Living and working in Loreto (Baja California Sur, Mexico)
Foster decided to leave the US to live (and work) in Mexico. In this interview he tells us why he chose the Pueblo Magico town of Loreto as his base. Its remoteness and infrastructure used to be an issue: but that’s changed and Foster tells us about running a remote online business from Loreto.
A detailed interview telling you everything you need to know about living and working in this natural paradise.
Name: Foster D. Coburn III
Country of Origin: USA
Number of years in Mexico: 6
Websites: Web Design Solutions Unleashed & Loreto Mexico Info
Hi Foster! Can you tell us about your background?
I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. My father passed away just before my eighth birthday so most of my upbringing was done by my mom though there were certainly other family and friends that played a part. I know that the younger version of me couldn’t imagine that I’d one day live in Mexico.
There was plenty of travel in my younger days to places both in the United States but also in Europe and South America. I even spent one summer as an exchange student in France where my host family lived right on the Mediterranean Sea. I was definitely drawn to water from a young age.
When I entered school at the nearby University of Kansas, my goal was to design computers. Over time, that goal shifted to a business where computers were an essential part. Of course, this was before most people (including me) had even heard of the Internet. During college I had a part-time job laying out a magazine via computer and that led me to the world of desktop publishing.
I had the opportunity to travel to various parts of the US growing up, and I knew that my next stage of life needed to be somewhere without the snow and cold of winter. That led me to the Phoenix area. I left Kansas the day after my college graduation. It was a bold move to go from home with no job in hand and no existing friends or family in town. I’m sure my mom thought I was a bit nuts for doing it, but she was fully supportive as she knew that’s what I wanted. After a couple of years of trying to decide on the right career for me, I was contracted to write a book on the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite (an extremely popular graphics software at the time). I became a “Corelebrity”, travelling extensively to do seminars. In twenty years, I ended up writing a total of thirteen books on CorelDRAW.
The internet was in its infancy and someone suggested that our company needed a Web site. That led to what I do today: creating and maintaining websites promoting both my businesses and those of customers (which include many businesses in Loreto).
Why Mexico? And why Loreto?
Living in Arizona, I had a number of trips to border towns and even Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point). They gave me a taste of Mexico. Various other trips took me to San Carlos, Cancun, Mexico City, and Cabo San Lucas. I started thinking Mexico was a place I could spend more time. I could significantly reduce my cost of living and maybe even have a base which I could use as a source of rental income when travelling.
One night, over a few beers, a good friend who worked on several of the big resorts in Los Cabos mentioned an upcoming project he had in Loreto. Not too long after that, I received a postcard from the Loreto Bay Company promoting a new development just outside of Loreto. I saw it as a sign.
Looking back, it may not have been the smartest thing to buy a piece of sand and build a house on it. I hadn’t even been to Loreto! Once again, I’m sure my mom thought I was completely off my rocker, though she never said anything negative to me about it. Sadly, she passed away about a month after I took possession of my home. She never got to see it beyond the pictures I shared with her. I had made her a little flyer about the house so she could show it off to her friends. I found it on her desk when I returned for her funeral.
Two years after the house was complete, the Loreto Bay Company went bankrupt, and there were serious doubts if the community would survive. Numerous buyers had big losses as their houses were incomplete if they had even been started. Thankfully, my home was complete!
I love Loreto. As someone who loves snorkeling and diving, having the Sea of Cortez and the Loreto Marine Park just steps from my door is everything I could wish for. Opposite the Sea are the Sierra de la Gigante mountains. It is just a gorgeous location to spend time, and it naturally provides a life with far less stress.
Loreto has around 20,000 residents and that number goes up in the winter months and drops in the summer months. It had primarily been a small fishing village that has now grown thanks to tourism and the influx of expats. There is a very rich history as Loreto was once the capital of the Californias (including the one that is now part of the United States) and the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, founded in 1697 is one of the primary symbols in Loreto.
My neighborhood, Loreto Bay, is about eight miles south of the town of Loreto and currently is comprised of around 725 completed homes. Most of the homes are fellow expats, though many of my neighbors are only here for a small part of the year or rent out their homes when they aren’t in residence.
On a daily basis, I typically walk a few miles a day with my dog through the neighborhood. Even though Loreto is in the desert, we have amazing landscaping here so we don’t feel like we’re in the desert. Of course, those walks can easily be on the beach as the Sea of Cortez is only 100 meters from my front door. While on the beach, I can watch those who are kayaking and paddleboarding. Personally, I prefer to snorkel or scuba dive if I’m going to spend time in the water. Boat tours to the nearby islands are a popular activity that often includes time in the water.
The beauty of the mountains and sea along with the isolation tend to bring a few famous faces to Loreto. Since I’ve been here that has included a former US President (Barack Obama), one of the richest tech titans in the world (Bill Gates), a major movie star (Harrison Ford) and one of the best basketball players ever (Michael Jordan). AMLO was just here last week. I have no doubt there have been others, they have just remained under the radar.
