic life increasingly dominated, they say, by time pressures in an age of social media.

Read the rest at The Dallas Morning News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!