Playa del Carmen NOW

In this episode of the Playa del Carmen NOW Podcast our guest is the one and only Johnny Playa. Johnny shares his experience as a Canadian expatriate looking to retire in Playa del Carmen and his experiences with cultural shock and adjusting to a new place as a Canadian.

Show Notes

Hosted by Ken Schmidt and Javier Resendiz, Playa Del Carmen NOW offers a variety of ideas regarding the lifestyle of Playa del Carmen for visitors and people looking to call Playa Del Carmen home. Every episode will offer a promotion exclusive to Condo Hotels Playa del Carmen and its properties for our listeners.

Playa del Carmen NOW Podcast
Retiring in Playa del Carmen - Canadian Perspective

Summary
In this episode of the Playa del Carmen NOW Podcast our guest is the one and only Johnny Playa. Johnny shares his experience as a Canadian expatriate looking to retire in Playa del Carmen and his experiences with cultural shock and adjusting to a new place as a Canadian.

Topics
Introductions [00:00]
Discovering Playa del Carmen [05:51]
A Canadian story [07:38]
Retiring in Playa del Carmen as a Canadian [09:54]
The Promotional Bell [26:43]
Until next time [30:01]

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What is Playa del Carmen NOW?

Playa Del Carmen NOW offers a variety of ideas regarding the lifestyle of Playa del Carmen for visitors and people looking to call Playa Del Carmen home.

