Puerto Vallarta vs Barbados

Many of our friends have asked us what the differences are between living in Puerto Vallarta and living in Barbados. Now that we have lived in Barbados for almost three months we feel we are ready to offer some initial observations. The bottom line / short answer is that both places are fun to visit and they would also be great places to live in and to make a home for a retired couple like us. There are many differences that we have noticed and we have put together a bit of a list of things that help to compare them. These are just random thoughts in no specific order.

The entire country of Barbados, West Indies will fit nicely inside Banderas Bay (where Puerto Vallarta is located) and there would still be a bit of wiggle room. The population of the Banderas Bay coastal area is about the same as the population of Barbados. As you might guess, venturing out on road trips in Puerto Vallarta to new / distant destinations is very satisfying as you can actually leave the area and explore interesting new places. Whereas in Barbados, a few day-trip tours of the country side will soon have you saying “been there done that”, and you will be seeing the same things over and over. I suppose this could eventually become a reason for island fever to take hold, and that could be even worse if you don't have a car to bomb around in.

The sidewalks in Barbados allow you to walk side by side and enjoy holding hands with your sweetheart, and you can walk with confidence without fear of tripping in some unseen hole or on some hidden step in the middle of the sidewalk - especially in the dark. You also avoid having to increase the value of your accident insurance policy. There are, of course, some streets in Barbados that do not have sidewalks. This is a bit of an annoyance as walking on the street with the crazy buses zooming by is not actually recommended for your health. And, sidewalks might be available on one side of the road and then they abruptly stop. Sometimes they show up on the other side of the street and we have found ourselves crossing the street many times during a walk. However, when sidewalks are actually there, they have been built to conform to some sort of common standard while maintaining a uniform, level, safe walking path while taking into consideration access to homes, businesses and use by disabled persons. That difference alone is really quite a change for us here in Barbados as we don't have to walk looking down at our feet all the time.

Not so much in Puerto Vallarta – it seems there is a “free for all” approach in sidewalk design as they change elevation from one property to the next, some are concrete, cement pavers, slippery tile, imported marble or some other fancy looking stone, and some are cobble stone. Curb heights can range from 4 inches to 4 feet (or more) at the discretion of the property owner and their contractors while they are under construction, with little regard to the neighbouring properties. If a property's surface drain or a driveway needs to cross over a sidewalk they are built to satisfy the flow of water, and walking on a level sidewalk is then impossible. There have been many times when we were careful to focus on walking, placing our feet in a safe position each step, and then we get distracted by something else (squirrel!)... over you go and the scrapes, bruises, swearing, and band-aids follow shortly thereafter. This becomes most inconvenient on those rare occasions when one might have been out-and-about enjoying those little drinks with umbrellas....

Taking a night off from cooking and enjoying an evening eating out in Puerto Vallarta restaurants and pubs is waaay more friendly on your wallet that what it is in Barbados – enough said.

There seems to be less heavy humidity in Barbados due to the nice breeze all the time. The breeze seems to whisk away humidity during the day and the evenings almost always feel cool and comfortable. The day-time temperature readings in Barbados are about the same as in Puerto Vallarta but the breeze helps to make it feel cooler. We don't sweat as much in Barbados. Finding a constant breeze 24 hours per day in Puerto Vallarta is rare as there are mountains around Banderas Bay that seem to lock in the still/humid/warm air. Just before we left PV in September we had a day time temperature reading of 31 C but the "feels like" temperature was 50 C.

Mexico has clear and easy to understand residency requirements for people who may wish to leave their home countries. It is relatively easy to start fresh in a new home as a new resident expat in Mexico - everything is nicely spelled out on their website. On the other hand, Barbados has the most confusing, complex and difficult to understand process for becoming a new full time resident. Please see two previous posts for more info.

There is no dog poo on the sidewalks / streets of Barbados as there are no dogs running around freely without collars. Dogs stay inside their homes and yards with their families.

Puerto Vallarta has water pressure in the pipes that allow us to use showers and laundry with ease, whereas our apartment here in Barbados does not, and it fluctuates regularly between a dribble and a slow gentle flow. I am however beginning to think that there is a definite preference to provide the big hotels and tourist attractions / restaurants with the volume of water they need and the remaining water is carefully controlled to dribble out to the rest of the population. We have visited several tourist sites with pools, showers, lawns and flowers that need watering and it appears the water flows just fine for them. Over the course of the last 25 years, the population of Barbados has outgrown the original water infrastructure needed for steady water supply, and water shortages / water use restrictions are common. This issue is discussed in local papers and newscasts, and the government is regularly urged to fix, update or replace the system.

