In warm-weather locales all over the Americas, the same scene is unfolding: US retirees, marching in lock-step in their all-white orthopedic shoes, are ditching traditional retirement communities and spending their golden years in destinations both less expensive and more exotic. And who can blame them? Prime real estate in these beautiful warm-weather countries– places like Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Ecuador– costs a fraction of what similar land goes for in Florida and Arizona. And we all know the elderly have never been ones to pass up a good bargain.

As legions of retirees decide to retire in countries south of the border, they bring with them an economic boom for places that sorely need it. In recent years, Costa Rica has seen property values skyrocket, greater foreign investment, and a surging economy– much of it due to the migration of the gray-haired masses.

So we know about the benefits. But what about the drawbacks? Indeed, not everything is hunky-dory in these new retirement hot spots. When large numbers of relatively wealthy folks, whether backpackers or retirees, descend upon a previously “undiscovered” paradise, they’re almost always a mixed blessing. Nowhere is this more apparent than in one of South America’s newest retirement meccas, Vilcabamba, Ecuador. READ MORE HERE!