welcome to the Playa Del Carmen Now podcast and today's topic is retiring in Playa del Carmen the Canadian perspective hi my name is Ken Schmidt CEO of condo hotels Playa Del Carmen and my sidekick yes I'm here Javier Resendiz hello there yes we resend this where we resend it everywhere I would you think we're going to resend it to Canada so unfortunately we have with us today and he's from Canada and it's nice to be here a alright so before we start talking about retiring in Playa del Carmen Johnny where when you have friends or family they come and visit you what is the go-to place for that you couldn't tell what most people do is say head down to the ruins in Tulum that's always one you can sweat your whatever off in this kind of heat there's no trees no shade
what is Phil cool it is one of the nicest place in the world PS and then the go to restaurant where where do you take them while that would depend on what they want that they are one of my favorite Italian places in town is a stereo deroma owned by a nice young couple right from Italy fantastic homemade pastas I'm sorry Osteria Del Roma got it and there's always another place it's been a fixture for about 20 years in town is Manny's beer gotten out yes yes that's the local that was my local to go to for Thanksgiving and Christmas they always had great Duck Creek turkey yeah I don't remember the 88-66
Sephora great Burgers other Pub style food and nice cold beer is the freaky Tiki so it makes it even better that's right because they got different areas that the you know I'm just a big country it's a big undertaking it will get into that so happy you're do you know anything about Johnny Playa he's from Canada a cool nickname I like it and I want to know more about it right now
about the name about how did you get the nickname yutani Playa for many years and I remember walking into an establishment about three and a half years ago where I knew the stuff with other Canadians and when we walked in the guy said hey Johnny Johnny Playa and then from there it's not get stuck at somebody there's always somebody that can you get your life in some way the exact and I met John cuz every Saturday morning we just meet at Starbucks and we have our little vs session and talk about things and politics and all that fun stuff and then every Sunday
in the afternoon we head over to McCarthy's and have a few drinks and talk to a big group good size group of Canadian Canadian the Americans British it's grown from about four of us to sometimes 12:15 and then and then every year
they play a game called donkey balls told me about it and in donkey balls just so you know that the real name is is called ladderball so if you Google it's ladder balls and it's a great game especially when you're drinking you know I didn't know there was another way to play if there is this kid is a trophy involved and the trophy now just took its fourth year if it has four years in and Johnny is in your in your one of your two was the second tournament tournament he was a winner in the second tournament and I was a winner in the third tournament it was it was amazing it was fun so Google ladder ball it's so I was looking for it he's looking for it now he's Googling it it's it's a very interesting with a rope in a ball with balls
we don't have that kind of game here making I'm just saying it and I don't know what do you think you'll have to come out in the next tournament tournament practice because I'm really into getting into the dead role that you said about drinking the beer. Sunday's one
alright Johnny so how long have you been in Playa de Carmen now old-time living it be three and a half years. But we have been coming down since 2004 vacationing every couple weeks fell in love with the town in 2004 and 2005 we bought into our first condo
and in 2018 we retired and moved here full-time sold everything in Canada and became Mexican residents or not. What sort of thinking of the passport when you get a passport what is it no not a chance to really know not to leave the permanent resident like that's correct similar to myself we don't have a Mexican passport well at least not yet
and that's long right count how how do you get in love with town like when you think back to 2004 be quite small at that time and is just a Vibe the people the weather number one but the weather typically from Canada there's the six and six that's mean six months in Canada and 6 months in Playa del Carmen so they escaped the super cold then there's a difficult vacationers and then there is Johnny was Appliance an appliance dolly flyer
that's it and that's why I was asking you before starting this where you from is likely from flyer for my phone cannot sorry I was born and raised in Hamilton Ontario it's about 40 miles outside Toronto
and I left there in 1979 I joined the Royal Canadian Air Force I spent I spent 16 and a half years in the Royal Canadian Air Force where I pretty much lived all over in 1995 I took early retirement from the Air Force and I was then living in Nova Scotia the Far East Coast to Canada and I drove across the country to Calgary Alberta where I spent the next 23 years in the private business what kind of business meeting back and forth between Vancouver and Calgary for a company I was initially in a lot of a project management where project managing a large corporate relocations and then from there into software for oil and gas accounting
well yeah you did a lot of flying as a tack room in the world in the third seat for a lot of time to do you know how do you know how do you know if they don't usually break they just have to thank God for that that's the thing with him if you do
you're not usually fixing things you're just making sure everything is 100% every single time every single time before checks after checks and what we would call snags which is that you know Nick's sex are you have things I do break but you know it's not worthy of a crash or anything but Parts wear out just like on your car
okay awesome so let's talk about retiring in Viola you've been retired now for three and a half years correct it'll be four years in June that were so tell me some of the benefits of living in Playa de Carmen versus Canada shirt number one right off the bat you can say are cost of living is about 1/5 wow one fifth of the cost
and the number to of course you know it's Paradise here is Paradise and the third one which I had mentioned earlier is the people just love to National people here and sweet always saying good morning me when I'm up my walks like you're either going to hate you any good morning yeah it's not get out of my way going to go and I can feel being retired you're on fixed incomes and life adjustment is a lot easier here than staying in living in Canada where everything would be five times or more of the cost
and as we say and I'll could be house broke have a beautiful place and we sold everything became Don residence of Canada to become full-time residents here so you gave up some of your Canadian benefits benefits that's correct basically the big one would be the healthcare other than it is a big one. And a lot of people have a misconception that Healthcare is free in Canada