In the early years, I was hard for me to spend long periods of time in Loreto because I would be so disconnected from the world. There was little to no phone service, the Internet connection was awful, and forget about radio or television. This all made it impossible to work in Loreto, and therefore, it was just a place to unwind for a short stay. Thankfully those things have changed drastically in the last few years.
About Baja: do you ever feel isolated there? It seems far from everything including from mainland Mexico (I see Loreto is about 700 miles, or 16 hours driving from San Diego).
Loreto is a relatively small town, and it is a couple hours’ drive to the nearest town in either direction. So yes, it is isolated. After living in a major metropolitan area for all of my life, it was a change that required adjustments. One thing that helps it feel less isolated is that it is very easy to communicate with people worldwide via the Internet. While I can’t easily attend Chiefs or Jayhawks games, I can watch all the games on television. Heck, that gives me a better view and a far less expensive concession stand! Sirius XM radio works here both in my vehicle and via Amazon Echo devices. This gives me another virtual connection to the US and tunes while I’m driving.
I can see the Loreto airport from my deck, and there are a number of direct flights each week from the US (and Canada). This makes it easy for friends and family to visit. Of course, others enjoy the (very long) scenic drive down the Baja and I usually twist their arms to bring a few things down for me. I’d say I typically drive to La Paz and/or Cabo San Lucas several times each year. This gives me access to bigger stores and a wider variety of shopping. We also can have things delivered from Amazon and other major stores.
So, while Loreto is isolated, that also gives it a very relaxing vibe. We often joke that 9pm is Loreto midnight as my whole neighborhood is very silent at that time. That is especially true in the summer months when many snowbirds head North. As long as I do some advance planning, I can enjoy almost all of the things I want. Being small, there is also very little light pollution which can give us awesome views of the night sky.
Why does working in Loreto make sense to you?
I shared earlier about the first stage of my career writing books on CorelDRAW and how it led to what I do today: creating and maintaining websites. It was 2014 when I launched Web Design Solutions Unleashed. Through that business I help small businesses build their online presence. The majority of my clients are in the US and Canada but since moving to Loreto, I’ve also added a few sites for Loreto businesses such as gastroteca AZUL and Nopolo Wine Cellar. I’ve also built a site of my own providing information on Loreto called Loreto Mexico Info.
For the most part, I can do my work from any place where I have a good Internet connection. Ideally, I am not working on the move as I want a desktop computer with a big monitor instead of the cramped confines of a laptop screen. Some may consider me a digital nomad, but I push back against that label as I’m not nomadic. I do the vast majority of my work in my home office.
What challenges do you face working online in Baja and Mexico as a whole? Is there anything that really gets on your nerves?
There are two things that make it almost impossible to work: power outages and Internet outages. Thankfully, both are fairly rare, and I faced those same issues while living in Arizona. As one layer of protection, I have a dual battery backup system powering my computer. Should there be a power outage, this buys me at least half an hour to power down everything.
For the most part, the only thing that has truly changed is the location of my office chair.
A handful of clients in Arizona no longer wanted to work with me since I was no longer local to them. That didn’t really make sense to me because I rarely met with those clients in person. But my best clients have no issue with my physical location and we are able to accomplish great things together through online collaboration. On of my favorites is Olive the Best, a store that sells premium olive oils and balsamic vinegars. They have physical stores in Flagstaff and Williams, Arizona and I elevated their online presence to a major source of revenue for them.
An advantage to being in the US was easy access to more networking events where I could meet potential clients. But there are also opportunities for networking here in Loreto and many of my neighbors have strong connections with businesses in the US and Canada. I’m not afraid to share the services I provide with them in case they need my help or know someone else who needs my help. I’ve also become a founding member of the local Rotary Club. We do some awesome things to help out others in the community and it exposes me to other professionals. And with so many businesses having moved their meetings to a virtual setting (escalated by Covid), I’m regularly meeting with groups based in Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and Los Angeles.
I certainly had the advantage of being mostly an online business before I moved to Loreto, and therefore, I didn’t have to make many drastic changes. My phone numbers already used a VOIP (Voice over IP) service, so all I needed to do was plug them into the Internet in Loreto, and my phones worked perfectly. My mobile phone includes roaming in Mexico and I have it in “WiFi Calling” mode anytime I’m at home. Now I even have a Mexican phone number connected via VOIP. It isn’t used often, but it gives me a way for locals to reach out to me. Rarely did anything important arrive via mail, and I’ve narrowed my need for mail down even further. Now I just have to sort out getting an updated credit card brought to me every couple of years.
How about safety? Is it safe in Loreto? What’s the safety situation like in Baja as compared to the mainland?
Like many of us who have moved to Mexico or even those who spend a lot of time here, we have friends back in the US or Canada who feel we are in grave danger on a daily basis. The reality is that I feel far safer in Loreto than when I lived in Arizona.
