One day after Cotting White retired on Dec. 18, 2007, she landed in the Yucatan as one of the bold expatriates who choose a foreign country as their retirement home.

As the construction on her home in Chuburna nears completion, Cotting is anxious to realize a goal she set for herself a half dozen years ago after her first visit to the region.

"When I came here six years ago, I fell in love with Chuburna," she said. "I thought it amazing that people could really live like this, and, of course, I thought I couldn't afford it."

That first trip came at the urging of her friend Sharon who lived in Merida. Sharon and Cotting have known each other 36 years and both taught at a community college in Boston at one time. Cotting taught art and her friend taught Spanish.

She flew to the Yucatan with Tryne, an 83-year-old woman who also wanted to visit Mexico. The friends rented an apartment on Paseo Montejo in Merida that was linked to a condo in Chuburna. The tenants had access to both residences during their stay.

"We ended up staying most of the time in Chuburna," Cotting said. "Both of us - pardon my language - were like pigs in shit."

They enjoyed coffee each morning while gazing at the ocean. When the temperature rose, they jumped into their air-conditioned rental car and went exploring. Cotting recalls a frightening, but humorous, mishap during one excursion near Xcambo.

Tryne desperately needed a bathroom, telling her friend, "old ladies can't wait." But no restrooms could be found. Cotting finally pulled onto an isolated loop road bordered by thick vegetation.

"Just as we pulled over I saw the head of a rattlesnake," Cotting said. "(Tryne) was getting ready to get out and I couldn't speak. I couldn't get a word out. I finally reached over and just grabbed her by the shirt and pulled the door shut. She probably wondered why her friend was attacking her. We took off like a shot and ran over the snake. It didn't even faze him."

Her friend suddenly lost the urge to "go" in all the commotion, Cotting said. Other than Pythons she saw when visiting Thailand, this was the largest snake Cotting had come across. She avoids all grassy areas after that experience.

Until her retirement, Cotting, 61, served as a social worker in Boston counseling prison inmates who were infected with AIDS.

"It was a wonderful job," she said. "I was locked in the prison a day and a half one time when there was a lockdown but I was in in an office. That wasn't fun."

She also worked with those infected with HIV in West Africa for about six months in 2000.

"We had a coup while I was there and the U.S. government evacuated all U.S. citizens. It wasn't voluntary," said Cotting. "I had a lovely house there on a cliff by the sea. I've always liked the beach. I grew up on the Massachusetts coast and I'm a beach person."

She now volunteers for a facility that houses AIDS patients in the Yucatan. Cotting did not want to reveal particulars about the home because of privacy issues.

She speaks French fluently but has taken only one semester of Spanish.

"I learned French when I was 16. It's more difficult learning a language when you're in your 60s," she said.

Cotting and a partner bought a house in Merida four years ago. When the partnership soured, Cotting took her share of the profits from the sale and purchased a little house in Chelem that she recently sold, another home in Merida and the Chuburna property.

"I parlayed one house into three," she said. Cotting has now formed a corporation with her friend Sam, also a former teacher she worked alongside.

Both Sam and Cotting are artists. She is delighted because an art studio has been built on her property. She creates sculpture, oil paints and works with clay. She hopes to find supplies on an upcoming trip to Mexico City to supplement the items she brought from the states.

"I brought a kiln, clay, a wheel, paints, easels and canvas stretchers. I have all my tools," she said.

Cotting might offer workshops or classes once she is settled. She also enjoys fishing. But mostly, she wants to get completely moved into her new home and start really enjoying retirement.

"I want to go out in the morning with coffee and go out at sunset with a glass of wine," she said. "I'm going to have a pool there and my art studio. What more could I want?"

Tags: Expat Profiles

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