well yes but you pay exorbitant taxes with the pay for exactly and here it's so much more decibel decibel and the cost-effectiveness is unreal we have nothing but great things to say about our dealings with the medical system the dental system
just just fantastic just mentioned we were at Starbucks earlier this morning and we were talking and you said one of the huge benefits as you went and got some dental work done yeah with my wife this week she had an emergency root canal
so how you do and what's great year is you don't have to call and talk to her reception as we have the dentist WhatsApp number so you're dealing directly with the dentist that doesn't happen to know and that's what you would have to call to the receptionist and see if there's an appointment time available and so he right away just come on into the office and they did an emergency root canal and then two days later she was going in for her normal check-up end end cleaning which that checkup and cleaning cost her 1 000 pesos so that'd be about 60 Canadian dollars and before we left Canada it was 300 and change in Canadian dollars for the same process her root canal post and cap Crown is going to cost 1 200 Canadian which would be triple that in Canada this is a huge topic here a lot of people
dual Dental Care near Mexico road. Kind of even even just regular general practitioner I mean like and that is one of the big benefits here is I I I was walking down the street was super windy and I got a rock in my eye and on a Sunday Rhonda in your eyes a little Pebble what what are you doing just walking down the street it's okay we're near the beach it's windy and I got a little Pebble in my eye and just like you said I have my doctor on WhatsApp and I was like Yo dude I need help and he was there in 15 minutes at my house putting some swab and patch in my eye to extract the pebble if that would be available in the states or maybe Canada. Will be way too expensive for absolutely like 15 minutes and then last year with the friends of ours from Maine for dinner at
stereo the Roma and it was 8:20 on a Friday night and she went oh no and she had a friend front tooth implant and it broke in half and I did let me help you out right away without my phone I what's that my dentist at 8:20 on a Friday night at 25 after he got back to me and said tell her to come into my office Saturday morning tomorrow morning at 10:30 week maybe your boy up whenever when are you have space for you or they wouldn't contact me back on a Friday night yes amazing and well you were saying that you you you really like the weather here but at the same time you were saying there's no shade and if so how
deal with it because she has quite different weather from here in most parts of Canada are quite nice of course but not high temperatures like here but there's so many different ways to get around it here if you jump in the pool cool off throw your air conditioning on for a bit it's a lifesaver another thing that we we found in our first summer here we go to Plaza Las Americas you go to the movies their air-conditioned and it only cost about $3 to see a movie and its first-round English movie amazing hear our first run English yes absolutely that they usually have a Spanish subtitle that's right yes and sometimes we have these in the last name in English like when you get there the movie in in in Europe yeah they look they can do both on Sunday
by the Boyz the overweight lovers in the movie theaters here in imply or I'd personally like to go to the the big ones in Cancun in the VIP everything related with VIP that's what I'm doing hanging around with you and then you can thank you
tequila and crackers out of retirement stuff in Playa del Carmen tell tell me some more benefits that you that come off your head again I go back to people and it's not just the Nationals but we've met people from all around the world that took the same and a leap of faith that we did and from all around and you yourselves and lots of people from the state England Germany Canada who made this their home and it's if you're going to do it you have to immerse yourself and not just hang out in tourist areas you go off the Beaten Track and not be scared to cross the highway and then some people I remember no 15 years ago when she hit 30 if that was it they were running away yes
yes and that you'll know I live a block and a half from 30th and spent a lot more time there than I do down in the tourist areas and treat it just like anybody else there's no fear how's your Spanish test is it as bad as mine it's a boat equal and it's not from lack of trying and that's one of the things that you shouldn't I should work harder at but we fight every time we try the people that were dealing with in in retail restaurant whatever they're trying to learn English so they'll respond back to us in English instead of us going back and forth with my Spanglish and everybody's trying to help each other out in it in a different tongue I think if we immersed herself more in a whole different neighborhood it would be better but well it took me three years to learn English so hopefully I'm around 50 more years and I may know how to speak Spanish and in this is going to be one of our episodes is coming to Mexico and I guess you I can ask you this I know a lot of friends
back in the States until you come to the back so just come in there like we don't speak Spanish I'm like well hell I live there and I don't speak Spanish and I know a lot of people have reserves about coming are thinking I'm not going to be able to speak Spanish and realistically you and I are both examples of that we live here full-time and we have absolutely no problem communicating not a talk anywhere Google translate on your phone is one of the easiest thing so you can get some you know I'll go to places whether it's going to pay your property taxes which again I'd like to speak on that one as a benefit of a Canadian retiree of the property tax system is fantastic here if you pay your tax bill before the 15th of January to get a 25% discount unheard of anywhere else our property tax bill for the whole year was leave around 295 Canadian dollars
I was paying more than that per month in Calgary Alberta and I get garbage pick up twice a day 7 days a week here is you do pay an additional tax here or not taxes so it's called a trust for your feet right in that that if I mean it's it's nothing huge I know it's a at myself yesterday but yeah the difference between paying a fee to comiso and the property tax is 1/10 of the price I pay in the state's absolutely you know if I added that total up it might be 5 or $600 for a whole year between the taxes and the probably 600 with the video comizio and again that might be a month-and-a-half property taxes in Canada and when I'm talking about the fee to comiso on the defining the vehicle me so if somebody doesn't know what it means it's a trust fee that I that Gringos if you're not Mexican you have to pay each year