Mexico is a very large country, and there are definitely some areas I will avoid, mainly those where the drug cartels are extremely active. Similarly, there are plenty of places in the US I would avoid. No matter where you go in the world, there are areas that are more dangerous than others. I just can’t think of any place in Loreto where I would be afraid to be alone at night.
It is hard to really compare the Baja as a whole with the mainland as a whole. The towns near the border have more issues than those farther away. Tijuana and Mexicali are also the biggest cities in Baja by far. Many parts of the Baja are more remote, so there is little to no cartel activity. I’m not naïve enough to think Loreto has no cartel activity, but I hadn’t seen anything obvious since I’ve been here.
A story I’ll never forget: when I was moving some of my stuff down to Loreto, I was stranded because of a stretch of road that had been washed out the day before by a hurricane. I was in a remote location with no phone service. I had stopped where two Mexican men lived in a beat-up RV that the storm had badly damaged. The next morning, one of the men rode with me as I backtracked up the Baja and crossed over to the Pacific side, where the highway was still intact. In fact, my new amigo provided a place to stay that night in a relative’s home in Ensenada. After that night, I was off to Loreto. While some may have been fearful of the situation, the locals were nothing but nice and helpful to me.
How did you arrange everything when first deciding to move down to Baja? What kind of Visa did you need? How about healthcare?
Since I wanted to be in Mexico full-time, the best choice for me was to become a Residente Permanente. It helped that I had owned a home in Loreto since 2006 – in those early years I wasn’t in residence much but it demonstrated my intentions to live here long-term.
The main requirement to permanent residency was/is financial self-sufficiency and it was suggested to me that I get a letter from my bank detailing the balances of my accounts. A simple error led to me easily getting residency: when the bank officer composed the letter, he included my mortgage without any indication that it was debt. The only things in the letter were the last four digits of each account number and the balance. There was no negative sign next to my mortgage, which made it appear that I had a really nice cash balance.
I made my appointment at the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix and brought all the necessary paperwork with me. Those included six months of account statements and the letter from the bank. It got me approved almost instantly. A month later, I traveled to Loreto and finished everything else. Two weeks later, I got my card!
Note: For me the primary requirement to meet was either documented monthly income that met a certain threshold or the total amount of monetary assets. I know requirements change regularly so I can only suggest you research the current requirements before you try to become a Mexican resident.
From talking to other friends who have attempted to get their Residente Permanente more recently, it seems some of the rules have changed. They were flat-out denied because they were too young. Given that I was younger than them when I got approved, I think the age requirement is new and varies by the consulate visited. All I can suggest to readers is to do as much research as possible before applying so that you have the best chance of being approved.
Healthcare can be a really complicated subject. I’m self-employed, so I’ve always had to find my own healthcare, and that wasn’t always easy. Things got a little easier with the Affordable Care Act as I found a plan that wasn’t crazy expensive, although I never felt like I really got to know my doctors.
When it came time to move, I decided it wasn’t worth keeping a US health insurance policy since I would rarely be there. Paying out of pocket for my healthcare needs is far less expensive in Mexico, and I feel like I get far better care. Heck, I can even message my doctor and dentist via Facebook Messenger when needed. I’m lucky that I don’t have any major health issues, so my ongoing costs are lower than when I had to buy insurance. Of course, that could change if I needed something major.
There is another aspect of medical care where I’ve gotten involved, and that is medical evacuations. We had an opening in Loreto last year for a SkyMed representative, and it was a great fit for me. I’m very comfortable presenting seminars, as I did hundreds of them in my days teaching CorelDRAW. The real difference is what I’m presenting, and I love helping people learn how to get to the home hospital of their choice should there be a medical emergency. This also fits with my Web design, as I’ve built a page with information and my seminar schedule. Your readers can certainly check out the info and join me at a future seminar (including online virtual seminars).
Do you go back to the US a lot Foster? Is there anything you miss? Would you say Mexico is your “forever” home?
When I first moved to Loreto, there were still some reasons I needed to visit the US two or three times a year. This also gave me a chance to load up at the grocery stores and Costco. Now, I have most everything sorted out and have few reasons to return. It is quite possible that I will not visit the US in 2024.
There are definitely some places and meals that I miss, but that can be true of places where I’ve only traveled. I do miss being able to get one-day shipping from Amazon and having the convenience of visiting more stores with a short drive. Overall, the things that I miss are all things I can live without so that I can enjoy my paradise of living in Loreto.
It is really hard to predict what will transpire in the years to come, so I can’t say that Mexico is my forever home. I do know that I am really happy here, and I haven’t even considered looking at living anywhere else. If I looked into my crystal ball, I will be here for many years to come.
Many thanks to Foster for this interview!
Want to be interviewed? If so send us an email or leave a comment
Related: “Retirement Secrets of Mexico”
Related: The Best Pueblos Magicos in Mexico?
Leave a Reply