Journey & Adventure

Continuing with the 5 4 Year plan discussions, and in order to get cracking on my need to learn the Spanish language before our move, I’ve ordered my Spanish language DVD’s. Once again, I realize we still have 4 years, but at the rate things are moving along, I better get started. After much research and watching online demonstrations, I’ve chosen the Fluenz program. From what I can tell, it’s similar to Rosetta Stone, but Fluenz seemed more progressive and includes DVDs, audio CDs and podcasts. I spend so much time commuting, I figure the audio CD’s and podcasts will be put to good use.  I’ll let you know how I progress with this independent learning thing. Maybe one day, I’ll write an entire blog post in Spanish. Ha! Seriously, that was just crazy talk.

By the time our early retirement plan comes to fruition, you will be either too dizzy or too confused to follow this blog. Remember how I said, Ecuador would most likely be our retirement destination of choice and then we had a change of heart and thought perhaps Bonaire could work for us and then we were back to Ecuador and then I think when I last left you we were back in Bonaire mindset. Well, after doing some pre-retirement homework while we were on island in Bonaire, reality has again kicked us in the pants. Guess what? We apparently are not made of money and once we quit our jobs, we will no longer have a bi-weekly income in which to support the lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to. So while we could financially make Bonaire work short term, we aren’t convinced it could be sustainable long term. Housing is more than what we want to spend, groceries are on average 5-10% higher than they are here in Canada and the daily housing costs (hydro, propane, water) are significant...

Up and down like a see-saw… Round and round like a merry-go-round… Back and forth like a ping-pong ball… Do you get the picture? No? Me neither. Indecisiveness is the name of the game at the moment. I’m not typically an indecisive person, but when it comes to this 5 Year Plan, I can decide which end is up. Those of you that have been around long enough know the story. Before we decided to put the 5 year plan in motion, we had always talked about “wouldn’t it be nice to win the lottery and move to Bonaire”. Then when we heard about how economically one could live in Ecuador, we realized we wouldn’t need to win the lottery to make our dreams come true, but instead we would just need to focus our energy into paying off our debts within the next 5 years and with that “The 5 Year Plan” was born. When started looking into Ecuador in greater detail, we were excited about all of the opportunities that would be available to us like cheap real estate, cheap cost of living,...

After my mini meltdown of yesterday, I’d like to give a special thanks to Seṅorita Andaluciana for coming up with my new mantra and Jacqui providing the idea of an “incentive” photo. I can now carry, with a new and improved outlook on the future. Thanks ladies! Sand Between My Toes, Ocean View, Sunny Dreams...

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 ...

Well, maybe I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but I now have a better sense on where I might want to go when I get there. What am I talking about? Well, as we start the investigation process on our relocation plan, we’ve been reading about places and points of interest throughout Ecuador. We know, we want to live on the coast, but we’re not sure where exactly, so to help orient us, I purchased a map of Ecuador.   Before you think it - yes, I’m well aware, you can simply use Google Maps to find the location of pretty much anywhere in the world, but I’m an old fashioned sort of person. I like maps – physical, hold them in your hands, type of maps. And of course, no trip to the virtual bookstore, would be complete without purchasing some books. After all, if you spend $25 or more, shipping is free! So, in order to complete the South American experience, I purchased a couple of “Learn to Speak Spanish” books. I’m pretty good at ordering food and drink in Spanis...

As part of the 5 year plan , you may recall me mentioning that we needed to renovate our spare room. When we finished our addition and renovations, the spare room was the last room needing to be finished. Having ran out of steam from the other construction, we simply closed the door to the spare room and walked away…for 7 years and for the past 7 years, it has merely served as a storage room for misfit belongings. Well, we began to remedy that situation this past weekend and the demolition has been completed.   That had needed to be done for a long time and as much as I was dreading it, it feels good to know we are beyond the point of no return. Obviously, the necessity of getting the house in tip-top selling shape (so we can retire comfortably) has been just the motivation we needed to move things along. Let’s hope that by the end of May, all of the current mess will be a distant memory and we'll be moving onto the next project. Stay tuned…

Life is slowly getting back to normal and my regular sleep habits are returning after this latest adventure. I’m also less grumpy, although my family would likely dispute that statement. J has started to weed through some of his hundreds of photos – both above and below the water’s surface, so hopefully he’ll have something to share with you in the next week or so. I also hope to share some more of my photos with you. The difference between J’s photos and mine? J’s photos are good, artistic and well-thought out, whereas mine reflect mindless, juvenile enjoyment of the moment at hand. I take photos for the sake of taking photos…no thought, no process and looking back, most of the time I couldn’t tell you what I was trying to capture. My photos are like my life…random. I do have some news about Flamingo Tongue Designs (aka the backup plan). My sales last week where phenomenal and I received my first wholesale order from a Canadian artist for her gallery/shop. Let’s hope the f...

Turns out the pain I’ve been experiencing is actually a tooth infection, which when cleared up will lead to either a root canal or extraction. Extraction would be the cheaper route, but not likely the one I will choose, as it’s the very back molar on my lower right side. Without that tooth, I seriously doubt my ability to chew anything other than pudding. Regardless of the route I choose, it can’t be done before I go away, so I’m on some antibiotics and some regular pain meds. The dentist won’t guarantee that nothing will go wrong given my insistence on scuba diving, but he is hopeful that my “tooth won’t explode while on holidays”. He’s a glass half empty sort of guy…. I’ve been continuing to research the move to Ecuador and want to go now. I don’t want to wait 5 years, but moving sooner isn’t feasible since there is too much work to be done on our house in order to maximize our return on investment. I know patience is a virtue, but honestly, I don’t even know what that means… ...

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...