Journey & Adventure

I have so much going on and “on my plate” at the moment, I don’t know where to start. Summer seems to be flying by, but I can’t recall where it went. I’ve only been to the beach a couple of times, whereas I’m usually there every weekend. The reason for my beachy absence has been a direct result of high water levels and high winds. When the water is high, the beach disappears. Combine little-to-no beach with high winds and waves crashing on shore, there isn’t a beach to walk on. The two times I have been, we’ve had to wade waste deep in the water for quite a distance until the beach opens up. Once again, high winds preclude me from wanting to venture waste deep into less-than-tropical water with crashing waves. Hence, not many visits to the beach. Sooooo, instead, J and I have been seriously hitting the trails on our mountain bikes. When I bought my bike a year ago, I thought it was the dumbest idea…EVER! My cardio was horrible and I could only make it a couple of miles b...

First, Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all Moms out there. On that note, I don’t see all the commercial hype about Mother’s Day. I believe you should respect and be nice to your mother every day of the year – not just one day designated by Hallmark Cards. Believe me (and I speak from experience), one day does not make up for the grief and torment we caused our mothers throughout of lives. Don’t get me wrong, the ability to sleep in or a nice dinner is always appreciated, but the gushy cards, flowers and gifts just feel “forced” upon us by society and somehow they become phony and fake. I’d rather the attention come at random times throughout the year….those are the moments that make moms feel special. The renovation on the spare room continues. With the room totally striped out and the millions of nails and screws removed from the studs, J can now start running the electrical. It seems like it’s moving slowly, but considering we’ve only been working on it for a few hours each ...

In an earlier post, I told you that one of the reasons we’ve decided to relocate to Ecuador was to reduce our overall cost of living.  By relocating somewhere where the cost of living is significantly cheaper, we are hopeful that our funds will go further, allowing us the ability to slow down and actually enjoy life.   Recently, Ecuador was voted the #1 Retirement Haven in the World by International Living Magazine for like the umpteenth (I think it’s a word) year in a row.  Now rest assured, we haven’t foolishly based our decision on an article from a company that also wants to sell me “relocation kits and seminars”.  Honestly, I’ve taken what I’ve read from them with a grain of salt.   It wasn’t until I started reading many blogs from expats living in Ecuador which all allude to the same thing – it’s cheap and it’s spectacular.   For example, a couple (ages 56 and 53) live in the mountain village of Cotacatchi, where th...

I know that will be the first question to be asked by our friends and families when we finally tell them about our escape plan.   My response will be “Good question.   You’ll be the first to know once we figure it out.”   That’s where we’re at - at this point in time, we don’t really know how we’ll earn an income.   The initial goal is to sustain ourselves with the initial proceeds from the sale of our house and all of our stuff.   Provided we are careful with our money, we should be able to live quite comfortably for a few years without having to work.    Obviously, we still would like the ability to travel, so becoming permanent beach bums isn’t really an option.   We have longer term ideas of perhaps opening a B&B, hostel, beach bar, scuba shop or the like.   We also have shorter term goals of selling some of J's photograph on stock photography sites or perhaps I'll become a professional blogger (ha, ...

I wish I could tell you that I have it all figured out and that our relocate plan is 100% foolproof, but let’s be honest…I don’t really have it all sorted out just yet.   Here are some highlights to date:   1.        Become Debt Free.   Our main plan of action is still to pay off the mortgage, credit line and any other debts we might have within the next 3-5 years.  When the time comes to sell here, the equity we have in our current house will easily pay for our house or condo in Ecuador.  Believe me, we don’t have an extravagant house now, but housing costs in Ecuador are substantially less than houses in North America, which will give us a nice nest egg left over.   2.        Downsizing.   Slowly we will begin to purge everything non-essential from our lives.  Apart from our laptops and iPods and some personal meaningful items, we don’t plan...

In yesterday’s post, I said I would try to explain our decision about our plan to relocate to Ecuador in 2017.   Putting our thoughts on paper is harder than I thought it would be, so please excuse me if it doesn’t make sense to you, but in the paradise that is my mind…it makes sense to me.   Let me first say – regardless of how much I complain about the long, cold, Canadian winters, we love our country and Canada will always be our home.   That said, I’ve got enough love in my heart to go round, so enough with the mushy stuff.   Here we go…   Lack of Time   I know I’m not the only one out there and that the majority of us are in the same boat.   We all lack time and lack of time is has been one of the biggest deciding factors to relocate - we just don’t have time and can’t seem of find the time for anything – no time for each other, no time for our son, no time for chores, no time for hobbies, no time for friends and n...

You might remember me telling you about my 7-10 year plan .   You know the one - when I pay off my mortgage and debts, be totally irresponsible and quit my day job and then run away…far, far away to somewhere warm.   Well, I know this might sound absolutely ridiculous, but the planning has begun.    Put the date on your calendar – 2017.   By end of year 2017, J and I plan to be living in…. (insert drum roll)…Ecuador.   Exact location to be determined, but I can tell you that it will be somewhere on the coast of Ecuador.     There you have it.   There’s no turning back now that it’s on paper.   You, my Blogger friends, are the first to know our little secret.   We don’t plan on telling other friends or family members anytime soon because let’s face it - 5 years is a long way off and there is no sense in stressing them out long before we have to.   Obviously, we plan on taking a few research trip...