Postal services in Puerto Vallarta are very slow and items that are sent to us seem to take forever to get arrive. We received a couple of Christmas cards from my daughters while we were in PV and they took over 3 months to get to our door from the time they were post marked in Vancouver Canada. We just received a Christmas card here in Barbados from one of my daughters and it took 12 days. Not bad.

The colour of the ocean is definitely more teal blue / turquoise in Barbados and the water is warmer and more clear for swimming and snorkeling. We swim in the ocean in Barbados almost every day. While we were in PV we didn't swim in the ocean even one time. The water in Banderas Bay close to the city of Puerto Vallarta was not inviting to us as it seemed somewhat dirty or "cloudy" - this was probably due to the silt that sometimes comes down from the mountains into the rivers feeding into the bay.

The cost of electricity is perhaps 4 to 5 times more expensive in Barbados than what it is in Puerto Vallarta based on our rate of use (comparing similar Kwh) for our small one bedroom apartment.

It has been nice to be able to communicate freely with everyone here in Barbados as everyone speaks English. However, we do still find ourselves saying “gracias” or “la cuenta por favor” from time to time. I must admit that the stress of not knowing how to speak Spanish, and the stress of having someone address me in Spanish and then stand there and wait for an intelligent answer (and not getting one...) is gone here in Barbados. It has been a welcome change and a huge relief to be able to speak English to everyone in Barbados.

The city of Puerto Vallarta is organized such that walking everywhere to get to shopping, seeing the doctor, hanging at the beach, eating at restaurants, and getting cash at the bank can all be done in a single morning without getting into a taxi or on a bus. No need to own a car in PV. Not so much in Barbados - it is imperative to own a car if you want to live here full time and get to the places you need.

If you take a taxi in Barbados to get your shopping items home you generally get into a fairly new, comfortable, roomy vehicle that doesn't rattle, doesn't have torn upholstery, or doesn't have missing parts (like bumpers, lights and brakes), and the air conditioning generally works well....not so much in Puerto Vallarta.

Streets in Barbados are very clean and we rarely see piles of garbage lying around in need of pickup. Barbados also has a simple recycling program for glass bottles, pop bottles, water bottles, cardboard and yard debris – I am not aware of any recycling program in Puerto Vallarta and the streets are regularly filled with garbage and awful smells from various sources. Cyndi and I were sick quite often in Puerto Vallarta and I think it had a lot to do with bacteria hanging in the humid air. We are not sick or prone to illnesses like that here in Barbados.

Availability of our favourite foods are definitely better in Puerto Vallarta than in Barbados. Fresh vegetables that us Canadians like to eat are hard to come by in Barbados and when you do find them they are expensive (lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet peppers, onions, potatoes). In Barbados, it pays to get on with eating locally grown vegetables as they are available and are more friendly to your wallet (bread fruit, butternut squash, pumpkin squash, cucumbers, yams, sweet potato).

When it rains in both places, it really pours! It's a deluge on some days and we have seen similar storms in both locations – great fun to go out dance in the rain! Everyone knows that warm tropical air holds more moisture and when it lets go, it really comes down! This is a photo of our street in Barbados with some dummy who thinks they have a boat. What they didn't know was the added foot of water they would drive into as they went past me. I was standing in water above my knees when I took this photo.

Bus rides in Barbados seem to be the cause of more panic attacks that require Valium type drugs before and after each time we board. The bus drivers drive extremely fast on very narrow roads and they somehow manage to avoid hitting cars, bicycles, children, chickens and other buses that are careening past while we are on them. I have heard stories from others that impact has actually been made and the ensuing mess that follows such an event is not family friendly. Crazy people walk on the streets with their backs to the traffic and then expect drivers to do their best to miss them....yikes! The yellow buses are world famous for the Jamaican style rap music that blares from huge speakers inside these buses – including extra bass woofers for that “full” sound - and most passengers (including us) go home with pounding head aches. Taking a ride on one of the yellow buses is usually a “standing room only” situation. The narrow seats and narrow center isle make the ride very cozy with other passengers. Many senior aged people waiting at bus stops will opt to let the yellow buses go by and wait for the larger government run blue buses. Puerto Vallarta bus rides give you a great core workout due to the cobblestone streets and the occasional pothole or gully built into the roadway. The rattles from these huge beasts is not surprising due to the shaking they get each time they head out on their route.

Beaches in Barbados are world famous for their spectacular beauty. The sand is white and extremely soft to walk and sit in. We have spent a lot of time on many of these beaches and enjoyed all of them. Puerto Vallarta beaches are not as soft nor as white but they are still fun to visit. And, I definitely believe it is easier to drop everything you are doing and find a nice little beach bar to enjoy a cool one in PV than it is in Barbados.

On with the adventure... it will be interesting to see what Grenada has to offer when we get there... :-)