We had a few questions about retiring in Baja for David Biondilillo, owner of Baja123,  a real estate brokerage in Rosarito, Mexico. Listen to the audio interview or read the transcription below.

LW: When people decide to move to Baja California, they either buy a place or rent a place, what are retirees doing with most of their time?

It starts out in the ocean, people are in fishing boats or yachts, the ocean is the draw, that’s why people are coming. Then, if you come in closer to the shore there’s waves, surfers are surfing. We’ve got good surf. Then you get to the sand and people like me that can’t surf, I enjoy walking on the beach, enjoying the sun, the calm of being able to sit by the ocean and hear the waves. We go in further and there’s the Mexican cuisine, the restaurants, there’s entertainment in town through the local restaurants and saloons that have local entertainment. There is also Guadalupe Valley, which is comprarable to Napa Valley in California. You drive into this valley, which is not far, about 20 minutes from Ensenada and it looks like what you are seeing is miles and miles of grapevines. They have some world award winning wineries there that are just wonderful to go and to have lunch and do wine tasting if you like wine. We have a huge off-road population that come to our area to participate in some of these off-road motorcycle, truck and car events like the Baja 1000, the most famous one. This event brings about 300,000 people into Baja. There’s art galleries, there’s shopping and restaurants. There is an expatriate community that has things that are especially devoted to English speaking people; bingo, card games and clubs. There are people that are very involved in charity. There is a lot of charity work that needs to and is being done here and so some people involve themselves in that aspect of the culture.

LW: How big is the expat community in Rosarito?

The estimate is 15,000 out of 150,000 census and the Mexican State Department figures it’s about 1 million people in Mexico that are American citizens.

LW: What do you think the trend will be like in the next 5-10 years considering the amount of baby boomers in the United States?

It is an ideal place for baby boomers because of the continued migration of people coming here from the United States that allows us to have a multi-cultural environment. People are finding themselves more at home coming into Mexico. The proximity to the United States makes it so enjoyable for people to come down here to vacation and to live.