if you own property within certain amount of distance from the from the ocean I don't remember the other said there's one from a border and one from the water ones 100km when is 50 km from the water or the things that the property as far as it is at Foreigner Zelda going back to the language do it some
we don't bring a translator with us wherever we go we can get by with it with the Google or what we understand and I mean I've got a Mexican driver's license and everything is done in Spanish when you're going to get a Mexican driver's license when I got it going for anything outside of our family doctors phenomenal she speaks English like going outside weathers for lab work lab work x-rays everything else you just give you can do it there's nothing to be afraid of everything nearby can come we always trying to be a good host Holstein culture you do you do absolutely nothing you're very most times willing to help yes the OS X got me to do and it doesn't matter about that people don't speak English and in this area you are saying is really clear that we are helping people to especially now these days I mean 22
finding somebody that speaks English is not on it then where is when 2004 after it was the opposite it was one on it than you you found the ones that could speak English they struggled with it and you were able to get through it I mean week I was here sixteen years ago so and you were here 16 years so you know it's especially now it's it's it's it's almost say the majority when I go back to the States I actually have two more people speaking Spanish than you were saying how you got in love with this place and it was quite different from now right absolutely difference that was a small town and now we are well Bessemer City bigger how is the different for you now that you leave here by these days
yeah it you're right it's grown it's a size of small cities in Canada of course well over three hundred thousand people I believe here now and if from 30 000 possibly fifteen years ago the they're still charm and certain areas of the city and that's what I sort of trying Venture towards in some cases you have the real estate has built up so much that you could be in Fort Lauderdale and all the way some of the hotels go up but then there's other beautiful colonial-style buildings that keep the charm it's gotten huge busy traffic-wise of course a hustle and bustle of downtown is the same as any other City probably Iraq is North America with 300 000 people in it except that the drivers are worse here yes I had it I was telling you I'm a cyclist so I know about that
I'm learning from Hobby how to go around town as it's like but yes if you're in the near downtown are you got the hustle and bustle but as a local you do find those places that are not as busy and they're not that far away. How far away at all do you drive to so here's a big question do you drive a lot or do you basically walk everywhere are our main form of transportation is walking and it's so easy to get almost anywhere here just by walking in it keeps you in shape and I and I have had access to cars before here with two friends and I've done a lot of driving but for the most part you know if you're going five or ten blocks and walk because actually I think you thinking it's not like you're going to get snowed on or frostbite or anything like that and there's so many places to stop along the way if you're thirsty and if you haha if you're hot when you're getting to the Sea stores that let you hang around you look like you want to buy something and
I'm not interested in you leave them are you find a place with a fan in order a cold beer yet but that's better are you go there you go yes and we can walk up and down Fifth Avenue if we would just just leave you alone we're going to do an on-location podcast on location where we described the
people watching them. That was a phenomenal people watching place and I will come down sometime just to do that what do you think we're doing when we're drinking coffee on Saturday mornings or sitting at the McCarthy's Bar Sunday afternoon at 1 when does The Fifth Avenue traffic is smoking I mean there is things all kinds of stuff walking by if you had some in a jury of people sites with after dinner if you're a people Watcher Fifth Avenue is Park your butt grab a beer and just watch it's just you can have a conversation all day long I just just trying to figure out how I could do that live on the on the podcast without
bumping into people thank you wow that was quick I guess that was quick but so was let's talk about the promotion of the promotion for this episode we want to help out the Canadiens we want to definitely help out the Canadiens again and there's a Canadians that come here on vacation so let's do a hashtag Canada hashtag Canada and get yourself 10% it's 10% off any of those days in condo hotels
I'm about that and I just want to make you aware I mean this is date sensitive right now we have one property with a pools being worked on and we really really discounting it and if you add that 10% Canada discount getting pretty close to free today I have some so if somebody from Canada and doing what you are doing saying there is no reservation I will offer something also for the people that brings me some maple syrup have I'm a photographer so like a title for a 50% this and if somebody brings me good good really good mate and Laura has a Canadian friends as well
but you're so Laura's friend brought me a huge L bottle of maple syrup from where will where was I figures from Quebec to that from Kodak he's got back yesterday is maple syrup from gold now but you know you can get Canadian maple syrup the same thing I used to buy in Canada at the Costco in Cancun same friend I didn't know that way. I don't want people buying maple syrup maple syrup from says from Canada right on the label so if you're Canadian and you don't want to go back to Canada for your maple syrup you just go to Costco and can't go back to 45 minutes away a year in there you go and do it if you show up on one of the weekends there so there's the group who's going to Costco you know and then they go okay here this is what I want
load up on cheap booze lots of food Arabic and your Costco membership in Mexico is half the price of one in Canada that just brings me back to the benefits or or things that that I might have lost leaving Canada like said healthcare's but the only one we still collect our Canada pension plan same social insurance a social security in the US old age pension all that stuff is still your entitlement that you can collect while you're living here full-time
that's awesome that's something that I will never get because I'm not Canadian right maple syrup for you baby you thank you thank you thank you Johnny Playa Xavier thank you for coming in on this early Saturday day
thank you all out there for listening we're doing really well and we can will continue to do this and thank you very much

Retiring in Playa del Carmen - Canadian Perspective

Retiring in Playa del Carmen - Canadian PerspectiveRetiring in Playa del Carmen - Canadian Perspective

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Retiring in Playa del Carmen - Canadian Perspective

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