Update 09/05/99... Gingy and I now own 6 homes in Mexico. On the island of Cozumel, we own three homes in the Villas del Sur development, and an additional larger more traditional Mexican home that is located about two blocks South of Villas del Sur.

Our most recent additions are a home in the Colonial City of Merida and a beach house in the little fishing village of Chelem on the Gulf of Mexico.

click here... To see photos of our home in Merida.
click here... To see photos of our Chelem beach house.

End of Update 09/05/99...

The remainder of this page tells the story or how we started our retirement adventure on the shores of the Mexican Caribbean.

Welcome To Our Little Piece Of Paradise

On September 28, 1997, Cozumel Mexico became the retirement home of Howard and Gingy Reid.

Gingy and I lived in Louisville, Kentucky for more than 28 years. Gingy retired May 30, 1997 after teaching 2nd and 3rd grade for 28 years in the public schools and I retired from my job as a "salesman" for a large multinational specialty chemical company on April 1, 1997. We have been vacationing in Mexico since the 70s and have grown to love the Mexican Caribbean. In the 70s, Cancun was very new and quite small. When we first visited Cancun there were only 5 hotels and the Club Med. The locals were friendly, honest and relaxed. When we would stand on the wide beach at the Club Med and look toward downtown Cancun, we could see nothing but miles of beautiful white sand beaches and warm turquoise blue water. We could not see Cancun City nor could we see any hotels. Time and Hurricane Gilbert (1988) have made a lot of changes. Now high rise luxury hotels stand shoulder to shoulder all along the beach from the Club Med all of the way to downtown Cancun. Hurricane Gilbert took away much of the wide sand beach and it has not returned. And the locals, well... they also have changed a lot. The Cancun that we loved is gone forever.

Some years ago, Gingy and I began searching for a better place. A place where we could enjoy the Mexican Caribbean and be surrounded by people that were honest, hard working and who would freely welcome us to their tropical paradise. We found that special place on the island of Cozumel. We began to prepare for retirement on Cozumel in 1992. We purchased two houses in a development called Villas Del Sur. I took the picture above while I was inspecting the concrete roof of one of our houses.

The Villas Del Sur community is made up of 18 house that completely surround a city block. In the center of the block is a common area with a pool and kiosco located in a beautiful tropical garden setting. Our houses are two story with 2 bed rooms with 1 1/2 baths + living room, dinning room, and kitchen. (CLICK on Gingy to see a ground level view of our houses) In the beginning,Gingy and I seldom got to stay in either of our houses. We usually managed to keep them leased or rented to help pay the mortgage.
You may e-mail for more information.

Adjacent to the Villas Del Sur complex is the Corpus Christi Church and a large formal park. In the center of the park is typical Mexican Kiosco.

We are always surprised that from this park we can see the tall tails of the cruise ships as they come into port. The ocean is about 1/4 mile away.

click here... To take a look at the latest weather satellite view of Cozumel.
click here... To check the current value of the Peso.
click here... To check historic Peso values.